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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to season five of EmpowerU, and I'm your host, Weston Hendricks, and I developed this platform alongside my team with the objective of aiding to your interest as a person in the livestock industry. Our goal is to empower you while providing insights and value from some of the most significant people in our industry. With that said, a new episode is released every Saturday with a sneak peek available on social media the day prior. We're grateful to have you as a listener and hope you enjoy the episode. Here's to empowering you.
- [00:33]
B
Okay, so this has been like a work in progress for maybe a year and a half, two years. It's been. It's been crazy. And not necessarily Troy's fault, but my fault too, because I kind of pushed it off to the side and kind of forgot about it. But I've been wanting to get Troy on for a long, long, long time. One person that I admire, I'm not in the pig industry at all, but he's by far been one of the best in that area and someone that I admire from afar. Just watching Facebook and talking to people like Blake Kennedy and such. So good, good people from what I hear. And Troy's been very, very knowledgeable. More so just on everything pig aspect. So with all that said, I know Luke is pretty excited as well, and he's contacted your girlfriend, I think, or something like that, and he's close with that side of the family or something because he's from Louisiana.
- [01:26]
C
I don'.
- [01:28]
B
But Luke can chime in for a minute and then we'll get the episode started.
- [01:31]
D
Yeah, I think it's a good place to jump into, especially since majority of this season so far has been cattle. So I think not. Not much better to get into the pig side in this season. So I'm excited for sure.
- [01:42]
B
Well, Troy, if you want to introduce yourself, let the listeners get to know him a little bit before we get started.
- [01:47]
C
Yeah, no, I appreciate it. And yeah, no, it's. It's been, like you said, a little work in progress. I don't. I told someone earlier, I said, yeah, I got a podcast tonight. I said, he's been trying for about a year and a half, and I finally accidentally answered my phone the other day and I thought maybe he was wanting to buy a show big. Turns out he still wanted to do a podcast. But no, it's all good. Troy Sloan. I grew up here in Northwest Missouri in Cameron, Went to Iowa State. I actually went to Fort Scott Community College first and then got a couple years under my belt. Was on the judging Team there and transferred Iowa State, graduated there, and then had the opportunity to come back here and kind of take over the show pig side of things here on the diversified, I guess, livestock operation, all agriculture. I guess we've got all sorts of different things going on here. Row crop and stuff here in Missouri. But had the opportunity to come back and kind of take over the show pig side of things there. Would have graduated, I believe, in 2013. Probably should have been a year sooner, but maybe took a victory lap. So got to come back and then honestly just have never left, right, wrong or indifferent. Have been here since. So my two parents here in Missouri work alongside with them. I got a brother, he's got a wife and kids down the road, and they're involved in agriculture as well. Parents, again, do a lot of it here at Team Sloan, but I get the opportunity to kind of make the decisions on a daily basis, which is, I guess, good and bad, but very, very fortunate. Have an awesome support system here. And so we run. We run about 200s, mostly crossbreds. We've got. Got a handful of Chesters and a handful of spots and kind of try to dabble in. In a. In a handful of purebreds. So, yeah, that's. That's what I got.
- [03:44]
B
Awesome. Sweet.
- [03:46]
D
So, like, growing up and everything, how was the. The industry and everything kind of how did you get into it to begin with? And how was it now or then versus how it is now?
- [03:55]
C
Yeah, no, that's a good question. That's. That's probably the number one question that they always ask, you know, how'd you get into it? Honestly, I was, I guess, fortunate, unfortunate, whichever way you want to look at it. My parents both kind of grew up showing livestock, and Nino showed cattle, and my dad actually, and his dad had some show pigs along the way. So I kind of was just born into it, I guess, for lack of better terms. So didn't really have a choice. Very fortunate, like I said, though, to be put in that position. So was just kind of born into it. We started showing me, my brother started showing at a young age, and my kids, or my kids, my parents got their kids very involved in showing and then eventually led into kind of raising some of these things. So started showing, like I said, a very young age. And then it just kind of transpired and one thing led to another.
- [04:50]
B
So talk to me about, out of high school, you went to Fort Scott and then Iowa State. What was it like during your duration of those times at college? I mean, judging was probably a big Part of your life. And from what I was told by Mr. Willie Weiss, you're pretty damn good at it.
- [05:06]
C
Yeah, no, Willie, Willie was. He was better than me, that's for sure. Which didn't take much. But no, we were fortunate or I was fortunate to have some success. Dang sure didn't. Dang sure didn't do as good as I wanted to at all them contests, but had a nice little track record and had some success along the way. But yeah, no, I didn't. Honestly, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do out of high school and kind of decided last minute decision there to go ahead and judge livestock in college. And honestly, people don't believe me when I say this, but I didn't judge in high school, so didn't really. I did a little bit of it, I guess, in 4H. Just kind of growing up and kind of got my feet wet. But in terms of coming into college, I felt like I was pretty much behind, to be honest. Coming in was not the experience, I guess you'd say, as some of those teammates had. But don't regret any of it though. Had an awesome time, met a ton of contacts, a ton of people that I still call my very best friends today. So no, junior college was awesome, like I said. Had a great team there. Fort Scott was just a couple hours away, so always had the opportunity to come home on weekends and kind of try to keep the pig thing going. And that was one reason, honestly, when it was time to transfer, it was like Iowa state was close. Mr. De Klerk was there, John, and still a guy that I consider one of my best friends, an awesome mentor. We had a good team there at Iowa State and had a lot of success. But at the same time, like just the context we met or I met and the, you know, just the memories and I know a lot of people talk about that and you think it's kind of cliche, but I mean, it's the truth. Met a lot of my good buddies and it was a blast. So it was awesome. Had a fun time. And like I said, you know, one reason kind of stayed close to home to kind of keep the show pig thing going. It was small at the time, but dang sure didn't want to let it die out and again, get to back to my parents on that side of things. I mean, they kind of kept the wheels turning when their kids were kind of off to college, so. Right.
- [07:15]
B
Man, De Klerk really likes throwing you under the bus on his snap story.
- [07:18]
C
That's for sure he does. John's a good dude. Way, way more intelligent than I'll ever be, but no big shout out to him. He's been a huge supporter. Even though he likes to kind of throw me under the bus and, and make fun of me at times. It's all, it's all good because he, he taught me. I don't know much, but he, he taught me most of what I know from a. An evaluation perspective. So. No, he's a good. He's a good dude.
