Barn Talk - Building A Pork Powerhouse w/Rob Brenneman

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

Every episode of Barn Talk is special. Because it’s unique and we never know exactly what is going to come out of the barn. Today however is special because we have a guest that has shaped the landscape of the pork industry. He is a big reason that we are still in the hog business and that SE IA has a robust and growing AG sector when so much of rural America is struggling to stay viable. I could go for quite a while on a list of accomplishments and accolades but probably his greatest achievement is that He has built a family business from the ground up to be viable for another generation. Please welcome Rob Brenneman! Follow Brenneman Pork  Website: https://brennemanpork.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sowmomma/?hl=en  Twitter: https://twitter.com/brennemanrob  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrennemanPork/ Barn Talk Merch! 👇🏻 https://www.thislldo.co/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY ITUNES ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4 ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠ The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this website at your own risk. RISK STATEMENT– The trading of Bitcoins, alternative cryptocurrencies, NFTs, individual stocks, etc. has potential rewards, and it also has potential risks involved. Trading may not be suitable for all people. Anyone wishing to invest should seek his or her own independent financial or professional advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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In light of the recent scandal, I'm here to restore your credibility. Oh, because we're a team now? That's a nice story. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in Theaters Friday. All of the food we eat and much of the clothes. we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn, stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you. You know, every episode of Barn Talk is special

because it's unique and we never quite sure what's going to happen. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. But today is a special episode for me because we have one of the pioneers of the pork industry. And he really is one of the reasons that we're still raising hogs in southeast Iowa. And he is one of the reasons that southeast Iowa is as economically viable in the ag world as it is. he's a pioneer. I could probably go on and give you a whole list of his accolades and accomplishments. He's built a business from scratch, and I think probably today, if you asked him, and we will ask him, what his greatest accomplishment is, I think it's the fact that he has built a family business from scratch, and it is viable for the next generation.

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You can also leave a review on Spotify or Apple. That helps us out tremendously. say we're almost up to 500 five-star reviews on Spotify and we're at about 194 on Apple. So keep sending those our way. We love hearing from you guys. And a new feature, I mentioned this in our last podcast, but a new feature, Spotify has just started rolling out. As every episode, we can ask you guys a question on the Spotify platform for you to give your thoughts on the episode.

So be looking out for that if you're listening or watching on Spotify because you can let us know what you think. So let us know what you think. And without further ado, let's get into it. All right. Well, we're live. So Rob Brennaman, welcome to Barn Talk. Hey, thanks for the invitation. This is a terrific day. I've been looking forward to this. Us too. We've been trying to make this works for, I don't know, well, you were on the list when we started. Yep. Yeah. Just because you really have a unique story and it's definitely worth telling and it's not just it's not just within the hog industry it's it's anybody that you know has a has a business and tries to grow it and tries to get family involved and tries to better their community it's it's a it's not you're a legend

you're a legend in our book so yeah yeah the bullshit's getting deep already we're up high and imagine somebody yeah I learned from this one come on Yeah, you've had a good teacher. Yeah, that's right. I'll admit that. Yeah. So, yeah, just give us a little bit of a rundown of kind of what Brennam and Pork does, what you guys are about, and then we'll get into history a little bit, a little bit further from this.

But just tell them what you do right now and what Brennan Pork's about. Okay. There's days I wonder what we do. But so we, you know, we're a pig company. That's what it amounts to. We raise pigs. and that's what we built our business on. I thought I could farm when I started in the late 70s,

but that just became an expensive habit. So we raised pigs, and we're located in Washington County, of course, not too far from here. We've got 43,000 sows. We raised about 1.3 to 1.4 million pigs a year. And they're all, our feed mill is 10 miles from here. and 90% of those pigs are within 20 miles of that. We have five sow farms, actually six sal farms.

And two are in Missouri, one's in Mexico and one's in Paris. So everybody makes you wonder, you know, you're a foreign company. And then then we have two on the home farm. We've got two separate sites. We just built a new one. We have one over Moscow. So we're world travelers. Yeah, we're world travelers.

And then we've got one over in Illinois. So we, you know, it keeps everybody busy. But the majority of the finishing is right in your neck of the woods. Yep. And we like to stay. That has its good things and bad things. Right. Yep.

Right. Washington County is number one in Iowa and three over all in the nation. And so there's a lot of different pigs in this county. Yes, there is. well let's go back a little bit because do we have to yeah yeah growing up up is this what you always knew you wanted to do or were you how did you get started i i've never had a doubt in my mind that this is what i want to do and i'll i'll do this till i die and when i was three four or five years old, you know, the thing that maybe doesn't exist today existed. Then, you know,

you took grandpa and dad's hand and you went out with them every day and you learned what to do and how to do it. And you picked up the good things and the bad things. And then as you matured through life, then you tried to make the bad things good things. So, I mean, dad would, you know, take care of a baby pig and I'd take the pig and when nobody was looking, I'd go grab it and I'd give mouth to mouth and bring it back to life and hold it up and say, I can make, I can raise that pig. Get out of the way, you know, and nobody would ever know what happened. And sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. But that's raising pigs. You know, I thought I could, in the 70s, everybody was rent and ground, buying ground and raising corn and all that good stuff. And I thought,

wow, that's kind of a, it seemed like it might be a little bit easier way of life and a better way to do things. And so, but that didn't work. And so in the early 80s were a very, very difficult time for Robin Schar Brenneman. Yeah. Very difficult. It was, well, ag in general. I mean, it was a tough time.

It was a tough time to get started. It was a tough time to keep going. And a lot of people, you know, a lot of people got caught because there's some similarities to what we got going today or what we've had going in the fact that. we all seem to have pretty short memories of the bad times and when it gets good i always and i can't say that i take credit for this because i'm sure i read it or heard it from somebody but they always said that if you're ever reading a farm publication and the commentary gets to be where the majority of people writing that stuff says whatever market you're talking about we've reached a new plateau

that means you better get nervous because we're about to drop off into the bottom. And, you know, we went through a time there in the 70s where it looked like the sky was the limit and land values are going to keep going up and profitability was going to stay good. And we didn't have that. It changed. And you've seen a lot of change in your time. when you guys started, you were fairing your own pigs and you were finishing your own pigs. And when did contract finishing as far as letting somebody else finish the pigs?

Like when did that start for you guys? Okay. Let me go back to like the beginning because, you know, you talked about the 70s. So I graduated in 76 from high school. I had $46,000 in the bank, a brand new pickup, a brand new tractor in 120,000, and owed nobody a dime. Not owed anybody a dime. So life was good. So you thought, you know, I'm going to go out and buy $3,000 ground, and I'm going to, you know, do the stuff that other guys and other operations did.

And growing up, I always had, you know, I hung with dad and he had some, he thought they were friends. debated that, you know, because they would always look at you and say, you're never going to amount to anything. Your dad ain't got nothing. And so your future is pretty dim in this industry. And I said, just please keep telling me that. Because everybody, every time somebody says I can't, I will. And I still take that challenge on today. And when I was freshman in high school, Duane Spouse was my ag teacher. He was a freshman, ag teacher, and we were freshmen. And the first day of school, he said, where there's a will, there's a way. And I got to admit that that was most inspiring thing that I had ever heard in my lifetime.

I was young. And Duane implemented that, and he built you up. And so my, you know, Duane Spouse was huge in my life, and of course my life, Shar was the most important thing. that ever happened to me. And so you go back and you, you know, we started, you know, we went to Port College at Hills Bank had Pork College, and that was in early 80s. And the thing was that take your money, you know, we were raising pigs. It was about pigs.

Take your money and invest it in assets that will return production and capital, you know, return faster. So majority of the industry started out, well, let's have sows. That was the right pace. And because that was where production started. And then, okay, and finishing took more capital. And so the thing was, everybody was coming out of the 80s and nobody really had capital. I mean, nobody had, if you were, you were alone and you were, you were amazing.

But the guys didn't have capital. but grain farmers had some capital. You know, they needed some depreciation and pig farmers needed to make pigs. And so that's when it kind of separated to say, you know, you're a pig farmer, you're a pig farmer because you're going to have sows. So you had sows and you had somebody else come along

and start building buildings, and that started in about 96 or 7. We started contract production in 97. And that was kind of go right ahead of 98. You know, that's go back to pork college, add sows, make pigs, right? So that's what we did as an industry. And a lot of guys in this community did that. We were really good at it.

And then along comes 1998 right after contract production starts. So then we have to venture out for capital because we just lost a lot of capital in that, in that adventure. And also in 98, for us getting started, we did some hedging, which was mind-boggling why we did. And that actually got us through 98. And the risk management side, I don't have any idea why we did it. It just looked like that we could lock in some money. And there was a lot of people adding pigs because a lot of contract barns were going up and people were getting into that.

So I'd say 97, 98, 99, kind of started that, but it really took off in the early 2000s. Yeah, I have a few questions just about your story. That was great. But how did you have the brand new pickup and the $40,000 right at a high school? Were you working? Did your family have a farm and you were working on it? Yeah, tell me a little bit about that. So our, we had, we had a farm, but I did my own thing.

It was all through high school, yeah, that's good. I'm glad you brought that. So all through high school, well, my mom left when we were, I was 14. So I waited tables at the Willows, and I was a bus boy, and I had a paper out in town, and my brothers had a paper out with me, and we would clean the restaurant, the Central Cafe, and the Golden Buckel in Kyoto, Iowa. We would clean the restaurants on Saturdays and Sundays so we could have, so we could get our breakfast. So we would deliver papers.

