← The Championdrive Podcast
The Championdrive Podcast
Episode 2.10 - Rookie of the Year Week with guests Tyson Rule & Mattie Haynes
01:01:19
It’s Rookie of the Year week, presented by Rival Show Feeds & Rule Supplements, at Championdrive.com! We caught up with Tyson Rule from Rival/Rule and Mattie Haynes the Livestock Judging Coach from NEO!
Loading summary
Transcript78 lines
- [00:02]
Kaylin Sister
Now entering the ring, another episode of.
- [00:04]
Steva Robinson
The Champion Drive podcast, presented by Novel.
- [00:07]
Kaylin Sister
Designs with your hosts, Kaylin Sister Urban and Steva Robinson.
- [00:22]
Steva Robinson
Sister. It is my favorite week of the year, and it's not because Christmas is coming up. It's because it's Rookie of the Year week. And you want to know why it's my favorite why? Because this is what me and my friends talk about all the times. Oh, did you see this new buck? What's this new buck? What have you heard about this one? So this is like the time of the year when it's kind of the culmination of what all new bucks came out, kind of. What's everyone excited on? What are their genetics? What's their pedigrees? And we're so close to being able to see the babies out of them. Do you ever go back through and browse the Sudram Showcase?
- [00:58]
Tyson Rule
Yeah, I do. I do catch myself going back through the Sudram showcases, and even whenever I was trying to figure out all the genetics and pedigrees for all those rookies and even man of the Year and everything like that, I did go back through our stuttering showcase and look through those. I think one of the cool features that we have on there is, like, you can tell who's new off of that year. Like, right off the top, you can. It'll say, like, new in 2024 or in 2025 next year or whatever it may be. Like, it's really easy to just go back there and say, like, oh, these would be good rookie nominees. Or, you know, these are. These are what's new and this is what's hot. So I do really like that feature that we have.
- [01:36]
Steva Robinson
Yeah, for sure. And I think since we started the Rookie of the Year, I think rule supplements or rival feeds, which is all via Tyson Rule, I think that he's been a big supporter of it the whole time, and I caught up with him on this episode. It was interesting to visit with him. Tyson wears a lot of different hats in the industry. So for those of you that don't know Tyson, I think we did a pretty good job of kind of explaining what his role is in the industry and then kind of pinpointed it down to rural supplements and rival show feeds, how they work together, how they came to be, kind of some of the products they offer. So I think that's been. I thought the episode was a real good recording. And then we got to talk a little bit about our Iowa State days and kind of some sports in there as well. So let's get right into his. Hey, all, today I'm here with Tyson Rule. Tyson obviously has a lot of different roles in our industry, but we're visiting with him today about Rule supplements and rival feeds. Tyson, thanks for joining us. Let's get started a little bit and kind of give everyone kind of a view of what your roles in the industry are. I know some of you, some people might know you through Rule Rural Sheep Company. Some of you might know them as their AI tech. You might be the guy with the plane, you might be Maverick's dad, you might be the feed guy. So let's kind of tell them a little bit about your background in the industry.
- [02:56]
Maddie Haynes
Yeah, well, thanks, Steven, for having me. You know, I, I do wear lots of different hats in our industry, which, you know, it's kind of self induced on my part, which, you know, sometimes runs us into a little bit of time management problems. But, you know, it mainly started, you know, just like everybody else 4h kid back in the early 90s, you know, my first couple show lambs were bought from Keith Barry and Dan Nordruff. You know, grew up in the industry, love the show showing side of it, you know, started my own flock back in 95, you know, and so I still think of myself as the, you know, the young show kid that, you know, had four H projects and, you know, wanted to learn, you know, wanted to always be, you know, go from the county fair kid to the state fair kids, the national caliber kid, you know, and, you know, and now it's kind of weird because I still think of myself that way and you know, I'm now the, the old guy in the club is the, you know, per se way to look at it where, you know, we've been. Our first national champion was in 2001, which seems like yesterday for me, which I realized that's before most of our showmen today were being, were born and a lot of our breeders were, you know, you know, born also. So that's kind of wild on that side. But, you know, from that point on, you know, I left Iowa State in 2001, went to the copier sales world after college, spent five years in business, to business sales in that world. Learned a lot about how business itself actually worked. Decided that I missed the agricultural industry. Wanted to take some of those things that I learned in the business world and kind of implement them into our ag world. You know, back then, show lamps weren't really a huge, you know, it wasn't a huge industry like it is today. I mean, there wasn't a semen industry. There wasn't, you know, high end sales, there wasn't online sales. So it was, you know, straight, direct, you know, getting customers to your farm, you know, selling sheep privately, county fairs, you know, state fairs, you know, the state. The national scene was still pretty small. We kind of came up with some different ideas from the other world, from the business world to try to, you know, implement into how we could go from raising, you know, 120, 200, use my dad's local farm, to growing our business to, you know, be able to have a full time employee so he didn't have to do anything by himself. Which, you know, that business plan turned into me coming back and working full time in the, you know, with the business, which is, you know, in turn morphed into the rule sheep company of, you know, a 2,000 head plus operation, you know, with rural sheep company, rule supplements and, you know, our different entities having, you know, more than 15 full time employees. So we've morphed considerably from, you know, day one, which you mentioned, also the reproduction world. I mean, we started our first AI program large scale in 2009. Since then we had our first 400 use on, on that, you know, in that month and you know, haven't turned back. You know, now we between our veterinarian on site, Dalton, myself, we do either between him on AIs and embro transfer transfers. We probably do over 20,000 a year. It's just kind of continues to grow and grow and we're trying to figure out how to fit it all in, trying to figure out how to, you know, manage time appropriately as best as possible and still be able to handle the, you know, the feed and supplement questions as they come up for customers also.
- [06:03]
Steva Robinson
Yeah. So you first entered the feed business through rural supplements, Correct?