- [07:47]
B
Awesome, man.
- [07:48]
D
Yeah, I know, like, I can relate. I know Wes for sure can. I mean, collegiate judging is fun and all. We do a lot of judging, but I think the connections and memories and everything you get out of is probably way more important.
- [07:58]
C
Oh yeah, no, it's. It's great. It was. Like I said, I really enjoyed our time there. I mean, the people you meet. I mean, I see guys even like non species guys. I think that's what's maybe as cool about it as anything. I mean, obviously, obviously I was a pig guy, so I kind of knew, knew of a lot of those people and breeders and enthusiasts kind of already before I went to college, I guess, for lack of better terms. But the cattle guys, I mean, like you brought up Willie and stuff. I mean, that's the cattle, sheep, goat guys that I probably enjoy talking to them more than anything, if I'm being honest. Just because it's something different and yeah, kind of get to bounce some ideas off of other species guys that are dang sure at the top of it. And that's what's cool about going to these shows and show sales, whatever it may be, looking at Facebook and stuff like that. I enjoy the heck out of that. Just seeing some other species guys that you kind of met in college or judged with or whatever it may be.
- [08:54]
D
Like after college and kind of giving into Team Sloan livestock and really stepping foot into that. What was kind of your expectations going into it? Maybe how did you reach those expectations kind of now you've gone through it.
- [09:05]
C
Yeah, no, absolutely. That's a good question. And, and honestly, the, the pig thing, such a, you know, not to, not to take away from the species. Other species. Excuse me, but the, the pig thing is just so fast paced that you don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow. And I truly, I truly mean that. I believe it. I've witnessed it firsthand. And I think other pig breeders would contest to that. But where I'm going with the story is, I mean, we didn't have A ton of sows when I. When I came back from college. And honestly, if I'm just being truly transparent, I mean, it wasn't wildly profitable, and we had some success along the ways, but, I mean, it was. It was kind of one of those things, like, hey, you don't know exactly what you want to do. Like, if you can kind of come back and make this thing work good enough, like, we'll make it work. And so I don't know if expectations were ever incredibly high, and I know that's maybe not popular to say on a podcast or in a situation like this, but we didn't know where it was going. I mean, we had just a couple barns, a few sows, and it was like, hey, let's give it a whirl. Let's kind of. Let's get a few more sows, let's get a few more barns, and, you know, let's hire a couple employees, and let's see what we can kind of make work. And we just kind of dug in and. And made the best of it. And like I said, I've already mentioned it a couple times, but had a great support system. Parents probably didn't know as much about show pigs as I did, but they're livestock people. They're ag people. They understood what it took to try to be successful. I was very fortunate that my parents actually used to raise. And my grandpa used to raise club calves back in the day. I guess you could tell it's back in the. The 70s, 80s, 90s. And so they knew and I knew, but it was like, hey, everything. You know, I don't care what you're doing, everything's got to kind of click. Everything has got to kind of go right. You got to catch a break every now and then, and we're probably far from where we want to be in terms of getting there someday, but it's been a good ride. And like I said, I truly, truly mean this one. There was. There was no plan. There was no. Nothing necessarily set in stone. It was just like, hey, let's give it a whirl and see where it goes. If I'm just honest, and, you know.
- [11:22]
B
You mentioned it before, you had a great support system. But I also want to know, what are some other things that allowed you to create Team Sloan and make it a successful showpig business?
- [11:35]
C
Yeah, no, I'd say, you know, that's. That's a good question. I mean, I. I would say, obviously, like, kind of what we've already talked about, but, you know, Some of those connections that I made at Iowa State that, I mean, I'll forever be in debt to some of those guys. I had the opportunity to work for a couple of breeders up there along the way and meet a lot of people and you know, that transpired into selling some more pigs and getting into some different markets and things like that. So I mean, I think that's, that's one of the things, just the context that I made, obviously the support system like you already talked about. And then, I mean, right, wrong or indifferent, I mean it is what it is. I've never had like family and kids like some of these guys have had. So whether that's good or bad, you know, I've been able to take that extra time probably and put it towards raising show pigs versus some of the other things that guys are doing. And there's not saying there's one way that's right or wrong, but I've always just kind of been able to take a little extra time and try to put that towards the show pig side of things.
- [12:39]
D
So like you had mentioned, y' all didn't start off like fresh out of college. Y' all didn't start off with too many sals. And I'm like you said now you got close to 200, right?
- [12:45]
C
Yeah, we got, I think Leo told me the other day we were like 2:30. So we got a few more maybe than I, than I realized. But yeah, we're somewhere around that. Yeah, 200. We, we, we, we'll get around. Yeah, I mean we'll bounce around that 200 more.
- [13:00]
D
So what did you look for in these keeper guilts to get to that point? Like was this anything specific in these guilts you're looking for to kind of breed off of, to have a, have a strong base?
- [13:09]
C
Yeah, no, that's a, that's a good question. And it's something that we still, we still question ourselves every day if we're just being honest, like what, what the heck are we doing here? What do we need to be looking for? But you know, I've always. Right, wrong or indifferent. I suppose I've been a big structure guy and we've tried to make our females as good footed, just as good built and good structured as we can make them. You know, probably throughout the years I caught a few negative comments maybe that, you know, we, we didn't swing for the fence enough. But it kind of goes back to, you know, when we didn't have, we didn't have a, a ton of sows. We kind of had to stay on base, we kind of had to stay connected up and, and stay focused on just making good feed and good sellable pigs because we didn't have, we didn't have a ton of them. We couldn't have a ton of strikeouts that way. And, and I've kind of let that kind of carry over. We've got a few more now, if I'm just being honest, that are probably a little more swing for the fence and a little messed up in an area or two. But the foundation was definitely built on good built, good structured ones that were just a little longer hipped, probably a little more elevated and a little more conservative probably in terms of power, we've tried to make those females over the years, just like I said, good built, fault free, good footed ones that we can kind of take to some of those more powerful bores and ultimately try to make something that's gonna get to the winner's circle. Yeah.
- [14:33]
B
Tell me about your process behind breeding decisions, because I know that's one of the most important things obviously. And so how do you get the most out of those breeding decisions and maybe talk to us about some way of being safer versus more out there when it comes to mating, one versus the other?