We'd go to town, deliver paper. at 4 o'clock in the morning, then eat breakfast at the Central Cafe because we had nobody to cook for us. And so as we built that up, and then, so we just kept, I just kept building, you know, working. I worked for people. I made hay, but I had sows. I'd have, I had A sheds on a three-corner piece that nobody had, nobody was farming. So we put a few A-sheds there, and then we'd have an old barn at Beans Burmell's place that nobody used, and he let me use it, so we'd put some pigs in there, and just kept adding a few pigs here and a few pigs there. Then we'd sell the pigs, and there was, dad was good because he let me do it. He didn't really help me a lot,

but he let me do it, which is back then, not every parent would let your kids go out and do what they damn well, please, but my dad did that, and I respect him for that. And, um, So I just kept doing the things it took to make money, but the money was made from the pigs. And, I mean, I'd do anything, whatever it took to eat and survive. And I worked for Dave Vitito over Vitito slats in Kyoto. I'd go in and in the nights and help weld. And he would weld all day, and then I'd paint, Steve Sheets and I would paint the things

and hang them up. And then he took good care of us, and he gave us a future. and so all that stuff just kind of built on itself and um just reinvest in all that money into the pigs so he just kept putting that money into pigs and and i had what started with well dad gave me nine pigs when i was about 10 years old nine years old or whatever there was nine pigs that he didn't think would make any bottom from old hot e durian over you know pig pig um broker and so he said take these scrubs you can have them and and by got them i put them in a 10 by 20 and put a fence around it and made them live.

And then about two weeks before I sold them, they got out and ate some, a couple of them made some blueberry, or wild parsniff. Yeah. And died. And I'm like, wow, that didn't work out very well. But I still had five or six. And a couple of them were gilts. So I took the gilts and got some, got dads born, bred them.

And then just kept putting a few salads. But as sheds, if I ever see another as shed, it'd be a terrible day. but I had Asheds everywhere, Sawyer. I mean, I probably had 200 Asheds scattered around, scattered around the county and, you know, 10 here, 10 there, and, you know, just chore all night long. And that's all they did and kept the money and put it in the bank. That's a great story.

And what's so interesting about your story, but a lot of guys that are in the hog business today could tell a version of that of how they started. But what's interesting about it is there's a lot of people that started that way. But that you were brought up by the generation and my dad was the same way, where we weren't necessarily,

I don't want to say that we weren't book smart, that's not the right. But the idea was that if you could out, outwork everybody else, or if you just worked all the time, you're going to be okay. But what is unique about your story is that time in the 90s going into the 2000s, just working hard didn't get you through. That's where the industry started to change, and you had to learn a whole, you had to get a whole new tool set, basically, because the idea that you could just

work hard with these pigs wasn't enough because there were forces outside your control that it really didn't matter if you didn't have if you didn't have the business side of it you could lose a lot of money in a hurry and a lot of people did so 1980 char and i got married and uh she had no idea which direction we were heading high school sweetheart nope nope i met her to um sweetheart swirl it was a dance over at Midpray High School. We were from Kyoto. And so a good buddy and I went over there. And I went home with a different buddy. And it was foggy that night. And I followed Shar's brother, Kevin. And I made the corner and Lindsay didn't. And so I ran into and ran into Shar at this party. And back then, it wasn't alcohol parties. It was just a good time. And we kind of talked a little bit.

and one thing led to another, and she stuck with me ever since. But so, you know, so we got married in 90. We had Tim in 19, we got married 1980. We had Tim in 1981. Okay. Things were sliding fast. And she worked at the hospital in Iowa City and, you know, raising Tim and stuff. And then in 1982, we banked, this is going to get a little personal.

We banked the National Bank of Washington, which a lot of people did. It's where we bank. We walked in our October 5th, 1982, and the bank suggested I find something else to do that they weren't going to loan me any more money. And I had Schar's dad along in Schar. And so, you know, so there's some emotional things that took place at that time. And in your mind, you knew what you wanted to do, you know, because it was bullshit. It wasn't as bad as what they thought it was.

of thing. And so one thing led to another and Shar and I left and we didn't know we didn't have a pot to piss in or wanted to throw it out of literally. And having zero would have been better. So all that stuff I had from high school was gone and a debt at 21% interest was lingering there. And it's like there was nothing to be had. And so we went home and made some decisions on how we were going to do whatever, and then Sharr's dad agreed to help us get started, you know, on another foot. So we started that, but he, in the process of that, he thought maybe I'd ought to, maybe not put all my effort into raising pigs and farming, but he would support whatever I'd done.

And so, and Shard's entire family and my entire family. So in 1983, we were doing something. some stuff on the hog side and it just kept looked out the window and it just kept getting drier and drier. And we were building a hog building at that time, a furrowinghouse. And it's like, what am I going to do now? This is just going to get worse. And we'd had Sal's bread to go in this fern house. So I went to work for UPS as a driver. And I'd be, I really need to tell this story because it honestly, in more ways than one, changed my life. So, In 1983, I went up to Iowa City, and I said, I'm looking for a job, and Herb Woods was the guy

that was behind the desk and said, yeah, you and everybody else in the country. I said, yeah, but I work hard. And he said, yeah, you and everybody else works hard. I said, no, seriously, I work hard. And so anyway, I left there, and he says, I'll let you know. And Lowell Vaught was our UPS guy at that time. And somewhere along the line, Herb Woods actually asked Lowell what I was like and he said there's he recommend strongly and so herb called me like a couple days later and said hey i could i could probably use you you could be um it's summer help and i could do about anything so so i said i'm in and we still had our sows and and just had built this new farrowing nursery and um so we we kept farrowing and then on the weekends we would wean pigs and my brothers and

And between my brothers and Shar's brothers and everybody, we got the pigs wean, you know, we get them weaned and worship barn and put them up. And then Wednesdays we'd take feeder pigs, Shars Dad, and my dad would take them over to clone and sell them, which was awesome. And so the first pigs we took out of that barn, August of 1983, about $4 a piece. So we're just, we've just found the way where you can work your ass off and go backwards as fast as it could possibly happen. So no matter what we did, it was going backwards, working hard, made no difference at that

point in time. But so I can stay, I got on as summer help, but then they kept me on as Christmas help. So that was pretty cool. So when I left UPS, so I worked for UPS hard, and then the harder you work, the more they gave you. So I kept doing that. And I did that until I was out of debt in 1988. completely out of debt, did never screw anybody out of a dime, paid all my debt back, paid

Shar's dad back, and we, and Sharr worked, we met on the road. She worked at the university hospital, night shift. I'd stop and give her the kids, and then she'd come home and try and sleep. And so that, I mean, you know, started out with, didn't have a pot to piss in, met each other coming and going, the true definition of meeting yourself coming and going. worked get up at three o'clock and chore and go to bed at midnight then shard go to work at you know 10 or 11 and I'd hope Tim would stay asleep and come in and sleep for a few hours and she would sleep for a few hours and and that's how we got back to to square one but also for UPS the thing that I learned which was which was life-changing I learned how to get along with people

and I learned how if you had a plan, you could get something done. Every day you got into your truck, it was set up, and this was the schedule. And this is where you had to be. I had to be to the, when I delivered in Washington, I had to be to the alley by 915. If you weren't at the alley by 915, you're behind a Pepsi truck for three hours. And so it slowed you down.

And same way in Iowa City, if you got behind in the wrong alley, at the wrong time or you didn't arrive at a university hospital's bookstore by 1015 in the morning they wouldn't take the stuff from you so then you had to come back so it made it made me learn efficiencies and it made me learn how to utilize you know people when you walked in if you were friendly to them and you said hey dwayne how's it going and start unloading packages the first few days they look at you like new guy you know i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm to treat him like shit and so and they would and if you would have cocked in attitude they'd have continued to treat you like shit forever but then you thought dwayne how's it going today you know and you'd pick a

conversation and and say hey you know if you would just move that i could i'd be out of your hair twice as fast the next thing you know he's stacking the packages and and you know so you just learn organization number one work hard and fast and you actually made money and it actually worked so i I used that till 88, got out of debt, continued to sell pigs, and then started to grow the, I said, I said, Terry, I said, Terry, I'd really, if I died today, I'd be an unhappy man. Because I said, I want to farm. I want to raise pigs. And he said, you need to do what makes you happy.

Yep. And so that's what, Sean and I quit our jobs about the same time and decided to become a family that raised pigs and raised kids on that farm. Okay. When I sell my business, I want the. best tax and investment advice. I want to help my kids and I want to give back to the community. Ooh, then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my head of office has a forever setting. An IG Private Wealth Advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business,

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requirements. Instant payouts and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won. Woo-hoo! Feel the fun. Play-Ojo. Honey, forget about the lasagna. Let's celebrate. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concern about your gambling or that of someone close to you. Call 16-531.2600 or visitconaxontera.ca. a common theme when we talk to people in agriculture. Is that do you think there's another industry where people are willing to work one, two,

three other jobs so they can afford to farm? People who are in the restaurant business. True. Because I did that too. Yeah. People who are on a restaurant business because they got the same thing. If they're not there and it's a local restaurant, it don't work. Yep.

it don't work so that's that's another industry veterinarian business which is farming yeah you know same way i mean you got you know i got in my my saying at round home and everybody knows it and you got you got to show the fuck up yep and if you do that you know what's going on yep and that's why the people in agriculture the people in the restaurant business and people that do those type of things are successful because they are low margin businesses and you have to be very, very, very efficient. Yep. And if you're very efficient and very productive, you will be successful.

Yep. I just think it's amazing the story with UPS and all that, how you never lost your, you never lost your fire to just keep raising pigs. Like nobody could bring you down. Was that just like built into you from a young age or like, you were just like, this is what I want to do and I'm not stopping no matter what the circumstance is. Dad's friends made me who I am today. They didn't know that at the time, but they made me who I am today,

and then I've tried to surround myself with people that are like that. And you can't let the negative naysayers bring you down. There's always a way. Where there's a will, there's a way. There is a way to get things done and accomplished. Now granted, my mistakes are my greatest learning, and my failures are my greatest learning because you learn, and if you don't learn from those, bad on you. But the bigger the mistake, the more you learn, and you don't forget.

