Duane and Chad Stroh are the father and son that lead the team at Healthy Harvest in Berthoud, CO, which also includes Duane’s wife and Chad’s sister, and one red-headed step-child in a key operations role. They were initially involved as investor-partners of the business, but as partners departed and their market awareness grew they pivoted the company to specialize in production and wholesale distribution of non-GMO cooking oils across Colorado - and entering new markets across the American West. They also offer nationwide direct-to-consumer oil sales through their website and on Amazon.
In a previous chapter, the family operated a conventional grain farm and feedlot near Holyoke, where Duane was also the wrestling coach for many years. When Duane met a man with a persistent infection caused by exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria on a hog farm, he started investigating the drug and chemical-laden conventional farming industry. And - when his brother died at an early age of lymphoma, he remembered how that brother was the one responsible for spraying Roundup around the farmyard and mixing the sprayer tanks. And long story short - the family decided to sell out of their farm and feedlot and change their business as a result of this change in perspective.
What I love about Duane is that he’s a lot like my dad - the secret to success in farming or in business is math! And what I love about Chad is that he is focused on the impact of marketing, technology, and relationships to build long-term business value. Together, they’re a formidable pair, and I’m excited to see their business continue to grow and help more and more non-GMO farmers share their Healthy Harvests with the world. So please enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Duane and Chad Stroh.
The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
Duane and Chad Stroh are the father and son that lead the team at Healthy Harvest in Berthoud, CO, which also includes Duane’s wife and Chad’s sister, and one red-headed step-child in a key operations role. They were initially involved as investor-partners of the business, but as partners departed and their market awareness grew they pivoted the company to specialize in production and wholesale distribution of non-GMO cooking oils across Colorado - and entering new markets across the American West. They also offer nationwide direct-to-consumer oil sales through their website and on Amazon.
In a previous chapter, the family operated a conventional grain farm and feedlot near Holyoke, where Duane was also the wrestling coach for many years. When Duane met a man with a persistent infection caused by exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria on a hog farm, he started investigating the drug and chemical-laden conventional farming industry. And - when his brother died at an early age of lymphoma, he remembered how that brother was the one responsible for spraying Roundup around the farmyard and mixing the sprayer tanks. And long story short - the family decided to sell out of their farm and feedlot and change their business as a result of this change in perspective.
What I love about Duane is that he’s a lot like my dad - the secret to success in farming or in business is math! And what I love about Chad is that he is focused on the impact of marketing, technology, and relationships to build long-term business value. Together, they’re a formidable pair, and I’m excited to see their business continue to grow and help more and more non-GMO farmers share their Healthy Harvests with the world. So please enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Duane and Chad Stroh.
The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/
Follow us to see what we're up to:
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Music By: A Brother's Fountain
Dwayne and Chad Stro are the father and son that lead the team at Healthy Harvest in birthed Colorado, which also includes Dwayne's wife and Chad's sister and one redheaded stepchild in a key operations role. They were initially involved as investor partners of the business. But as partners departed and their market awareness grew, they pivoted the company to specialize in production and wholesale distribution of non GMO cooking oils across Colorado and entering new markets across the American West. They also offer nationwide direct to consumer oil sales through their website and on Amazon. In a previous chapter, the family operated a conventional grain farm in feedlot near Holyoke, Colorado, where Dwayne was also the wrestling coach for many years. When Dwayne met a man with a persistent infection caused by exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria on a hog farm, he started investigating the drug and chemical-laden conventional farming industry. And when his brother died at an early age from lymphoma. He remembered how that brother was the one responsible for spraying Roundup around the farmyard and mixing it in the sprayer tanks. And long story short, the family decided to sell out of their farm and feedlot and change their business as a result of this change in perspective. What I love about Dwayne is that he's a lot like my dad. The secret to success in farming or in business is math. And what I love about Chad is that he is focused on the impact of marketing, technology, and relationships to build long term business value. Together they're a formidable pair, and I'm excited to see their business continue to grow and help more and more non GMO farmers share their healthy harvest with the world. So please enjoy, as I did, my conversation with Duane and Chad Stroh. Welcome back to the local experience podcast. My guests today are Dwayne and Chad Stroh. They are the CEO and vice president and together co founders of Healthy Harvest and Healthy Harvest is a natural oils company based in Bertha that does wholesale and retail. So, uh, who wants to start talking to me about Healthy Harvest? Chad? Sure. I'll go for it. I'll go first. He's a father and son as well, so. Yep. Um, well, we're an all natural cooking oil company that supplies all sorts of fryer oils and saute oils and different products, mostly restaurant supply. Okay. We do a small amount of retail, just Amazon, things like that. Sure, yeah. So, primarily restaurants and probably food manufacturers too, people that are using your oils to make stuff? Yep. Yeah, it's really the fastest growing part of our business. Definitely, yeah. Why, uh, why do people pick you as their supplier of choice? In that space look at him. He's a good looking guy. Oh, yeah, so it's just the natural charm. No, why do they pick healthy harvest? Yeah, well, we not only provide a healthier cleaner product We're all non gmo verified and we do expeller pressed oils as well, which means that it's not processed with chemicals most commercial oils are So that's a big part of it. So not only is the you know, the health attributes and, and sort of the marketing side, but it, it has a much better flavor and it, uh, does better in like the fryer and sauteing with it. You really can taste a difference. So that's probably the biggest reason is the quality of the product. Yeah. And I want to dig into that, uh, the difference between the types of oils later. I think, uh, it's something that I was kind of grossed out by as I've learned, like, like canola oil and traditional vegetable oils are really, There's a lot of chemicals touching that stuff before it touches your plate. Mm hmm. Yep. And, uh, how long has Healthy Harvest been around? We just hit 10 years in December, so 10 and a half years. Well, congratulations on 10 years. Thank you. And, Dwayne, uh, this is not your first rodeo, is that what I remember? No, it's not even my twelfth rodeo. Oh, is that right? Yeah, but we've had a lot, me and my wife have had a lot of businesses over the years. And Healthy Harvest is a true family business, right? Like you're, both your wife and your daughter are also? And we got one red headed stepchild. That's the young man I met there. Yeah, yeah. So, he's uh, he's your only non family employee, is that true? Yep. He brings a lot of flavor to the Flavor to the sauce. Yeah, he does. We tell him we had to adopt him so we can treat him as shitty as everybody else. So was this a business that, um, Like grew out of a different business that you had before Dwayne or like, did you plan this for a season together and then launched it? Or how was, how did you, what's the inception story? Well, it's kind of lengthy. Do you mind? No, no. I mean, try to give me the five minute version, not the two hour version. Cause we won't have any time left for anything else. But so we used to have a farm and feedlot and a grain company and because of the grain company. I was approached to invest in this company. Oh, okay. And so, um, I, at the time, didn't really believe in non GMO and organic and all that stuff. We thought it was all just a bunch of booze. Yeah, thank you. We speak the same language. You guys are from Eastern Colorado kind of realm and I'm from North Dakota, so. Yes, sir. And so, um, they did talk me into going on a due diligence trip. And, um, I was also a wrestling coach and I met a guy who, uh, got an infection from a hog on his conventional hog farm. And, um, long story short, um, none of the antibiotics would, uh, would help him because the, that hog was on so many antibiotics that, uh, his body was immune to it. Yeah. Any infection that the hog had was pretty much. Not susceptible to any other stuff. Yes, sir. And because of my wrestling coach career I I Knew about MRSA and overuse of antibiotics, but that never occurred to me that was coming in our food So I found out that um, you know hogs chickens and turkeys are the worst are fed antibiotics a lot Just because it helps cut the cost of gain or cost of production. Sure. And so I went home and I told my wife maybe we've been wrong and and So we studied it for a while. Then I went to the University of Nebraska Columbus and asked them to feed me 60 head of conventional hogs and 60 head of, of, you know, all natural, no hormones. Okay. No GMOs. All that. Mm hmm. And, uh, they said we will, but we've already done it. And, uh, they brought me the data out, and I read it, and it was extremely humbling. Actually nauseating, as you said. Mm hmm. And, uh, so Like what? Like, the, the conventional hogs? grew faster or tasted better or what was? No, it was exactly the opposite. We was, um, there, you know, I've been around animals my whole life. And so I know what a good looking carcass looks like in the conventional hogs carcass. It looked like a sick hog and we found out things like the intestines are so compromised in the livestock that eat GMO grains that they won't hold sausage anymore. They have to import intestines to put sausage in and all this stuff was just like getting fire hosed. Very humbling. Um, I asked them why they didn't punish, uh, publish it, and they said that, uh, they couldn't because they didn't own it, and the people that owned it did not want to publish it. Right. Yes. Which included us signing an NDA to look at it. Yeah. Are you breaking something now, or? No. No, it's public. No. It's not public information. I'm not going to tell you whose it was. Right. Fair. Fair enough. But the, uh, So you kind of had a mind shift. You're like, Oh, we've been growing all this GMO soybeans and feeding it to our critters and stuff and thinking nothing of it. Yeah. And we're talking about 30 some years of, of growing these kinds of crops and stuff. It was not an easy thing to accept. I was, um, I don't know what the feeling was sick, humiliated. Felt guilty. It was, uh, extremely weird. You know, you start thinking about things that happened when we were, when cattle and stuff on the farm and you're like, oh, now, you know, we thought, well, cows are dumb. They just eat the GMO stocks instead of the other stuff. It never occurred to us it was making them sick. We, we had no idea. They would eat, you'd put them out on stocks and if you had a circle of, like, non GMO stocks next to the GMO ones, they They would eat the non GMO one to the dirt before they touch the other ones. Is that right? Yeah. Well, that's pretty good indicator Well, yeah, we just we just thought it was because the Stock was more palatable. I mean a non gmo corn stock is white bright and doesn't deteriorate much And so I don't know what we thought that Just never occurred to us, I guess. So, you were involved in the farm operation, Chad, as well? You were intimately involved already at that time? Yeah, I grew up on the farm, yeah. Yeah, yeah. What to do about it next or how do you go about? So we came back and, and, and me and Melissa talked about it and decided, well, you know, maybe this is a good thing. And so my, my job was going to be to source non GMO soybeans and have them crushed and sell the meal to this log, large hog operation in, in Midwest. And, um, then, then also part of my duty was to offload the crude oil on the open market. And so we, you know, we dumped a bunch of money in it and decided to go ahead and do it. But the other four partners never showed with money or help. And so, uh, we ended up in a business we knew nothing about. And it was been a, yeah. And that was healthy harvest. Yes, sir. Oh, okay. So you came in as an investor and then everybody else kind of bailed. Well, they wanted me to manage it because of my grain trading. Right, right. Right. So I didn't really realize that was part of the model. So you gotta go source the, the grains. Oh, not anymore. On our one year anniversary, that whole entire deal fell through and we completely started over from scratch. Okay. And in the hole. Right, right. And, and, in what you ultimately became, which was kind of a sourcing and blending. Yep. Distribution business? I guess. So, through the due diligency we did with the, the beginning stages, we did meet several of the processors around the country who do Expeller Press and, you know, uh, no chemicals and there's not very many of those. So we basically thought, you know, there's a huge potential for this type of product in Colorado. If we bring it in, maybe we could market it to sort of the restaurant and commercial industry. Gotcha. So kind of got to create a brand so that people know about this expeller pressed oil and that option. Yeah, that's what Chad was thinking. Cause he's more of a conservative thinker. I was thinking all these guys up here love this kind of stuff. We just got to give out samples. We'll sell more than we can get wrong. And we started learning about marketing and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. We used to say the scouts get the arrows in, uh, in the banking world, you know, when you're out there ahead of the market, Hey, we got this great new thing. Well, you can spend all your money saying stuff, but nobody believes you until you get the right messaging. Yep. So what's that look like for you guys? As far as like finding your customers, how do they find you? Do you find them? Is it some mix of both now that it's been a while? It's a mix of both. Yeah. I mean, at the very beginning, I would say the first Four or five years it took to build, um, enough of a brand that people actually know it even exists. Right. Um, and even then, people who have a more, you know, healthy mindset, you still have to be cost effective. Right. Right. Especially in restaurants. They have bills to pay just like everybody else. So it's, it's got to perform. And your main, the base oil is sunflower oil. Is that right? Yeah. Like as opposed to vegetable or canola, but that's like a. Well, vegetable includes so many different oils. That's, yeah. I think canola and sunflower could be tossed into that depending