- [14:51]
C
Yeah, no, that's a good question. And honestly, if you'd asked me, if you'd asked me 10 years ago, kind of goes along with what we've already talked about. But if you'd asked me 10 years ago versus now, it probably changed just a little bit. But at the same time, I mean the basics are still there. And from a mating perspective, I mean we've really, we've really tried to put emphasis on like I already talked about making them good built and take them to those power sows. But now that we've had the opportunity to, to get a few more of those where we can, I mean, if I'm just being honest, where you can have a few, where you can have a few more strikeouts, I suppose I'm probably a little more on the other side of the fence in terms of just swinging for the fence, I guess. But, but like I said, I mean how we got to where we are is we, we tried to make as many good built, non messed up pigs that would ultimately feed for families and get to the finish line versus those ones that are maybe gonna be cute, wild looking baby pigs that unfortunately don't feed sometimes for some people. And like I said, as the years have went on and we've gotten more sows, we've had, I guess the Opportunity or that, that leeway there that we can probably swing for the fence a little harder in an area or two and make a few more of those wilder kind of looking higher dollar baby pigs that are ultimately hopefully anyway going to get to the winner's circle on a big stage. But yeah, from a mating perspective, I mean, I mean honestly, I think you could probably say a few years ago you could tell a Sloan hog, I mean to a T, I would say it's a little different now. I mean we've got every shape, size and type and kind that you could imagine and I truly believe that. I mean we got power sows, we got good built sows and at the end of the day, I mean there's hundreds and hundreds of boars out there. So I mean from a mating perspective, I mean we've, we've got a long list of boars. We don't try to stay right, wrong or indifferent. We don't try to necessarily stick to just a handful of bores. Particularly now that, you know, I tell people this often, we try to breed in groups and we matrix and we synchronize them to try to pharaoh in groups. And because of that, I mean you can't get, you can't get 40 doses on one bore every collection. You know, they only make so many. So it's not like the cattle world where they've, you know, you've got a bunch of frozen straws or whatever it may be called. But so yeah, because of that I'm kind of talking in circles, but because of that we've got a wide variety of just females types and kinds. And the good news is like I've already said like there's a, there's a pile of bores out there that I mean will complement your sow. So I, I think it's an awesome time to, to be in the industry because there's so many different types of, of pigs out there. I mean there really is. I mean there's, you go to a pig show and I mean there's, it's, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's like a pick your poison every single class it seems like. And I mean it's, it's what's, it's what keeps everybody going. I mean if we made them all look the same, I mean you only have a small customer base and so I mean that's what's interesting about the big thing. I mean not, not everybody likes them the same, everybody likes them a little bit different. So we try to have a just a little bit of variety there in terms of type and kind for people to tie into.
- [18:08]
B
All right guys, we'd like to tell.
- [18:09]
A
You about the businesses and operations that.
- [18:11]
E
Have powered this platform and we couldn't do what we do without them. So here's what they have to offer.
- [18:17]
A
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- [18:35]
E
Whether you are in search of a project for a young exhibitor or looking to enhance your herd with fresh, proven genetics, their mission is to produce high caliber livestock while fostering lifelong relationships.
- [18:48]
A
They are also pleased to offer semen and embryos from their bull battery and donor females that are rooted in generations of proven performance, maternal strength and impeccable structural quality traits that add tangible value whether your focus is on cow power or carcass quality.
- [19:04]
E
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- [19:30]
A
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- [19:40]
E
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- [19:47]
A
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- [20:17]
E
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- [20:36]
A
For more information about Reed Vessel Ranches, including their private treaty cattle sires, donors and upcoming sales, visit their website@reedveselranches.com yeah.
- [20:48]
D
I think that's probably the best way to do it in my opinion, especially at Yalls Level. So now can you have all this. I know, like thoughts on kind of marketing wise. Because I know now that is something that it's. It's crazy. And especially like in the pigs, it's even like they've doing like how we talked to Blake Kennedy, they doing picture and videos now and he even mentioned like they're using AI to do so many of their flyers and things, all their stuff. But I don't like taking a look on Yalls website. I didn't want to get off of it. It was so cool looking. So what do you do maybe like for marketing wise to kind of get everything out there, I guess.
- [21:19]
C
Yeah, no, that's a good question. And we're far from probably perfect when it comes to that. We're trying every day to try to set ourselves apart just a little bit because I mean it's the world we live in. You gotta get the word out there. I mean people are traveling all the time, they're constantly busy. Just getting the word out there is so, so important. And trying to set yourself apart from a marketing perspective, from a social media perspective is absolutely just crucial anymore. So. No, that's a good question. Honestly there. I guess it would have been a year and a half ago we would have hired Emma Matthews. She does all of our photos here at the farm. Whether it's a live sale or an online sale. We try to photo all those pigs. We actually do all the videos ourselves. I don't, I guess it was before we went live, but my phone said it didn't have enough data, which I'm not a, I'm not a technology guy, but so I went through and I deleted like 400 videos or something real fast of baby pigs and opened that up. So anyway, talking in circles here again. But yeah, no, we do, we do all the videos ourselves. It's kind of a crazy thing because when we started there several years ago, I guess nobody used to video their baby pigs. I mean if you, if you asked for a video of a baby pig, they, they were like, what are you talking about? And now it's. It's gotten to the point that I guess I don't have this, the stats on this, but I would say probably 95 of the pigs that sell online have a video. And it appears I. I don't pay attention like you guys do, but it appears like most of the species have kind of went that way. So yeah, kind of again, kind of talking in circles there. But yeah, the social media thing's huge. You know, anything to kind of Set yourself apart. I think you got to be on the forefront of it. And you always tell people from a social media perspective, I mean, there's a. There's a ton of people, you know, young people out there that are, I think, are very, very good at it, very eager to do it and want to help and want to be a part of the industry. I think the biggest thing that I always tell young people or anybody is, you know, it's just. It's one of those things. I think you consistently have to do it day in and day out. I don't think it's one of those things that you can be like, oh, we've got a sale next week. We gotta. All of a sudden we gotta start doing social media. And that's something that, you know, like I said, we're far from professionals when it comes to that, but we try to do it day in and day out, you know, whether it be on Facebook or a website or TikTok or Instagram or whatever it may be. Try to. We try to be in front of people. We try to let them know kind of what we're doing, what we're selling, what we're offering and what we're going to provide and, you know, what we're kind of doing on a daily basis here in Cameron. So, yeah, no, it's crazy how it's all evolved over the last few years, particularly since we started. You know, not many people really had Facebook when we got rolling. And I mean, it's everything now, right? Wrong or indifferent. I mean, Facebook's huge. Social media is huge, and it's definitely a big part of our program.