And back to your point of today where we're headed, you know, where that all started, was, you know, this feels a little different than the early 80s. because there's money out here today. And that's the salvation. Now, how long it's going to take to piss all that money away? I don't know. Right. But there is a lot of money.

And we didn't have, nobody had money in the 80s. No. Nobody. That's right. Construction, farmers, it didn't matter. No business. It was just flat-ass broke country. Well, and I think, I think your comment about the interest rate.

What was it? 26. percent 21 we're all complaining it because we went from interest is tripled i mean for a lot of people you know there was a lot of people got their houses for 1.9 2 percent we're at 7 now but we we still have there's a whole generation of people that they think this is high interest they have no idea what high interest is yeah and that was part of the why it was so hard to make to keep any money because if you're doing anything that the margin wasn't thick, it was hard to stay ahead if you had any, well, you couldn't have any money borrowed. No. Or it just eat your lunch. I mean, there was a lot of,

there was a decent amount of time that money was 16 to 20 percent, not just a month or two. It was a couple, a couple, three years. And if you had, and the thing is, when you borrow money to pay interest and to pay interest and to pay interest, that was just, just digging a hole. Yeah, and it's, pissing it down a rabbit hole. So I got a question for you. When you got out of debt, was your relationship, did you, from there on, did you were like, I'm never going in debt again? Or did your relationship change with debt again as interest got cheaper?

Like that would have been, for me, if that would have happened, I would have probably been like, I'm never going in debt again after that. So like, what was your relationship with debt after you got out? So my relationship with debt changed that I had to have a reason to do. what I would do before I did it. And so what, you know, you can, I just didn't think you could save your way to profit. You know, just go out and just keep knocking it down and, and not do something because it cost you money. I looked at UPS and how they performed. When I left UPS and I was out of dad, I looked at how they performed. And they were very productive and very efficient. And I compared

debt to some of the things that our industry was doing and it wasn't it wasn't as efficient as people thought it was so that's where I put my head you know my nose to the grindstone if I can if I can do it the over-red bacher do it one thing and do it better than anybody else you can look at the inefficiencies in the pig business at that point in time and they were horrendous yes and there's some of that going on yet today and so I just thought if I could borrow money and make pigs and make them more efficiently and get away from the outside pigs and the feeder banging things that just wasted feet and burnt money. I just thought that you could do it better this time and be really good.

You know, you set on five gallon buckets at night and pull pigs. And if every sow raised 10 pigs instead of seven pigs, you know, that was a big thing. and we'll get into production here hopefully a little bit. But that's the start. I would like to have conversation more about how efficiencies and production matter. Yeah. But keep going. So you really, you hit the nail on the head because one of the questions was about your struggles and contemplating giving up.

And we all know that you weren't going to give up. But this industry continues to evolve. And when you, when you had. that farrowing barn and you were taking pigs to sale barn, you relied on family. You had your brothers, you had Schar's brothers. But as you started to leverage that and grow that, you had to have employees. So how was that, like, how was that transition and going from physically, you were the one out there doing the work, you get to a point where you can't be, you just cannot be everywhere at once. So how was that transition and how difficult was that to move from doing the work to

managing people? So that was probably the biggest change of my life happened. Because Shar and I did all the work. I mean, we power washed it. We we weaned the pigs. You know, we sat on the bucket. We, we did everything it took to make the pigs. And when she had, when she had Tim, we were loading pigs three hours before she had Tim. And when we had, when she had Amy, we were, she was power washing the Fering House right before that. So, so, you know, so that's what we did. And so we worked, you know, we did that. And then we, we'd hire somebody. And, We had probably in early, we were probably about 3,000 sows. And one morning, I think we had five or six people who worked for us.

And so I was probably a little ambitious and probably really kind of hard to work for back about that time in my life. As I knew everything, you know, I was 30 years old and indestructible. And we always went out and. did things and we'd come back in for breakfast about 8 o'clock because we went out at 4 o'clock in the morning and I managed to piss all five or six of them off I think there was six and I managed to piss them all off and they all quit literally all of them wow on the spot but I still had to have something so I went in for breakfast and I walked in the door this was a bad day and I said to shah I said

honey what are we going to do and she looked to me directly and I said no what are you going to do? You're the problem. You made this mess. You're the problem. And I thought about that and I said, yeah, you're right. I am. And so I talked a couple guys into coming back.

You know, sometimes if just cool off. Yeah, if everybody cools off, I come back. And then like about a week later, an Hispanic guy named Hernan, Hernandez showed up at the door. And there wasn't a lot of Hispanics back then. but I'm like, you're hired, buddy. And so we started building that rapport to build people. And there is a transition that becomes when you become, I mean, you know, you go from the doer to the manager, but it's truly the leader that makes the difference.

And if I could, you know, advise young people or, you know, we have FFA kids out and and Iowa State, you know, I've been on some committees up there. If there's one thing we in rural America have the greatest opportunity to do is create leaders. Yep. Because leaders are different than managers. And because you've got to have the vision to what needs to happen. And you become a leader, then you can create managers and then managers. You know, somebody's got to be at that level that makes sure the stuff gets done.

Yeah. And so that point in my life was horrible, but yet deserving and made me better. Yeah. And I still have my moments. Trust me. Just ask one of the kids. So I'll, there's so many. I probably had a couple with you along the way.

He's going to go there, isn't he? So I'm going to, I will say, we really did. We really didn't. And part of, I think part of the reason for that is because. So a little bit of backstory. So I knew of Rob Brennan, but I didn't know you. Our paths had never crossed. You know, I went through, I grew up, I imagined that our parents were similar as far as our upbringing and work ethic and all that.

And my dad was truly the generation of that, just put your head down and work and don't screw around and you'll be okay. Exactly. And along that, you know, employees, my dad's, any one of my brothers, if I call them today and they answer the phone and I just go, you know, the best job you can possibly do is not too good for me. The hair will just stand up on the back of their head because that was one of the popular, you know, every job that we did, dad was going to come check on it. And that was fine when you're dealing with family, not so much when you have employees. Exactly. In 2000 is when I started working for a building company that did a lot of work with you. And I picked up the keys from the former service guy.

And that guy I did know, and he had a reputation. He had a reputation of being a real no bullshit, hard ass. A lot of people were intimidated by him. And I never met him personally, but he gave me a ride. Actually, I gave him a ride back to his place, and we had a few beers, and we were talking about the job, and he told me, this is the honest, God, truth. I don't know if I ever told you this story. He said to me, he goes, you're going to be fine. He said, you seems like you can get along with people.

He goes, there's only one person that you really need to watch. And I said, who's that? And he goes, Rob Brennaman, because he can smell fear. And if he thinks you're weak, he's just going to grind you in. into the pavement. And I'll never forget that. And what's funny about it is it wasn't, it wasn't even, it probably wasn't even three days after that before I got a pager call that I had to go to Brennamans for something. I don't know if it was the slap plan or whether it was something. But I, I was like, oh boy, this is going to be good. And fortunately, it wasn't anything

big and it went fine. And I gradually got to know you, but that, that, you did have a, there was a time in there that you did have a reputation that you were i don't think that anybody would ever say that you were unfair but you were very you let everybody know where you stood and what you expected and what the expectation and some people had a hard time with that but anyway i always there's nobody can ever walk away from me knowing that wondering how you feel wonder how i feel or what i wanted. It was always clear. That's 100% right. Always clear. Still is today. Yeah. So how do you, so you were talking about the employees and, you know, hiring people on, but you still are a family business. A lot of your family members are still involved in everybody. Everybody's involved in what

you're doing. So like how do you balance keeping your family happening involved in the operation, but also having employees that aren't in the family, but still making them happy too, because sometimes that can kind of butt heads a little bit. It takes really good people that you put trust and faith in. And it's really hard, but you kind of got, it's really hard for me. You got to back up once in a while. And they need to tell you if you're going over the line. And you got to, and I want them to tell me because I will go over the line.

And so you build those people up. and you learn what works the best if you can convince them they need to ask you for help and I don't I'll say anytime you need help let me know and then when you do offer that help up sometimes you got to be a little less direct but everybody knows what my expectations are and how I'm going to react they already know before I do so I don't know know if that's good or bad. The fact that they know how, there's no surprises in how I'm going to respond. And by that, they know, they know what they want to bring right away or what they want to let cool off and they let me have time before I, you know, before I totally explode. Yeah. And I've learned

I've learned to chill that just a little bit. And of course, it's been really good the last three years. and I bought a house in Florida, and they all love that. And it gives me a chance to get away and think and let people grow their positions and be better at what they do and they don't have. But then I'll come home and upset the apple cart and everybody knows that's going to happen. It takes a few days to get back in order. But the nice thing about it is, is that they'll come and see us in Florida. When you're so, like you live and breathe, Brennan and poor.

I mean, that's your namesake, and it is your legacy. So I think one of the most impressive things, so we did the intro before you came, because it's nice to get that out of the way. And as I was writing that, I was thinking about all the things that, you know, you can say as far as your accomplishments or things you're involved in.

But when I think about my own life, if I manage to keep, and we say it on here all the time, if I manage to keep this farm viable for another generation and my children can be involved in it, that will be, to me, that will be greater than all of the stuff or accomplishments or whatever. And I imagine you probably feel the same in that. All that said, though, being that driven and involved,

when you decided that you need to transition and step back, how hard was that? And is it still difficult? I imagine it probably still difficult. It's, you know, I'll give credit to technology. If it wasn't for technology, I probably couldn't have stepped back like this. Yeah. And because I still stay in tune. I still work on, try and work on the things.