- [06:08]
Maddie Haynes
Correct. So, you know, the rural supplement started with a partner that I was doing an action AI actually in California. And I was, had just fielded a phone call of a customer who had a buck lamb who wasn't fertile. You know, it was, you know, an eight month old buck. And I was kind of complaining the fact that I just seen the sheep, he was super skinny. And one of our struggles was, you know, how do we sell a ram, make sure he gets proper nutrition so, you know, so that our rams could be fertile at that point. Because, you know, the, the AI season hadn't really taken off at that point yet. I mean, there was some, you know, probably, I would say 4,000, 5,000 head being AI'd across the country at that point. So There's a lot of clean, you know, in theory, there was mainly cleanup ramps at that point. You know, I, I was actually AI ing for the nutritionist Jed Asthmas that partnered with me on Rule Sevens from the get go. And you know, after the AI, he came up to me and was like, hey, I actually have a product that we use in the dairy world that I think we could tweak and, you know, tweak and actually kind of formally for small ruminants. He said that I think would solve one of your problems. And you know, if we, you know, if you sent this product with every ram you sell, you know, I think you can, you know, you know, and they'll feed it. He said, I think you'll have, you know, a lot better success with, you know, fertility of those rams going out, you know, and be able to keep your rams a lot healthier, a lot happier and, you know, and, you know, make a lot happier customers. And that was the step one of rule supplements was a conversation, you know, after an AI which, you know, solved the problem for, you know, for myself. And then, you know, from that point on we expand the line into, hey, how do we make donors, you know, more fertile and you know, have higher a quality and have a, you know, a bigger response on flush days. Those two situations turn into how do we go about making show lambs, you know. You know, how do we make a higher quality supplement that's more concentrated so we don't have as much filler, you know, and be able to have best in class nutritional products, you know, that, you know, you know, don't really care about the cost at that point because we're not trying to do a lease cost ration, you know, that from that point on, you know, we went to how do we get, you know, complete feeds that have a lot of these precursors into those complete feeds so that we can, some of the customers who can't get all the, you know, supplements right away, I mean, can have, you know, have a lot of those same high quality ingredients into the feed. So it was, you know, it was a simple thought process at the beginning which then all of a sudden turned into, you know, complete, you know, full blown, you know, operation, you know, company.
- [08:34]
Steva Robinson
So when you started, or from the time you started real supplements to the time you started rival show feeds, what's the timeline there approximately?
- [08:42]
Maddie Haynes
So we started rule supplements, you know, I think about 16, 20, 16, 2017, which had rival feeds we started myself, we started a small brand of just our sheep Show Feed In 2018, 2019, my partner in the company of Rule 7's rival feeds, Blaine Rogers, he had a kind of a coexisting brand called rival feeds that he had for just steers for cattle out on the west coast. And probably it was about the same timeline at that point. We'd kind of worked, you know, with Blaine kind of just in the sheep side and a little bit on some nutritional side. He came to work, you know, with us right at the beginning of, I think, 22. That's kind of where we decided to, you know, for, you know, take the two companies, put them to one, both his company on the cattle side, you know, on the rival brand that he had put together, you know, my small, my ran that I had for the rival sheep side and then also rule supplements and form one, you know, one corporation, you know, one entity that can both service, you know, the supplement side and the complete feed side of, you know, not just sheep and, you know, sheep and goats, where I've been, you know, mainly specifying, but also cattle and knowing that we're going to grow into the pig world also. So that would have happened in the beginning of 2022, where we went from, you know, different separate companies into one, you know, entity itself.
- [10:00]
Steva Robinson
Let's dive into the sheep feeds first and then we'll kind of come back to kind of like some bigger picture things. If our listeners were to feed rival show feeds and rule supplements, can you kind of explain from start to finish, when they get their lambs home from an online sale or they get all. Everything gathered up from the naughty list sale this week or whatnot, what should they start out with? And then kind of what's the progression from now until their state fair or until Kansas City next year? Like, what kind of. What's the. Just the kind of a general feeding process.
- [10:36]
Maddie Haynes
Yep. So the awesome thing about the rival show lamp feed is it's designed as one skew. So the, the benefit to both feed stores and customers is, you know, you don't have to have multiple different, different types of feed to be able to complete feeds to be able to feed to the animals through their different growing seasons. So the feed that you'll, you know, the breeders would feed to the end, you know, end of the show lamp season is the exact same feed. So we love it because there's no big transitioning thresholds or any problems you have to have in that regard. And we do all the tailoring for the different specific needs of the growing phase through supplementation. So, like, as we start in our Creep feeds. You know, since we're trying to maximize quality, trying to maximize gut health. You know, we have a huge amount of animals in a small environment. You know, we also feed formula on a free choice basis to those animals with grass, hay and our rival feed that allows them to kind of keep our, you know, healthy bugs in the system. Trying to keep our feed conversion or feed efficiency, you know, our maximum rates. You know, the rival feed, you know, they love it because they eat started early. You know, it has all the extra precursors for other supplements in the feed. It has our different levels of, you know, coccidio stats in it. Whether you use arrival on the sheep side with the decocks or the goat feed on the reminson side for those different, you know, different small ruminant divisions. So that's how we start them off. Customers that have smaller operations and are maybe are, you know, trying to get them ready for a live sale. We have some of those that like to use the bark product and kind of mix that into a four parts of complete feed. So one part bark kind of as they get to day 45 to, you know, to live sale day, just to add that extra amount of bloom freshness, you know, pop and shape expression, you know, just that bulk and density of muscle which we, we love the, you know, the bark product for that portion.
- [12:26]
Steva Robinson
We fed bark last year on some of our sales sheep. And I really thought it did a nice job.
- [12:31]
Maddie Haynes
So we'll have, you know, customers that we'll use at that point, you know. And also like if you're buying sheep on a live sale, a lot of, you know, our show customers, you know, as that's a. Is a stressful environment, you know, a lot of our customers will take them home and kind of keep them on that four parts of show feed to one part of bar call. So, you know, and then at that point, you know, customers kind of have the ability to do what they like to at that point. You know, some of them like to just kind of, hey, mellow them out and just kind of put them back onto a basic rival show feed, you know, a little bit of formula. Some like to use a total carry. And there's two different kind of pre products that you know, we have available for customers based on what they like the best and they'll kind of leave on that point, kind of let them kind of either based on what their goals are. Some customers need to, for a Midwest state fair need to kind of push some customers for the, you know, the fall series kind of want to Just kind of slow roll. So the guys like to push. They're always going to keep, you know, kind of their, their fat or their bulk source, whether it be a hard, fast push with using the product thick or kind of a nice kind of consistent product of a push and a bulk and of the bark. So those are kind of the two pushes that they'll use, you know, as those, you know, animals start to kind of get towards more like a hundred pounds, kind of get to get a little bit of smooth cover kind of put onto them and a little bit of density and a little bit of bulk into their muscle shape. That's where our shredded product comes into play for the majority of sheep that we like to push. And that's one of those really cool products. I like a bunch. It's a higher protein product and that's kind of what we kind of use as a base. But where it's really cool is it has some really proprietary plasmas in it. It has some blockchain amino acids. Not all proteins are created equal. I mean, this one is really cool as far as, with some of its rum and bypass proteins that are put together where we feel like, you know, you know, if you just think of it as a burning, you know, fat protein, you're missing the boat. What we really think it does, it really adds a lot of bulk and shape. So, you know, we can add, you know, some, the calories, you know, kind of help to fuel the animal with the, with the bark, you know, and use those extra proprietary ingredients plus the shredded. And that's where we get a lot of extra shape and a lot of extra density of muscle while our sheep are growing. So that, you know, you hear a lot of, you know, breeders get at this, you know, disappointed where like, hey, I sold the sheep and he had a, you know, he was really thick and stout. And I went back to see the customer and at 110 pounds, he kind of grew out of all this muscle. You know, the bark and the shredded combination together are kind of designed to allow that animal to continue to maximize its muscle growth, you know, even as it grows in the skeleton design.
