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The Championdrive Podcast
Episode 3.2 - Guest Brad Amthauer + The Essentials Product Spotlight - Keep’n On & Uni4m
01:09:47
We caught up with Brad Amthauer to talk about his journey in the sheep industry and ag banking world. The Essentials from Essential Feeds is back again for this episode, highlighting two key drench profits - Uni4m and Keep’n On!
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- [00:02]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Now entering the ring, another episode of the Champion Drive podcast, presented by Novel Designs with your hosts, Kaitlyn Sister Urban and Steva Robinson.
- [00:22]
Steva Robinson
Well, we are back with episode two of season three, and it's a busy time of year, like we always say, but state fair season is in full swing. I know California Youth Expo is this weekend. Indiana is going on. We've got results from all of those@championdrive.com but not only that, it's also the middle of breeding season, and I thought this might be a good time to ask some questions that maybe the general breeder would have that goes into semen collecting. For those of you that don't know, Sister does a lot of the collection work at Allen Newcomb, and I actually always find it really interesting to talk to her about it. So I guess Sister, tell us a little bit about, like, how many days a week are you guys collecting?
- [01:02]
Brad Amthauer
Well, like you said, you know, we're right in the middle of breeding season, so pretty much we're collecting every day. Not saying that we collect every single buck every day, but. So I guess it's. It's kind of pretty much every day or whenever everybody needs it for the most part.
- [01:16]
Steva Robinson
And how much, you know, we always hear about as breeders, like, oh, a half jump is this. A full jump is this much. But in terms of volume, how much. How much are you looking to get to fulfill a half jump? And how much volume is a full jump?
- [01:30]
Brad Amthauer
Truthfully, like a raw ejaculate from a buck, I mean, it can be anywhere from about, I don't know, 0.5 to 1 and a half, 2 mils. A half a job covers 15 use, so most AI techs use 0.5. So we go by 7 and a half mils is half a jump, and 15 mils will cover 30 use, and that would be considered a full jump. But, you know, I don't. I guess I don't always just send that amount. Like, if I get nine mils, I'm just gonna send nine mils. You know, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna cut them back any and make it exactly what they need. Unless we're absolutely have to and are kind of, like, in a bind.
- [02:08]
Steva Robinson
Sure. One thing that I think is interesting, sometimes I'll hear people say, you know, like, oh, well, they just need to ship it. And, you know, there's a huge time commitment to do that. There's a lot that goes into it. So, like, what sort of time commitment does it take each day when you guys are shipping semen?
- [02:26]
Brad Amthauer
Right. Now during the busy time, pretty much we're in the semen lab from about 11, 11:30 until we have to leave by about 3 o' clock to make it to the FedEx and UPS place to get it shipped out every once in a while. Well, I guess we've become really good friends with the FedEx and UPS drivers. So if we're running late, we'll just call them and track them down in town or you know, meet them somewhere else. Like if we have a lot to do and we don't get it done in that time frame. But truthfully, I would say it doesn't really matter, I guess, how many equitainers we're doing. But that's about, that's about the only time that we collect. We every once in a while, I guess if somebody's gonna pick it up like later at night, we can collect, you know, later in the evening and not worry about that equitainer when we need to get the ones like that have to be shipped out. But also we try to keep it very consistent for the bucks, just for the simple fact of they kind of know their job and they know when they need to go to work and kind of keep it that way if we can.
- [03:22]
Steva Robinson
So like a typical day, like you guys would feed in the morning, get other stuff done, and then around 11, that's when you start collecting. Do you collect like buck by buck or do you just go through, collect them all or how to, I guess, kind of explain that process for someone who maybe doesn't know.
- [03:38]
Brad Amthauer
It kind of depends on the day. Like I said, it depends on what bucks we need. The past few days we've, we've been shipping on like, you know, the same three or four, five bucks. So I always say I'm going to start with my problem children, the ones that maybe the first jump, I know it's probably not going to ship and chill good enough. So basically I'm going to get them cleaned out. I'll still extend it. I mean, if the swirl and everything looks good and their number count and everything's, you know, heading the right direction, like, I'll still extend it, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to ship that jump either. So I guess we do that and then we kind of work our way into the box that aren't as necessarily the problem children, which right now are the buck lambs simply for the fact of like they're young yet and they don't produce and they can't turn around as fast as like the mature bucks. The mature bucks know their job by now, and the bucklings do to an extent, but you don't. You can't go back in there and collect the same buckland four times in a row. So I kind of just. I write it all out on a piece of paper. I figure out how many mills or how many views everybody's breeding.