And, you know, I do the marketing and stuff with Adam. And so I try and stay in tune with what's going on. I got, you know, we've got some tremendous reports that I look at, and you kind of know if you need to get involved. But they'll also come to me, knowing that I can help resolve situations. I want to be the guy that they come to to ask so that they don't get in too deep, because there's no reason to get in too deep.

And most of the time that'll happen. So as we, has I, I mean, Sharr is kind of demanded that I step back some. And there's no sweeter person on the planet. And so I have to honor that because there's nobody I love more dearly in the world than her. Yeah. And so, so I've had to adjust, but I can tell you, it's a game changer for me. Yeah. And when we decided, we went to Florida, you know, a couple weeks here, a couple weeks there,

but then three years ago, of course, right about the time COVID hit, I said, honey, we just need to have a place down here where we can just go. Because it's so much easier just to go whenever you want. You know, it's a direct flight from Cedar Rapids to Puntagora. It's, you know, you don't have to get in an airport and mess around. You just go and come back. And then that, if anything happens on either end, you're half hour from home. home. And so that's, that's made it easier. And, but I talk to them every day. Yeah. It's just in a little different tone. Sure. And, um, but it's been the best thing for all of us. Yeah. And, and when they come,

we have fun down there. Yeah. I tell, I, I told somebody, I think I told Claude this, uh, that I said, Rob is so mellow. I wish I was still selling stuff because he's almost soft. I think I could really, I think I could have really cleaned up because whenever I had to try, uh, that, uh, that I said, uh, say something you were still so tenacious but i feel like i could get a little i could probably get a little more i could get a half a percent out of you now probably welcome aboard via rail please sit and enjoy please sit and stretch steep flip or that and enjoy via rail love the way it's something else you now something new from exclusively on paramount plus it's the series stevee Then King calls scary as hell.

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when you get to the point that you're at and you've got you've got people in place that can do what you need them to do, a lot of people will be very tempted to step back and say, let's put this thing on cruise control. But you haven't done that. In fact, you've kind of stepped on it. So tell us about the project that you're just finishing up right now. And I guess let's, it kind of ties into production because you're, you're changing some things with the, with the build. Give us, however you want to talk about that, the backstory of how that came to be

and why you're doing what you're doing and what you're doing. So, you know, so when we, we've always bought a lot of wean pigs over the years here and there. And back in, you know, in 12 years ago, when we built the two farms in Missouri, it's like we were buying pigs, wean pigs, and it's like, we can do this, but we need to get out of Orshan County, right? And because there's too many pigs in Worshont County, sows don't work well. And so we built one farm in Missouri and got that kind of started.

And that was a similar thing where somebody else was going to manage it. And it just didn't quite go the way I thought. And Saras says, well, I guess you're going to have to move Missouri for a couple of years. and that's literally what Jeremy and I did. Yeah. And so we got that one going to the second one, the six months later, we got it going.

So we realized how good production could be if you had a clean sowherd and you could make that work. So we did that. And then as we're in a county, we're in a county that's just amazing. People want to work and raise pigs. Yep.

And we have got a lot of young people that want to, I mean, they want to stay on the farm. And my goal, back to your point of being on the farm, I, what I have to do, what I feel I have to do is I owe it to the community and the young people in a community to have an opportunity to do what I do in my family, but not just my family, but my neighbors and my friends and all that. I want them to have the same opportunity.

And I don't know what would have happened if I'd have these type of opportunities when I was 20 years old. Absolutely. God only knows where we'd be today. So you have a young guy that wants to build a building and raise pigs. Back to the contract thing. They don't want to own the pigs, which is, I can understand that. And they build a building and they build another building. And it just feeds on itself.

I've never asked anybody to build a building for me. It just feeds on itself. And so when you start doing that, you say, well, so you buy a wean pig. Maybe you thought was healthy, but it's not. One thing leads to another, you say, I can do better. better than that. So then we build sows. And as we build those sows, then we get another young guy that comes in and I want to put two sheds up. And I mean, it just keeps going and going. And so you buy wing pigs for a while, then you realize I can have sows and do better. So we buy wing pigs,

then we put sows in and get rid of some wing pigs. Then, of course, get some more buildings to go up. It just keeps going. And then this last project, we buy a decent amount of wing pigs out of Nebraska a lot. And this last project was like, you know, we're going to, our one of our most productive South farms is in Washington County because we're here and our people are here. And we, of course, we're all filtered. And granted, we still deal with purrs off and on, but nothing like we did before. And so we thought, how can we raise pigs in Washington County effectively? So 12 years ago, we filtered the home farm. And that, that's made. a big difference is still the original virus that's in there.

Never been depopped. And so it changes, you know, the virus changes a little bit. And so a year ago, a little over a year ago when we said, we're just going to add some more sows, but we're going to do it across the road. And so anyway, Sharr wasn't like that hopped up on adding sows. That's more labor. That's more aggravation. And Jeremy and Tim and the team convinced her that it's just as much aggravation by.

buying wean pigs. Yep. So it took a little time. And then in the process of doing that, talking to, you know, Thompson, my IBP or Tyson buyer. And I know those guys pretty well. And Jason calls and says, hey, would you be interested in Prop 12? I said, hell no.

Yep. You know? And then he said, well, I hear you're building. I said, yeah, no Prop 12 here, buddy. And then I hung up and I got to thinking about it. I already had the permit. It's like, what could that mean? What could that be?

What could that, how could that change my mindset? And what's the future? You know, what is the future of Brennam and Pork? What is the future of the pig business? I mean, granted, the fact that it was, it was coming down as if it was going to be shoved down your throat. Right. It kind of backed off and didn't feel shoved down your throat.

well the consumer wants it and if the consumer wants it then why should we deny that now granted prop 12 was passed by a state um i think we're going to defeat it but the consumer still wants it even if we do that and so that's a little different mentality if it would have started out that way it would have been good so i thought to myself hmm so i did some math did some thinking how could I do this and how could I use this to my advantage if there is an advantage to do something different? Because, you know, you kind of get stuck in, you got to do this, you got to do that. And it just got me exploring and thinking. And that just, that opened the door. Great people in home to manage stuff, take care of stuff. Now, now I'm the visionary. How do I, I have time to start

looking at things differently. And Florida helped that. And so I got to thinking and exploring and researching and one thing led to another. So I went and looked at a farm that had ESF system in it. I'm like, that's pretty cool. And so I looked at the free access dolls. That's pretty cool. How could we combine all this and maybe get a little bit of a premium to help pay for something?

And how could I design this so that falls apart? I can still, I just put a few more sows in a pen and life goes on. And so that's what I spent the entire year doing. And in the process of that, a few other things came along, working with a retailer to get some product into Florida and stuff. So that kind of helped. And so it's like here we've got something, a reason to do it a little different than we're used to. And so as conversations with Shar, nothing happens unless Shar says, okay.

I mean, it doesn't matter. And so I got to be a salesman or a good bullshitter. And she can pick out a good bullshitter. Yes, she can. So doing that did me no good. So I just had to present the facts and how we could do it and why. And also, you know, you've got to get your team to buy in. And so as we started the process, it just became intriguing.

So in that process, we chose to do everything in Iowa for Prop 12 and convert and also build new. So as we build new, we discovered things we didn't know. It's like, holy crap, this is awesome. And so the technology that goes into that and the thinking, I spent hours and hours and hours designing that farm. And it's right across the road. It's in Washington County, the heart of Pig County. And everybody's like, you're crazy, you know.

I said maybe, but I can see it. And plus, I love to build and I love to be a part of it. And I know Steve Frayer thinks I'm a pain in the ass. That's all right. skin's thick. Exactly. You can take it, buddy. I know you can.

But he's been tremendous. I know that he, when I got back from Florida, he's like, oh shit, I was hoping you wouldn't come back. But, yeah, but he missed me. But anyway, so as we've started this process, and you know how it is. It's, this is how we designed it, but it changes because it's new and something else is better. All of a sudden, you've like, see this and you see that.

It's like, well, how can we change that? Can we change the gate? Can we change that? And so it's turned out to be the most exciting experience I've had in the pig business. Designing that farm and then seeing it unfold. Yeah. And, you know, you watch Aaron on Instagram. If you don't, you should. If you don't, you should. Because she's touring that farm every day. And, you know, there's some cool stuff from how we feed the sows. we run two feed lines and drop we mix them together that salad goes in she gets fed a prescription for her for her yep and that goes all the way through and the guilt are you know all he you know there's a better way to do that and so as we've done this now is it going to be a product has productive i'm not 100% sure right i believe in my heart it will be you know it it's got purrs now and so

we'll get through that and it's real world it's no different than a conventional unit in that at the end of the day the people are what make the difference it's all about the people it's the people make the difference and then the people make the difference then the pig performs and if you can keep the pig healthy or if it gets unhealthy get it back to health and and it'll reward you and and so as as we've developed this you know i've had some input but i kind of i kind of i kind of let the team do their stuff because I wanted to just dig and dig and get into things and talk to people that I've never talked to before. And how can this be a different process? And so it's a totally different process. This, this, it's, I mean, the sow isn't in the crate, but five or six days.

Yeah. That's it other than farrowing. And so if it works, which I believe it will. And if, if Prop 12 goes away, we put a few more sows into pen and life goes on. Yep. But I can tell you right now, it's pretty cool. Yeah, that's awesome. Technology, everything's cool. Go ahead. Yeah, so I was just going to say, so right now, this is kind of like, this is the first Sile unit you've built that was all Prop 12, right?