- [14:50]
Steva Robinson
So then what about, like, when we get to like a holding stage, like say that we show through our county and our state fair, then we decide we're going to wrap them around and go to Louisville, which isn't as big of a deal anymore as it used to be, because I think genetically, like, our sheep are kind of disappointed. Designed to get more mature and be able to withstand the maturity. But what about in terms of like a holding ration. Like it's not like it used to be before when we were showing 190 pound suffix back when you were finishing up and and whatnot. Like now we've got to kind of hold a little bit too. So what do we, what do we feed there?
- [15:22]
Maddie Haynes
You know. You know, the nice part, you know about that is like I said, the sheep are designed a little more to where they can hold better than what we could back in, you know, back in my heyday. And you know, the, the beginning, you know, you're at the beginning of your heyday so you know, the nice, you know, like. So the rival feed will have a lot of customers that you know, on a per day basis would just feed a total of one pound of rival base feed. They may feed, you know, a half a pound of the bark products and 4 ounces of shred at that point. And we have another product called Swoop that we're a big fan of. It gives, it's a, it's a higher fiber based product that's kind of low in fat also because you know, as you're trying to hold those animals and they have a little more maturity to them. One of the problems we've had with some of the other, I call them fiber based products to kind of add more belly density, you know, belly swoop and so forth as they kind of, you know, will get a little chubbier on them. So that's kind of as you're holding them, you know, you're trying to kind of limit the amount of fat intake you can get. I love Swoop because it actually keeps them fresh, but it doesn't add, it's not designed to add fat to them. So we can, you know, use that as a filler product, you know, that actually will, you know, add a lot of belly to them, but it doesn't, you know, at the same time add a lot of calories. So it's a really great for holding at that point. You know, we love it on sheep and I know the steer guys love, you know, just as much on the cattle side. So. But you know, it's really neat to watch by how, you know, some of the, our products, you know, you know, like I said, you know, they, they have a lot of value as far as, you know, pushing for going to the state fair season, but then you make a little few small tweaks and all of a sudden they can really, you know, maximize them for going into those fall and winter shows for holding over.
- [16:47]
Steva Robinson
Absolutely. Well And I think there's a big part of why I wanted to get you on for the podcast, not only because you're a sponsor for the Rookie of the Year contest, but because I think it is important to learn how to use the products because you don't use the same product the same April 1st as you do November 1st. So I think it's important for people to hear that. And I've talked on several episodes like it used to be. We go to Sedalia, we'd sit down, we'd have a beer, and we'd all discuss it. Well, that doesn't happen very much anymore. And when it does, it might be at Young Guns or it might be, you know, at Bluegrass Babes, but it seems everyone's going so fast anymore, we very rarely get a chance to sit down and kind of pick each other's brains on it. So I think that's a really valuable part of the podcast is our listeners can kind of learn how to use the products. Speaking of learning how to use the products, let's go back a little bit to, like, from a breeder standpoint. You talked about the breeder supplements or, like, the baby boom, the Macho Man. Let's talk about them a little bit.
- [17:43]
Maddie Haynes
So, you know, I'll talk with macho mans, you know. You know, everybody's kind of heard the stereotypical answer that, you know, semen production takes, you know, spermatogenicist takes 60 days. So, you know, the. The semen that was produced 60 days ago is the semen that you get, you know, you know, today, you know, which is very, very true. So, you know, what we try to do is we try to minimize the peaks and valleys in that situation, you know, and there's always seasonality issues with ramps. That's where, you know, we tried to create a product that, you know, can kind of help, you know, help help minimize those seasonality issues and also just maximize, you know, overall health, but, you know, push a lot of things that will help with this vantagenesis process. So we, you know, we've loved the Macho man product where we can, you know, designed it to, where not only it works with, you know, helping this semen quality, but also the concentration and the volume that it produces. So, like, in our business, you know, we're big on, you know, we freeze semen on site, we send out fresh jumps. I mean, so, you know, the worst thing we have to do is jump a buck four times to be able to breed 30 ewes. You know, we want to be able to Jump the buck one time. And if we get a jump for, you know, enough head for 60 head, 80 head, I mean, it's, it's a big advantage for us. So, you know, Macho man is designed to increase, you know, you know, concentration levels. It's designed to, you know, increase, you know, overall, you know, ejaculate sizes so that we can actually have more live sperm cells per ejaculate so that we can breed more use per ejaculate, you know, with that, you know, trying to also minimize, you know, abnormalities, you know, on that side. So we have customers that, you know, will start using it usually 90 days out and then kind of run it in through the entire breeding season through, you know, through their semen free season. We feed it to our rams year round just because where we collect semen year round, you know, and have a couple months off or freezing, you know, it's just simpler to keep them on and worry about keeping the bucks at, you know, maximum, maximum, I guess, health and wellness the entire year. And it allows us to keep bucks a lot more fertile where we don't have the peaks in the valleys in that season.
- [19:35]
Steva Robinson
Macho Man's a top dress, correct?
- [19:38]
Maddie Haynes
Correct. It's top dress.
- [19:39]
Kaylin Sister
Yeah.
- [19:40]
Steva Robinson
Okay. And then what about Baby Boom?
- [19:42]
Maddie Haynes
So Baby Boom is a top dress also that we've, you know, have some customers that they will actually, you know, take and they'll mix it into their, you know, you buy it as a concentrate, they can take it to their mill. They can actually, you know, implement it into their U feed. It's designed to feed, you know, as a concentrate to. I think it's 16 use to. To 1 pound of feed. A 50 pound bag will cover 800 use for feeding. So you kind of can do the math backwards on that side. So we'll have some.
- [20:11]
Steva Robinson
I really enjoyed watching you struggle to try and do the math there. We have a video going which doesn't get published on the podcast. But for those of you that can't see, Tyson just kind of had this panic looked on his face of, oh, shit, I'm gonna have to do math quick. And I hope this is right, but good job.