on whose rules you look at. Oh, absolutely. It's, it's funny when you go to a store and I'll say, what kind of oil do you use? Vegetable? Like, well, I'm glad it's not, you know, petroleum, mineral oil, which one of the 20, could that be? Yeah. So we do sunflower, we do avocado, extra virgin olive oil and canola. Okay. Oh, so you can make canola the good way. Yeah. Just got to expel or press it rather than, so I guess now's a good time. Talk to me about the. Traditional oil process. So the, you know, or the, uh, maybe the current model, the most, most, uh, industry standards would be to use a solvent like you, you soak the seed or the bean in a solvent, uh, this is after it's already been crushed for meal. Yes. Before and after, right. They only do it after a crush? They crush it and then they wash it like in a big spinning tumbler and they blow the solvent through it and it washes all the oil away. Okay. And this, solvents are harsh. Right. Yeah. And that's like, and then they take the solvent back out somehow? I guess the oil flows to the top? Or something cause it's lighter or how does that work? You have to refine the crude oil, so what they basically say is in refinement it's removed, but There's a lot of people who disagree and It also changes the oil when you use a solvent it essentially makes it more extractable which What we've heard is that it shrinks the oil molecules are smaller. It changes the way it functions But you can if you're in the oil industry and you have tasted a lot of different products you can taste the difference and be like, that's chemically extracted. You can tell. We've had chefs tell us that they put oil in a hot pan and once in a while it'll flash. I don't know if they're telling the truth or not. I've never seen it. So, you know, how do you like that? Could be some impurity or something. The solvent is a byproduct of gas, so it's flammable, right? So you're right. They do separate it by weight and then Chad's right. Also, they get to remain filter it through or whatever and refine it. Yeah, I don't know what that looks like. That process. So for your customer there, like a traditional one would be just like, uh, solvent extracted canola oil would be a popular one for a restaurant fryer, because it's got a very high smoke point, right, and pretty durable oil. And then they would use, they could use your mix instead, which would be, is it twice as expensive? Oh, no. Not that much. Um, I'm just curious what the premium is to have that better, better oil. The absolute, like, cheapest, cheapest product you could possibly get, which is like, most restaurants still wouldn't even buy that. This is, I don't even know how, who would buy most of it. But the very, very cheapest I would say is, what, 50 60 percent difference? Yeah, probably. Okay. So the, the big difference our oil does really well in the fryer is, you know, we talked about hexane extruded, but ours is ex, expeller pressed. Yeah. And so, uh, that process is much like Chad was talking about, how harsh hexane is on the oil. It's the opposite. It's really good. Well, I would imagine also that the, um, The molecules being smaller would reduce their durability, like number of times it could be heated up and cooled back down and stuff. I don't know if that's true or not. We know it doesn't last as long. That's for sure. Yours doesn't. There's no, there's no. Yeah. And so we also know that our oil cooks faster for whatever reason and it does not absorb as much. Oh, as much of the other flavors and whatever? Well, it has, not flavors, it has, uh, Oh, it sheds the food easier. Yeah, the expeller press doesn't soak into the food and stuff like the, like the solvent extract does. Well, that would make it even more, more compelling, right? Well, you would, Depends. We're trying. It depends. And that, like, most restaurants, um, other than, like, you know, a fast food chain, aren't buying that cheap of oil. They're, they're looking for something that's a little, like, a better, more of a durable fryer product. Okay. And we compete pretty much head to head with those in price. Really comparable. Yeah. And you're selling it in, like, five gallon jugs and stuff, mostly? Yeah. Is that your distribution? 4. 6 gallon, 35 pounders. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Don't ask me why that's the restaurant standard, but that's what most people sell their oil in, so. Interesting. We were in the oil business for a whole year before we learned out what a jib of oil is. What's a jib? Jug in a box. Oh, yeah. Kind of like a wine box, same kind of thing. That's what we use now as a bib, which is the same thing as a wine box, a bag in a box. A bag in a box. Oh, yeah. Well, that makes more sense. A lot less plastics to use and stuff like that. Significantly less, yes. So, um, so tell me about those first years. You said you were significantly in the hole and, uh, did you have other business interests still going at this time? The farm and the feedlot and whatever? Did you get out of that because you felt too guilty about killing people with your products? First of all, I do want to say I'm not here to throw any farmers under the bus. But the, uh, we, we had already sold before any of this happened because we, I lost two brothers out there and we just weren't having fun anymore. And so, uh, we did have other businesses and, um, that's the only thing kept us afloat and other, other cashflow. But yeah, it was, uh, We traded a lot of real estate. That, that helped us. He did, I didn't. Yeah. I was, I went to college and was, when we got into this, I was about 21, 22. Okay. So, I was living above my associate's garage in a half built studio apartment for a while. Fair enough. Yeah. And what did you go to school for? Uh, business administration. Useful. Mm hmm. Um, so what's the, what's the. plan for Healthy Harvest? Like, what if things go right over the next three to five years? Is it just kind of expand your regional presence? Maybe expand that retail? I mean, we didn't really talk much about the retail yet, but what's that look like? Is that like a buy it on Amazon kind of thing or from your website or something? Yeah, so currently we only do Amazon slash website sales. Yeah. It's still quite a bit of business that we do on there. I would say that we want to expand that a little and more products and different sizing. And I think in the future for the wholesale side of the company, definitely expanding into other regions. We're in most of the major broadliner distributors in Colorado. Broadliner? Broadline distributor, like, um, you're, you're big. Oh, like a US Foods or whatever. Shamrock. Yep. You just named two of them. Yeah. Two of our bigger ones. Um, going into multiple states with them is our, would be the next big step. Getting them to carry you farther is the goal, which, how do you do that? Yeah. Money. You know, you pay into the marketing. So each, each state kind of has a little different marketing program that it's called like a local marketing program, essentially. And you basically. Uh, pay your dues into that and, and make it available and figure out the logistics of supplying the area. But then that's all you got to do at the distributor, but then you got to build a marketing plan. Yeah. Then you got to go still find customers. Right. So if you like, you're trying to get into Arizona. Yeah. And he would say that. You got to go, you got to go spend your own marketing dollars kind of doing some Arizona geographic targeted marketing or, or just even cold calling on restaurants, seeing if they'll give you a chance, that kind of thing. Well, that and the big part about it will be, Talking with, uh, reps from those companies. Oh, the sales reps from those. They have the relationships. Just, just making them aware that you're going to be available in the area. So much more leverage. Yeah, winning them over, so to speak. Yeah. If the reps like you and your product, then it's going to help. Well, and making them confident that you can actually deliver the goods, right? Right. Like, you have to be able to deliver the new volume if you break open to a new market kind of thing. Yep. Yeah. You were asking earlier why people should buy from us. So, 10 years, and we have never missed a delivery. And we've never had a customer that had to order. We just take care of them. We just know what they need. We go in, they tell us what they need, how much they need to have every week. Like for instance, Kurt, you might say, you know what, every week I want to make sure I have ten full bibs of oil. We go in, if you have four left, we leave you six. If you're out, we'll say, Hey, Kurt, you're out and he'll say, I know we had a busy week and it's going to be huge this week and we make it 12 this week. We do it. We bill, do a on site electronic invoice right there on the spot. Wow. And you're just, your, your delivery truck basically is already equipped with fulfilling whatever amount needs to be done. Yep. We carry extra. The only issue we've had with that, is we're very dedicated to our distributors, and, um, when they switch to them, it takes them a while to remember to order oil. Oh, right. Yeah, so that's for our direct customer. Gotcha, gotcha. Which we probably only have 25 or so, maybe. You self distribute to some of the local places. Within like a 50 mile radius. Did you have to get that to a certain size before the distributors would talk to you kind of thing? Or was it a dual prong approach? Basically, how we got our very first distributor was, A local sort of chain that was a higher end chain basically called one of our distribution companies and said, I want this product. Either you deliver it or I'm going direct. And that's, that's how we got in. That's how we got in every single one. You basically got to make the distributor mad enough that they want to take your stuff. Right. Well, they have to, the alternative has to be worse. Yeah, the customer can request a product he's got so much more power than us. Right. Unless you really know the right people, which we didn't. So, that was our only approach. So that's part of your potential approach in say Arizona is trying to find some customers, especially if there's like maybe chains or things that have people up here in Colorado that you already like and they can use some influence down there kind of thing. Once you get in a distributor and start building a relationship with them, they're good people, you know. Yeah. And they want to work with you. And so once you get in there and establish your reputation and a little bit of rapport. Yeah. Then you can go to a new area and you're not out, you know, walking the streets. You're actually communicating with the, with the reps and, and so it's, it's a whole different atmosphere. Right, right. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Hard to have it. You could never afford the kind of sales force that you'd have to send out to get to all the places you'd like to be delivering to. Right. Right. Right. Um, did you, um. Or do you plan to sell to like, I was thinking about like bottled olive or these kind of olive oil stores or boutique food stores and stuff like that. Do you want to deliver to that kind of a marketplace too? We have already before, there's just not a lot of them. Right. There's only a few of them around, um. And a lot of them are kind of distributing their own products. Product like they've built a franchise or something around a product source. Now it would still be what they do. We, we would sell them our own oil, but they would probably brand it. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Um, but that isn't part of the core strategy. Um, it would be if there was about a hundred times more of them. Yeah, we're, we're totally open to it. We just never have had the opportunity. Like all of the store down here is wonderful. We have, um, One olive brand and they got, you know, 50 or whatever it is. I don't know. They got all kinds of different kinds of olive oil. So we don't really have much to offer them. Yeah, you might have 1 or 2 percent of their shelf space or something like that. Yeah, so we, it's like, you know, our motto is, how do we help these people? I don't know how we're going to help them, those people. Right, that makes sense. Yeah. Where do they grow sunflowers these days? Well, um, a lot of sunflowers are grown in Southeast Colorado, which is where all our oil comes from. Oh, is that right? Okay. Down in the Arkansas Valley or even in the plains more probably. North of there, Burlington and stuff. Yep, and south. South of there still. Yeah, but that whole area, the whole eastern border of Colorado has sunflowers, the further south you go, the more there is. Okay. Alright. We used to grow sunflowers on my dad's farm up in North Dakota. I was just going to say, Dakotas have a lot of sunflowers and Canada is starting to grow a lot of sunflowers. Yeah. Yeah. We, around home, and I think the reason is because corn and, and soybeans, uh, GMO soybeans and corn have, uh, pushed sunflowers out of the marketplace. for better, better potential yield, uh, gross revenue wise farming economics coming and you know, I, I used to raise a lot of edible beans. Okay. And when we first started raising them, um, California was the big producer of edible beans, kidneys, especially. And yeah. And, um, our land cost was cheaper, and everything was cheaper, so we could actually raise them much more. I'll compete then. So, yeah, so pretty soon they dried up, and then you rascals from the Dakotas started growing up. Right, I remember when the Pintos and the Dry Edibles started being really popular up there. Yep. Because they had even cheaper land still, and more rain. And now Canada's stealing them from you. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Plus, they have a lot of the same economics, but the, you know, of course, the exchange on a dollar helps. Yeah, yeah. Well, and, um, Um, I went to a guy talking about onions, you know, there's still a lot of onions raised like in Weld County and stuff, but you know, the markets are flooded with Mexican onions because they can be subsidized by smuggling drugs in the onions. So they don't really care what they sell the, yeah, they don't really care what they sell the avocados and the onions for as long as they're a good place to hide your drugs. I've never heard an avocado, that was awesome. I've heard it before, I mean, rumors, but. Yeah. Well, hard to, hard to smuggle drugs in, in olive oil or sunflower oil, probably. True. Yeah. You'd think somebody would notice when they dumped it out, but yeah. If you had cocaine in your olive oil, oh, you'd probably have a hell of a market. I don't know. Yeah. Very addictive. Well, you could maybe do the, uh, if it was not, if it was not legal, the, like the hemp oil stuff, the THC, right? 