And if it goes well, are you like, well, should we convert this? Is this just a trial run to see how it kind of goes? We're going to convert our home farm. Okay. So both of those are going to be Prop 12. Yep. And then after that, it'll kind of depend on the demand from the Packer or the consumer or, you know, whatever. But I believe

NPPC is going to win their battle. The pork producers are going to win their battle with Prop 12. I think we're going to come out on top. Yeah, I do too. I really do. I think so just on the merit of the law. Because if you apply what has been done to the pork industry,

if that law would have been gone in effect against about any other industry, I don't think it would have gone this far. Do you? No. I think the basis of it is wrong. You can't regulate

across state lines. Okay, well, I'm going to get a little snarky here. Are you going to be on the same topic? This is on the same? Go ahead. I really want to dive deep into this one a little bit. Well, go ahead, because what I want to talk about is the economic side of him building it.

So if you want to talk to me. I just wanted to say, we watched your KCRG, you know, I don't know if you your interview and I really appreciate the way you went about that interview. You didn't say like this is the way and this is the only way we should do things from here on now. It was like, hey, this worked in my operation. It was an opportunity I wanted to explore. This isn't for everybody, but we're going to try it out and see. I was like, that's because I feel like right now it's one of those hot topic issues that you're either on one side or you're on this side.

and I loved how you were kind of like middle in the ground of that and just that's I think that's how a lot of people are right now is if it works for your operation go for it but it's not the end all be all either you know so to your point on that Sawyer you know what we have to do as an industry as an industry is that we you know if a guy wants to have 10 sows and raise organic pigs and sell them sell one to you and you come out and bring your family out and you butcher that pig and you eat it and you think that's the best thing for you go for it i have no problem because you are an individual making a decision and and i think that as an industry we've got to be careful because if we say that's not good and then they they come right back and say that's not good hey we live in america right now and i think we all got to remember that this is america and if you want to have 10 pigs or A million pigs, you can do that. Thank God.

And so I'm not going to, anybody that wants to work hard, trust me, I've done that, 10,000, 10 pigs and in an A shed and butchered one for the neighbor. I've done that. I won't go back to do it, not because I don't believe it's right. It's because I don't want to do that anymore. And so we chose the Prop 12 route because there was an opportunity for the family, for the family, for the longevity. right wrong or indifferent, it was a choice. We're making the same damn product at the end of the day. And that was my point to the legislator.

No matter how you look at it, it's the same product. It's going to taste the same. It doesn't change anything. And it's safe and it's economical and it's healthy. And so is the other one. I'm not going to begrudge him, but it's America. And let's, I got a statement, it's all for one and one for all. Because when we start criticizing each other and we conquer,

divide and conquer. That's the goal. Prop 12 was the start of that. If we can band together and accept what people do and move on, then let's go play ball. No, amen to that. I think that's absolutely right because at the end of the day, the only way our industry survives is if we all stick together, no matter what our production method is, or no matter what size we are or anything like that. you. My snarky comment was that unit that you built, and I am thrilled that you did it in Washington County, because one of the things that we do on this podcast when we don't have a guest and we have time is we get, we do the market update. We just do the market update off cat's grain because there's a lot of people that listen that aren't, you know, they don't get that every day and they're

curious what the price of this and the price of that is. And one of the comment is, and one of the comments that we get a lot of time are people that they may have grown up on a farm or their grandpa farmed or whatever and they're always surprised at how good the basis is in Washington County and I tell people all the time we are this hog industry helps everybody in this county because if you're a grain farmer in Washington County you have some of the best basis levels because Brennam and Pork's buying corn every day of the week. Eichelberger Farms is buying grain every day of the week. Vettitos are buying, all these people are buying,

and the goal is to cut corn off from going to the river. Exactly. Or Cedar Rapids now. Before this, before we had the scale we have today, a lot of corn moved to the river or to Cedar Rapids or whatever. But we are a corn deficit county. and that's bad. That's kind of hard. That's a hard pill to swallow on your end sometimes

because corn price has been pretty high. But for the producer, it helps everybody. And I saw a clip that we did with who was the guy that we had the clip I was talking about development. Russ Vering. Russ Vering, yeah. Oh, Russ, yeah. Great guy.

You left my place to come here. Yeah, that's right. And I was talking about the economic development within our community. And I just don't feel like if the size of the operation that you built over there, if you were building widgets and you sat that on a vacant lot somewhere around Washington, Iowa, the whole economic boo-hoo's would all be there with a ribbon cutting, whole nine yards and it would be touted as this great thing that's going to employ all these people and da-da-da. But when we raise pigs, I feel like sometimes we kind of get the, we kind of get

shunned and people don't give us the credit that is due because Washington County, Iowa is a, is a unicorn in a lot of ways. Now, there's other counties in the state that have the same kind of pork production that we have, but those are all kind of unicorns because rural America is in big trouble in a lot of areas. And we, what we've done here is really pretty amazing. And whether people like it or not, the sad truth is the hog business drives so much, so much economic development. People that work for all of us, buying gas, buying shoes, buying groceries. It's QC supply, it's animal health, it's the hog slap plan, it's ace, it's all of that that if you took that out, I don't know if any of those would survive. Well, we pump a million dollars a day into the county.

Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Between everything we purchase. Yeah. And the majority of it is in the county. And the majority of our people live in Washington, almost all of them, almost all of them. Or very adjacent. Yeah, that are other than the people in Missouri. Yeah. And, and, you know, in all honesty, Tork, I felt that 15 years ago that, that, you know, like that, that little attitude. But today, it's like, it's a little different. People really respect and appreciate what you do in the county. We see it in Kelowna and Wilman and Washington and even some in Iowa, quite a bit in Iowa City. People know who you are and they appreciate it. I mean today, for example, well, not today because they're about done on this project until spring and they'll be back to do the home farm.

But we had 130 people on the site for weeks. Yeah. Every day of the week and they went into Kelowna and ate at the Mexican restaurants. Yep. And the one in Washington. And they're staying in this. So for six to nine months, there's been a hundred plus people added to the county that like to spend money. And they go eat and they go have food and they stay somewhere.

So that's an economy. Absolutely. And when they all go home, I don't know what cloning guys are going to do. Yeah, right. They're going to have to get rid of some nachos elsewhere. But it feels better today than it did 15 years ago. Yeah, that's good. There's more.

Of course, it's a little younger. a little less of that animosity from younger. But you can see that the younger, the younger, I would consider us a little younger. That's right. And you a little younger than that. But anyway, there's a little different attitude. There's some respect and appreciation. Yeah.

No, that's good. A little more than there was in the past. I agree. I could feel that 20 years ago, but a little different today. Do you feel like that's because advocacy is kind of ran? ramping up telling their story, showing our story, getting involved on social media and stuff like that. What made you want to get involved? I know, like, you talked about your transition on how you've kind of taken a little bit of a step back, but you've kind of ramped up advocacy yourself.

You've kind of got more involved in 4H and going to meetings and going to stuff and telling your story of Brennam and pork and just promoting the hog industry in general. Just talk a little bit about that and why you think that's so important. Well, I can tell you there's two events that caused that. I'm an SIP member, and every year we have a meeting in Florida. At NPPC has a meeting in Florida, PAC Convention. About 10 years, 11 years ago, we had a panel up there that was, you know, one of those where you're going to have, it was right after the egg deal, whenever that was,

whenever the egg producers cave to the to the HS US, it's like, you know, we got to stand up and tell our story. And then, and then I said, you know, I said, we need to be on the offense. And guy says, no, defense wins championships. We have defense wins championships, but offense scores points. And I said, we need to be on the offense. The guy who told me to sit down and shut up. I'm like, no. I said, we need to do the opposite.

So at that point in time, I'm like, the gloves are off. Let's go. And so then about, that's when we were building our first Missouri farm. And Joanne, all involved from, yeah, from Farm Journal at that time, I believe, she just got an award called and said, hey, I hear you've done some cool stuff at your farm. It was about, you know, what can we talk about, like precision farming? You know, we're talking about precision farming, but there was no precision. anything in the porkside.

It just do shit and get it done. And so I said, well, we're doing some cool stuff down there. And it's, it seems good. I enjoy it. And she said, I want to come up and talk to you. And so she came up to the office and Aaron was in, in the office. And Joanne, come in and start talking to me and talking about, you know, you're kind of letting people know that this is a good business to be in, so on, so forth.

So can I get you to be involved in telling what's going on? I said, tell your story. I said, no. I said, she's the one you need to be talking to. Because I said, she knows how to spread that. And a young person wants to hear it from a young person, not some creepy old farmer guy, you know. And so that's kind of those two points at about the same time,

kind of said, here we go, let's go. The gloves are off. you know, we've always been afraid to talk about what we do. I don't want anybody to know that happened, right? Right. I don't want anybody to know that happened. It's like, so we put it out there. I mean, Aaron put a little bit more out there than expected in the beginning.

But, you know, if you've got, I mean, we're probably going to go further with it here in the next. We got farms loaded with cameras. Yeah. we might do some live feed. If people know what you're doing, how can they come after you? Yeah, there's nothing. There's nothing high.

You see it happening every day. Let's do it. Let's go. I think that is probably the, that's one of the biggest misconceptions within our industry that is changing. 100% is changing. I think it's not just ours.

It's meat in general, but go ahead. Eat industry in general, just across the industry. There has been this idea that, yeah, defense, just put your head down, keep doing what you're doing. Don't make eye contact. If anybody bitches, just ignore them, it'll go away. And I think we've all figured out that that doesn't happen because it's the death of a thousand cuts.