- [20:25]
Maddie Haynes
Yeah, we always do. So we feed double, double race for our donors. So it's eight pounds, you know, our eight head per one pound. So I know that's 400 pounds, you know, know our 400 head per one, you know, for one 50 pound bag. So I did multiply that times two, which was a math, you know, math question I wasn't ready to answer. So, you know, on the basic AI formulation, you know, 150 pound bag will feed 800 views would be the easy math. Easy math on that side. But with that, you know, we start 45 days out before AIs. We go 45 days after 10 to help with that, you know, you know, that embryo retention, you know, you know, implement, you know, sticking to the, you know, stick, you know, trying to help with stickiness both whether it's a AI or whether it's actually an embryo transfer. Trying to stick that embryo to, you know, get through those first couple, you know, heat cycles that would have came through just to try to keep our conception rates the highest. It's been one, you know, you know, we've, we've loved it. We'll, we'll see ourselves with higher egg quality, you know, and we always talk about doing invert transfer work. You know, no one, no one likes degens, no one likes on ferts, you know, and there's nothing worse than, you know, also putting a bunch of eggs in. Then you come back and, you know, and you find out that, you know, hey, we got low conception rates for stick rates, you know, that's where, you know, we try to push all of our customers onto that do use us for reproductive services between Dr. Potamala and myself, just because, you know, if we're to outdo the work, mean we're using ourself and we want to have our clients have the best success rate possible because when they have high success rates, I mean that, you know, they have more success, they have more lambs to sell, you know, it's easier for them to come back and use our services again the next year. So, I mean, we're a little bit different that side. But, you know, if they use our reproductive services along with our feed supplements, we feel like it just really minimizes the amount of, you know, problems we could have going forward.
- [22:07]
Steva Robinson
Absolutely. As a whole picture, like of the entire rule supplements, rival show feeds. What do you think is the toughest thing about trying to keep up with all species? Like we talked some about, you know, Blaine's involvement in the cattle deal, your experience in the sheep and goats. And then you guys also have a really good product line for show pigs as well. What's, how do you keep up with everything and what's the hardest part of that?
- [22:31]
Maddie Haynes
You know, the biggest challenge to overcome, you know, is time management, of course. I mean, it's no different than, you know, I'm sure you, you know, you see the same thing on pig planet, you know, Champion drive and you know, branded, you know, trying to diversify your tam management on, you know, what you're going to spend, you know, sometimes a year. I mean, for me there's, there's nothing else I can do other than reproduction work. You know, I tell, you know, blame the girls in the office that, you know, hey, from July 5th till September 30th, me, I'm gonna have, you know, limited amount of access. I can really spend, you know, trying to, to solve big problems. So we try to solve all the big problems that we, you know, that may come about, you know, before that. You know, our businesses are kind of cyclical. So in trying to figure out that side of it, you know, and not work 18 hour day, you know, eight hour days where you never get to hang out with your wife and kids is tricky. You know, the nice part is, you know, my wife, my wife runs rule supplements. So you know, if I want to spend time with her, a lot of times it gets to be a conversation about rule supplements. So you know, the dinner table, you know, is like, so honey, how was today? You know, you know the halters, you know, did the halters come in, you know, hey, how was the, did the order, you know, get placed for, you know, supreme trailer sales or hated early birds premix go out for the day. So you know, that's, that's the enjoyment of that side. She, you know, is the one that takes care of all the day to day actions and make sure that the business actually operate. Which, you know, was started out being a, you know, being a very manageable process. And now like I said, we have to have a lot of employees to help her with that process because the, the company has grown so, so significantly in the last couple years. You know, and so time management's always, is, you know, is something we always try to struggle with internally. You know, as a company, you know, our products work awesome. You know, our customers know our products work awesome. You know, we're still not the big corporation that, you know, has, you know, know, points everywhere. So distribution, you know, and logistics is always kind of tricky. You know, we started out with an Amazon model where, you know, we had a warehouse with the product went to and then it went out directly to customers. You know, we were kind of, we've kind of modified into that model still. But we also have a distribution model where product goes to associated feeds in the west coast, it goes to early Bird on the east coast and then goes to our location in the Midwest and we try to lcl out from that point, or it's a feed store, you know, or directly to feed stores. You know, we're still trying to always grow that. That business to where, if there's a feed store in Kentucky, we try to figure out how to get them product at an economical price point, you know, at enough of a volume to where they can still get to their customers, an economical point. So that's always, you know, one of the, you know, things that we're always trying to learn more of. And, you know, that's one of the specialties that we're looking at trying to get better at, you know, but, you know, that's. Those are always fun challenges to take place. And that's what I get to do on, you know, my off season when I'm not doing repro work, is trying to, you know, streamline those processes and trying to figure out how to become more efficient on that side of it, you know. You know, as far as on the species, you know, how do we keep up with all that? You know, we. We surround ourselves with great people. You know, that's, you know, Blaine's one of the best in the cattle world. I mean, you know, it's, you know, without a doubt. I mean, as far as whether it's in the breeding side and, you know, on the semen side, whether it's in the show world, in the cattle side, or, you know, the selection side, I mean, he's as good as it gets. And his family's been known. Known for that forever. I mean, he's a standup gentleman that, you know, everybody, when they. When he gives his opinion, people respect it. You know, we try to find those people like Blaine and myself that, you know, are in the trenches in the day in, day out that, you know, are thought of well, you know, that aren't, you know, aren't the fast guys looking for the shortcuts, you know, of, you know, hey, here's the magic pill to give your animal to make a fat, you know, make it, you know, a quick, you know, quick fix. We want to find the guys that have programs that they put together, you know, whether it be in the sheep world, the cattle world, and we've kind of done that now in the pig world, where guys have success, they want to build a program that we can kind of work with them on. You know, they're looking for the best ingredients. They're not looking for the shortcut of, you know, hey, let's find cheap ingredients and cheap products that we can kind of push out the door. You know, we're you know, they're okay making smaller margins because, you know, ultimately we like to be the, you know, the low overhead guy that, you know, we don't have, you know, we have to worry about flying somebody to Ireland, you know, or, you know, putting people up at the horse races. We're the, we're the cheap guys, you know, you know, hey, we have, you know, a small office and, you know, we keep stuff, you know, keep our margins small so we can keep our, you know, our products higher quality. But finding those guys that are in the, you know, that can kind of lead the species, you know, they know what their role is, is, you know, I'm not trying to be the guy I can, I don't try to tell, you know, Steve how to feed her pigs because, you know, to be honest, you know, even though I am, you know, you know, a very, you know, my percentage of pig shows I've showed at to what we want is very high, you know, is going to count for today. But, you know, other than that, you know, you know, I find people that know more about, you know, those things than what I do and I stay in my lane and what I don't know, what I don't know, I go find the experts in the field to teach us, you know, because that, what I don't know is, you know, I find those experts that do know, you know, so I'm not afraid to ask and when, you know, what I don't know.
- [27:17]
Steva Robinson
So. Awesome. Well, I think the last question I have for you, this one goes back to Tyson and I both went to Iowa State. And I gotta know which is more of a heartbreaker every year, Iowa State football or Iowa State basketball.