- [24:28]
B
Well, and I think this next question, I mean, it goes for really any species of livestock, but I feel like it's pretty critical, especially on baby pigs, because outsider looking in, because I got no idea, but just reading it seems like baby pigs are pretty fragile. Like, you got to, like, really maintain them and take care of them. I mean, if I'm wrong, tell me, but how important is it, like, taking care of those pigs after they sell? And it seems like, you know, you push them pretty hard for the picture and get them ready for them to be presented in front of all these people. So do y', all, like, prefer to, like, back them down and kind of slow them down afterwards or, like, keep pushing? I don't know how that works.
- [25:04]
A
I just.
- [25:05]
B
Something that I wanted to ask about and talk about.
- [25:08]
C
No, that's a good question. And honestly, not to. Not to disagree with what you said, but I do think a Few years ago as an industry, and I'm not us or anybody, I, I think it was a little more common maybe to kind of, kind of get them sale ready, I guess for lack of better terms, to be honest, as of late, particularly the, the last few years and maybe just in our program. But you know, we, we've got enough muscle in these pigs as babies, particularly when we're selling them. We don't really push them too hard, if I'm being honest. I mean, they're usually kind of just getting chilled out because I mean the, the, the common buyer, I don't even say the common buyer, but your most typical buyer and even your, your, your high end buyers, they're more about build, they're more about balance, they're more about structure. So we're actually, we're probably feeding like lower proteins and probably just chilling these baby pigs out just a little more now than maybe we ever have been. And like I said, part of that's because they're probably just a little more souped up and have a shot more extras in terms of just width and power and stoutness than they've ever had. But that is a good question because I do think the general consensus is that we're all show pig breeders just pouring the coals to them and just trying to get the most dollar value out of them. And then after that we'll just hope for the best. And that's not always the case. I mean, in some cases I think it is. But honestly, like I said at our place, I mean, we've probably just laid off a little more protein, laid off a little more just feed. Honestly here at our place, whether it's right or wrong, I don't know. But we've went to actually hand feeding these pigs to where they're not just consuming quite as much when we go to feed them. And then when we do get them sold, I mean we're just going to like a 16% protein as soon as we get them sold. So if they're, if they're hanging out here for a week or two after they get sold, like, we're just trying to keep their feet and legs right, just trying to keep them healthy. But, but I mean, it is a good question because I think sometimes when you go to these live sales in particular that everybody just assumes that they're all fit on and souped up and ready to roll and just like I said, trying to get the most out of them. But I do think that has changed a little bit over the years to where Maybe they're not as maxed out or naturally probably just have a shot more to them than maybe they usually do. But that is a good question, like I said, because I think sometimes people, when they get them home, they're just scared to death they're going to melt. And I don't think that's necessarily the case as maybe as it used to be from an industry perspective as. As it was just a few years ago.
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D
That's really good to hear.
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C
So, like, I know better as a buyer, right?
- [27:55]
D
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
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C
That's our, that's our goal.
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D
Yeah, that's a good one.
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B
That's why it's less.
- [28:03]
C
Yeah, there you go. There you go.
- [28:05]
D
Like, I know we've. You've put on tons of sales and went through a lot and those no would take know what goes into a cell to make it run successful. And I know, like me and Wesson were actually talking today about one day hopefully having our own like online sale or in person sale kind of. It's one day down the road at least. So I want to know, like, from your point of view, what goes into making a sale successful, kind of. What does it take behind the scenes?
- [28:26]
C
Yeah, no, that's a great question. And sometimes we, sometimes we still ask ourselves here, like, what. What are we even doing? We. Sometimes you feel like you. Sometimes you feel like you're lost because at the end of the day, you don't ever know what's going through people's minds. You know, like I said, like I've said so many times, sounds like a broken record now, but right, wrong or indifferent, you don't know what people are thinking. You know, hey, that Sloan's got good pigs. And then the next guy saying, hey, that Sloan's pigs say no good. And that's just. That's the world we live in. It's all good. And they'll say that about the next breeder too, so. No, that's a good question. And you know, at our place, we first things, health. I mean, we just try to keep those things from. I mean, the show pig industry or pigs really just show. Not even just show pigs, just flying production in general. I think health is just so, so important. From nursery, not even nursery from birth. Just to get them to sale day is so, so challenging. I mean, there's just so many, so many obstacles that you fight. From a health perspective, that's so. That's the number one thing at our place is we just try to keep them as healthy as we can. I mean, that's the, you know, I. People always ask, well, how long. How long do chores take? And I'm like, well, if we're just going to throw feed to the pigs and walk away, it doesn't take that long. It really doesn't. On a daily basis. I mean, yeah, it's 365 days a year, but just to. Just to feed the pigs, it's not that hard. But we spend a lot of time just checking health. I mean, if there's a nursery full of 200 pigs, like, we're trying to. We're trying to spend an hour a day in there just looking at pigs, you know, seeing if something's off, studying stools, studying eyes, studying just their demeanor and how that they're acting in a nursery setting. So I guess, yeah, the first thing would be health from a sale perspective. The second thing I would say was just getting them ready in terms of presentation, in terms of skin and hair, in terms of clip jobs. You know, we. We pride ourselves on trying to get pigs sale ready in terms of big groups all at once, particularly in the spring when we're having large online sales. You know, we're trying to sit with those pigs and calm them down and gentle them down. Obviously, we're tanning them, trying to get them dark, you know, rinsing them every day or at least every other day when they're younger like that, and just trying to get them sale ready. So, you know, what goes into a successful sale? You know, I've talked a little bit about, like, you know, health is huge. Getting their skin and hair right is huge. Obviously, we clip all the baby pigs. You know, people used to make fun of us. Shoot, we used to clip them. We used to actually clip them all in the nursery before we ever set them out. And now we've finally gotten to. Yeah, we finally gotten to where we set them on chips and we let them kind of get acclimated and then we go through and we clip all the ones after we've made, you know, some coals and stuff. That way we're not clipping all the coals where we used to just go ahead and clip everything. But. Yeah, so just getting them, getting them healthy, getting them ready is a huge step. And then once you have the pigs, you got to step back and ask yourself, well, now we've got the pigs. We like the pigs. They're well presented. Is anyone going to show up to buy them? And that's. That's kind of the thing you ask yourself. It seems like about two days before the sale you're like, oh, damn, is anyone going to show up to buy them? And so then it's like a whole nother monster. It's like, okay, and we got to do. That gets back to what we already talked about. You got to have social media. You got to get the word out. You got to make phone calls. You got to, you know, you got to follow up with customers. So I think you got to have the pigs and, you know, talking backwards here a little bit, but I mean, to have a successful sale, I mean, it starts no different than any other species. I mean, it starts months, heck, years in advance. I mean, if you really want to break it down, mating decisions. We've already talked about that. I mean, we. Like I said, we synchronize every sow. We try to pharaoh them in groups, farrow them in groups, and you got to keep them healthy. You got to get them born alive. I mean, just getting those things on the ground alive anymore, it's about, like Club Chef 2.0. It's not easy. And so getting them bred is a challenge. Getting them born alive is a challenge. Getting them ready to sell in terms of just skin hair presentation, keeping them healthy is a challenge. And then, like I said, you gotta. You gotta have people that want them. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how good your product is. There is thousands and thousands of show pigs out there right now. So if you don't have people that are lined up at the door ready to buy them, it doesn't necessarily matter sometimes how good they are. So, yeah, there's a. There's. I don't even know how many hundreds of things that go into trying to have a successful sale, but it'll make a. You could pull your hair out because it is. It's very, very challenging.