35 pound jug of that would last you a long time. Yeah. We, we actually looked at all that when it first came in and I don't know what's wrong with me, but when everybody's flooding somewhere, I kind of go the other way. Yeah. Well, and interestingly enough, We don't know very many hemp producers, but all the ones that we know are now not yeah No, that market didn't really come together for anybody around here. It's a really difficult crop to grow well And the processing of it is really challenging and the markets are still developing for the fibers and from the following crop Yeah, because from the farmers perspective like the roots of that is like tree roots, right? It's extremely difficult the next year. Oh interesting to like rip it up and try and plant a new crop. It probably taps way down and steals all the nutrients too, based on how it grows. And they're big around, and they actually, if you didn't know what it was, you would think it was a branch. Oh, yeah. No, they're so hard. I might have grown some, some homegrown in my backyard a couple times. And so I know that you whack somebody with that main stem and they'll know it. Yeah. For sure. Well, and the hemp, the industrial hemp ones too, they're much more, Durable plant they use them for fibers and right making all sorts of different textiles out of and those roots are Insane, it's just like a tree. Well, and you know For what it's worth, sunflowers are, like, they were kind of the OG in that department. You know, that's one of the reasons they grow them southeast and stuff there, because they can get to that moisture that's deeper than what a wheat farm can get to or a potato. A sunflower plant does have an amazing root system. You're right. I agree. They don't require too much water. We would try to plant sunflowers regularly to try to break up some of the clay soils and stuff, because the sunflower root would go down through some of those clay pans and stuff. Hmm. Yep. So. So, what do you guys do there? Like, give me a, give me an overview of the. the team and, and the kind of delineation of duties with this family business. Chad, you want to give me an overview? So there's three of us that mainly work in like the warehouse operation. Okay. Uh, Conrad is operations manager or vice president of operations. Excuse me. Oh, he just recently had a time with you now. That's right. And, um, he handles most of all the production, um, ordering, inventory, stuff that is. Honestly, not that easy. He does a lot of that. Um, he also does a lot of deliveries and scheduling deliveries. Um, then Amanda is my sister. She also works in the bottling warehouse and she also is the office manager. She does a lot of our. Um, technical paperwork. AP and different things. Yeah, everything that all of us ADHD idiots shouldn't be doing. Fair. Yeah. Yeah. And it's same here. And she also handles a lot of our social media, which is a really good job there. Yeah. Um, I work some in the warehouse when I'm needed. Kind of, you know, overflow or whatever. But mostly I'm working with distributor accounts. We do all of like our EDI and data on the. Setting up accounts with our distributors. Doing sales. the main relationships guy in business development as well. Yep. And developing new products and working with designers and marketing team whenever they need something. Right. Yeah. Fair enough. Yep. And what's, what's your dad do? Sales. He's the main salesman. Straight salesman. Main salesman. Yep. Okay. Sourcing. Yep. We do some sourcing. Yep. Don't forget. What do you do, I mean? Don't forget the most important one. Yep. What's that? Oh, I thought you were talking about yourself. Your most important job. Well, that's also your most important job. It is. It absolutely is. And my mom does the general accounting. Okay. She keeps the books. Yep. Yep. She's, she's done it for a long time, so it's part time for her, what would probably be full time for most people. Right. She's been running the same type of system for decades. She's good at it. Nice to have clean books and something that doesn't have to, Struggle too hard to make them that way. Yeah, she does an awesome job. So in your role in, in sales, Dwayne, what, what's that look like now? Are you mostly trying to build relationships with the reps from the distributors in some respects? Actually, Chad does a lot of the, the, he's one of the kind of inside sales and stuff. Yeah, I do. I do a lot with them too, but he does more than I, I, uh, I also do a lot of the sourcing, watching the commodities markets and stuff like that. Oh, because you can probably hedge and stuff like that. Yes, sir. Pre, pre buy and whatever option. Yes, sir. Contract, yeah. And then, um, as a matter of fact, just as of today, I am full time sales, marketing and those kinds of things, no more deliveries, no more, I mean, that kind of stuff just, just happened today. Oh, you got new change in duties as well? Yep. Just put that on Conrad too? Yep. Or me. Either one. Gotcha. Whoever's available the day that's Because sometimes you'll get an emergency order and people need a delivery. Right, right. And that gives Dwayne a Freedom to kind of not have to be around the gravity of the operation necessarily. Oh, I got kicked out of there a long time ago. I like to deliver a lot. So anytime they even hint around that they need somebody to deliver, I'm over there. I got the truck around him before they can tell me I can't go. Um, what would be the next, uh, space for, like, if say you added two or three more hands, would it all be, Are there other skills on the team that you'd like to add to the team? You know, it's interesting you would say that because of where we came from. We, we were 27 miles from the closest town when we were in Agon. And so we had to overbuild everything. It just became a habit with us. And so we're in a position to, uh, expand quite significantly without having to add anybody. Oh. Yeah, I would say for me on my side of the business, if I could find a technical expert who's really good at, at the EDI stuff, or I might, they, they wouldn't be a full time person. When you say EDI, what do you mean by that? It's like your interface between how you upload your product data to a major distributor. Okay. Or, or a company buying your product. Um, the data side of that of, of inputting everything. Mm. I do most of that. Um, and I've learned the hard way enough times that if someone knew how to do it, I'd be happy to pay them and get it done. They probably wouldn't be a full time, they're probably someone I'd just, they'd be contract laborers. Yeah, yeah. So it seems like some kind of, probably repetitionist and there's easy, you can gather the data and you can input it. Yeah, you're probably right. Well, a lot of it's very little things like, Took me several months to figure out why like my photos weren't uploading it was because I didn't save them correctly and like the right wording Format and I was like, you know, that was a thing. Thank you. Yeah title of the photo learn as you go, right? Yeah, the hard way so what you're saying Dwayne is as far as your infrastructure with just the storage space for oils and you just have fuller trucks on your deliveries instead of having more trucks going out, that kind of thing. Oh yeah, absolutely. We, in fact, we can expand like 250 percent but we're where we do need, probably need to have help coming in the future is more marketing and sales. We just recently, for the first time ever started working with a marketing company where we never had any marketing really. So that's exciting. And then one of the big reasons we can expand is because most of our big distributors, they come to our door with their truck. And they just pick up right there. Yeah, so that marginal revenue just takes a pallet jack, wheel it over there by the door where they're going to park. And our delivery fee to them is quite a bit better than them picking up a backhaul. Yeah. So they just pick it up themselves mostly. And the freight business, the backhaul is all profit, so you can do it for less. You already paid the bills on the front haul. I don't know. Tell me, tell me about that. What's a backhaul mean? Say you're, um, say you're, you, someone buys your product, shipping it there. Okay. Well, if you don't have a backhaul, you drive all the way back empty. Yep. So most freight haulers, on the way back, they're finding something to haul back. Oh, right. Even if it's not even for them, they'll, one of their neighbors or somebody around Somebody else's stuff, yeah. Cause the load there pays for the trip, anything back is profit. Gotcha. But distributors have all, hundreds of trucks. They're going, taking stuff both ways all the time. A truck uses almost the same amount of fuel, tire wear, and everything, whether it's empty or loaded. Right, right. So, very expensive to be empty. Thank you. You're welcome. Makes sense. Okay. Um, I guess, uh, what's the secret sauce for your business? Is it all about relationships? Sourcing? Margin? A lot of, all those things are kind of important. Yeah, I would say relationships is the biggest one. Yeah. By far. That's probably the biggest difference from at least the straight agriculture. Not that it isn't important in farming and cattle raising and stuff, but there's not as many. Right, you got the elevator man, you got the banker, a couple more people, fertilizer, seed. But then everybody else can go pack sand, kind of. But here you got 80 or 200 customers, plus a couple distributors, whatever. Yeah, most of our customers are through distribution, right? Um, I think, honestly, I think if you ask us in a year that we're going to say, probably the most important thing is marketing. We're learning so much about that now. We didn't even realize what we didn't know. Yeah. We're still not even sure what all we don't know. Yeah, that's so true. You just signed on with a, like a professional marketing agency in the last few months here. And we've been working hard educating ourselves and stuff too. Yeah, that's great, yeah. Um, do you care to give any kudos or, or uh, how do you choose a marketing agency? Only chosen one so far. So I'm not sure it's a, we chose one based on a relationship. Um, I do have a product designer who designs the labels and packaging. Okay. Um, he's, he makes things very pretty and does a great job. Chess arms. Yep. Yep. And he created a company with, he's sort of the designing half, the aesthetics half, and another professional that he's done a lot of work on the marketing side. So they've created a design marketing company. Oh, okay. Oh, and. He's done fantastic work for me over the years. And I really liked him. Right. You're assuming he chose a good partner? Yeah. And so when he started his company and we went to their, you know, celebrative opening night or whatever. And I was like, Jess, I, I need a marketing company. I'll be your first customer. Just let me know how we do it. Yeah. Yeah. And so things have been going well. Yeah. And Matthew's awesome too. We really like him so far. Yep. What's Matthew's last name? I forgot. Bye bye. I don't know. He's got one. I just call him Matt. So, I met uh Dwayne at a firestorm event and uh Just shortly thereafter, he was like, Yeah, I want to learn more about this loco think tank thing. And Chad, you probably just had your second meeting. Yeah, I think it was, uh, Well, if you include my first one, That was, uh, practice run. The intro. Yeah. Okay. So your second official one. Yeah. And, uh, any, uh, Any surprises? Any, uh, I didn't expect that kind of things? Um, Um, I just have been super pleased with the the group in general. I didn't expect to do it. Uh, when I first went in, I was very skeptical of just being like, I don't know if I really need this. I'm busy, even though it's four hours a month. It's not a lot of time. Uh, I'm always skeptical about people, groups and whatever. Yeah. You're not a joiner. Yeah. That's one of the things that most of our members have in common, actually, is they don't normally join things. Really? Agreed. Yeah. Yeah. Most of them aren't in the chamber. They're not in other things and stuff. And I don't know if this is just sounded more personal. prudent for them than other things. Um, but I've been very pleased with how, not only the dynamic of the group, um, but the focus of the things we discuss. Um, it's, uh, we talk about a lot of issues in business and as a business owner or an employer or whatever, but in a very positive way of no one's just sitting around complaining and being a whiner. Right. Everyone's more of like, these are the issues, but. This is why those are great issues to have and this is how we can tackle them. It's like everyone has issues or problems, but a very positive mentality towards it, which I really like. I don't deal well with people who just complain, but I don't think business owners are really those types of people usually, because if they are, they're not going to be around very long. Usually not. Because most business owners are just, you know, professional firefighters putting out fires all day. Yeah. And, um, I really like the, the The structure of the group and how we Tackle issues. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Well, I know they're glad to have you in there. So we'll check in Another time on that conversation Dwayne you're looking to potentially join a chapter as well. So you don't know What Chad's been receiving yet too much, but you just come through a free think so Yeah, um, well I am looking forward to, I'm not going to make this one, but maybe next month. Yeah. But, uh, I've really dedicated myself hard to sales and I've been putting in a massive amount of hours. And when you do that, you make a massive amount of more work. Right, yeah. And that's been going well, but I definitely do do think it'll happen down the road. I like to say the harder I work, the luckier I get. I love that saying. Pretty sure we have a poster that says that somewhere. The one I hate is. work smarter, not harder. I think too many people decide that. If I just work a little, a lot smarter, I don't have to work much at all. I think the same should be worked harder and smarter. We use the phrase, uh, perseverance here at Loco. I love that. That's the combination between perspiration and perseverance. Work hard and smart. For a long time, and maybe you'll get somewhere. Not very many shortcuts in this world. Nope. Um, what would you say are the, what would you say your team would say? Like, let's talk about Conrad here. Like, why is, why is your redheaded stepchild, uh, proud to be a member of this team? Why has he advanced in his responsibilities? What would he say that Healthy Harvest, uh, feels like to work for. Well, the reason that he's advanced in his position is, is easy. He's the kind of guy who, if he's supposed to be there at 6 30, he's there at six. If he needs to stay late until we're done, he's no complaints and he has a great attitude and he always comes guns blazing every day. So that's a big part of it. We're big culture type of people. Um, and he's always, always there with his sleeves rolled up and ready to go no matter what the issue is. That's a big part of it. Um, I think the reason that he enjoys being there is because he has a lot of leeway. Um, we've given him a lot of the freedoms to make decisions. He gets to do things his way in a lot of aspects. and continually take on more responsibility. And I, you know, it's not like micromanaged in a way of, uh, I think that a lot of people kind of hate that when they're just like, you have to do everything this way. Right. Right. And it's like, well, they have a brain. He's pretty smart. He does a good job. Right. He's there every day, doing, let him do his thing. Maybe show him how to do it the first time once and be like, yeah, you want to change it. You do what you do. Yeah. So he's, he's taken over a lot of big roles in the, how long has he been on the team? Five years now. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. And did your sister join later or as, as a Melissa and I'm sorry, your sister's name is Amanda. Amanda. Have they been on in the business since the beginning? Like both of you? Amanda has been, I think, four years. Okay. Yep. I think, uh, oh, that's what she actually came on during COVID. Oh, because, um, where she was working, you know, Was no longer a place to be able to work during COVID. Right. And we were the opposite of our restaurant business went to zero, which was very scary for a few weeks. But then our online business went up like. because no one would go to a grocery store, and everyone was buying it on Amazon, and we were like, we need more people. Interesting. So, she's been on ever since then. Okay. She actually came on part time, and then Chad came in the office one day and said, you know what, she's, she's awesome, we should see if she's interested in staying. That's cool. Not every brother thinks of his sister that way. Another one, definitely not. I can't wait to send her this podcast. So, um, I feel like it's a good time to, and some of this will kind of predate you, Chad, but we'll do the best we can with it, but we like to jump in the time machine all the way back into the way back and hear where, where, where this family came from of entrepreneurial spirit creators. Uh, Dwayne, where were you in third grade? Third grade. Wiggins, Colorado. Wiggins. Yeah, Wiggins home. I financed a home in Wiggins one time, a modular home that was being moved out there. It's actually kind of a nice town, like in the, in the expanse of eastern Colorado, Wiggins has got some cool geography around there, there's some water even not too far away. Well, in 1960, what would that be, seven or so, that was, Wiggins was very, very tiny. Very, very tiny. I think there was like maybe 15 kids in my class. Okay. So, yeah, it was a great place, I think. I'm sure. Yeah. Was, were you on a farm setting? Yes, sir. Mm hmm. My dad farmed north of Wiggins, about a mile. Okay. Family, uh, siblings, uh Yeah, I had, uh, three brothers. I'm down to one now, and a sister. Okay. Yeah. And, uh Two of the brothers farmed with us. And you said you lost two, two brothers? Yeah. Was that in farm accidents or something? So yeah, one of the reasons we weren't having fun anymore on the farm is my one brother Larry, he was, uh, he was bigger than life kind of guy. Just everybody loved him and he did a lot in the community and he was an actor, he supported the acting. And, and, uh, yeah, he spent half his time in New York acting and he was a wrestler and so he coached wrestling, real personality, Chad and him were extremely close when he had his, when he had his accident out there. And so the, uh, that was a major, major blow. And, and then ironically, uh, my brother, Tim died from non Hoskins disease and about three or four years after we're in this business. Uh, we got a, uh, call from a lawyer and, um, They said, well, you know, your, your brother probably could sue Monsanto because That's what I was going to say. Yeah, yeah. That's been identified with Roundup, right? Yeah, that's exactly right. He sprayed all the Roundup around our bins and stuff and, and so, uh, Yeah, that's, we're pretty hardcore non GMO now. Right, right. Well, and my, my first real job was, uh, a flagger for a spray coop. You know what that is? I do. Um, so my brother and I, so they didn't have any markers or GPS or anything like in those days, Chad. So we would walk the width of the spray coop and then dad would head straight for us and douse us in the, uh, You know, after glow of the, whatever he was spraying. And then we'd walk across the field and do that all, you know, basically 4 30 AM until 7 AM was when the wind didn't blow in North Dakota. So that's when we did that every day in the summertime. Um, but yeah, so I admit, you know, so that had to have been reinforcing into your whole transition and journey, right? Like, yeah, it definitely was, but it was also, you know, tragic. I'm the jerk that sent him out there to spray it too, you know? It was a little humbling and kind of hardcore, you know. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. They also used to use a lot of those guys for airplanes. What do you mean? Aerial applicators use flags. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, so that was my first job. So, tell me about the, the scene. So, you had the, uh, three brothers, one sister, um, was it a successful farm? Was it, um, small, large? Did you have animals? Um, it's, I think in our biggest we were at 4, 000 acres. Okay. So that's pretty sizable back then especially. Yeah. And, um, we, we were successful, yeah. We, we sold out because, uh, like I said, we just I remember the last year we were there. Ironically, one of the most profitable years we ever had, but just because we got, we, John Deere came out with, uh, crop insurance. Okay. John Deere did? Uh huh. Okay. And they were offering a deal, and so we insured the crap out of it, and we got the crap hailed out of us, and, and it paid off very well, but it broke all the windows out of my parents new house and all that, and everybody, and my brother's, uh, It was just within a year after my last brother Larry passed away and, and, um, It was just kind of reinforcing of that fresh start. We were just ready, yeah, we were ready to be done. Yeah. Um, tell me about little Dwayne, uh, in first grade, third grade, that kind of thing. Were you a good student? Were you, uh, you seem kind of, uh, Hard to discipline, potentially. I was probably the naughtiest kid in the class. I was not a good student. I was not a good kid. Not, uh, not at all. We still love you. Neither one of us do very well with rules. Yeah. Authority is, uh, I like to say, uh, I'm a pretty amenable guy, like, ask me to do something, and I'm probably your guy. Tell me to do something, and I'll probably tell you where to stick it. You know, it's just all about tone. Well said, yeah. So you kind of did the traditional Wiggins existence, I imagine. Started working on the farm right out of high school, or did you do other things? Out of high school? Out of grade school? I mean, yeah, exactly, yeah, no, I had, I had logged about 10, 000 driving miles before I got my driver's license at 14. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, exactly, yeah. Um, every day after school, I would run in and get a snack and then run down the road to play. Half mile or whatever it was and ride the tractor with my dad. And then every day, well, it was sixth grade or something that they moved the farm to Holyoke out in further Eastern Colorado. That's where I grew up. Move the whole operation or sold what you had in near Wiggins and moved over there. Yep. I was, he's right. It was between sixth and seventh grade. And my dad got me over that desire to drive a tractor. I was. in that tractor. All the time. All the time. They were mostly cabless back then. Right. Yeah, I was lucky, uh, when I started farming. We, the air conditioning was kind of weak, but at least we had sound guard cabs in the 4630 and, uh, you know, so I know all the greatest hits of the eighties and early nineties and country on top 40. 4630s and 4440s and that stuff was the envy of us. We didn't have nothing, nothing that nice. We got our first 4440 and I'm telling you what we were in heaven. Yeah. Same here. Yeah, no, we, we spent a long time with the 4620 and uh, the 4020 before that. But yeah, I got spoiled with nice retractors when I was growing up. Yeah.'cause you were, you came along. Well, I guess let's jump back to you, Dwayne. Uh, did you fall in love right away and find Melissa somewhere out there in eastern Colorado too? Yeah. You know, um, I met Melissa actually skiing. I was a ski bum one winter Okay. Up in, uh, Georgetown and worked as a bartender. And for an hour and a half every day for a lift ticket and a meal, I met her up there. Okay. And, um, I don't know why she hung around. I was wilder than hills and she, uh, she saw something, I guess, where was she from? Bertha, actually. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Okay. Mm-Hmm. And was it just like, boom, it was a romance right from the start, almost, you know, uh, it certainly was for me. I, and I guess it was her, she kept coming back every weekend. Right. But, uh. She made you work for it a little bit though, ultimately. Well, the wild things that were going on at that time. And when is this? 1983. Okay. And one of the things that, uh, She could outsmart me right away when I met her. I said, you are 18. She goes, well, I will be in two weeks. So we're trying to figure out what two weeks it was in that next three months. I was like, when is your birthday again? I was almost here and went, okay. So yeah. She's like, tell me more. Not. Oh, I've heard all of it. Oh, sure. Yeah. There's no secrets. I was waiting for him to get a date wrong so I could correct him. Yeah. So, uh, did you like. Bring her back out to Holyoke then soon after or how's that go? Well, yeah, she came out to Holyoke right after she got out of out of high school when she graduated. Okay out there and Her first thing was She had some experience of a little bit of accounting because she worked for a school district okay, and so one of her first jobs was I You know paying bills and stuff and I will forget one time She's gonna be mad when she hears this, but Here she come out in the field and she had a purple Camaro and it was Big dust cloud she was hauling back You need to come in and call the electric company. There's been a horrible mistake. I go. What's up? She goes the electric bill is 15, 000. I said no, that's probably right Then and the lights were off the air conditioner was off Like she I was like, well, no that's you know to run the wells It's not the house electricity. Oh gosh. And so did she not pay the bill? Why was all the lights off? Oh, she was trying to save the money. She just couldn't believe it was that high. Now I get it. So right away, you know, that was super impressive to me because she was obviously not a lady. It was going to go out and just They just spend money unnecessarily kind of thing. Yeah, she was, she's always been better at it than me from day one. You seem like you potentially get a, get a, get a whim and execute on it if there's enough money in the checking account. Yeah, well there's a saying in our place, it takes Everybody there to keep me from doing stupid stuff, and they don't always succeed. So, you mentioned you had, uh, like 12 different rodeos before this Healthy Harvest business. Can you, uh, send me through a bit of a cliff notes on some of that? Aside from The farm and did you have feeder, feedlots too? Well, yeah, we, we had a feedlot. We had a grain company, Stro Grain. We had Stro's Feedlot. We had a farm business, TLT Brothers. And then in our grain business, we had, uh, three more LLCs that we partnered up with truck drivers. Um. Okay. We had a real estate business. We'd say green business. You're like buying from some elevators and selling them other places or just arbitraging almost where you secured in one local market and you can truck it to someplace else and make a little margin. Or, you know, it's funny how things happen, but we had, we had these, we had boughten, um, trucks and, uh, so we would try to, you know, we would sell X amount of bushels to a large feedlot in the Greeley area or somewhere. And. And they take it when they want. And so we had drivers that were sitting sometimes and they would call up and say, well, yeah, we can't, you know, we have, I remember one year we had a million bushels contract in over three months, January, February, March, and they wouldn't let us take it, wouldn't let us take it, wouldn't let us take it. And then March they wanted it all. And so, and so it was a very difficult thing. Right. So you have enough capacity to deliver a million bushels in March. But guys that also want work as truck drivers in January, February. Yeah, so what we started doing is, You know, we had the crop that we raised, which we fed a lot of it, and then we started buying a lot of corn. And then, um, we always, that way, we always had enough to keep our own trucks going, and then we built relationship with other, with other green, other green haulers and that's kind of how that all got going. And did you have an elevator outfit or something too, where you could keep track of the bushelage and stuff? I guess you'd just go right on site and just take it out of their bins or whatever. Yeah. So is there a chain of custody? Yeah. And that's stuff that we bought from farmers on, on the farm. It's very common practice. You load the truck and when you get there, you know, you weigh the truck, right? So even when we're, we very seldom bought grain for our own cattle, we used our own grain. Sure. I mean, sometimes a farmer would call up and say, you know, I got, you know, hailed out and, and the corn is never going to make, and you're putting up high moisture corn. Could we sell yet? 10 loads to get rid of this, that kind of thing. Yep, yep. But, uh, very seldom do we buy our, buy for ourselves, but, you know, feedlots and stuff do that all the time, very common practice in the ag world. And were you, did you say you were, you were feeding your own corn as well? Yes, sir. So, maybe for people that don't really know what the, the name of the game is for a feedlot, can you, uh, describe kind of a, I guess the customer journey of a steer? Sure. Customer journey. So, well, we weren't a normal feedlot. Our, our You had the cow calf operation, too? Well, we did, but not near enough to keep the feedlot going. Right. But my dad was extremely, um, He, he didn't see any instance in abusing cattle or hooting and hollering and raising cane and all that. And so we, we worked real hard and we, we actually went to some different schools about, you know, stockmanship with cattle and, and, uh, we took the cattle out of the pen every day. Happy cows grow faster kind of thing. Thank you. Yeah. Regular cowboys thought we were hippies. Right. Well, we actually took the cattle out of the pen and exercised them every day. And every day when you got to the gate, they were standing there, they couldn't wait. They'd get out and run and buck and, and do all those kinds of things. And so we, uh, I don't know if that's a typical. No, I've never heard of that before. Yeah. Plus it costs probably a lot of money, right? Like just labor to get them going. But once you train them, it actually didn't cost that much. I was pretty cheap. Right. The honest to God truth is we spent way less. Last because they didn't have to drug them up in antibiotics as much. And yeah, we didn't have near as many sick ones. Um, and the other thing we did, you know, if we were going to work cattle and say we worked, I don't know, 1500 head or something, we're done at two o'clock. Then George would go put them away and then he'd open the gate to the next pen. Let it open all the way through the shoot and then they go right back to their pen and they'd already been through it Right afraid they'd walk right through it. Oh, wow. Yeah made everything a lot easier We did all kinds of weird things like that that really worked for us. Yeah. Well, let's and cattle are interesting animals were Now that there's a lot more data on it that even a small amount of stress Really impacts the overall production of the animal And getting them used to the shoot and letting them get out and blow off some steam every day. It changed a lot, because I remember we started that when I was probably 13, 14. Okay. And I spent most of my time in the summers at the feedlot. And it was a very big difference, uh, when we started doing that. Like you could tell the way they behaved. Uh, yeah. They were sketchier when they didn't get exercised. And I treated a shitload less. Like, we didn't treat near as many cattle from sickness when, when we started doing that more. They're just healthier and happier. They didn't ding more hooves up or other issues just from that? We'd get cattle in from, like, Montana, that first time they'd seen humans. Right, right. Was, you know, when they got around the truck, they lived in the mountains forever. Yeah. And they would be independent. They'd just be scared to death. Right. And so we would start out outside the pen and we'd walk towards'em until they got nervous and we'd back off and we'd walk towards them. Just keep