- [27:31]
Maddie Haynes
You know, the thing about being an Iowa State fan, you know, I'm going to compare it like going to Louisville as a analogy. So like, when, you know, we're not Alabama, you know, we're not, you know, you know, University of, you know, you know, we're not in the sec. So like when we go to Louisville, you know, as our family, you know, we're going there trying to win the show, you know, so we're the Alabama. We're trying to make, you know, the playoffs and so forth, you know, I think of Iowa State, you know, as in me as a fan, is we're the guys that we're there to have a good time. We have our crock pot there. We want to try to hit the scales. And if we get to the scales and make it through that deal, you know, we're cheering for our kid, as they come across the scale, they make weight, you know, they're on the other side. So, you know, I would say Iowa State's football season this year, we made the scales, we made it through and you know, all of a sudden, you know, Matt Kennedy saw us walking off the scales and he realized that we weren't quite good enough and he pulled us right away. And that's how I think Iowa State's football season went. So I was very, very happy with the fact that we made a 10 win season. You know, I was Iowa State during our glory days of Seneca Wallace and Sage Rosenfeld, and we never had a 10 win season. So that was, you know, so this year was awesome for us. You know, I miss the fact that Hunter Deckers, you know, our hometown boy, could not be there. So I'm still a little bit better at the Iowa State. You know, I guess the executives behind the administration on that side for maybe not sticking with him quite as much as they could have. But that's a secondary time point.
- [29:04]
Steva Robinson
But I think the basketball team was good when you were there too, right?
- [29:08]
Maddie Haynes
We did, we had, you know, we had Nurse, we had Pfizer, we had Tinsley. So, you know, I wasn't as good a friend, friends with those guys as Nick Barry was, but I was more friends with the football kids. So I probably followed that deal just a little bit longer with, you know, some of my roommates being football players. So it was more fun to, fun to go to football games versus, you know, the basketball games. But we, we had a great season, you know, got a lot of good athletics since we're like, I left and our athletic programs went to, you know, went down the drain. So I, you know, feel like I was probably a big push for why the athletic program was so good at that point.
- [29:38]
Steva Robinson
And well, and I must be the reason that they went to shit because I was there for the bad years right after you and it was real bad. We got really excited the one year we got to go to the Independence bowl in Shreveport. And every time I go to the Louisiana State Fair, I think like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that we came and played in the stadium for a bowl game and how excited we were to be like bowl eligible in 500 and come to Shreveport, Louisiana.
- [30:02]
Maddie Haynes
So anyway, one of my great stories, stories of I know of Iowa State where people, you know, don't get to remember is so we talk about the bowl game in Shreveport. I actually went to the bowl game in Arizona national, which is so Arizona national, it was, I think it was called the insight bowl, insight.com bowl back then and same time as Arizona national, which was great. The downside was it was on, you know, it was right after New Year's Eve and I may or may not have had some college friends that were out there. We had a little bit too much fun. And my ride to take me back to the Midwest with our, you know, pickup and trailer may have left me at in Phoenix because I didn't get up early enough the next day.
- [30:44]
Steva Robinson
So I had to ride Rob Rule.
- [30:47]
Maddie Haynes
More Elk City based at that point in Hayward, Iowa base. So nice patience level. What wasn't quite as good. So he might have said, hey, find her, find a way back to Oklahoma. I'm taking off. And so I got to ride back to El City, Oklahoma with some, some college buddies to get back. So that was, that was my Iowa State bowl, you know, bowl festivities back in Arizona.
- [31:11]
Steva Robinson
Well, thanks for being on with us today and again, thanks for being a sponsor. The rookie of the year sister and I will talk a little bit more about Rookie of the Year once we sign off here with Tyson, but thanks again, Tyson. Have a merry Christmas.
- [31:23]
Maddie Haynes
All right, thanks, everybody. Merry Christmas. Foreign.
- [31:31]
Steva Robinson
This weekend is Santa's Favorites, which is Birch livestock sale. That is in Seaward, Nebraska. They had a sale last night, Friday night, and then again today, Saturday, there's a semen evaluation workshop. The lambs are available for viewing. There's sale preview. There's a keynote speaker featuring Dr. Dan Morle. Meal, happy hour, live sale, everything. If you're not there, I know several of our customers are there. If you're not there, you can tune in on CCI Live and SC and watch that. There's a link on Champion Drive to get directly to their sale. So good luck to everyone who's headed to that and safe travels, sister. I know you did a little bit of work on this Santa's Favorites graphics. Do you want to talk about that?
- [32:14]
Tyson Rule
Yeah. So the way they set it up is really, really easy. All the breeders had to do is just fill out a Jotform link and they could drop in their logo pictures that they wanted used on there as well as, like, information. And it made it super, super easy to follow all the information and to put it all, all the graphics together. I know that there were a lot of breeders that utilize that, that tool that Colby and his family offered. So I thought that was really, really cool. I really enjoyed getting to work on them, and I'm excited to see what's to come out of their sale.
- [32:45]
Steva Robinson
Yeah. And that's a great thing that you can add like to any type of a group sale. Like we can have it set up where our crew at Novel Designs takes care of doing those like lot graphics. I know we do party. We've done it for Megan for the Saturday Night Live sale before and it just kind of has everything have a cohesive look to it. So yes, that was Sister's big project for the week. Our other big project for the week at Champion Drive, we've been awfully busy getting the rookie of the year rolled out. Again. We mentioned that sponsored by Rural Supplements and rival show feeds. If you visit Champion Drive, you can kind of see an overview of their entire line of supplements and we just talked to Tyson about that as well. So I feel like our viewer, our listeners have a really good grasp on what all they offer. But thanks again to them for their sponsorship. Let's go over some of the top nominees. The first one that's up is All Natty, which is a Walk this Way by Black Liz which was I believe Black Liz was the straight out of Compton female that Maddie Wood showed that one Reno, I believe if I remember. I'm just going off memory on that, but I actually did not realize that until right now. And I love that Sheep is a baby. That one was real good before his sale. I distinctly remember where she was at in the barn and everything. But anyway, so that's the dam of All Natty. He is owned by Rule Sheep company and still Club Lambs.
- [34:00]
Tyson Rule
Goose is also up. He's a chief top tier. He is also one of our rookie of the years. He's our RRFD raised by fries and club lands and he's owned by Hoeing Hill. I know that that's one that they're pretty proud of and I think he's been utilized pretty heavy across the country. So I'm excited to see the babies out of him and excited to see him up as our rookie of the year.
- [34:22]
Steva Robinson
Next one up is Bloodline. Bloodline is raised by Platinum Shelton and owned by Platinum Shelton and Corner View. He's a Ceasefire Saban Queen and I believe that that one sold as the bluegrass babes Pick of Platinum. Sold like a pick of their Decembers maybe last year. A pick of, of a group and that was the one that Corner View went in and picked out out of that. So I know he's been talked about quite a bit and he's up as a top nominee.
- [34:48]
Tyson Rule
Also Rare Air is up. He's a Chief Unicorn 8178. He's raised by enough livestock and he's owned by Davis Show Lambs and Rural Livestock and I know that's one that they are pretty, pretty excited about. We saw him down in Texas at the open house during Blue Blood, so that was exciting to see him and I was glad to see him up as well.