You know, we try to satisfy somebody and then if you satisfy, you give. this much, they want this much. And then you're, then you have the problem that you have people that are making decisions for your industry that know nothing about your industry. And that's where we don't want to be. But people, people are curious. We talk about this all the time. The most mundane things that we do in taking care of our animals are the most interesting to people. And when they understand when you show them why you do something and how you do it and why you do it people are fine with it most people are fine they just want to know they just want to know what it takes to get meat on their table and when you show them they're okay and the and the other side they don't want

they don't want people to know that because they they they run on fear they run on fear and they you know it's better to keep it hidden. You're feeding into them when you keep everything hidden, but when you just show what you do, tell what you do. Yeah, I feel like there's so much upside to showing because it's not only like promoting our industry, promoting our product, but it's also recruiting people to start loving agriculture.

Oh, 100%. To get into ag that would have never even thought about it. If you show them a video and they go, wow, that looks interesting. You'd be so surprised at how many people we get across all what we're doing, hey, we want a job. Can we come work for you? This looks awesome. You know, that stuff, there's so much upside to that. And I also think, kind of back to what you're saying, we live in a society now where if you don't say anything or show anything, it looks fishy. It looks like you got something to hide. We now are in a place where, you know, privacy, like it or not, you got to put some stuff

out there or people are going to start to think otherwise. And want to know why you're not putting anything out. And if all, all people see when they type pig farm into the search bar is pita video, pita video, pita video, pita video of a horrendous hog barn or a hog site that has a caretaker. Probably isn't in America. Yeah, probably isn't in America or whatever. And that's the first thing they see, well, what do you think that person's going to think when they think of pig farming? Right. And you have to get everybody that's involved to be that, to talk about it. You know, I mean, the family, if my family, if our family don't believe in what we're doing, then that's even shame on us. But, you know, every one of our kids is involved from the sports side

of things to dance or whatever. And they share that story. Every one of our children are involved in the operation and their spouses. And so, and the grandkids, they want to be. So, you know, so if they're involved, that shows, because the true definition of sustainability is that somebody wants to do what you want to do. And, and you just hope and pray that that's your family. And for me, it's 100% about community and family. And so as you get that, you get that buy-in, then you go to the next level. And when, so when, when your dog, or sons are in town or in-laws, and they're standing at the coffee shop, and they say, and you got a Brenman pork shirt on or whatever it is, and they say, boy, we appreciate what

you do, you better hope that that person that has that shirt on does know what you do. Yes. And so if it's your, especially if it's somebody works for your family, you've failed if they don't know what you do. And so we've got to keep our own people informed, and especially our family. there's nothing on the planet more important to me than our family. I'm serious. And communities right behind it.

Washington County has a true place in my heart that this is, I mean, I love Florida. Don't get me wrong in the winter. But Washington County, you know, I can sit on my patio at home and see that new farm. Yep. Now, I don't know if that excites shark quite as much as it does me. And no, it's not just to see what's going on all the time either. I just, it just amazes me.

Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, I was just going to say, I credit you a lot because you are, let's just be honest, one of the few integrators in the state that really talks about showing your story and telling your story. I mean, you are on the forefront of that, which I applaud you for because I think, well, that always is going to become more valuable. As time goes on, you're going to be right about that. Yeah.

I believe that. So as you tell your story, so we're going to go, there's some cool shit going to happen. And there's some stuff that we're working on that's going to blow your freaking mind. And so, you know, we go to Florida and we go to a place called Seed to Table. Yeah. Our product is actually in Seed to Table. And then there's Farmer Joe's. And there's a guy down there.

It's pretty awesome. And he makes stuff happen. And we're, John and Kevin and I are standing at the meat counter a year ago, down at seed the table. And this guy walks up, you know, all dressed up, Naples all the way, you know. And she looks at the meat counter and says, hey, the guy behind the counter and I want no grass fed beef. And the guy says, no grass fed beef, no. She said, what about the hormones?

The guy says, no hormones since 1982. she says, I'll take two at $49.99 a pound. He told somebody's story. Yep. Now, you want that to do. And your guys' ears went. Yep. You want your story told.

And, you know, we've got an incredible story. And as an industry, we've been sitting on it. Yep. Literally setting on it. Because we've got the story. It's just that we're too shy. And we're too, I mean, we're just not proud enough of what we're. do because it's i mean the production we've created over the last 20 years is incredible yeah and we

we didn't really get into this today um but we've talked about it before and we were talking with russ our industry the efficiency that we have that we have taken from the 70s today as far as how much water it takes how much power it takes and i tell people this all the time and people are amazed the cycle on our little farm of we grow the corn, we mill the corn in the feed, we feed it to the pigs, we put the manure on the ground, we grow the next crop of corn.

That's a pretty, what industry's got that. And we don't get near enough credit for it, but we don't tell that story enough either. So Aaron, we had the University of Iowa chef down two or three years ago, you know, all, anybody that cooked for a frat or whatever it was, there was like 30 people in the room. And so Aaron, Aaron and I, Aaron, I did some Rob Math and gave it to Aaron and Aaron made this

cool little video called Shit Matters or something like that. And I need to get it to you. It's worth watching. But it's, it's Rob Math, but it's facts. And so anyway, we said if it dances around and you put manure on, you do this. and if you took organic, if you took GMO corn away and you went back to the way you produced pigs in 1976 and you did whatever and wasted whatever, it would take another 424 Iowa cities to produce enough corn for the pigs fed in Iowa. I can't remember what it was. But think of that. And in

1976, we were still importing pork into this country. And so when I took the production I had then, And the production I have now, I mean, we were 15 pigs per sow, now we're 35 or 36. And you look at the production and the capabilities on the same, on, that's that many more pigs on the same amount of water and the same amount of feed here. Yep. Now, granted, there's more over here, but that's five to one conversion to two and a half one conversion. Yeah. So all that stuff adds up. And then, so when you put it into perspective and economics, and so we, you know, we'll use 13 million bushel corn a year.

and going on 14. So you take that, that's 70,000 acres of corn roughly. Yep. We produced enough manure to go on 70,000 acres. Yep. And it's a hell of a lot better quality fertilizer. It's organic. Yeah, 100%.

Yeah, it builds humus. It builds organic matter. I mean, I spent, yesterday, I had a couple gals that stopped in from Colorado State doing a research project on Washington County. You know, all the cover crops, all the organic matter of the soil is built. and all the young people in the county. I mean, there's a few other counties like that, but this is a rare community. It's pretty special.

And we all get along. Yep. I mean, we all get along. Yep. Yeah, I think it's, I think what surprises me and surprises most farmers just, I think sometimes people that have no perspective of how productive our food system is, they just don't get, like,

we had to have this happen in this country for us to be able. to thrive and evolve as much as we have. If everybody was still had 10 pigs out in the pasture and were raising food for their family, we would have not evolved as a human species the way we have because the number one thing we got to have is food. And when that's taken care of, then you can start thinking about technology and advancements and all that. But I think people really overlook that fact of... You can't build the future on an empty stomach. Nope. It's as simple as up. He just can't. And they really overlook how productive we've gotten. And we just got to do a better job letting them know why and how and why it's a good thing that we are so productive. And so as we've

told our story and as Aaron's, you know, the porkboard had, you know, people that have come out, bloggers and stuff. And we had 26 people in our farm about four or five years ago. And they were all food bloggers from Los Angeles. One was Los Angeles cheerleader to New York City to Louisiana to Arizona all over the United States. And we took them through the farm and that's not the first group, but Aaron has them pull pigs and had them breed some sows and get that. And none of them had ever been on a farm. I got to ask at NPC right after we talked about that. Why aren't you worried about disease? I said, these people have never been on a farm. Yeah. Right. But a lot of pig farm, never been on a farm. And by the way, between all these food bloggers have 36 million

followers. So how do you think they're going to portray this story when they said when their comments were, God, we thought it was going to look a lot worse than this. We didn't know it. We didn't know you did this. Clean, bright, safe. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. You pull pigs. You save pigs. You wipe them off. You know, you wipe them off and put them under and plug them into a nipple. And warm, dry and full of milk is the motto. You do all that? And we said, yeah, every day, 24-7. We have 24-hour crews every day.

That's what we do. They're like, that's pretty cool. That's caretaking. They're going to tell your story. You don't even have to tell it. They will. And who has more credibility than a dietitian that happens to be a female that has kids. And I mean, we've had that opportunity.

We've got to continue to grow that opportunity. And if two, three years ago, whenever that was, when we were Worshinton, Iowa, went into Walmart, no meat, Faraway, no meat, Hyvee, no meat. And there's, you know, 2 million pigs raising this county and there's two packing plants within 30 miles. If that didn't make you think I didn't pull my head out of my ass, then you need to think twice. Because that was as, that was as close as it could get. Washington County, Iowa. No meat to be purchased. Think of that.

It was insane. We raised enough to feed three million people. There was no meat. I mean, granted, we could have went out and butchered one, but that wouldn't have been the thought that day. Right. You know, same way when the guys were down in Missouri and Mexico, they went to Walmart, no meat. Yeah. It was just crazy times.

Yeah. I mean, there's probably. Do you want to talk about that a little bit, COVID, and how that all played out and kind of what you were your thoughts on? that? Well, I think, I think at the end of the day, COVID was not a good, I'm not going to say a good thing. COVID helped us be better. It helped us for a lot of things. First of all, it made you appreciate your people more because, you know, you kind of get busy and you get, well, then people get sick. And, I mean, on the Missouri farms, it's seven people on each farm. They normally have 35 for two weeks. so you knew you knew what you had to do and you got it done.

And that's what we did. We never missed the beat. And so you appreciate the people when they come to work. But you also appreciate the consumer and the people to buy your product and show up and haul your product. Because everybody was under scrutiny. Oh, 100%. Everybody from the packing plants. I mean, just think what you realized is you couldn't get by without the truck driver

because how are you going to feed your pigs? you couldn't get by without the caregiver. Who's going to take care of all this stuff? Because it certainly can't be me anymore. And you can't get by without the consumer because if the, you know, the grocery store, I mean, it's all a circle. And we're in the food business. And if one of those links goes down, we're all screwed.