working our way in there. And usually it took about an hour, but within an hour they usually would come up and walk around us and would calm'em down. If a coyote came in a pen, they wouldn't get freaked out and bust the gates open. Yeah, interesting. So, yeah, we, we did a lot, and that was huge. That was huge. Yeah. Well, I think probably, you know, what would resonate, resonate more with listeners here is their dog. Like, you know how much better behaved your dog is when you walk him every day, or three times a week, or five times a week, or something, than if you just leave him cooped up. They, They get nutty. Yeah. Cause a lot of treat them more like dogs. We did. Yeah. They would come up by the time when we started doing this, they would, I'd walk through the pen and several of them would come lick on me, literally. Yeah. Which that never happened at any other feedlots I saw. Well, the name of the game for the feedlot, uh, then it'd be what, buy them at like five or 700 pounds or something like that and make them how big or? Well, we, we. Yeah. It was all math. I mean, you know, sometimes we have analysis of the market. Yeah. So we might have three 50 weights in there and something happens or it gets late in the year or it gets dry or it gets wet and all of a sudden they're a premium and you just simply do the math. Hey, guess what? I can sell this calf for X amount and I can buy a 750 pound for X amount and I can't put the gain on for that. So we'd sell the three fifties and buy the seven fifties or whatever. But in general, In general, you're right, we bought a lot of four weight calves, especially in the winter, and um, fed them out. Okay. All the way through. That's a 400 pound calf, which is how, how old is that? Um, nine months. Okay. Maybe they're nine months old. And then you bring them up to 800, 900 pounds, or 750 pounds? For twelve, twelve to fourteen hundred. Oh, wow. Okay, so they get pretty, pretty big. Yeah. And so then we're up, maybe they're 18 months old at that time or something? Yeah. Okay. Pretty good assessment. Yeah. Depends on what you grow them on and stuff. Right. We, uh, You know, we, we used to run them out on rye a lot cause we followed edible beans with rye and, and so rye is just loaded with protein. So we'd give them a half pound of roughage or so with them. Okay. And they'd maybe do three quarters to a pound and a half a day out there. Yeah. But when they came in the lot and started getting all that roughage, we, we called it compensatory gain. They would just explode to get five pounds a day. Wow! So yeah, that really worked well for us. Huh, interesting. Do different cows, like I'm thinking about that stress thing that you're talking about, but probably some cows get more stressed out than other ones, right? Like, do you notice that in their individual gains and stuff? You mean like breeds? Yeah, or even just from a personality standpoint is what I'm thinking, like It's mostly how you treat them. Where they come from, where they come from is huge. Like we had this one guy that had us, um, warming up cattle for him, which is an expression of means. Bringing in lightweight calves, getting them up to that 750 pound, 800 pound. And he would take them on from there and finish them out. Exactly right. But he brought them all in from Florida. And so, the reason they wanted us to do it is because of the techniques we used. We had way less death loss and stuff like that than normal. Well, they got all these stressed out cows that have been, calves that have been traveling all the way from Florida. Well, and you, you know, It's funny. You can go to Wyoming and think, wow, what could live out here? And you drive by in a cattle or fat, right? But you can go to, uh, You know, Tennessee, in the rainy season, and they're standing in grass, it's up past their, you can't hardly see them, and they're starving to death, because the grass is so washy and wet, it just goes right through them, they don't get any nutrients. Oh, is that right? And so, you get those cattle that come up, Oh, and their stomachs have to work extra hard to take all that water through, I imagine, whereas it's pre pre season. pre densified nutrition in the Wyoming cow, as long as they get some water. And if you bring in Florida cattle or Kentucky cattle and, and you bring them in before, I like, I don't like to bring them in any later than late August. Okay. You get along pretty good because they get acclimated to the weather as a fault. But if you bring in cattle in October and stuff, one of a lot of people like to, because that's when the corn's harvested now. Right. Cheap food coming in. Thank you. And, um, then, then, uh, yeah, the Florida cows don't like the Colorado November rough winter, especially if they come out of 90 degree and they get off the truck and it's zero. That's what my buddy always talks about, uh, recruiting for the football team at university of Wyoming. They get all these fresh college graduates to come visit in June and July. It's pretty nice. And Laramie in June and July, and then they get there in late August and it's kind of Pretty okay for a few weeks and then come November all these large black men from Florida that they bust up are like, what the hell did I sign up for? I still have nightmares about a bunch of Florida cattle that we brought in that it was late in the in the fall season and They went through a snowstorm on the way up, and literally half of them off the truck were sick. And there's, there's like a hundred, a hundred calves on a truck when they were small. We think we brought in three or four loads. Shit, we started. So you got two hundred sick cows. It's more like five hundred. Wow. With three loads. Well, I don't know if it was that quite that many. It seemed like that many. Because when you have to run each one through the chute and check and temp and treat each one as they're walking in, because they're all sick, it makes for a really long three or four days. Four in the morning and ten But anyway, before you go, I gotta say Larimer, Wyoming. Don't you come from South Dakota? I'm from North Dakota. North Dakota? Oh, it's even colder up there. That's a vacation in Larimer. Yeah, but nobody's fooling anybody that North Dakota isn't going to be cold when you get up there for football season. Plus they got the Fargo Dome up there. Yeah. It's tropical here compared to North Dakota. It's the truth. Um, by the way, when you're treating cows, like you're, Are you just, like, giving them a, an antibiotic or something, potentially? It depends on what's wrong with them. Yeah. Um, it's symptoms based, and you check their temperature. It's basically the same as treating a human being. Right. Um, it depends on what's, what's the issue. Yeah. Um, with that particular scenario was, they came from the south. They went through a major snowstorm on the drive up, late in the fall, and they all came off had a bug and then everybody got a bug. Yep, they all came off with a temperature. And they got a similar treatment of with, you had the flu with the temperature if you went to the doctor. Same type of medicine. Okay. Yeah, I don't think it was actually an antibiotic. So it was more of a getting rid of congestion kind of thing. Lowering a temperature and fever. Right. Yep. Just like cattle are very similar to humans, that if they don't find a way to break the fever, a fever can kill them. Yep. Right. And they're still outside in the elements too. Right. Do cows sweat? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Way more than humans do. I know dogs don't really sweat. So I thought. Ever heard the expression sweating like a pig? Sure. Pigs don't sweat. That's weird. That's what I thought. Yeah. That's why they make mud holes. But cattle sweat a lot. And in the winter if they're sweating. Right. It's cold and they have a fever. Yeah, it's way below. The sweat freezes and then they die. Yeah, that's rough. So you'd have gone on to vet school instead if you guys wouldn't have changed track there. I wouldn't say that. I could, I could check somebody's cattle for them. I wouldn't be a vet. I'm not a vet. It's easier to see a sick animal than it is to know what to do for it. Fair enough. All right. And when we knew the basic stuff, you know, fevers, cold, snotty nose, hanging head, ear drooping, those kind of things. But there's stuff vets do that we don't know. Oh yeah, sure. Come out. Yeah, yeah. Well, and how, how big it was your feedlot then, like at full capacity? About 4, 000? Well, that was in the winter, but we, we could feed about 2, 500 and we had 1, 500 or 2, 000 out in stock. So, yeah. Okay. Usually. So that's pretty, pretty sizable, right? But it takes a couple hundred acres to have all that, especially if you've got a place to walk in them? Um, no, not that many acres. No? No. Yeah. Okay. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. Nobody feeds cattle in North Dakota because it's just too cold. They spend all their calories shivering. Yep. They, uh, when they do, it's, they're fed indoors. Right, yeah, exactly. So, um, what would you have folks know about, uh, Like cattle now, do you guys still eat GMO beef or do you only eat like organic fed cattle, grass fed and stuff? We, we try really hard to, but you know, sometimes it's just not available. And so I'd be lying if I said we were 100%, but I would say this, um, have you ever known anybody that drinks one beer a week? Well, I have, and if somebody drinks one beer a week, he'd probably be fine forever. Fine forever. Yeah. But if you, if his neighbor is drinking 30 beers a day, he's not doing so well, right? True. And so my point is, You know if if you're not flooding minimize your input with that. Thank you Yeah, try to try to cut it back as much as you can and we talked about the antibiotics in that Illness or that infection that wouldn't heal do you or is there evidence that supports like? Antibiotic carryover from beef and pork into humans. Like are we building up? Yeah, absolutely our own resistance to That's why antibiotic resistant infections exist. That's where MRSA came from. Right. Mm hmm. And so, the reason cattle is less is because most, um, livestock operators that have cattle do what we did, and I'm not saying it was right, but they, they see a sick one and they go treat it. Um, whereas pigs and chickens and stuff, turkeys, they, they actually perform better because they're always, you know, domesticated turkeys can, and pigs couldn't even live out on their own anymore. They've been so, so, you know, well, I don't know. Changed by science. Breeding and yeah. Right. And so, uh, I'm not trying to throw these guys under the bus, but those. Those animals, um, you know, if you're a conventional feeder, you either change your program completely or you got to do it to compete because the cost of gain is, is, you know, you're, you're in the banking business. Well, like I know, uh, chickens like meat bird chickens, they grow so fast and would get so big if not harvested that they're like leg bones would break. Yeah, because they're just, their bones haven't caught up with the rest of their physiology. They can't physically, like, strap that much weight on and live for a long time. And I know there's that mass, um, vaccination and antibiotic use. Antibiotic use is the big one. It used to be very common practice to just mix it in the feet of birds. It still is. They don't let you, they don't, I thought they didn't let you do that anymore. Oh no, they still do it. Yeah, that's interesting, uh, so, If they, if you were to test it, um, for some weird reason with birds particularly, just putting the antibiotics right in the feed, all of those birds gain weight quicker. They stay healthy. Right. Yeah, I don't know if it's, it's something weird of just also they, even the ones that never get sick, they gain weight faster. Huh, that's fascinating. Like you were saying, cost of production, it's just the Like there's some kind of a bacterial load that Oh, I don't know what that is. In a natural situation kind of cuts away at their game probably. That's exactly right. Part of their food stock is going to some kind of a gut bag or whatever. Yeah, because you judge the pin of chickens by the total performance, not just the healthy ones. Right, right. So the sick ones drag down the performance average of the whole pin. So from your perspective, eating, um, conventionally raised beef is probably less. Gross, kind of than birds, turkey, chickens, pork even. It still has hormones and stuff like that. Yeah, I would say that's true. But, you know, it's interesting. Animals are interesting. It takes, it takes like a little over a pound and a half of feed to put on a pound of meat. Of chicken, right? And the hog's like three pounds of feed and the steer's like 5.8 pounds of feed. And so if you ever heifer's probably eight pounds of feed or something, um, or more. Anyway, seven a a heifer is definitely a higher, takes more feed. Yeah. You steer. That's interesting. I'm more stickler about fruits and vegetables than me. I mean, I don't do, I would do personally, I do less antibiotic and, or you do free range chicken. If I eat chicken, more of a beef guy, same, but fruits and vegetables are the ones for me. Um, do you buy organic fruits and vegetables that you're saying? Yeah. That's where I would spend the money. If I'm really going to go hardcore organic personally, just from a logic Uh, fruits and vegetables are, are soft, uh, on the outside, they're soft skinned, so they're very highly absorbative. Right. And, and your traditional ones are sprayed a lot. And anything they're sprayed with when they're that, that type of plant, they, it's going to absorb it and keep it. But there aren't too many that are like the Roundup Ready style yet, right? Like the glyphosate isn't. No, there's only 13 crops that are glyphosate. Yeah. Oh, was there that many? I didn't realize it was so many. Yeah, well. But they're mostly like, corn, soybean. Right. And most fruits and vegetables aren't Roundup Ready. Right. Well, and like, they don't really make Roundup Ready wheat, but it still gets sprayed with a lot of Roundup, because when they're trying to kill it, what do they call that, D something? You mean, uh, did you say wheat? Wheat, yeah. Oh, no, they have Roundup Ready wheat. Do they? Oh, I didn't know that existed yet, but they also just use Roundup straight up to kill the wheat, too. So it all ripens at the same time. Yeah, you guys have raised spring wheat up in Dakotas. Yeah, that's what we do. Sometimes they use Paraquat, but out in our part of the country, the wheat turns in July. Oh, right, so there's no reason to push it hard that way. Got it. Makes sense. Um, Well, I feel like we know quite a bit more about the oil business. We're gonna jump into our Faith Family Politics segment, uh, here after a short break. But, um, I guess one more question for each of you. What is, in speaking strictly from business, uh, what is your, And what is your biggest gap area in the, in the, how, how business works for you as far as, you know, as a team? Is it, I know that Dwayne is an idea generator. Sounds like Chad has lots of them of his own. Uh, what would you say your superpower is, Chad? Mine? Um. Yeah, if you have one. We kind of have similar ones. We're too stupid to give up. That's a big one. Perseverance. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Especially if people tell us we should. Then we're like Fair. Okay. And then, uh, we're also very Open to change. Hmm. Yeah. Strangely, uh, for the type of people that we probably sound like. Yeah. We're very open to change. Um, in fact, sort of welcome it. Yeah. I wasn't always that way. Being when I was younger and hot tempered, but, but we both are like, you know what? Change is good thing. Yeah. You gotta be on top of things. And if you're not changing, you're, you're not on the top of the game and figuring out what's next. Fair enough. Dwayne, how about, how about you? Where would you self evaluate there? Um. I think that we are extremely good, and this is recently, but extremely good at putting together a team. I mean, I am so very proud of our team. I mean, everybody busts butt, we have fun. They understand their jobs, they like working there. And organization, you know, the actual production part, we kill it. Yeah. Our weakness is definitely, um, marketing. And you're working on that. We are. So, cool. Well, let's, uh, let's do a short break, and then we'll come right back and talk more about our other topics. Sounds good. So let's, uh, let's go ahead and come back from the break, uh, faith, family, politics. We always talk about all three of those. And before I get there though, I chat, I, I'm remiss. I, I always offer our guests, uh, joint if they want one. Uh, I don't smoke. It's 420. No. No, it's been like eight weeks now. That joint's been sitting there getting dry for two months. I haven't smoked in a lot of years. Yeah. Yep. I uh. That's awesome. Dwayne's like, I didn't know that. I mean, you didn't offer it to me? Well, I just kind of assumed no offense. You'd know better. But, but I know you're the designated driver too, Dwayne. That's why me and Chad are drinking the bourbon. Yep. It's true. So, uh. Why? Uh, well, I used to smoke in my twenties quite a bit. And long story short, I've always had really bad allergies, especially skin allergies. Um, and for years it never bothered me. And then it started to yeah, and I couldn't figure out what it was and finally went and had an allergy test And they told me I have a minor THC allergy I've said that to so many people in Colorado and they're like you're you're you're a liar Tell the hives on my body after two or three days that I'm a liar whatever Yeah, so if I were I probably could get away with A few puffs here and there, but if I were to smoke like two or three days in a row I'm gonna have hives everywhere. No shit. And it's just, yeah. Yeah, not worth it. And now that I have no tolerance, I've, here and there, maybe like once a year, have some and like, I feel like I took melatonin for three days. Like it just messes with my, I feel groggy. Interesting, your sleep cycles and stuff like that. I think actually I was just reflecting, it might be, Like, October was when Chiba Hut's CEO came on and he's a one hitter quitter, but he did smoke with me a little bit, and uh, so it might, that might be it. That joint might be sitting around since October. I should probably, I should probably smoke that one and re roll one because it's probably pretty dry. People look at me weird. I'm a millennial and a Colorado native and I'm like, I don't smoke and they're like, where are you really from? No. Um, well, can we, uh, I would say that's a political topic. Can we start with politics? Sure. What, uh, where do you guys, uh, who's your candidate for the fall? Hmm. I like RFK. Sweet. I'm a big Kennedy guy. I'm not a big fan of the bipartisan system or the red or blue or I feel like bought and paid for a lobbyist puppet is the same whether it's red tie or blue tie, you're bought and paid for it. It's, I've never been a big fan of either side. Um, I think there's been points of both sides that I like, but I think there's also the whole, they're both huge pandering. They say what they need to say to get elected and that's why I like RFK. I think he's made some smart points. But if I had to choose between red and blue, between Biden and Trump, I'd probably lean Trump. Yeah. He can speak in complete sentences, I don't know. But not because of I Orange man bad versus where is my slippers. Yeah. That's exactly right. And it's not like I love or hate either one of them. It's just that's kind of where I would lean. Yeah. I definitely like RFK. I like RFK's willingness to talk to every topic in long form conversations. Yeah. You know, I think that, uh, shows he actually has a grasp of the material. I think he's brave. You think he's gonna get assassinated? I mean, JFK got assassinated, arguably, because he was going against the establishment. Right. And that's what RFK's trying to do. Well, and Bobby K, too. Yeah, yeah. Um, So, who knows? I think it's shocking he has such a large poll currently and he hasn't been designated Secret Service yet. Right. I think that's a little surprising. It's ridiculous. And he's had multiple death threats. Yeah. Probably tens of thousands. Right. I don't know. No, it's pretty crazy, honestly. Usually any major candidate, as soon as they announce that they're running, they get Secret Service protection. Yeah. Barack Obama. Yeah. Well, Barack Obama was pretty crazy. chosen by whoever runs the world to be the next president though. So, yeah. Dwayne, what's, uh, where do you politics lie? Uh, probably I'm, I'm registered as an independent, but I tend to vote more conservative at the time. Proper, uh, libertarian kind of leaning conservative type. Yeah. I am definitely probably shouldn't admit that I'm probably pretty libertarian. I, I don't like laws, I don't like, I don't like, uh, you know, I don't like all the people do, don't do stuff because it's, you know, it seems like somewhere along the line, we've lost values, you don't do things because it's not the right thing to do. We have to have a law for everything. Well, and that's, I think what I was just going to point out is there's a, uh, there's a organization up here in Northern Colorado. You might enjoy it actually, or both of you, it's called the Legacy Project and they do kind of a study on U. S. history. With the intent of kind of like, what is your legacy going to be, young man? Um, but the, the definition they have for liberty is freedom plus virtue. Hmm. Um, you know, the freedom is great, no laws is great, but it does have to be of a virtuous people. If it's freedom to do whatever the hell you want and all rules are equally valid, uh, then it's just not going to work. So I think that's what I hear you saying is freedom combined with some virtuous intent is, is useful. Yeah, we, we obviously have to have some laws. I mean, I went to the Dominican Republic, and you could smell the towns before you get to them, and I thought, okay, that littering law maybe is okay, you know what I'm saying? Right, right. Well, and that littering law follows, though, with, uh, libertarianism, because they're harming, uh, Somebody else, you know, uh, it's freedom plus virtue. Yeah. It's, it's hard with libertarian sometimes. Cause there's, there's some wackadoos in that one. I would also say I'm more libertarian, but I've, I've listened to a few of the major speakers talk before and I'm like, yeah, you're a little left field. That's a little far out there. On both sides. Do you think, uh, do you think Biden will be the candidate come fall? Like, it seems like it, but it just feels like. How can we really live in that world where they put, like, do we run him for president or do we put him in a home? Well, but is there, is there anybody else even in the picture? No, I mean, but that's what it seems so shocking is, like, I think the Democratic Party actually realizes at this point that Biden probably can't win. Especially with RFK pulling the kind of numbers that he's pulling. And so I keep expecting like some kind of an extra constitutional substitution. Late inning substitution for Michelle or I don't know interesting Gavin I feels like Gavin's still running for president. Is he or not? I don't know. Maybe he's just running for 2028 president Who else do they have right now? Yeah, I don't have a major player. They put all their cards in that a long time ago. I feel like I guess yeah And, I don't know, I feel like they just are accepting a loss already. I was wrong about the last one, so who knows, what do I know? Do you think, uh, do you think RFK is gonna Realistic chance to make a play on it. I have no idea. Yeah, I really don't You're like me. I'm willing to I'm willing to give him my vote just to get from ten point zero percent to ten point zero Zero zero zero zero one percent. You got some some kind of an attack on the duopoly system And also I sleep just fine knowing that I did that. I'm a big I'm just really against bipartisan Independent thinker. Yeah, I've never voted for You One of the major party candidates. The whole ideology I was Perot from the start. That was my 18 year old vote. And I was, Kanye was what I voted last election. I mean, that's the funny vote for sure. I stand by it. Even after all of his anti Semitism rants and he was off his meds and stuff. But, I still think he would be better than Biden. I don't know. It's debatable. Yeah. Anyway, I digress. I'm probably going to get some haters out there. You love that anti Semite? No, I don't. Not that view, but I do stand by my vote. Yeah. Uh, I don't know. I just don't think How can we have a two party system? Hundreds of millions of people that live in the country, it just doesn't make any sense. Yeah, you could be this group or this group, and if you disagree with, well, and the thing is, the big thing is, is that the candidates now can't, like you used to have like the blue dog Democrats, right? Which were kind of more conservative fiscally, they were generally, um, anti abortion, you know? And so it was this block of like 30 percent of the Democrats that were not of the mainstream. But nobody that thinks like that is allowed to be in the Democratic Party for long now. That must have been before I was elected. Yeah, that's old times. I was going to say, I don't remember any of that. If you go back 60, 70 years ago, the, uh, the liberals back then probably aren't as liberal as the Republicans are now. Oh. Right. Totally. And the Republicans are Way more liberal than the liberal. So it was, you know, which There's a lot more liberal people on both sides of them. What was the year that Bill Clinton's was that was that 92 96? Yeah, I think that sounds right. I watched a clip the other day of his inaugural I think it was 96 and his talking points were the exact same as Trump's in 2016 border control and it was like Spot for spot. I was like, man, that was a pretty hard flip in 20 years. That's right. Whatever it was. Yeah, that's pretty interesting. It is interesting. He, you know, he was impeached. Yeah. For, and the thing he was impeached for was probably one of the best things that any president ever did. He loaned all that money to Mexico and they paid it back in two and a half years and it helped both economies immensely. Yeah, it was excellent. I hate to say it, but he was pretty, pretty good. You think Obama was impeached for that? No. Clinton. Oh, Clinton. I, that's what I meant. Clinton, that's what I read. I don't know. Is that, I thought he was impeached for getting a blowjob or whatever. I don't think so. For lying about it. I don't think so. Oh, I don't know. I was four. I could be wrong. I'm gonna just, confession, bow. I am not a, a political expert in any way, shape, or form. Talk to me about, uh, politics that are important for your business. Is there, um, elements of. Fair trade, foreign trade, import export, even just, uh, you know, paid leave things in Colorado and stuff that really matter for your business? Um, well, our products are all commodities based. Right. So it's a pretty global trade. Right. Um, I mean, we do non GMO and chemical free, so it's, it's slightly different than your traditional commodities market, but it's still very related. It means nothing in Europe. They never, never legalized GMOs in Europe. They don't even know what non GMO means. Right. Um, so in terms of that, it's, there's been weird things that have influenced it. Um, Like, you know, a few, a few years back, the government heavily subsidized, um, the, it's, they call it like an, a piece of the new green deal where they're making not renewable diesel from like used cooking oil, but it's called, uh, renewable. Oh, the renewable. So it's biodiesel is the used, but they started making renewable diesel, which is from fresh cooking oil, not, not used. And they subsidized refineries to basically for every gallon that they made a fresh from fresh oil, not used. So that heavily influenced the oil market. And the, Basically, the government guaranteed a profit of if you buy vegetable oil before it's used. And that's, so that influenced it a bit, but I don't know, it's still such a large global market that it's, it's more about the big supply and demand factors. It's very fundamental. I mean, there's some technical, but I don't know with. I don't know what type of political influence there would be in our, like, sourcing and things like that. I think there always is, um, things, but my strategy is simply, you know, Be adaptable. Yeah, you can decide if it's a problem or an opportunity. Right. Treat it as an opportunity and go figure it out. Fair enough. That's what you gotta do, right? I mean, there's always small influences, but it's not like, Oh, one day it was 400 percent more because the government did this. It's usually more of a, a fundamental global supply and demand, like there's small influences here and there, I would say politically, but most of it's more of a agricultural based. Well, for instance, 18 months ago. with the amount of, uh, Matt refineries they were putting up to handle the renewable fuel Chad was talking about. Um, it was, we actually couldn't produce enough soybeans to fill them. Oh, so it was huge. Huge impact. Non GMO soybeans anyway, right? No. GMO. Oh, period. You make any kind, yeah, you make full out any kind. Yeah, yeah. You know, you take away, um, GMO beans. Right. It also makes a shortage for non GMO. Mm hmm. And so Same with the big push into ethanol, and then all of a sudden you got 7 corn. Yeah. Nobody cares about organic gas. Fair. And now all of a sudden, um, they've, they've put in these infrastructures that are massive and very expensive. The actual process of making renewable fuel out of refined, um, bean oil, which is the biggest one is actually extremely cheap, but to build the, the facility is massively expensive. Now they've gotten a lot of these structures done and Um, because crude oil's going down, the demand for Right, so there's not as much profit in that biodiesel. So, yep. And so the, uh, demand for it's gone down. Well, and diesel's gone down. The spread between diesel and gasoline has gone down quite a bit as well. Yeah, and that's always interesting. If you don't believe in supply and demand, you, you, diesel and gas should make you. Totally. Yeah, diesel costs. Diesel is minimally refined, and it costs a buck more than gasoline can. Diesel's a byproduct of gasoline. Oh, is that right? Right, correct. No, I don't think so. I don't know to be honest with you. Yeah, I thought it was. I think Kurt's right. I think it's, um, just needs a lot less refinement, just cheaper in general to make. Right. So I thought it was a part of like, there's a couple steps in between, but essentially it's, it flows off of the process. If we weren't making gas, there wouldn't be as much diesel supply. Seems like it's probably right too. Yeah, simply supply and demand, which is. They're pretty smart, OPEC. Right. Um, you guys mentioned earlier, uh, that had it not been for the uptick in sales during the COVID pandemic, Lockdowns your restaurant clients that were the bulk of your business that would have hurt you pretty bad But you I went home and built a rock cleaning machine Landscaping lock cleaning machine because I thought we were gonna have nothing to do Okay, so we were gonna go around and get and and clean rock for people's houses around buildings and stuff Okay, that's how I was gonna employ him. That was your idea of getting through the yeah, it works really well I cleaned my own rock. It was insightful too because people spent all their money A whole bunch of money on their houses and making their houses look cuter and stuff. That's what gave me the idea. I went to, uh, Home Depot to get landscaping material and they were out and said they wouldn't have any for months. Oh, right. Huh. You know, I see what's going on here, maybe. Yep. Have you always had that kind of look ahead, Dwayne? I don't know. Sometimes it's not right. Sometimes it's broken, yeah, same. We're, uh, We have a very strong panic mode when it needs to be, you know, we're, we're, our crisis mode is what we call it. Uh, both of us are like, when, when it's a true crisis, it's, it's foots on the pavement. Um, so yeah, I would say so when it, when, uh, your, your ass is against the wall. We're not going to do nothing. What are we going to do? If we can't do this, what are we going to do? We'll figure out something. That's, uh, you guys would have a good time hanging out with my dad. One of his old quotes was, uh, Well, I know sometimes you don't know exactly the right thing to do, but do something. If you figure out it's wrong, then do something. Do something different. Doing something wrong is way better than doing nothing. Right. 