- [35:10]
Steva Robinson
Next up is Trace Amigos. Trace Amigos is a Ceasefire Sabin that is raised by Beatty and owned by Beatty, Nathan and Tyler Rhodes. I know this one has been one that has come up in a lot of conversations like through my friend group or whatever, like people asking, you know, have you seen him? Are you thinking about breeding to him? He's definitely one that a lot of people have towards the top of their mind when they're thinking about new bucks to breed to. I think it definitely an interesting pedigree there.
- [35:40]
Tyson Rule
The next one we have up is a true say when he's smoking cowboy. He's raised by Kriego Livestock. He's FF and that's a nice blue buck that we have up as well.
- [35:50]
Steva Robinson
The river of Amstutz's is a this one's a Deuces Wild bombshell and I believe that Journey, which was the reserve commercial you at Louisville for Bailey M. Sutter last year is a full sister to the river.
- [36:03]
Tyson Rule
The next one we have up is King Kong. He's a Mythical on P417 which is a donor here at Alanukum. She's a drop the mite beast. He is RRFD and he's owned with Middlesworth Club Lambs. I know that I saw a few babies out of him this last week and I thought they looked pretty intriguing. So I'm excited to see what's to come for him.
- [36:23]
Steva Robinson
Dirty south of Pruitt necklace. That one is an Undercover Brother gorilla. Drop the mic. And I believe that one goes back to Steak Knight's Fleshmate sister, which we talked a little bit ago on a different top nominee that it went back to 8,168 mom. 8,168 is steak nights Mom. So same goes back to that same you family, which I think is kind of interesting. Anyways, that one's named Dirty South. I've heard a lot of nice things from the guys out of the south on that one. And actually fun fact, we have JD Pruitt on our podcast next week. I recorded with him a little bit earlier. He's on as he works for Essential Feeds now. But so JD will be on with us next week.
- [37:04]
Tyson Rule
And the last one we have up is Contagious. He's a unicorn on P879, which is a legit huckleberry ewe from Platinum Shelton. This one was raised by Alan Newcomb. He's rrfd and he's owned with Begolga Livestock and Simpson Livestock. And I know that was pretty hot this summer, and I'm excited to see what's to come out of him and what all he produces.
- [37:28]
Steva Robinson
Yeah. So be sure to head to championdrive.com you can check out the ads for all of those and for the other top nominees as well.
- [37:34]
Kaylin Sister
The.
- [37:34]
Steva Robinson
The voting on that closes on December 22, which is Sunday night. So be sure to head over there and cast your vote. And then after that, we have one more contest left, which will be the man of the Year, which is presented by Essential Feeds. The voting for that will be December 26th through the 29th. So we take a little bit of a break for everyone to celebrate for Christmas. And if you're on your way to Arizona, then you can start your voting and researching for the man of the Year. We will be back after that with one more podcast episode for that. But who do we have as our second part of today's episode?
- [38:08]
Tyson Rule
Yeah, our second guest is actually Maddie Haynes. She's the NEO judging coach here in Oklahoma. And you know, she judged a lot. I remember when she was in college judging and then she, she kind of talks about how she went off to D.C. and kind of took a little bit of a different career path for a little bit and then she ended ended up coming back to be the judging coach at NEO again. She's super, super nice. She's very well respected here in Oklahoma and I thought she was just a good guest to get on and I really enjoyed her episode. Maddie, thanks for joining me today. For those of you that don't know Maddie is the judging coach at neo. Do you mind telling me a little bit about what got you started into being the lifestyle judging coach and kind of your path that led there?
- [38:54]
Kaylin Sister
Sure, sure. Well, first off, thank you for having me. Quite the opportunity, I guess you could say. Never did I expect to be a livestock judging coach. I started judging when I was very, very young and knew I wanted to judge collegiately. So I actually attended NEO and judged here in junior college and then transferred to Oklahoma State and was on the 2021 team there at OSU that entire time. I had no desire really to be a judging coach and never even give it much thought. And so I was an animal science, ag business dual major there at osu. And so when I finished my undergrad, I took a internship in D.C. and worked on Capitol Hill for a bit and always thought my plan was to go to law school. So originally I thought I was going to return home and study for the LSAT with hopes of going to law school. School. But while I was there, I guess you could say that God kind of got a hold of me and I decided that he was calling me different directions. And this job come open while I was in D.C. and I kind of thought about applying and finally did. And so I actually applied, interviewed, and accepted the job while I was in D.C. and hopped on a plane and started my job the next week when I got home from Washington. And I always say it's the biggest blessing in disguise of my life to this point. Coaching was something that I never expected or anticipated, but for sure something that I'm grateful for and has changed my life for the better.
- [40:29]
Tyson Rule
Yeah. So tell me a little bit about, like, what you find the hardest. Coaching the kids. You know, you were a kid yourself, and then you kind of went off and kind of went a different path a little bit, and then you came back. And so what do you see being the difference coaching kids? You know, you've coached kids that kind of went through that Covid stage of high school and college. So what's that been like?
- [40:48]
Kaylin Sister
Sure, sure. I think, you know, one of the hardest things for me with coaching is I care so much. Right. And when you care so much about something and the folks or the kids in this instance that you're doing it for, you're so vested and it comes with worry and just all sorts of emotions. I say coaching is kind of an emotional roller co for me, there's highs and lows with anything coaching. I haven't seen much Covid effects because I think those kids were still exposed to the livestock industry and often agriculture, where wheels were still turning during the pandemic. But I will say, you know, I have a teaching component of my position as well. And so in the classroom and academically, I think we are still seeing effects of COVID and just how learning is different for those students and how they've had to learn differently because they were in school during the pandemic. And a lot of these kids now were, at least in, you know, middle school or early, early years of high school when we experienced the pandemic. And so different learning styles and having to engage those students differently on the judging team, not as noticeable, but for sure effects there in the classroom. But, you know, even though I think coaching has its challenges and I say, you know, caring and loving the kids so much brings, you know, the toughest battles, I think that's also what makes coaching so rewarding. And so though difficult at times, it's. I wouldn't trade the difficulties because one moment of, you know, one moment of something going right is worth all the moments of something being challenging. For sure.
- [42:28]
Tyson Rule
Yes, absolutely. And I know that you coached the reserve champion team at Kansas City this year and that team later went on to be the champion team at Louisville. So I know that you guys have, you know, had highs and lows getting to that point. So what did it take to get to where you're at and kind of what did you do to keep going?