I mean, you want this country to, you know how close the country was to literally derailing with the railroad thing? Yep. De railing. You take that in transportation in any fashion. Our truck drivers could bring the world to screeching halt. In three days. Yeah, three days.

Our caregivers could bring our world to screeching halt in three days. So we have, you know, people got sick and still did their job. We thank God we're in a, you know, we're rural America and we have the guts or the fortitude to get out of bed no matter what's going on and get stuff done. that that is what we have that I hope we don't get nobody ever takes away I hope to God nobody ever takes away because we've got that ability in rural America yeah and that we can get up and get shit done

our you know in this we're we're just a phenomenal group of yep of people in agriculture yeah there's no better but that was an awakening it made you think that you whoever thought that you wouldn't be able to take pigs to market

think of that. Yep. Okay. Of course, we were the unfortunate ones, Tyson first plant to close. Yep. You know, we won't be able to take any pigs on Monday. Well, oh, call back. We won't be able to take any pigs on Friday.

Okay. What do we do? Yeah. What do we do? So we got it, you know, we figured out how to improvise. Yep. Because it was like over a week for we could sell a pig. And I don't think most people that, you know, most people don't realize that you guys are constantly weaning pigs, selling pigs, filling barns, emptying barns.

And when that all just shuts, stops. You can't just, it's not, you're not making a widget where you just throw the switch and you tell everybody you can go home. You're raising live animals. And I think a lot of people from the outside just really didn't understand that a lot of people in government didn't understand. That this is just like it was a, you're dealing with a live animal and you're dealing with a small pig, a big pig, a medium, you know, it was all over across the board. And, uh, 5,000 pigs a day in our operation had to be moved three times. Yep.

One is a wiener. One is a feeder pig and one is a finishing pig. Yep. Every day of the week has to be moved. Wow. And when that first one doesn't move. there's no room for the second one. Yep.

And the third one. Yep. So now you've got to get creative. And there's the next day, there's more pigs that are going to be fair. You're not stopping them. You can't stop the back end. Yep. Or you can't stop the front end.

Yep. And if the back end stops, it's hell in half a minute. And that's where it comes down to the people. I mean, we've got a phenomenal group of people from from the supervisors to the managers to the caregivers. I mean, our business. without caregivers is nothing. Yep. Nothing because somebody's got to show up every day, every day, and take care of every

pig because they don't feed themselves all day. I mean, they got to have feed to feed or you got to make sure the water's into water. And so that's an everyday event. So without a tremendous support staff of caregivers and a packing plant that takes the pigs and people that truck them, I mean, we are not. nothing by ourselves. Zero. Your history. History. Takes a team. It does. It's over. I think this is a question that this was like the question I wanted to ask for this podcast for when you came on that dad and I both are excited about. And I think it's just a good,

this will be a good just question for all of us to answer a little bit. But how do you think we can sell 10% more pork in the world, but maybe just even in this country? How, what can we do, as an industry to sell 10% more pork. So there's things we can do. First of all, the average consumption's been the same for about 30 years. Yep. But it has picked up some over COVID because people know they can cook. But I think as pork in general, first of all, we got to make a quality product.

And we had to accept the fact that we probably needed to change our genetics a little bit. Yep. Because there is a difference, seriously. And I will admit, today the pork, I'm telling you, I can buy as good a pork in Florida as I can in Washington County because of the distribution centers we have. And people are demanding quality. And I, you know, we can, trust me, I love my ribbyes and I love my hamburger. Don't get me wrong. I also love my pork burgers and my pork chops and my pork butts because there's more fat in them. and and we have to in order to sell more product first of all we got to get the dietitians the

nutritionists and the doctors to believe what's right and what's wrong and and that's a hard sell but you know i've been on a carnivore diet for about three years now lost 80 pounds and all i eats meat and bacon is one of my top go-to products when i get a craving for something that used to be sugar i just eat bacon yeah charr makes a pound of bacon every day of the week and And so I think to get that... It's the perfect food. It is. It is 100%.

So, you know, as listeners to your podcast, go follow some good doctors. You know, Dr. Ken Berry, I mean, you get into that and you listen to what he has. It used to be keto, but now he's more carnivore. You can't eat too much meat. That's all been sold. So if we can get to public to believe in meat and believe in fat again, and of course, fat automatically makes it taste better. So what makes it, I mean, to eat the chewable, dry-ass pork loin or beef ribeye,

you aren't going to eat it. But if you can dive in to good ground pork with fat in it and hamburger with fat, I'm going to promote hamburger too. And the porkloins with actual intermuxular fat in them, that's a different beast. Number one, we just came from Florida last week at one of our major meetings. number one, it has to taste good. People don't like stuff that doesn't taste good. So if you can get it taste good, which we are better than we've been.

We're better than we've ever been on the quality side of things. So get the quality and then get the doctors to buy in. And then we have to continue to tell our story because we have to believe, we have to believe in what we do. Because I've had producers ask me and say, how did you lose all that way? I said, I eat bacon all the time. Well, I'd do that if it was healthy.

I'm like, what do you mean if it's healthy? If you as a producer don't believe it's healthy, then you've got a problem. Because I can assure you it's the healthiest thing you can eat. And there are people who will back that up. So the medical community, the dietitians and nutritionists, we've got to get buy-in. So that's where our pork board has to come in to help do that, to help sell that and understand that and get a different mindset. And it is changing.

Yes. And social media helps with that. as long as you get on the right social media page. And if you do that and you get the right people, then you believe it. And then once you experience it, you feel better because I feel better than I have for 30 years. And so you got to do that. Buy in, taste good. And of course, it's got to be reasonably priced.

And we're there on that part of it. So that's a win. And they got to trust us. And we got to continue to convince the consumer that what? what we do is right. And if they believe in us and they see what we do and how we do it, they will follow. Because if you look good and they look good and everybody's doing the right thing, I mean, if you don't accept the fact that animals have to die to eat, then you're always going to have a problem with it. So be it. But Trent Luce makes a good comment. Everything lives,

everything dies. Death with a purpose gives new meaning to life. Every one of us is, is going to disappear. Yep. What did we leave behind? Yep. And the animal takes care of us and we take care of them. And that's, that theory, we have to start it though. Get involved in your pork board organizations, local pork, you know, I'm on the National

Pork Producers Council. That's the social license to operate. We fight every day for that. And I got involved because I felt it was my time and my turn. and you can make a difference. You can make a difference. Even as growers, you can make a difference. You know, you say pay the fee as producers and as growers,

everybody needs to pay the fee and participate. The door is wide open because it's incredible industry. Yeah. And agriculture itself is an incredible industry. I was just, I know, I was just going to say, we don't need to say anything else. We just let you hit that out. of the park there, Rob.

And all we got to do is make pork ribby is to take like to touch the moon. Oh, yeah. Increase it tomorrow morning. Exactly. 100%. Well, it goes, that goes, I will say that, in that taste is everything.

Taste is everything. And in this day and age, it's just, it's always amazing to me. When I go to a, um, when I go to a convention or a public deal where, foods cooked. I always cringe a little bit when it's going to be pork loin on a large scale because you're like, boy, I wonder if this guy knows how to cook a pork loin.

And I will say it's better. It's getting better. But every once in a while, you go to a big gathering for some meeting and that porkloin is dry. And we had, and I will confess, I've hammered that for a long time. and last week in a convention setting and the meals we had in Florida, every meal I had that involved pork, whether it was pulled pork, I had some amazing pork, some amazing ribs.

I can tell you we wouldn't have had that five years ago. And I think that's coming from the pork board, the 140. You know, I still think 140 is a little too far for me. Yep. But the pork chops have all been good. But every meal that I had was good. but all I eat is meat. And then I always take bacon to meeting as a backup.

Sharma makes bacon and put it in a Ziploc bag. And I go to meeting and it's all pasta or all that type of shit. I'll grab out my bacon. Everybody makes fun of me and then they ask for some. Yeah, you know, right they do. Absolutely. So we're better. So if we just win those little games.

Yep. And, you know, they've got the, you know, I spoke in Cedar Falls at a PFG meeting and they actually cooked our product. And I went back and said, how did you, the chef told me, I said, how did you make that? Because I said, that was amazing. So he took me back. They put it in that.

They sear it, put it in that oven. He said, if you wanted 140 degrees, I can keep that for two days. But then I put it out into a roaster and they screw it up. So if you can go straight from here, and I can't believe we can't invent a roaster that does the same thing. Right. Because that's where your convention food turns bad. It's bad. It's in the roaster.

Because they can do it in the back room. So we're better. We didn't have that technology five years ago. Yeah. So it's coming. I would say that I think people, it's all coming together because I think we're everybody's trying to tell their, everyone's starting to kind of tell their story a little bit more. Dietitians, doctors, or changing the genetics, which is great. I think that's a big step.

Overdue. Long overdue. Yeah. Long overdue. Yeah. But also I think just there's more content out there about recipes. Yep. And like showing.

showing people how to cook pork because pork's not an easy thing to make all the time and i think having a bunch of people online that are showing you how to make it and make it right that's that's out there more than ever before so i think pork when people do it right and we all know this because we do we know how to cook pork when you do it right it's phenomenal and i think there's more and more people showing how to actually cook it right which is good and it doesn't have to go through a smoker or cooker it don't have to be on a barbecue grill We had pork chops in Florida with, we had four of us, eight of us at the table. And everybody said, how did you do that?