- [04:41]
Steva Robinson
I.
- [04:41]
Brad Amthauer
And then I kind of just base it off of what buck is going to be or what buck has maybe given me a little bit of trouble chilling. And then I just kind of figure out, you know, where. Where am I gonna go? And we might collect a mature buck and then go to a buck lamb and go back to a mature buck, and then we might be able to package that equitainer. It just depends. But I do like to make sure, like, after we collect everything, you know, let it. It's in the water bath for just a little bit. And before we put it in the. The equitainer, I like to go back through and just double check. I don't know. It's. It's kind of a mind game. It's kind of fun. But every day is different and. And it comes with a lot of challenges, you know, like, some days, like a pug's been really, really good, and then maybe that day is just not hot. And that's very unfortunate, but that's the reality of working with livestock and, you know, just as any and stuff that comes through your way. But I don't know. I like it. It's very challenging. I have no service, so I kind of enjoy my time of, like, decompressing from the world. As much as I like talking to people, it's honestly really nice to not talk to anybody for those four hours. I'm not gonna lie.
- [05:46]
Steva Robinson
So, yeah, I hear you on that. Sometimes I don't have service in my house because we live in a shouse, so it's like a metal building. And it's kind of nice sometimes when you look down and your phone was on SOS and you kind of just get a break from everything, so. And we're still always connected, obviously, but yeah, sometimes the break is nice without the phone ringing or beeping. So what about, like, in terms of, you know, you mentioned sometimes people pick up semen. Are most people driving it? Are most people shipping it either UPS or FedEx? Are people sending a runner? What. What are you seeing most of?
- [06:21]
Brad Amthauer
I would say, truly, it just depends. We have several people that we call them our drivers. I don't. That's Just the word we refer to them as, but that's will come by here. We'll let them know, we'll get with them, you know, a few days beforehand. We'll let them know, like, hey, we need this team. And to be taken to Oklahoma City to the airport at this time. You need to leave here by this time. Can you do it? And most of the time, like our driver, we have several different ones. So we're normally can always find a good driver to at least, you know, take it back and forth. And the reason why, like, I could, I could go do that and like drive it to the city and stuff. But if we're still collecting and like, we still have other stuff that we need to do as far as like shipping semen and stuff, we. It doesn't make sense for me to go do it, right. Like, not that. And same thing with the boys I work for. Like, if we absolutely had to, we could make it work. But it's a lot easier to have somebody else that, like, hey, that's your main job and this is what you're really good at. Pretty much. We're gonna, we're gonna take care of the rest. So I'd say we do have several people that are coming in, flying in. I guess I'm a little bit gun shy about it still. And I try to make sure, you know, that everything on that equitainer, you know, it's cleaned good. The can, the freezer, cans that go in the bottom aren't rusted. Like, everything. I try to make sure that it's as clean or as good as possible going through the airport for the simple fact of, like, I don't want them to have to drive through the night. Like, we've had to drive through the night, you know, and we haven't had, knock on wood, I guess we haven't had very many issues with that since we both ran into those issues. And not that we took bad equitators either. It was just happened to be luck of the draw, right. So I'd say we have several of those. Anytime we have breeders that are breeding, you know, like right now we have a breeder that's. That's been here every day for five days getting bucks and, and so that's fine. They come, they tell us what time they're going to be here, and their, their pickup time is a little bit later. So I know going into collecting day, like, hey, if we have to, we can collect theirs last or their driver can wait a little bit