- [42:44]
Kaylin Sister
Sure. So we were fortunate enough to find that success there at the majors this fall. And this, that made extra special because this group of kids or that team was the first team that I recruited to Neo and so extra special for me. First group of kids that I got to follow their story all the way through. And for sure, you know, a lot of just kind of trials and highs and lows, like you mentioned, getting to that point going into Kansas City, I just told myself, well, when I recruited those kids, I guess we'll just start from the very beginning. I recruited those kids. I said, I just want good kids that know what work and respect are and if they're livestock savvy, with some judging experience, that's great too. And so I was fortunate enough to get a group of them that are just hard working and they're just good kids above anything and they want to win and they want to work to win. And so it's been fun to watch them grow and fun to watch, you know, just good kids get the job done. They're all different. There's seven of them on the sophomore team and they're all very, very different. And so getting to know their personalities and each of them learning, you know, with those kids, all of them need to be coached differently and trying to make sure what I do fits what they need in that moment. Because not all students, I mean, they're not cookie cutters. And so that's been very fun getting to know them and getting to figure out how to motivate them to do their personal best. And then Kansas City, I'll be honest with you, I knew they could do it, but it was my first team and so I didn't have anything to compare it to. And I thought they'll do A good job, it'll be okay. We're going to be thankful either way. And I tell them, you know, you win with. You win with grace and humility, and if you lose, you lose with grace and humility. And so that's just kind of something we stay true to around here. And they done well there at Kansas City. And then we got home, and I thought, I think we can do a little bit better, but we're just going to keep working hard. Just keep your heads down and keep working hard was kind of our motto going into Louisville. And so I left early. We had a longer trip to Louisville than most, and there were times on the trip that I thought maybe I got him out a little too soon. And so there was a. We did a lot of kind of different things on our Louisville trip. Um, we had a lot of people pour into us and a lot of good stops where there was plenty of motivation. And so without that, I don't think we would have been able to get the job done there at Louisville. But before the contest, I had a wise person tell me, when I started coaching, if you don't know what to say to a team the night before the contest, just tell them to go do their jobs. And so that's kind of. That was my motto before Louisville. And I said, you guys will do fine. Just do your jobs. And I believe in you as long as you do your jobs. And so they come out of the contest and they said, we think we did our jobs. And I said, okay. And after the critique, I kind of calculated our drops, and I said, well, guys, you did your jobs, but I just don't know if it's going to be good enough. And so I felt terrible because before we went over for the awards, we talked about all the things that we could have done better. Um, and then we went over there to. To the awards, and they did their jobs well enough to win. But on the way home, the kind of. To show what kind of kids they are, we still talked about all the things that we could have done better to even had a better day on the floor. And I hope and I know that that's what's going to continue to fuel this team is because they got home and they're still working hard and wanting to do better. So I have this, like I said, my first team that I recruited here, and I couldn't be. Couldn't be more thankful for the success that they found and the people that they. That have believed in us, and for those kids to believe in me could have never expected it, and I'm so grateful.
- [47:00]
Tyson Rule
Yeah, that's a pretty special story. You know, I knew that you guys did well at Kansas City and your story kind of going into Louisville and just I didn't realize that that was your first team you recruited. So I think that's special in itself. So kind of going forward a little bit, what's your philosophy on sorting livestock?
- [47:19]
Kaylin Sister
You know, I started judging livestock judging at least a very early age. And I was taught just on fundamentals and, you know, just the big picture priority traits that makes the a good one, a good one, regardless of species. And so, you know, I think even as a person advances in, you know, their livestock judging career and then just evaluating stock in general, those principles are still the same. And so whether it be, you know, coaching a team and, you know, preparing kids for contest or even judging a show, you know, they have to check some boxes, just general things, and then attach all the bells and whistles. I always tell the judging team, at least in contest or going into contest and just marking cards that, you know, the big picture things are usually what places the classes, and then minor details are just fun discussion. And so that's kind of my philosophy. I say livestock judging or sorting livestock is as simple as you let it be. And so just, I think just evaluating things for what they are and making sure that they have all those fundamental things just to stay functional as important to me. So the simpler we keep sorting livestock, I think the better it is.
- [48:33]
Tyson Rule
So I know that you had mentioned that, you know, you judged at NEO and then you went on to judge at osu. So if you could get one card back from yourself that you turned in any class you turned in card in, what would it be?
- [48:46]
Kaylin Sister
Oh, goodness, that's a tough question and a good question because I think every, you know, livestock judger remembers the cards that they wish they could get back, right? For me, there's two of them, I guess, that stick out. One from junior college and then one from senior college. And in junior college, I would like there was a class of market lambs. A top pair of market lambs actually cut it two points. And I wish I could get that card back to switch the pair. I thought, you know, I was being a disciplined livestock judger and playing the livestock judging game and using just the heavier muscle sheep. The sheep that I put second that day was my favorite one. But I thought, you know, it was just kind of my inner sheep person coming out in me and I needed to stay disciplined. I wish that day I would have just used the best one that I was. That got me the most excited. But I was second at Kansas City in junior college, and so if I'd have had that card back, I'd have won the contest. I'll never forget that. That top pair of market lambs in senior college. I wish I could get the market steers, My market steer card from Louisville back, because I was the only one on our team that day that wasn't in the top 10. 10. The remaining four were all in the top 10. And then I was 11th by one point. And so even though I wish I could have that market steer card back for that purpose, I'm thankful for it now as a coach, because being 11th that day and having that experience, I mean, number I was just devastated for myself, you know, with that one card, our team ended up winning Louisville by a historic margin. But that class and being 11th has done more for me as a coach and being relatable to my. To my team members than anything has before. And so that is one of the ones. I wish I could change it, but I'm really glad it happened.
- [50:44]
Tyson Rule
Yeah. And, you know, I kind of feel that. I feel like some of the failures and successes that I had, you know, showing or growing up, has kind of impacted me and how I work with the kids. So I completely understand that.
- [50:56]
Steva Robinson
Yeah.
- [50:56]
Kaylin Sister
Yeah. I found I probably channel more to the failures that I've had or the lows that I've had in my own experiences, you know, and just the competitiveness of livestock judging. I cling more to those in the tough lessons that were uncomfortable for me to learn in coaching more than I ever do success. And so I think, you know, there's a fine line. You need success, but you also need those lows, because that's where. That's where the lessons come from. And at the end of the day, that's what's most important.
- [51:28]
Tyson Rule
Yes, absolutely. And I think an important part to hit on is success is different for everybody. You know, it's not a big banner, you know, winning Louisville or anything like that. Success comes from all different shapes, sizes, and everything. I always looked at it as, like, hey, if I did my job and I did a hundred percent, what I could do, like, that was successful. So that's kind of. Whenever you kind of break it down and look at everything that you can control and make sure that everything that you can control is done right, I think that's when people start, I guess, having a better experience, if you will.