- [33:14]
B
And I mean, I can relate to that. Years in advance for the sale, me and Luke, we've been buying semen and setting up flushes. Vast majority. Last three weeks. I just got in a notification from SC Online sales about semen tonight.
- [33:28]
C
Whatever.
- [33:29]
B
But, like, two springs from now, we're supposed to have our first online sale. So just having. It's years in advance, literally.
- [33:35]
C
And I.
- [33:35]
B
And it's same thing for pigs as well. But what I want to.
- [33:39]
C
I give it to you. I gave it to. I guess I'll interrupt. I'll give it to you cattle people. I could not be that patient. We can breathe. We can breed a sow the wrong way about three times and still be ahead of you cattle guys.
- [33:50]
D
Yeah, yeah, that'd be nice.
- [33:52]
B
It'd be way nice.
- [33:53]
C
But, I mean, I couldn't do it. My hat's off to you guys because it's. I'm not a very patient person. Yeah.
- [33:59]
B
We first flushes this weekend, and we.
- [34:02]
C
Got about.
- [34:05]
B
9, 10, 11 different bulls ready to roll. And we're supposed to flush literally every weekend from now till end. End of November. And we're putting embryos in December, January, so we're pretty excited. But anyway, yeah, it's years in advance. It takes a lot of patience. I think it'll all work out for the better. So.
- [34:22]
C
Absolutely.
- [34:23]
B
With all this said, I was told I need to ask you about something. And this had come from Willie Weiss himself. You got a new sale facility. And I hear it's pretty unreal. I've never seen it, but I've seen pictures and videos of y' all obviously working in it. But what do you think sets y' all apart in terms of having that barn, and what did you incorporate into it that essentially made it far more different than anyone else's?
- [34:51]
C
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I. I appreciate the positive, the comments. And. Yeah, no, it's. It's nice. And there's other places out there that are dang sure, just as nice, or I'm sure there's some being built now. I know some of my buddies that are building some right now that are a Dangster. Gonna have nice facilities as well, and rightfully so. So we all deserve it. As much. As much as it takes. If you can afford to do it and can make it all work. It's Dangster. It's Dangster. Nice to have. But, yeah, we. We would have built it, I guess, would have been about two years ago now, or started on it there a couple years ago. And it's been a lifesaver. It's been very nice, for lack of better terms. It's a very fancy kind of sale barn, I guess. I guess that's the best way I know how to put it. So towards the back, I mean, it's just a pig barn. There's pig pens, there's wash racks, there's picture pins, there's canning pins. And then we've kind of got a middle room there, or what we call the middle room because we didn't know what else to call it, where we can kind of back our trailer in and load hogs, run the skid, steer through there, keep feed, keep shavings, keep kind of all the supplies we need. And then on the other side of that wall would be what we call the viewing room. So that would be called what, what some people call like the sale barn. So that's where we'll set up like the sale ring, the auction block. We've got a bar in there. We got a full kitchen where we can, you know, bring people in and serve them, full restrooms. There's actually two bedrooms in there with kind of a living room area and a hangout area. That's actually where my office is that I'm sitting now, which is, you know, when we built it, I didn't know if that was a huge deal, but just having an office here right in the show barn and kind of by the sail barn has been. Has made us so much more efficient. So, yeah, tables, chairs, coolers, drinks, whatever you need, it's all here. It's made us very, very more efficient, you know, just moving forward. So yeah, it's, it wasn't cheap. It's, you know, when you're building, it was very nerve wracking, I guess, and it seemed stressful, it seemed risky at the time. But after we got through it there a year or so, it's been a lifesaver. So yeah, like I said, there's, there's multiple guys out there that have awesome facilities, but we're proud of it. It's been, it's been great. Our customers enjoy it. You know, even like those online sales where we're not having a live sale. We'll still have like our previews where we're on all the pigs through the ring where people can see them come in, feed people, try to make it a very welcoming atmosphere, a fun atmosphere, you know, where people can kind of hang out, but at the same time, you know, do business and look at their pigs or look at the pigs that they potentially might want to buy. So yeah, it's, it's been good. Like I said it was. We've come a long ways. We started with a couple show barns with wood floors and you know, people, we were actually joking about that, a pig sale a few weeks, few weeks ago. They said the first time we were there, we had to look at pigs on a wood floor barn. And you know, there was cracks in the walls and the floors and cold air was blowing through and it's kind of where we started. And now we got a place that we're pretty proud of and it's been awesome.
- [38:01]
D
So, yeah, if I'm ever passing through Missouri, I know where I'm coming to spend the night.
- [38:05]
C
Yep, you can swing in. You can swing in for sure. Might be a cold beverage for you.