if we have to like, you know, a breeder if you say, okay, I'm sorry, but, like, we're gonna have to give these bucks a break and we'll. We'll pick back up. They're not going to be mad, right? They want good semen. They would rather us do that. Take the extra step, take the extra time so they can get good semen versus sending them, you know, stuff that I'm like, it's probably not good enough, but here you go anyways, you know what I'm saying? That takes a lot of time. And. And for their driver that's picking it up, like, that's a lot to ask them. And then turn around, and then their semen's not good. Like, they're not going to be very happy, you know? So I'd say there's several people. I. I don't know. I'd say anywhere from five to six hours or maybe even more than that. We'll meet them, you know, in Oklahoma City and Texas, wherever, really. They need to be met. Like, hey, we're always up for meeting people, or somebody from our crew will meet somebody. But we do have pretty good connections here in town with a. It's a local kind of like, I call it a mom and pop type shop, but they have FedEx and UPS shipping out of there. And so I've kind of got it figured out where if somebody sends us a label, I have her email. I just email it to her. She has it ready for me when I get there. She puts it on there, and we put it out. But also, we don't have labels for every single equitainer. So sometimes she has to do the work, you know, and, like, why she might be typing it in, I might be putting the label on or whatever. I tried to make it as easy as possible. And honestly, they're really good. And like, thankfully, we've been able to ship semen out of that same place for several years now. So she has most of the addresses safe. That makes it easier. Man. I don't know. It's. It's kind of tricky, though, because sometimes whenever she's like, well, it's not popping up exactly, the address, or, you know, she's kind of not confident about it. Like, I get not confident about it, and we start figuring out something else, because that's the last thing that you want to happen is to like, oh, I knew the address probably wasn't going to work or it wasn't going to get there on time, but I went ahead and sent it anyways. You know, you don't. You don't ever want to have it, like, come back on you as far as that. So I don't know. I guess every. Every situation is different for the most part, but yeah, yeah, I get that.
- [10:28]
Steva Robinson
So our address is like County Road xx and it never pops up in ups, and we ship from here all the time for Branded or, like, you know, banners and stuff out of here for novel designs. Like, we have UPS stops here every single day, but it never pops up right because of the road name. And I think a lot of the people you're shipping to are probably obviously farms, and it's not like it's going to a town address or whatnot. So I can imagine that trying to get some of the addresses confirmed. We run into that at Branded quite a bit, too. It's like, well, I know this is right, but the system's not recognizing it and you have to go back and forth with the customers. So I'm sure everyone appreciates you guys taking the extra time, though, to make sure it's correct and. And whatnot, so. Well, I think that was a really good kind of overview. I know it answered some of the questions. I'm pretty familiar with the process, but I've always kind of wondered what the time commitment was. And I'm always appreciative. I know that, like, when you call and say, like, hey, can I get a jump? Or could you put me on the schedule? I know it's more than, you know, like, some people, I feel like, just think it's just something that happens quickly. And I know it's something that, you know, not just you guys, but everyone that's shipping seaman spends a significant amount of time and resources on to do so. And everyone wants to make sure they have the best quality possible going out. So I think that's always something that's really, you know, that the rest of us all appreciate. And I think that that answered a lot of the just general questions that I thought maybe some people would have. So let's get right into this episode. It's state fair season, so we all have a bunch of. Bunch of places to be. Who do we have on this episode?