100%. That's one of my quotes. And the biggest insult my dad would give a fellow farmer typically would be something along the lines of, Oh yeah, that guy, I don't know if he's ever pushed a pencil to nothing in his life. Hmm. I just, I never heard that. I'll make and making decisions without pushing the pencil and what you were talking about and whether it be. Deciding which crops to grow, what weight to buy your feeder cows, what weight to sell them at, what, you know, where you can source grain and then ship it and make a margin. All that's math. Well, my dad used to say, are you ever going to get your ass out of the office and come out here and do some real work? And you're like, I'm trying to make sure the math works, Dad. Grandpa's a special breed though. Yeah. Yeah. He's awesome. Um, let's move into family now. Why don't, why don't you give some observations on, on family? Observations? Yeah. I mean, I'm single. I don't know how many I have, but I do have a seven year old son and he's awesome. Okay. So, but with our family business, I do, I, we're super tight knit. Yeah. Um, very, very close, but I feel like, I don't know. I feel like I don't know a lot of people who are like us. Yeah. Just cause we grew up so secluded and so different. Right. Yeah. Like. You know each other a lot. Yeah, I reckon family perspectives are very small one changed the way I think of things a lot for example This is just a weird example, but when I was a kid Growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s, you know, um, like Equal pay for women and everything was really really big And and sexism in the workplace I didn't understand that right same because everyone every woman in my family worked alongside the men And there was no difference or disparity I never Got that entire discussion until I got older and actually saw some of it And I was like, what do you mean like every woman in my family does the same exact shit that I do And they get paid the same for it that I do and I don't know what you're talking about Because I grew up so secluded and different so I feel like my family perspective is very very tight knit But I don't even I don't even know how other people function in a weird way I have so many friends who are not close to their family at all I think I want to jump in here and just kind of observe something because I think that's true culturally of most kind of rural and agrarian regions. And it isn't just on the farms. It's also in the small communities that surround those farms. And that's why I think it's so kind of silly to brand the conservatives. if you will, which are in all those places as the misogynists. No, that's kind of bullshit. Like, like in the cities is where all these jobs are that you're talking about, have the big pay gaps and those are the, where the liberals live. Nobody worked harder on my family farm than my grandma. Right. Nobody, she would work all day and still take care of everything in the house. It's like, she was the hardest working person I knew. So I don't know. That's why I was saying this. It was so weird to me. If you'd hear about it growing up, when I was a kid and I was a teenager, Right. And I'd be like, yeah, maybe somewhere, I don't know. But uh, that was nothing I ever experienced. My sisters worked hard just like I did and I didn't understand it at all. Yeah. And that was, that's just a weird scenario of why our family's so tight, but we have a different, uh, culture than, than I guess most people. And I don't. That's true. Well, I think that culture is more pronounced, you know, I think it's mostly just stories of. Yeah. misogyny and pay gaps and, and things like that, frankly. Yeah. I don't think conservatism and liberal people in the country are very relevant at all. I think it's rural people are just different than city people in general. And I'm not really sure politics I've met lots of very liberal farmers and I've met some extremely conservative ones. Right. Well, and I, yeah, I suppose that's fair. Well, but a liberal farmer. Like a Democrat from North Dakota would be a Republican just about any place else. But I was liberals. Right? That's true. So I would say the biggest, um, I'm sorry, we're still with you. No, it's fine. No, we're going back and forth. I would say one of the biggest culture shocks for me up here, and I'm going to sound pretty bad here, but how Good, that's why I get the listeners. Everybody was totally obsessed with washing their hands when they go to the bathroom. I mean, where I come from, we washed our hands before you went to the bathroom. The only thing clean on you. I told my wife, I said, I don't know if these guys pee on their fingers or if they never wash their junk. I can't figure out what the hell's going on up here. Why do you gotta wash your hands after you pee? I still don't get it. Yeah, our environment was a little more dirty than the average. I think it was cleaner. Not for our hands. Yeah. I haven't seen anybody pee on a toilet stool where I was peeing. There wasn't a toilet. I'm getting pretty good at not peeing on my hands, I do have to say. Probably for a while now. It doesn't take long to figure out you gotta pee downwind. I mean, you know, after that. Oh yeah, yeah, if you're from North Dakota, that's easy. Chad, while we're in the family segment here, um, We usually do a one word description of the children. Would you like to give your son a one word description? Ooh, intelligent. Yeah. One word. Yeah. Yep. He's a smart kid. What's his name? Rylan. And, uh, is he, you and his mom share time or? Yep. We're 50, 50. Yeah. And we get along very well. Yeah. So, uh, he's a smart kid. He does. He's very emotionally intelligent. Which. I don't know if I had that as a kid. Uh, I don't think so. Dwight's shaking his head, nope. I don't think so. Not really. Um, but he also, he uses that to his advantage sometimes in not a good way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. He knows how to emotionally, uh, Kind of manipulate the situation. Especially older people, uh, or adults, I should say. Right, right. Um, AKA grandma. I was going to say grandma's easy. Every woman that's an adult, he's just like, Oh, I'm a cute seven year old boy. You should go get me a popsicle, like a kid. But yeah, he's a, he's a really smart kid. Um, but he's really well behaved and he's good kid. No, it's seven. It's about a first grader, second grade, first grade. Okay. Um, Dwayne, let's shift over to you. Uh, what was it about, um, Melissa, your wife? What was it? Uh, we asked, talked about, The mystery surrounding why she kept hanging around you, but why was it that you wanted to keep hanging around her? Oh, I She was way out of my only girl that would talk to me She's way out of my leg, I mean I was It's all I thought about and I just I couldn't believe she was hanging with me. Yeah Just unbelievable how lucky I am. How many, uh, how many years you've been together now? 40. 40 married or 40 together? 40 married. Okay. Congratulations. Yeah. My wife and I just celebrated 20 years last May. Better than average, I guess, by this time. Yeah. She's, uh, she's just incredible. I mean, she came out, I put on, On a four wheel drive tractor and a disc and a bunch of real tall green rye. Okay. That kept plugging and I made it around and showed her how to unplug it, spread it out. My plan being to come back and show her what a superior tractor driver eye was and see. Right. You didn't have to plug it up all the time. It was done She did it. She figured it out that quick. Everything. Yeah. She's like figured out if I go this way across the grain here, then it doesn't plug up as much. Yep. So I just did that. That's exactly right. She figured it out right away. And, uh, every single thing on the farm, she was just a natural. Immediately, she could do anything so well. That made her probably pretty popular with, uh, Your mom and dad were they both still part of the operation at that time? That's why I never that's why I was worked really hard not to get divorced because I was the one that was gonna have to leave They're like, where did you find this girl and how in the world did you convince her to come back here with you? Yeah Well right before I met her my mom asked me when I was gonna meet her girl and settle down and I remember telling her Mom, I would never marry a girl who married a guy like me. She did stop asking after that. Yeah, that's right. Um, tell me about your grandpa a little bit, Chad. You said he was kind of a wild man. Grandpa? Yeah. I wouldn't say a wild man in terms of like, I don't know, he wasn't a drinker or anything like that. He was just a very hardcore Hard working man. Yeah He's born. He was born in 1930 right smack dab. We're in the middle of the Great Depression and and Work was a lot harder back then right? I mean even in the 60s and 70s was significantly harder totally and When you have a big farm and a lot of cattle and things like that You're just you just you have to have it ingrained in you that you're A hardcore worker. Yeah. And I think our family was pretty known for overworking. Mm hmm. And that started with Grandpa. Yeah. And even my great grandpa, Henry. They were just, they were really hard working, hard nosed people who, they just, they didn't fuck around. Right. They didn't. That was, uh, when I moved out here from, from North Dakota to Colorado, I, I got into the banking industry right away and I, working in people be like, man, you work so hard. You're so productive. And I was like, damn, I'm coasting. Yeah. Compared to the culture I grew up in. I haven't worked hardly since I got here. And I remember my dad telling me stories of my great grandpa Henry. Um, who, I think I was only three, maybe, when he passed away. But, he would outwork me. Men in their 20s when he was in the 70s, right? And that was like, in the, in the 80s, 70 was actually old. Yeah. And in the eighties when work was significantly harder, physically on a farm and he's still doing it. The Stroh's were known to be hotheads too. My grandpa punched everybody in Holyoke at one time, but they all loved him. And my dad is probably the most charming grouchy German you'll ever meet in your life. You can't help but love him, but he's always. Is that your, uh, your family tree is mostly German? Or where did Melissa's family come from? Um, she's more Pennsylvania, Dutch, English, and then some German. Okay. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Northern, that's about it. Northern European kind of mix. Mm-Hmm. I like it. Um, let's talk about, uh, faith. We covered family and politics a little bit. Uh, faith background for you. I think we're both Christians. Okay. Unless you've changed something recently. No, I think we're Just mainstream Christians, uh, Catholic, Methodists. I, I guess I would have to describe myself as a hardcore Jesus believer, but pretty anti religion. Okay. Agreed. Yeah. That's why I say faith instead of religion, honestly, because there are two different things. I'm kind of an anti religion guy too. It's pretty impressive. What's what horrible things have been done in the name of religion, but it's so different than, than faith. Yeah. Well, yeah, mostly, most of the wonderful things that have been done in the world have been at least sparked by faith. faith I would say. A lot of them have, huh? Yeah. Um, so do you take part in an organized church at all then in that space? Yeah, I do. Okay. Uh, there's a small church, actually it's pretty new, in uh, In Loveland, it's called River Church. Okay. Um, Ironically met some people I used to live next to who moved up here from Arkansas to help start a church. Okay. And that's where I go. Um, it's a non denominational. Were they used to be in Fort Collins? Were they right by the Safeway there? No, no. They just started like five months ago. Oh, wow. Okay. Very new church. How many members? Okay. Maybe 50? Yeah. A little small. A little small like that. Yeah. A little bit. Actually the church that my wife and I are a part of is called The Crossing and it was about 50 people when we started attending like 12 or 13 years ago. Where's that church at? Um, Shields and Horsetooth in Fort Collins. Oh yeah? Yeah. Um, it was kind of like, four weeks after we started attending, they announced that basically been a, I don't know, not adopted, but there was a mountain range church or similar was the name of it, kind of a non denominational, but they'd been two or three years without a pastor. So just lay pastors had been kind of scabbing it through and their membership was down to 30 or something. And they're like, Hey, you guys are outgrowing your current space here. You seem pretty cool as far as your doctrine and your leadership and humble and Presbyterian ish and whatever. How about we just give you our church building, and we'll fold our remaining congregation into your church, and then, um, you can be here instead. How'd that work? Really great. Nice. Um, because our church was just puppies. It was, you know, me and my wife at age 40 at the time, or 37, were like some of the old people. Mm. But we folded in like 25 or 30 old people. So, it was nice for them to finally have somebody under 50 in their congregation, and nice for us to have some, some aged wisdom as well, in some cases. And now it's 350 people or something. Aged wisdom. Oh, I wasn't talking about you though, sorry, just kidding. That's cute how you did that though. The river church that I go to is, that's, it's very young, very young, I mean, I think the pastors are very young. 