- [38:10]
D
Hey, I'll take it.
- [38:12]
B
The Cajun would do that, that's for sure.
- [38:15]
C
They like. Yeah, they like beverages.
- [38:17]
D
Oh, yeah. So how important. Or like, I want to talk about maybe, like, barn set up now for, like, maybe people that are just starting to get into it or maybe even build their own bar, since you seem like you know what you're doing in that part. How important is it? Or maybe some features in it that kind of are more important than others or kind of the design or layout of it, like, kind of. How would you kind of go about it?
- [38:38]
C
Yeah. So, like, I just talked a little bit about, like, our sale facility, but like I said, when. When we built it. I mean, the number one, you know, it's a sale facility, and maybe some cattle people or sheep people or whatever. Think of, like, you bringing them in from a different location into the sale facility. But actually, how ours is set up is, you know, where we do everything daily is right off the back of the sale facility. It's in the same barn. So I think that's what's. What's again, kind of made us kind of reiterating what I already talked about that made us more efficient is because we do our daily grind. We do our daily things here, right in the show barns. I mean, like I said, We've got two different rooms. There's 18 pins in each room. So we can house. I mean, we can house 120 to 150 pigs in each room. Both those have a wash rack. You know, which is funny, because, like I told someone the other day when we built our first show barn, our legit show barn, not the wood floor one we didn't even put a washer at, because that was. That was a time. I mean, years ago, you didn't. You didn't wash baby pigs. Nobody ever heard of that. And most of the time in Missouri, when you were selling baby pigs, I mean, it was. It was cold outside. You didn't wash them. And I mean, now it's like we got heated. Heated wash racks and hot water and stuff like that. So, yeah, from a layout perspective, and there's. I'm sure somebody's got something better. There's no doubt. Everybody's always thinking the next best thing. But, you know, I would encourage anybody that wanted to build one to have a wash rack, have heated water, have a. Have a tanning pan, or have a, you know, some kind of. Some kind of setup to where you can get those baby pigs tanned. And I know some guys are Even starting in the nursery now just to get those pigs presented as well as you can. And then I think the biggest thing is, and maybe this is me versus some other guys because we sell so many online and picture so many, is, you know, we, we run ours into a picture pen, shoot as many times as we possibly can before we ever actually have to have picture day. And what we actually do at our place, whether, whether it's right or wrong, we actually tan in our picture pen. So we start running all those pigs into the picture pen and tanning them in the picture pen. So they've gotten used to being in a picture pen, so they're not nervous, they're not scared. So once they go in there, they've been in there several times, and it makes, it's made picture day just so much smoother, so much more efficient. I mean, we can picture baby pigs as fast as, as maybe anybody in the country. If I'm just being honest, and maybe that sounds arrogant, but we can, we can roll right through them. So, yeah, picture pen, wash rack. You know what I tell people with our, with our new sale facility is we always preview everything like within the sale barn here. You know, one thing I would. Would maybe regret about ours is like this time of year where like a lot of the Texas and Oklahoma traffic's coming up north, we don't have scheduled previews. So I think it would be beneficial if you had like just a smaller preview area back in the actual chip barn, I would call it, to where those, you know, those customers could get a few of them out real quick. You know, the, the great thing about this setup that we built is it's, it's Incredible to preview 100 head or 120 head or whatever you have in an online sale or a set. But you know, in the fall where if you just want to just show 20 or 30 pigs on an evening, it might be 10 o' clock at night. You're not gonna, you're not gonna have those eight or 10 people that it takes to truly get 100 head through the ring. So it'd be nice to maybe have something that was just a little bit smaller in the back there where you could kind of have the best of both worlds. So, yeah, I know got a little long winded there. But from a setup perspective, I mean, it's, it's no different than any other show barn. I mean, if you got a wash rack, you got a tanning pen, you got a picture pen and just good, good quality shavings, good pins and you're cleaning them every day. I mean that's something we pride ourselves on here at our place. I mean we clean every pin out every single day. So I mean fresh shavings, fresh fresh air, good air quality and good show feed goes a long ways.
- [43:06]
A
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E
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A
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E
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E
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- [45:43]
B
I kind of want to venture off into something else before we kind of wrap up here, but here recently or in the cattle world, I don't know if it's different in the pig world, but judging lineups, whether it's Texas majors or any type of state fair, different types of judges, are they. How big is the difference between quality of judges 10 years ago versus now, and how do y' all prepare to take the right pig to the right judge?
- [46:12]
C
Yeah, no, that's a. That's a hot topic. And, you know, like I said earlier in the podcast, I said, you know, everybody's got a little different flavor and a little bit of different taste. And I mean, that's good. That's what keeps the world go around. That's what keeps the industry go around. And I mean, if we all like the exact same pig, there wouldn't be many of them that sold within a season. And I think that's what's cool about the show pig world. And like you already said, different. Different species as work as well. You know, it's. I don't know if the quality of judges is any better or any worse, you know, than it was 10 years ago. What I will tell you is I think as an industry, and I'm sure the other species are the same, is we are dang critical anymore. Myself and anybody else that's doing it, we're looking for that unicorn. We're looking for that perfect structured one that's still stout and still powerful and still wide and got all the hair and all the extras that you could ever talk about. So I think that's the biggest thing that I've seen over the years is we. We as an industry have just gotten so, so critical. And sometimes, and I'm guilty of it, too, sometimes I think we just got to step back and, you know, think to ourselves, like, hey, this is still a good pig. This is still a good steer. This is still a good heifer. You know, we're going to get out here and nitpick this one because it knuckles its rear pasture. We're going to nitpick this one because he's a little soft on his front feet or he needs a little bigger pin set or he needs a little more hair or whatever it may be at the end of the day. I mean, this is still. We're still judging at most of these bigger shows. I mean, we're still judging the top 1% or even, even a half percent, quarter percent. I don't even know what it may be a very small percentile of show pigs out there, show steers or whatever it may be. So I think that's the biggest thing. I do think the list of judges, for whatever reason, has become very minute within the industry. And I'm sure people get tired of me judging. I don't, I don't take any more than that. I want to, if I'm being honest, because I just. I feel like there's other qualified people out there and I don't need to do them all. And anyway, where I'm going with that. I do think it would be. I do think it would be awesome to see more young people get involved in doing it. I do think it's a very interesting. It's a very interesting concept, though, to try to get people to digest because, you know, as a show official, you hate to hire the young guy that maybe doesn't have enough experience and you're scared. Like, you know, what if he comes on board and what if he doesn't do a good job? But at the same time, you know, do you. Do you hire the guy that's judged the last 16 major shows? So I think it's very, very interesting. And it's, it's going to be. It's going to be very neat to see moving forward kind of what these shows decide they want to do. Because the judging pool, the judging pool in the show pig world seems like it just keeps shrinking. And for whatever reason that is, I don't think it's necessarily anybody's fault. I just think that's the world that we're in right now, for sure.