- [11:56]
Brad Amthauer
We have Brad Amthauer, who, you know, I. I really do like doing this podcast for. For several different reasons. But, you know, he brought up something like, about my parents, and I just think that's like, super interesting towards the end of it. You know, how he talks really a lot about his dad and the time commitment that his dad put into him and his siblings. And their projects. And, you know, he's like, my dad worked hard so we could show sheep is. Is the gist of what he was talking about. And I think it was interesting because then he mentioned that, you know, his dad, he drove him down to Oklahoma. He was like, we had no business to taking the time, taking the trip, doing this, but we did it anyways. And, you know, I think at times maybe we forget, like, those memories and those moments, like, are what truly matters, you know, like, it's kind of hard that I feel sometimes, like, I get so caught up in, like, well, we have to get this, this, and this done today, and I need to do this, this, and this, and, like, at times, like, I forget to, like, take this step back and, like, hey, when the kid wants me to help him do something, like, I need to be able to help them do something. Or, you know, when the kids want to go play ball and, like, they're playing ball at night, like, I want to be able to go watch them, because that's what truly matters. You know, like, there's always work to be done tomorrow. Like, you can reply to an email if it comes in later. Like, you don't have to reply to it right then. And I think sometimes, I guess I'm probably more so, like, guilty of that, like, just dropping everything, doing what I need to do. And so he. He mentioned a lot about how his dad did that, and not that he was upset with him at all, but just about the opportunities that his dad gave him from working so. So hard. Two sides to that perspective, I guess. But, yeah, so his. His episode was really good, and he had a different perspective. You know, he mentioned a lot about. I guess I didn't necessarily realize this because the whole time that I can remember Brad, like, he's always been from Iowa, but he's actually from Indiana originally. And. And, you know, he talks about how the struggles that him and his wife, you know, went through to get to where they are, and, you know, they moved several different times. And he talks about, like, how he built his barns and kind of what he would do differently. He's a banker, too, so he had a lot of good insight on that. So I really did enjoy his episode. I really. I really enjoyed sitting down with him, and I thought it was a good one, and just, like, a true, honest, like, genuine episode. So I guess we can get right into Brad's. Well, Brad, thanks for sitting down with me today to do this podcast on you. And before we get started, do you mind telling me us a Little bit about, you know, where you went to college and kind of how you got started on your journey in the banking industry and the club lamp industry and everything else.
- [14:33]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah. So I grew up in Indiana, grew up in a town called Kokomo north of Indianapolis. And I had a sister who was 10 years older than me that showed sheep just on a. I mean, we did a lot of. She did a lot of jackpotting and went to state fair, competitive on a county fair level at best. And she, like I said, she was 10 years older. I watched her show started showing when I was pretty darn young and, you know, grew my interest from there at a young age. Went to Purdue, got a degree in Ag finance. While I was at Purdue, I'd spent a couple summers out here in Iowa and I'd come out and Troy Childer got me helping Harold McElrath with like, we helped with this production sale and helped with. I went to Sedalia with them a couple times while we were in college and, you know, kind of stirred my interest. Got me introduced to some people out here in Iowa and, you know, I liked it quite a bit out here. Just the people, the, you know, Iowa State Fair, it was just different compared to where I grew up. And so when I got done with school, instead of going to work right away to bank, I took advantage of an opportunity to move out here and I went to work for Butch Altmeyer. You know, Butch doesn't raise sheep anymore, but a lot of people have been around the industry for a while. No, you know, knows Butch, he was, he was a very, he's a very, very good guy. Very charismatic. You know, this was at the time when, you know, Butch sold weathers, but he also sold a bunch of bucks and used, you know, we'd go to Sedalia, top of the Rockies, you know, so we traveled, you know, traveled all over selling, selling stuff. And you know, my job for Butch was, you know, I took care of the show lambs getting them things ready or this. Basically mostly it was bucks and use getting them things ready for Sedalia or other sales. And that was my job for a few years. And then when I, I met my wife Robin when she was getting done with school, I kind of knew it was time to get serious about life and, and get kind of a big kid job. And that's when I started my job in banking and, and we moved to Spencer, which is northwest Iowa. And she, she was graduating from South Dakota State and had a marketing degree and she went to work for the Clay county fair up there. And I went to work for a, for a small bank up there. And that was my first job. And we spent three years up there. And that was where I kind of sold a few. I was starting to sell a few lambs while I lived down at kind of central Iowa. But then when I moved up to northwest Iowa, it started kind of gaining a little bit of steam. And then when we moved, we moved to where we're at now 15 years ago. And since then it's just kind of continually grown and, you know, adapted. Things have changed. You know, kids have aged out, new kids come in, had our own kids. You know, everything just continues to expand. So that's kind of a winding story to where I got to where I'm at today.
- [17:40]
Steva Robinson
Yeah.
- [17:41]
Brad Amthauer
And I think that's interesting, you know, that you said that right. You know, after college you went to go work for somebody. Because I'm pretty sure that you offer those opportunities now for past showmen of yours and, or maybe not even showman of yours. So kind of how do you relate to them, like in their, where they're at in life, as to where you are at in life and kind of what you have them doing?