35, maybe. So, and they all are, everyone that helped start it is pretty young. So it's, it's been a lot of fun. It's cool to be a part of something like that, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, I didn't do anything to start it. Sure. I just didn't attend. Um, but it's cool. Yeah. It's cool to see it grow and change. Fair enough. Um, Dwayne, are you exercising your community part of your faith right now? You know, I miss the churches in Holyoke. Okay. So my wife loves the anonymity. Anonymity, yeah. Thank you. Okay. That, because it's so big and there's so many people, and I miss the fellowship. And so, we're actually, um, thinking about going to a new church right now. We've been part of the, um, help me, what is the big one in Lafayette? Flatirons. Flatirons. Oh, okay. We've been part of that, but it just does It's really cool. It's pretty easy to get lost. It's really cool. I love it. It's like going to a concert. Right. It's always, you know, but it's a long ways and so um, I'm not sure exactly where we're going to end up. Okay. Well. Keep, keep chasing. My wife and I lived in Colorado Springs for three years and change. And we never really did find the right church for us. We visited a whole bunch of, there's a lot of weird churches out there. Tell you what, uh, you start getting on the visit train and you'd be like, oh boy, especially if it's closer, you get to Utah. Let's talk more about that. Just kidding. Um, when you, uh, when you imagine, um, Like, developing a faith journey, or if you were talking to somebody that has no background in that, what would you say your why is? Like, why did you choose to maybe get back involved with this river church, or did you leave someplace else? Um, hmm, that's a good question. I think for me, just in my head, uh, it makes more sense to me than not. I just, I, I actually am a huge fan of science and different things like that. And there's always been this weird stigmatism that if you're a hardcore believer in science, then you can't believe in religion. Right, right. And I'm so the opposite of like, how can anyone believe that much in coincidence? Right. Um, so to me it just, it makes more sense in my little lizard brain. Yeah. But, um. It also, uh, it just, it gives you some hope in life as well. Mm, yeah. And it just Something beyond yourself to consider. Yeah, yep. That isn't the state. Yeah. That was somebody, one of the MSN or similar folks was trying to describe Christian nationalism. Um, recently you've heard that it's praised probably in the last few years that there's this, you know, Christian nationalism is a great threat to I've heard the phrase, but I can't think of anyone who fits the category. So I'm not really sure what I'm not familiar with. It looks well, the, the, the description that this, that this, uh, rep used was, um, Christian nationalists are those who think that their rights are granted by God, not given to them by the, the State. And I was like, I guess that's me. That sounds like some serious propaganda. And that was, well, and that was supposed to be like an insulting thing to somebody that would describe themselves as a Christian nationalist is someone that thinks their rights are granted to them by God. And I was like, uh, the founding fathers, the constitution, like, uh, and I think that's the big danger of lack of faith is when there is nothing bigger than. the state, the person, God, you know, then the state is the biggest thing and now you have to just worship the state or they worship themselves and ask you to come along. It's no real concept of right and wrong, just legal and illegal. Right. Very different. Totally different. Yeah. I think it really takes a lot of courage to not believe in God. I can't imagine it. I love the feeling of church, just how you feel the serenity. Yeah. Just, I just love being there. I like it. Um, the loco experience, and uh, unless you guys have a loco experience together, this is the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share with our listeners. Could be a moment, could be a week, could be a year in the life. Yeah, kind of anything, anything that would, some might consider to be a crazy experience. It doesn't have to involve law, or near death, or anything like that. Uh, who, who wants to start? You already know what you're Just, just basically the wildest time of your life. The wildest time, wildest moment, wildest week, I don't know. Do we have immunity? Yeah, yeah, nobody's gonna listen to this, so don't worry. I was just gonna say, it's hard to narrow it down and choose what you can say. Go, you first. Age before me and me and my wife's second birthday ended up in a gunfight. That's probably the wildest Tell me more second date your second date Okay, what'd I say birthday? So your second you're up in the mountains here. No, we're out in Holyoke, America so like You can't just say Our gunfight. That was crazy. Like you gotta give me a little bit of meat on that bone So Not between the two of you, I assume. No. Okay, good. Um, but there is a reason I never bought her again the first 20 years we were married. But anyway, the uh, there was a couple of friends of mine that were surrounded by these guys and they hollered at me, We need, I need some help. Okay. And so, uh, this was like kids from the neighboring town or something like that? Well, we were, we were in, we were in the saloon and my wife asked me to go back in and buy her some smokes. Okay. And so I went over there and so anyway, we got into a little altercation and, and, uh, this, this guy was telling me, you know, what he was gonna do to me. And I thought, well, he could sure hear better if I took that window out of his pickup and. And the driver gassed it and rolled me out in the parking lot. And then the, uh, Okay. You're like hanging on the side of this pickup after smashing the fender. Oh shit. the fender. Okay. And so I jumped up and started running for the parked car and he tried to get me and he hit four cars. Oh shit. And, uh, Okay. So he was trying to run you down. Yeah. Well, he was mad. Right. That's because my friend, Drunk too, probably. Yeah. And so anyway, we, Were you scared? You don't really get scared. I wasn't smart enough to be, and now I, I guess, now I'm not, what, I don't know why I wasn't, but, anyway. So we chased them all out north of Holyoke, and they came out of the, a trailer with the shotgun and fired off a couple of rounds, and. And you're like in two or three pickup trucks with your girlfriend riding along? Yeah. My, my girlfriend was actually in the back seat of the car where my friend was trying to pick up on her. Dwayne's trouble. Yeah, exactly what he was saying. You see how he handled that back there? Just fucking run over? And so anyway, they come out with the shotgun and one of the guys that was in the altercation says, Let's rush them, they can't get us all. And I say, No, we're not going to do that. And he says, Well, I am. And so, I, I had to whack him, cause he was going to rush. Oh, you punched him? I did, yeah. Yeah. It's better than getting shot. Right. And then his brother showed up, who was considerably tougher, and one of them who whacked him. And so anyway, we went back to the saloon, and, and, um, Of course. And the cops came, and all that, and we got to talking, and come to find out these five guys that surrounded these brothers, Actually, The brothers started it. If I'd have known that, I would Oh, you were on the wrong side of it the whole time? Well, I didn't know the other guys. I certainly wasn't going to join their side, but I would have Right. Stay the hell out of it, at least. Well, somebody's earned an ass kick, and I'm kind of a believer they can go ahead and get it, you know. Right. Just make sure they don't get hurt bad. And so, yeah, that was our, our second or third date. I can't remember. Okay. And she came back the next weekend, so. Nice. I like it. I like it. I, uh, it reminds me of, uh, my wife and I went to a 311 concert years ago and I've shared this story in one of my podcasts, but like there was an altercation and somebody pushed a dude on top of these girls that were standing by us and hurt a couple of them, knocked them down. Um, Yeah. Pushed him off one of the ledges at Red Rocks. Wow. And then, the, the, the aggressor, like, punched a guy. Sent him down the whole flight of stairs at Red Rocks off to the side there. And, um, but fell down at the same time. And I was coming back from telling the security that they better get somebody up here. And I jumped up on top of this guy that was Kind of like you, but a lot tougher, probably. And I was riding this guy like a bull. Like, he's trying to get up, and I'm trying to knock his hands out from underneath him and stuff like that. And my wife was right there watching me, like, fighting with this guy that's 40 percent larger than I am and you know, that was her question for me is why did you have to get involved in that? Yeah, it just happens. Yeah, sometimes it just happens. I'm a justice enforcer. I'm not much of a fighter But no, neither am I But I fight for justice like yeah, you thought that's what you were doing even though you were wrong Yeah, all right Chad, what's your loco experience I don't know, there's quite a few. But, I would say, after college, I came back to be a caddy in my hometown. Okay. And, if you've ever seen the Holyoke Country Club or something? No, they built a pretty world class famous golf course. Oh, is that right? In the middle, yep, called Ballyneal. Oh, I have heard of that. Out in the Sandhills, the Holyoke, uh, very famous designer, and, and, It was all made to be exclusive for high end people. Anywho, the lifestyle of the caddy was very similar to Caddyshack. Right. Oh, and it was a very, very wild summer. I, I, I don't know. Right, you got all these rich and famous people out there in Polio Yeah. And you barely ever interacted with. Anybody rich or famous. And we got paid in cash. So it was usually like, well, should we spend it at the liquor store or getting food? And it was usually the liquor store. It was a wild time. And my parents were worried about me the whole time, which is arguably a good reason to be, they should have been. And, you know, some of my best friends of my entire life came from that experience that I'm very, very close with still today. Um, But it was a wild time that I'm real glad I'm not going back to. Is there any specific stories that, uh, you can share here without getting anybody in legal trouble? Oh, yeah, sure. Um, surprisingly similar to his story of one of my friends got in a fight and I was falling right behind him to come watch him beat somebody up. And, uh, There's these, uh, steel buckets that we use, that they use as ashtrays out there. Okay. A little sand in the bottom. Yeah. Yeah. And this guy was right in front of my friend who was going to fight him. He picked up steel bucket, turned around to swing it at my friend, my friend duck. I was right behind him. Oh. Got split like four, like two layers. I think I can see it on your nose a little bit there. Yeah, I got two layers of good stitches and had one of those beautiful squirting, pulsing cuts. Yeah, yeah. There was blood everywhere and I couldn't even see. And my friend who got in a fight, a big guy and pretty athletic, messed this dude up very quickly. And I You should have just been standing back farther just in case of the time I actually got the blood out of my eyes, Everybody was unconscious except for my friend. And, um, uh, basically they were like, you know, the cops come and we got to go. And we all hop in the car. I'm in the back, obviously just bleeding. And I can't even see. And the cops are pulling in right as we're pulling out and his sister's standing in there going, that's not them. They're inside. And so we get away for a little bit and then the cops start chasing us down a dirt road and we, we came to a dead end. Ended up just jumping through it into a cornfield and finally got back to the house. Oh, he didn't get caught? No. Well, then when we got there, the cops were like, We know it was you and they're like, well, it was us. We don't know. Well, I couldn't yeah I was it I was hiding in the house because I was the obvious evidence that there was a fight You didn't have to go in the trunk of the car? No, we got to the house finally quick enough and then they were just like what was us and then I'd ever came out Obviously, but that was a pretty wild time being a being a caddy back in the day was It was interesting. Yeah, I'm sure. Good thing that, well, it was only a three month experience. Yeah, could have been, could have been more glorious, but also more damaging long term. I don't know if glorious is the word I would use to describe any of the things that happened that summer. Not glorious. No. Hazardous. Debaucherous and hazardous. Yeah. Yes. Dematris is pretty perfect. That's about right. Well, um, if people are listening and want to get some healthy harvest oils in their life, or follow you on your social handles or anything, where do they find you? Uh, Healthy Harvest, non gmo. com is our website. Okay. Or just Healthy Harvest on Facebook, Instagram. Okay. That's our social medias. Um, but, uh, if they wanted to, we have contact forms and all the email, all the websites and everything if they wanted something. But if you're in any, if you're a restaurant or commercial producer, we do business with most of the distributors in the state. So talk to somebody. That you do business with and we'll find a way to get it to him. Ask for a healthy harvest. We'll figure it out. We're a block and a half north of New Buc ee's, if you're over there getting Oh, right. Oh, yeah. If you're over getting brisket, come get some oil. That's probably changed your, changed your existence a little bit, being close to that Buc ee's, huh? Changed on how we get to work. Right. Remapped our route. Is that settling down a little bit now or is it still mayhem? You know, it's very well designed. There's a lot of traffic, a lot of people going in and out. You know, the first Saturday I think was probably worse than opening day. There was cars parked, people walked for miles. That's what I've heard. Yeah, just mayhem. Even on opening day, we're Three blocks, four blocks, maybe in the other direction, which there's not a lot of right around there. Yeah. Yeah. It's just an industrial park, right? There was cars parked clear up to our warehouse. We just walked over on that Saturday. There were people I'm telling you to walk down, you know, there's a highway behind, well over a mile really. So there's cars like lined along the road. Every way to park a car. And I got, I got weak last week and I went and got a brisket sandwich. Um, Come on, be honest, you've been weak a lot of times. No, I've only been there twice. How was it? The brisket's decent. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's alright. Yeah. Really good for gas station brisket? Yeah. It's exceptional gas station brisket. It's pretty good, but it's not like a top end. Not gonna change your life. It's probably as good as It's pretty good. I mean This is probably as good as it gets. Pretty average for most barbecue brisket or something like that. I went there last week. The place is amazing and how clean it is and how, how well it functions. There's so many people in there, but they really know how to flow it and the traffic flows well. Yeah, cool. Yep, so nothing bad to say about Buc ee's. Well, last week when I went there, it was like 10 a. m., so getting closer to lunch. And I thought, wow, this place is pretty empty. I mean, there's cars in the parking lot and everything, but it's not like Traffic's backed up like it normally is and I went inside and I was like this place is freaking full pretty busy But I think I waited two minutes to check out they like he's saying they do a really they've designed it Well, yeah, cool. They're smart about every five minutes. You hear him holler Brisket on the cutting table. Yeah. Chop it up. Throw another one on. Brisket. They cut them up fast. I haven't been down yet, but I guess I should. Well, we got a commercial for Bucky's Inn at the end of this one, so. Sorry about that. No, it's good. I mean, why not? They're not, well, if they, if you can get them to pay me, that would be great. Okay. Yeah. I'll try. Awesome. Let me know. We'll talk. It's negotiable. Yeah. Yeah. Guys, thanks for being here. Really enjoyed the conversation. Hope you did. Thank you. Yeah, we did. I enjoyed it. We'll have you, uh, on the radar again one of these days. Sounds good. Godspeed.