- [49:24]
D
I think that's pretty sweet.
- [49:25]
B
One thing is like, for sure, on the cattle, on the cattle side, it's like pretty repetitive. And it's not a bad thing because now, I mean, over the course last three years, we've been able to hit almost every show and know we need to take this deer here and this deer here to this guy and this guy. But I do feel like, you know, here, before long we need to have something fresh out there because you can only take repetitiveness for so long. You know, you got to have something different, something right.
- [49:50]
C
And I didn't. I guess I didn't.
- [49:52]
A
Yeah, I.
- [49:52]
C
To kind of go back on. On that. I guess I didn't talk a lot about like, you know, taking the right kind to the right guy or whatever. Goes a little bit back to what we talked about earlier some of these deals anymore just kind of pick your poison. And I think, you know, I think once in the show pig world, once you think you got a guy hammered down, like, hey, this is what he's going to pick, you know, if he gets the show and that his. His perfect type and kind isn't there. You know, I think that's what's cool about the showpig thing right now and about judges that truly do an awesome. An awesome job or the best job out there is, hey, this, this may not be my kind today, but this is still the best pig. You know, hey, I'm a power guy, but the. The powerful ones aren't here that aren't, you know, the powerful ones aren't good enough structure today. And I'm just using that example. So I'm going to use this good built one over here because he. He's the best one. Like, maybe that's not my speed, maybe that's not my type and kind, but at the end of the day, like, that's still the best one today. So I think that's what's interesting. Again, it's a pick your poison kind of situation. You know, we backed ourselves in the corner a little bit. I feel like, as an industry, because we've bred for so many parts and pieces, trying to get that unicorn, trying to get that freak that we've. We've ended up with a lot of pigs that are very problematic. And I don't. I'm not on here to sound negative because ours are far from perfect. Nobody's are. It's just. It's very hard to get, you know, like I said, that good built, good structured one that's airy, dense, stout, and got all the muscle you could ever ask for at every single show. I mean, it's just there. There's one that pops up every now and then, but it's just. It's hard at the end of the day. I don't care if you got five sows or 200 sows, it's just. It's really, really hard to make a. A truly elite one right now.
- [51:42]
D
Yeah, I like that. And I got. I'm not trying to get repetitive here, and I'm hoping it kind of doesn't go. I don't know how, but like, like, I know, like if I'm looking at a pig sale or some, every once in a while look at some baby pigs in a sale or if we somewhere and see a group of little baby pigs running around in a pin, I Find a lot of these things all, like, just quickly glancing at them look alike and. And like, it's like, how. Like, maybe that's just me.
- [52:01]
C
I don't know.
- [52:02]
D
But, like, what do you kind of look for? Like, maybe like a baby pig that kind of like any telltale signs that, like, this one's gonna be good or it kind of sets it apart, maybe like some pieces that's like, you know, this will feed, this will come. Like, I ain't worried about that in this stage of the game. And some pieces that's like, yeah, no, that one X. It's like a shot in the head.
- [52:19]
C
Yeah, I know. I love it. I. I don't know who's ever gonna listen to this. And maybe I'm gonna say, I'm gonna talk out of turn here, but most of us don't know. We're. We're throwing darts, and I think that's what keeps this pig thing alive. And like I said, maybe this isn't the popular thing to say, and you can delete this out if you want, but I told somebody that was by the farm, I said, if we knew, I mean, we. We'd only sell a few. And money, Money doesn't always buy your champion, and particularly in this species. And it's. It's just hard. I mean, these things change so fast. They change on a daily basis. Particularly. Particularly the crossbreds. And. But to go along with what you're saying. Yeah, I mean, we've. I mean, I sometimes even I go to the. I mean, I do this. I look at hundreds of baby pigs all day long and every day of my life. And sometimes I go to those sales and I'm like, I'm confused. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. But, yeah, no, it's hard. You know, so many of these baby pigs do look the same. They, you know, they got hair, they got bone, they got power. And it goes back to a little bit of like, you know, trying to figure out, you know, from a pedigree perspective, you know, is this one gonna. Is it gonna come. Is this one to come with some power? Is this one gonna come with some hair? Is this one gonna come with some stoutness? You know, is this one going to be, you know, good enough in his shoulder when it's all said and done? And honestly, like, like I said, a lot of. It's a little. Just guessing. I mean, if we're just being honest and that's what's cool about the pig thing, not that the other species you can't win with a cheaper one or you can't compete with a cheaper one because I don't think that's the case. And I don't know, I don't know a lot about the other species. Heck, I don't know a lot about these. But I, I do think that is what keeps the pig thing rolling is, you know, in this world, in the show pig world, there's so many out there, a lot of them are bred the same. We're all using a lot of the same bores that anybody has the ability to make the one that's going to win on the highest, highest level. You know, there are. A couple years ago, I think there was a bear that won Oklahoma Youth Expo. It was like $400. I think there was a pig that won San Antonio. Heck, it might have been last year that they said was like a $1200 pig. And that's cool. That's what keeps everybody going is, you know, if we all knew on sale day, you know, this is going to be the one that wins, well, there'd be one pig that brought a lot of money and then we just give the rest away. So to answer your question, I don't, I don't have an answer to your question. Now, we know good from bad and we, you know, I can make a, I can make a pretty educated guess, but at the end of the day, I mean, customers just gotta buckle up, make their own decisions and you know, spend their money as wisely as they can and hope for the best.
- [55:12]
D
Yeah, that's fair. So now as we start to bring this episode to a close, I think it's been great. So I want to know maybe what's some of your favorite quotes or Bible verses or even songs or anything that kind of keeps you going, keeps you driven every day?