- [18:01]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah. So actually this summer is the first summer I've had an intern the past, I think four years. And this summer, you know, Stella's 12 and she can't do everything. But I was like, hey, it's time to like earn your keep. So we put her to work, you know, doing a few more things around here. Like we always have some state fair stuff for the Iowa State Fair weather Styre dam sale. So she's taking care of that this year and that, you know, that's a big thing day to day that. And it's probably a little more on me taking care of you or Robin and I taking care of the use stuff that we were having, having the interns do before. But you know, the past few years it's been. I've liked the opportunity to get those kids in. And you know, I always say, like, you don't know what you don't know, like if you've never seen stuff, whether it's how to flip a U, how to shear a buck, how to clean a water. Right. I mean, there's, there's just so many things that you don't know if, if you've not been exposed to it or maybe, you know, you only had a few use and you know, you need to, you know how to do it. Right. Because I'll tell you when, when I grew up, we didn't have use. We had 10 show lambs in a little barn. And you know, my dad had a screen printing and embroidery business. And you know, there. There was no real experience as far as production, livestock raising. So, you know, for me, when I came out here, I had to lean on people and I learned a lot. Like when I first moved out to Iowa and I lived at Troy Childers and you know, there was used there and you know, working for Harold McElrath and working for Butch Altamire, like, you know, everything was kind of a, you know, a building block for me. You know, you learn how to do it the right way. You screw stuff up. And, you know, I've taken. When these kids have worked for us and, you know, even though we don't have an intern this year, we always have kids work through the school year too. We always have kids from Iowa State to come over and help. And I enjoy that part of, you know, just being able to throw these kids to the deep end. And a funny story about that, like John McCoy, he laughs about. So it was when Billy was. So Billy McCoy went to Iowa State. He just graduated. He's working for hills now. But when he first, I think it was a freshman year, maybe sophomore year, we were on the back end of lamb and a group of recips and Billy wanted to work. And I called Billy, I said, hey, we're going to go to a calf show. And it was only 45 minutes from home, but I'm like, we gotta stay overnight. You okay? Coming. Watching the back end of these recips, John, to this day he always brings it up, laughing about how I was brave enough to turn Billy loose. And he's like, you, you just brought this up every day. And he said, you know, I probably should have turned him loose more and just throwing him in the deep end. You know, I, as a parent, I just did it for him at times where he's like, hey, you were brave enough to turn him loose. And, you know, Billy been around it, it was all fine. And you know, I was a cell phone call away and you know, these kids, like, I'm. I'm not afraid to just kick them out and, you know, let them sink or swim. They'll figure it out. They're not going to mess too much up. Like, you know, Billy Lamb and them recipes, if something would have died, they could have died on my watch too. So that, you know, that's kind of the way I, way I look at it and you know, it's Been good. We've had. Had lots of good kids that have worked for us and you know, some of them, I think back, you know, they're in good corporate jobs now and yeah, it's just, it's, it's cool. So.
- [21:14]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah, for sure. And you know, I like. The part I like most is it's not like every, I mean, yes, you have certain things that you do every day, obviously working at a farm, but it's not like every single day is the same. So it's always something new. Sometimes it's just finding something, you know, that they need to do it, which is also like, will help them in real life when they have a big kid job, is what I say. You know. Also going back to Stella, I, I've watched her show. Oh. I mean, I guess the whole time she. And I've seen her show and she's grown so much over the years. It seems like, it doesn't seem like they're old enough to be as big as they are. You know, it makes me feel really old. But I do really like your mentality of, you know, pushing them out there at least like letting them figure it out. Because I think that like, like John said, you know, at times I just did it for him. And, and I think there's probably a lot more kids that, that have the opportunity, I guess that their parents will do more for them but don't have the opportunity to just figure it out themselves or have somebody there to teach them. So I think that's very cool that you do that.
- [22:15]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah.
- [22:16]
Brad Amthauer
So talking about your sheep operation, how many use do you guys run and when do you, like, when do you prefer lambing? What's your thoughts on all that?