- [51:59]
Kaylin Sister
So, yeah, no, I 100% agree I always tell, you know, the team especially, you know, when days go don't go well, I'm not really one to get mad or angry because I tell the team, I said, nobody goes into something that they love and care about and intentionally tries to do bad. Right? You always. There might be things that you wish you could do differently, but nobody tries to do bad from the start. And so I think just realizing that, that component. And then like you mentioned, that success is defined differently for everyone, and that's okay. It doesn't make one success better than the other. And then also just the fact that there's so much, so many things that make a person successful in whatever they're trying to do that has nothing to do with an award or an accolade that they receive at the end. And so for us, you know, I would say on these, with this team, for example, this sophomore team, you know, to. To people from the outside looking in, yes, it was a shiny picture on the green chips of Louisville or being reserved there at Kansas City. But coming home and, you know, last night we hosted a clinic for little livestock judgers just starting. There was about 75 kids. And I can tell you, I was probably more proud to watch my kids set and help the younger generation that I was on the green chips of Louisville because that's just the kind of people that they are. That's not something that you see often. It's not as easy. It doesn't pick up as much traction to broadcast. But I know that in the long game, that's what will make them successful.
- [53:35]
Tyson Rule
Yes, absolutely. And that's very special. And I think all that kind of comes from, you know, everything that you're also helping lead them in. So I think that says everything about the judging coach and the person that you are.
- [53:46]
Kaylin Sister
Well, thank you very much.
- [53:48]
Tyson Rule
So going forward a little bit, I know you judge a lot of jackpots, especially in Oklahoma. I've seen you a lot, you've judged a lot, and I think you do a very good job. So thank you. I know that you judge a lot of the same kids, so kind of tell me a little bit about what's your take on that?
- [54:03]
Kaylin Sister
Yeah, right. I think, you know, first thing for the compliment. I appreciate that and have been fortunate enough to judge several jackpot shows, especially like you mentioned, in my home state of Oklahoma. And you do you see a lot of the same kids, and especially now in a, In a coaching position, being from Oklahoma, watching some of these kids judge and grow up and show, you see a lot of Them and, you know, their families to a certain extent. And my philosophy is kind of in. Or my take on it is, is you can't avoid it. Right. Inevitably, we know that the livestock world, and specifically the show world, is full of connections and people, and that's part of what makes it wonderful. But as a judge, part of also what makes it challenging. And so I think, you know, just being able to just evaluate the livestock, kind of going back to the fundamentals that I mentioned on my take of just sorting stock, just to evaluate the livestock to the best of your ability, and then just a sheep change, livestock change from day to day, especially jackpot shows. You know, you haul them to so many in the winter or even in the summertime, getting them out. Everything changes from day to day. You know, a good one. The previous weekend I have, you know, went through something and isn't the best one the next weekend and different families. And I think you just. For me at least, I always just try to do my best with what's brought to me and evaluate the livestock for what they are on that given day, regardless of who's on the head of them or who's driving them. Not to say that I don't support all those families. I'm as competitive as they come, but I'm there to evaluate the livestock, and that's what I try to do the best at and try to describe those to the best of my ability. And I always say, you know, you cannot agree with a judge. That's okay. People don't have to agree with a judge, but for me at least, I hope they can always follow me and understand that I have a reason for what I'm doing. I want to judge with, you know, integrity for all the competitors and more so compassion for the showmen. And even if they don't agree, I hope they can follow me and know that I'm doing those with those principles in mind.
- [56:21]
Tyson Rule
And my last question I have for you is, what piece of advice would you give your younger self?
- [56:28]
Kaylin Sister
That's a tough one. That's a tough one because there is a lot of things that I wish I could go back and. And tell myself a younger self. And I've beginning to learn that that's just life. You know, hindsight's 2020 is how the saying goes. I guess if I had to pick one thing to go back and tell my younger self, I wish I would have listened. People told me this, so mine is more so. I wish I would have. I wish I would have listened a bit clearer when you know, people would say, cease every opportunity. And if there's a door that opens, you have to look in it. At least you have to look in it. And if you don't walk through it, that's okay, but make sure you at least look. And that's something, you know, especially thinking about where I ended up landing my early professional career here. I wish, you know, there was plenty of people, I'll be honest, that said, Maddie, you should think about education or you should think about being a judging coach. And I kind of shrugged my shoulders and chuckled and said, no, maybe not. I don't know. I don't know. And I wish I would have just listened and give it more thought and kind of trusted that and looked in that door a bit more. It ended up finding me eventually. But if I had to, you know, share one piece of advice for young people thinking about, you know, their career and just life in general. Make sure that you look in every door, right? Because people come in and out of your life for all sorts of reasons and purpose and just to try to grab and grasp every piece of information that you can from the people that you encounter. And more importantly, you know, just the wisdom and their story and to try to learn from it. I told a student the other day that I was advising academically. I said, I want, you know, I want my struggles and the things that I wished I would have done differently to this point in your life to prevent you from having to experience it. Right. And I think most people, especially those that have a heart for pouring into the next generation, like most people in agriculture, do have the same feeling. And so I think just grasping all the information that you can and clinging to that wisdom of your elders is so, so important. And I think, you know, that's stays true for, you know, the. Your lifetime, really, because there's always folks that have had different experiences than you or that are older than you. And so I think just clinging to that and, you know, it takes a village, and that's the truth. And so I think clinging to your village for me is the most important.
- [59:03]
Tyson Rule
Yes, absolutely. Well, I think you had a lot of great advice and wisdom for us, Maddie. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on with me. And we are really proud of your success and everything that you've overcome to get to this point.
- [59:14]
Kaylin Sister
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me and thank you for all you do, too.
- [59:22]
Steva Robinson
The last thing we have for this week's episode is to remind you about the Novel Designs holiday special. Every year, we do additional 10% on any prepays or gift cards. So for example, if you wanted to buy a gift card for someone that they could use towards maybe social media graphics or a sign you if you buy a hundred dollar gift card we actually put the value on their account is $110. Same on year and prepays. If you're wanting to prepay towards your year end, say that you prepay $500, you actually get 550 credited to your account. We've done this for several years. A lot of people take it, take advantage of it and it's a great way to kind of get more bang for your buck. You can reach out to any of us at Novel Designs for that or you can give Janie on our team a call numbers 800-713-50 and then we also have if you're like me, you're behind on your Christmas shopping because I love to shop but I haven't done a good job of it and I'm really behind. So I hope all of my friends and family love a gift card because that's what you all are getting anyways. Branded Show Gear has gift cards available. Those can be used towards any of our online apparel stores or any custom orders. So if you're too late to get, you know, maybe like a nice jacket for someone ordered, you can give them a gift card. Or if you want, you know, like someone who's maybe just getting started out or someone who always says oh, I should get some hats for myself or vice versa, you get a gift card for them. Those are available on branded showgear.com there's also a link for them on Champion Drive. The next time we catch up with you guys will be after the holidays. So we hope you have a Merry Christmas. Sister's been a little under the weather so I'll sign off for and we will catch you next week.
- [61:02]
Maddie Haynes
Sa.