- [55:25]
C
Yeah, no, that's, that's, you know, I don't get, I don't get big on, on quotes, but you know, one I've always, one I've always liked and I'll probably say it wrong but you know, they always say like hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work. And I've, I've always tried to tell my guys that, I've always tried to tell my, my young kids that, that show Force and stuff because kind of goes back to what we just talked about. You know, you can have all the money in the world and you can buy that $40,000 bear or that $10,000 bear or that $20,000 bearer or whatever it may be, but I Mean, if you don't. If you don't put the work in and you don't put the grind in, it's not going to matter. And, you know, we didn't grow up with a ton of money. We didn't grow up with, you know, I was. Like I said, I was very fortunate to have parents that knew stuff about livestock. But I can promise you, growing up, there was, dang sure a lot of kids, and even now my peers that are, dang sure more talented, we come to work every day here at Team Sloan, and we just try to outwork them. And I think that's a good quote that you can live by. And it doesn't matter if you're showing pigs or whatever you want to do, playing sports, whatever it may be, I think that's a good quote. The other one, the other one that I really like that I tell my boys here, tell my employees often, and I think it's incredible to. Once you think about it is. I think it goes like. When opportunity knocks, it's too late to prepare, I think is how it goes. And I think it kind of goes back to what we talked about earlier in the episode. It's like, you know, you're talking about breeding sows or you're flushing heifers or flushing cows, whatever. You're maybe doing whatever you cattle people do, but you. I mean, you can't. You can't sell what you don't have. I always tell my guys that, you know, what we're breeding today, I mean, that's gonna. That's gonna determine the opt. You know, that's gonna determine what we're gonna do down the road. You know, if someone shows up to buy a pig and you didn't do your homework, you're not going to sell a pig, and I think that's cool. It kind of goes back to what we talked about, about preparing for a sale, too. I mean, if you, you know, I talked earlier about getting them prepared, getting them ready to sell, and then you have a sale and no one shows up, well, if you want to reverse that and say, hey, you got 700 people that just showed up to buy a show pig, but you didn't have them tan, you didn't have them broke, and you didn't have them mated. Right. You didn't have them ready to sell. You didn't. You didn't capitalize on the opportunity. Absolutely.
- [57:56]
B
So now I want to ask you. It's a question that we ask every episode, and I have since this thing ever started. But I Feel like maybe your answer is going to be a little different because you said it earlier, and it ain't wrong. It's just you don't have, like that necessarily family built. You're still rolling by yourself. And so I think your answer is gonna be a little different. I'm kind of excited. But what empowers you to be better than you were yesterday?
- [58:19]
A
I.
- [58:19]
C
You actually sent me that question earlier, and I thought, man, I don't know what the heck I'm gonna answer this. But no, no, that's real good. And honestly, that I thought about that one for a minute. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe this wasn't supposed to be. Maybe I wasn't supposed to say you sent me those earlier. But no, I. I thought about that one. That was. That was maybe the only one that I caught me up on. And I thought it's a real good question because, you know, sometimes when you lay in bed, you kind of got to ask yourself, like, well, what are we going to get up tomorrow? Why are we getting up tomorrow? What are we doing that for? And, you know, I think there's two things that come in mind, and they kind of go hand in hand. You know, I'd say the kids and the families and the crews that come and support us day in and day out, or sale season, show season, whatever it may be, you know, you know, as a breeder and a livestock enthusiast and someone that has so much passion for this, you expect the most out of your customers. You expect them to get up early and feed just like you do here. You expect them to get them tan, you expect them to get them broke. You expect to, you know, you expect them to show up to the show with awesome skin and hair and get them shown right and get them hydrated right and get them presented right. And if you're going to expect that, or if I'm going to expect that out of my customers, I want my customers to expect that out of me, too, you know, So I think it's the kids, the families, the people that want to get to the backdrop, you know, whether it's, you know, whether their goals, winning a class or winning Denver or winning San Antonio, or winning the Illinois State Fair, whatever their goals are, I think you owe it to them or I owe it to them to provide them the best opportunity that they can have to get to that point, because we expect that out of them. And I think it's a. It's a team effort. So we're all in this together. If they're. If they're going to expect that from me, I expect that from them, vice versa, so on and so forth. And then the second thing, like I said, goes hand in hand. And maybe this gets a little deep, a little emotional. But, you know, I've always told people like my. My younger self, you know, my Troy Sloan at 12 or Troy Sloan at 15 or even Troy Sloan at 18, would have said, hey, you got to keep pushing forward. Like, this is what you wanted. This is what you. This is what you dreamed about. This is what you know, this is what you stayed up late night, late at night thinking about, like, let's give it all we got. Like, get up and do it again tomorrow. So that'd probably be my. My two cents there.
- [60:48]
B
That's a great way to end it. Great. We usually do a Bible verse at the end of every episode and I got one for us if you want to sit down for just a minute. I think it's important that we keep that rolling. And I had someone like text me on messenger the other day. It's like saying like, it's a little cliche to do all that. You don't need to shove religion down people's throats. But I ain't shoving it down your throat. If you don't like it, don't listen to my podcast. I just went honestly as that. But it comes from First Timothy 2, 5, 6. And it says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind. The man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. And this has now been witnessed to at the proper time. I think, for lack of better words, in the state that we're at right now, like everything that's happened with Charlie Kirk and everything, it just goes to show, like, you have to keep one way path to know that the Lord's going to take care of anything that goes on as long as you trust him. That's kind of how I saw that. I don't know about y', all, but I think it's pretty neat.
- [61:49]
C
So. Yeah, no, absolutely.
- [61:52]
B
With all this said, I appreciate you coming on Troy. It means a lot. It's been a hot minute and we've been trying for a while, but I'm glad we got it done and means a lot. For sure. Yeah.
- [62:02]
C
Glad you got me tracked down. Hopefully it was worth listening to.
- [62:05]
B
Oh, for sure. Well, with all this said, this is going to be empowering you with Troy Sloan. We'll see you all next week. Thank you all for tuning in.
- [62:16]
A
Make sure to check out our website@empoweryoupodcast.org where you'll find our team's story, sponsor highlights and merchandise. But also make sure to check out our social media on Facebook and Instagram powerupod to stay up to date on episode, sneak peeks and releases, merchandise updates and sponsor announcements. We are proud to have you as a listener on and hope you gained more knowledge through us. Make sure to give us a five star rating and have a blessed day.