- [22:25]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yep, so we have about 200 use, give or take. Like right now I think there's 80 something mature blacks, maybe 90. There's about that many recipes and then I think there's 30 to 40 lambs that we've, that we've held over and that number varies. Like at one time I think we were up closer to 130, 140 mature blacks. But just as like the industry's changed and like kind of, you know, you have to look at where, where's the money generated from. You know, we've increased the number of resets and you know, decreased those number of blacks and, and just tried to hone in those U lines a little on the, on the mature use that we're keeping and not fl.
- [23:04]
Brad Amthauer
So yeah, and come breeding season, I know that I'm sure did you guys Breed for fall borns.
- [23:09]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Oh yeah. So no, we've done that one year and it wasn't, it didn't go well for us. We flushed to use for falls and of the lambs we had, there's one ewe that's actually still around here that's paying her, paying her way pretty well. And the rest of them were a disaster. So I haven't gone back and done the falls since. But just personally I think those falls are, are hard to manage from a feeder standpoint. You know there's some of them, if some places they work just fine and sometimes things can kind of get a. Get big and out of hand, you know, on us if we're not paying attention to them. So I've just started, you know, we start lambing. We do our flush work at Hill's house and I think our flushes are due. The first group we flush three times. The first group of flushes are due early December and then we have some mature. Our mature AIs do like around the 15th of December and then we'll come back with some another round of flushes mid to late January and then another round of flushes the first of March and then blacks that are just getting naturally covered from there out U lambs we try to lamb those we I've gone to the last couple years, I just cedar all my Ulams no PG600 pull so many a day and just naturally cover them. And we start those about mid February and been having good luck with that. We used to do a ulam AI and I've liked this PG or not using PG 600 just cedar and a natural cover and I've liked like doing that a lot better. It's worked, just worked better getting those U lambs bred up.
- [24:39]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah. And you know you've mentioned something interesting that fallboards are kind of hard to feed from a feeder standpoint. So for those of you that don't know Brad as he's mentioned he sells a lot of sheep across the country. Helps with a lot of sheep across the country.
- [24:51]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So.
- [24:51]
Brad Amthauer
So kind of you've, you've mentioned a few different age groups that you guys lay them out. What is your favorite I guess age that you like to feed on?
- [25:01]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
I like to, you know probably the, my favorite ones would be those January's, the ones that want to get up and go. Like if those ones that are in that January flush group and they've. If they, they wean good as term in terms of like being in good shape and size wise they're not stunted. And those things, you know, they offer you so much versatility. I think as long as they don't get too big in that, say, March to May time frame, those things can wrap around whether they can be 130 at state fair. They can work good for us for Exarbin, Kansas City, Louisville, Denver, or some of them go south, and they can hold all the way to Oie. So that's probably my favorite timeframe, just because I think you can get a lot of use out of those sheep. You know, there's people that like the Decembers because they, you know, they're ready to rock and roll early, and people that like to go out and jackpot, and, you know, where it's like maturity in terms of leg wool and muscles, what, like a big thing at them early shows. So, you know, there's people like those. I get it. I like to sell those because I think that's where the, you know, the. The best money's at is in them early ones. But from a feeding standpoint, I definitely. I'd probably lean towards the Januarys, you.
- [26:10]
Brad Amthauer
Know, and I know that you guys raised the reserve grand lamb at Louisville last year and that you've raised many other champions at all levels. So do you mind telling us a little bit about some of them that stick out in your mind?