And I said, first of all, we started off with a good product. It's Durok based. It was out of one of ours, you know, in a restaurant or in a place down there. And I seared it and we put it in the oven, got it to 130, took it out and let it set for five minutes. And it's phenomenal. And that, anybody can do that. You don't have to be a grill hound to make pork taste good. Right.

You really don't. That's good product. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trashing it. But you can do both with our product today. You couldn't have done that 10 years ago. No. Could not have done it.

We've got the product today. The one thing that pisses me off, and I'm not bagging on any other pig farmers or anything like that because we talk about that. But when people come at what we do and raise pigs in hog barns, and they tell us that our product doesn't taste. as good as somebody's pasture raise. That might have been the case back 10 years ago, like you're saying.

Yeah. But we are switching, and I cannot wait for the day where there is no difference in the amount of marbling, the amount of fat, and the flavor is the same. Because they like to tell you, and I'm not bagging, I appreciate anybody that's a hog farmer, but they like to tell you it's the grass, it's the bugs that they eat, it's the walnuts that they're eating, it's the stuff that they're rooting up. that makes that pork taste good, but we all know it's the genetics. Yep.

Yeah. It's the genetics. And if somebody believes that and buys that product, great, but they're not going to feed exactly the world. Right. They're not going to feed 300 million people with that product. But that's great, great place to start. And I know there's people that don't believe we need to feed the world, but we do.

I'm sorry. I was raised. Farmer blood's in me. I get up every day. how can I be better, knowing that I have the responsibility for all the people that work for me, the community I live in, and the industry I represent. And by the way, I want to make sure that you have a happy life too. And I want you to choose my product because it's better than what you had before.

That's what drives majority of our industry. And I think if you, if people, if you really want to think on a world, the world over, it really is our responsibility because if you want to be the best steward of the resources, and I'm not a climate alarmist, but if you want to be the best steward of the resources, there is no, there is no cheaper, more efficient, better transportation availability place in the world to raise a pound of pork than America in general, but southeast Iowa.

Iowa, 100%. You can raise a pound of pork the most efficiently, cheapest, and get it anywhere in the world in the most efficient way in Iowa. And so, yes,

when we say we want to feed the world, we do because it is the best for the world using the least amount of resources. So it's best for everybody. Yep, exactly. And we know how to raise pigs. Yeah.

And we know how to grow corn. Yeah. Okay. One thing I, because you're, you're where we are. And I think that there are people waking up to this, but you are a lot further down this hole than I thought that you might be. Brand, as you look forward, as you look out, what's the value of Brennam and pork? Now, and I'm not saying like monetary value, but you guys have 100% realized that people want to know where their food comes from. And people don't care about that label that is JBS or Smithfield or Tyson or whatever.

But they care a lot about the people that actually make their product. and what's in the going forward what do you think the value of Brennam and pork is? So you know, getting out and about in Florida once again is helping me a lot. But so going to seed the table and some of those stores down there. Well, our product is going through PFG right now. Yeah. And it's going under Allegiance Pork and West Creek Pork.

And so that's distributed throughout the United States. and actually starting to get distributed outside the country. And that's cooperation with Tyson. Yep. Tyson brought that to the table, and they're trying to get, you know, that relationship with the consumer, knowing that they can go back

and if they buy that product, that that product came from that farm. Yeah. Now, that's going to be hard for every farmer to do. I get it. Yep. And sometimes on the cutting edge, you're on the bleeding edge, you know.

And so there's some learning curve. But I think that, you know so our brand wouldn't be out there but we would be known as the people that supply that product and so when you have that conversation with the average joe and wherever picked the town or the city on marco island for example and you get to know people and say you would talk about pork and they say how do how do i buy your pork how many people's how do how do we we you know yeah but how do we buy your pork i said 100% you go to walmart there's a chance you get it there. There's a real good chance. And now I can say you go to seed the table

and there's a pretty good chance you're going to, well, you're going to get it there. And there's a pretty good chance you could get it in a fresh market under Chairman's Reserve. There's a chance. And next thing you know, I bought those fresh market chairman reserve ribs. Those are the best ribs I've ever had. Were they? Or did they just have the ability to know that might have came from you and you were responsible and I believe in you? Yes. And I believe in you. They have a tough time believing in big ag and big corporations. They really do.

That's a consumer, you know, like, uh, there's something else or for God's sake, big pharma. Yeah. You know, who the hell going to believe in them? Right. Maybe someday they'll save me and maybe someday they won't. Yeah. I hope they don't have to, but whatever happens.

At the end of the day, that personal connection or that ability. It's that. Yep. Yep. Yep. All they had to do was believe. or know that it came from a real farm and a real person did it. It wasn't a machine and it wasn't in BFE.

It was right here. You know, you're local. I mean, local definition of local to the University of Iowa is somewhere in the state of Iowa. Yes, right. I mean, what if you could be 15 minutes from there? Yeah. So those connections need to be had. But in order to do that, they want your story.

So we're going to go as far as they're going to put a QR code on the package. When you walk up to the meat case and you put your QR reader on there, it's going to show somebody processing pigs at Brennam and pork. Yep. Now, if somebody doesn't like you, that might not be good, but they probably don't buy your stuff anyway. You're 100%. Can't please those people anyway.

Because we have to sell what we do today. Unlike grandpa and dad, shit happened. They did it and got by with it. But we have to. we're in a different world. And your generation is going to keep us honest. See, you get it. You get it.

That is what I respect the most about you. You get it. That is totally what's going to happen. And if you keep going that way, Brennam and Pork is going to be a household name. And I believe it, 100%. Because that is exactly where it's going. You know it.

But without the quality, it doesn't matter. That's right. You got to have the quality. You got to execute. you got to execute. You got to execute. And, you know, I had a good friend that told me, he sent some guys down to see how we do things.

And he's got a large operation. And he said, you know, that's great. We'll come down and learn. But now we have to execute. We have to execute. And that's the same way with us. When I go learn something, if it's worth executing,

you might not always be worth executing. But I got to execute. In order to execute, I got to be a leader. I got to be a leader. I'm no longer, you know, I can be a visionary and a leader, and then I got to have somebody that ties us together. And that's where the family falls in.

The family, when you can go to family, it's a different connection. And then what you want is your whole segment of people to become a family. And they can say what they want to say. There's one thing I'll guarantee you. If anybody's, I don't care if it's good, bad, or indifferent, if you got a problem with Rob Brennaman, you come tell him, and he's going to get over it. I promise you. He doesn't hold a grudge.

he doesn't give a shit. If you have something to say about me, you come tell me in person, I might be pissed for a minute, but I'm going to have more respect than if I hear it behind my back. And because I, you know, and I always say what's on my mind,

and I expect somebody to do the same here. Yeah. I guess we're at an hour and 45 minutes. This has been an awesome episode. I think there's a lot of value in this one. I do torque whistle for a bullshit for an hour. And I haven't, I've talked about his little. He's been relatively quiet.

Well, I don't have anything to sell. I'm just trying to learn. Yeah. I guess we're going to get close to wrapping it up, but one thing, I know you and your wife, Sharr, are thick and thin. You've been through it, been through so much together. And your bond is amazing. Your marriage is amazing.

Not only just husband and wife, but business partners, too. how what is your advice to people to try to have a successful marriage and a business partner all in one so you're a full-time salesman you know that they have to believe you have to believe in each other and you have to be able to say what's on your mind and take it and and respect it and that goes both ways because if she tells me something, she's always right, no matter how you look at it. And it just takes it. You got to believe in each other and you got to have that faith and you got to know that you're going to have moments. Trust me, there are moments. There are always moments. And you got to think and work through those. And you know, you say you don't always go to,

you don't ever want to go to bed mad, but sometimes it happens. But you got to correct it at some point in time. And if you messed up, which I trust me, I do, and then I got to think about it. I'm going to like, where the hell did I fuck up at? And I got to go fix it. I really do. And you got to learn to bite it and say you're sorry and know that you were wrong. And it's the same way with the kids, the family. I mean, it's the same way with your friends. It doesn't matter if you if you screw up, you got to face it and move on. And like in the family situation, I always tell Sharre, we're the parents. We are the parents.

If we want to make the family work, we're the ones that are in charge. We are the leaders of that. And if we want that to work, then we've got to be the ones to step up and take the bullets and make sure that whatever happens, we've done our best to rectify it or make it be right. Except the example. It's a lot of give and take. And you've got to accept the fact you're not always right. That was good.

And I'm not. I don't think any of us are. You got anything? You got any last questions? How do people learn more about Brennan Pork? Oh, we've got a website. Go to our website. I'm on Twitter.

Yep. and I know Aaron, this new farm on Instagram, Sal Mama, and on, she does a little bit of Snapchat, but not as much, but Instagram's words, if you watch, it's cool, go to Instagram and watch what she does on that new farm. She's, she's bought in and she's, she's showing some stuff and it's awesome. And I'm on Twitter and I share a lot of stuff and because there's a lot of stuff out there. I share a lot of stuff on the nutrition side and on the cool stuff that's happening. I share a lot of stuff that the pork council and the pork board are doing.

Because once again, pay the fee. Get involved. You know, I believe in that. Get involved. Your voice will be heard. Whether you're a grower, whether your employee or whether you're caregiver and owner, get involved. Pay the fee. Help us do better and help us celebrate our wins.

And let's get more of them. Let's sell 10% more pork. And let's sell 10% more pork. We will link all of the social media that you can follow Rob and follow Aaron on and the website. We'll have that all in the link in the description or we'll have it in the show notes if you're listening. I think that's going to be it. This was an awesome episode. I hope you guys got a lot of value out of it because I sure did.

You know what to do. Pay the fee. Leave a review on Spotify and Apple. And we'll see you guys back here again for another episode next week. Thanks, Rob, for coming on. No, thank you guys for asking. Yeah. I really appreciate it.