- [26:22]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yep. So, you know, as I read this question, like, it gets you kind of thinking about, you know, some of the ones that were like, hey, that was. That was cool. And I remember the first one that I had at a Texas major, it was granted, Austin and Robin and I were walking into Stella's kindergarten conference, and I get a call from Chad, hey, what are you doing? You're about to win Austin. And. And so Chad Walker called, and I'm like, you know, you're just so taken off guard because, like, I wasn't expecting it. I had no clue that sheep was there. Dale Crinwogg, he bought him. I think I'm saying his name right. He buys him at the corp sale, and I haven't heard a thing since. So we're going from April till wraparound. So I think it was 1st of March, and, hey, this. She pops up and wins the Texas major. And I was the first one that we had raised that had won something down there. And that was just like, still this day, like, you're not expecting it. You don't know what's there. And that was pretty darn cool. You know, there was another one that it wasn't. It wasn't a. In the scheme of things that we've. We've done, it wasn't the biggest one, but the first time that I had a sheep that I raised, they got a piece of a division at the Iowa State Fair. So there was one that. It was one we'd raised. We bought the U off Hobbs's at the state Fair Weatherstire dam sale. She wasn't a real expensive U, and she raised division one in the 4H show. One that won that, and he ended up being. I think he was fifth overall in the 4H show that day. And that just was, like, so cool because I bought and sold ones from breeders that have won the state fair, won other shows. But, you know, maybe doesn't it, like, at the time, looking back, you're like, I was Division 1, but it meant so much to me at the time because it was like we were just getting started raising them. You know, I could go and buy. It's easy to go and buy the best ones from the best breeders and put them in the best homes. And those things should win, but. Or have a good shot at winning. But then, like, raising them yourself, it just meant it was cool. It just meant a lot. So. And not taking away from anything that the reserve is. Louisville is awesome. I mean, there's other ones. We had one that won the royal that was really, really cool when we were there and won that. But, yeah, those. Those first couple were. Thanks. You're the coolest.
- [28:38]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah. And just getting to see, like, you know, the full circle of life pretty much with them, you know, lambing them out to seeing them win champion Division 1 at Iowa State Fair. And those of you that don't know, Iowa State Fair is a very tough state fair, and the 4 HO alone is probably one of the toughest. So I can 100 see why that was one of your favorite sheep. So what have. What challenges have you encountered by starting your operation far away from where either you or Robin grew up?
- [29:09]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah, so that has definitely been a challenge because, I mean, we. We didn't have anything to begin with. You know, my parents, they didn't farm. Robin's parents, they have a bunch of cows and still farm up in Minnesota. But where we're at, we didn't have anything. I mean, it was basically, you know, we're doing it on our own from our own, you know, work income and starting, you know, this. This show lamb operation. And. And we had to pay for everything. And it's. It's a challenge. And then where we live, we're right in the Middle of very, very high quality row crop ground. And it's, it's twenty thousand dollar an acre ground and they don't just. It doesn't come up for sale very often and I definitely can't afford to buy an 80 or something. So when we moved in here we bought, we had two acres and the guy was nice enough to sell us another two. So we have four acres now and which doesn't seem like a lot for 200 use. And I've had quite a few people pull up and they're like you run all your use here. Like they never leave. You know, it's all dry lotted and you know we make it work but it really, it's a challenge and it's a lot of juggling just because with kids with showing no family here and we've had some really good people around whether it was college students that, that were livestock kids that have, you know, basically become like another kid to us while they were here and with watching our kids or helping lamb use or We've had some really good kids from around Conrad or Conrad Beaman area where we're at that have helped us a lot and we've just had to lean on a lot of people and that's, that's been hard. But you just, you just make it work, you know, you gotta, you gotta figure it out. And like I said the, you know, that's from just the juggling the family and livestock and everything. But then like I said, you know, going back to the, you know, we started with two acres and there was one little building here when we started and we've just continued to like add buildings on and now I think I got five buildings that are all attached to one another and I'd like to put up a little more. But it's. I don't really know if we do need more buildings but it's, it would be nice to have more. But you know, I, I think about like, you know where we started and you know, 10, 15 years ago people didn't have these real nice facilities. So what I start when I, when I moved here and there was an old corn crib that we didn't use and then a 40 by 60 shed. Well, 15 years ago people could do a lot with a 40 by 60 shed. And now we're at places where you know, you go and you see these huge operations with these awesome buildings and you're like I just want that, you know, I want to keep building and building and building and we've had to, we've you know, worked hard and, you know, been fortunate and been able to keep. Keep building what we have here. So. Long winded answer there. Sorry.
- [32:01]
Brad Amthauer
No, you're good. You know, I remember when we were. You mentioned that you guys breed at Hill's house, and one time when he was on the podcast, he mentioned that they were talking about when they used to go, like, running the babies and stuff. They had to go out to this little shed and run them all in and stuff like that. And, you know, sometimes people forget, like, yeah, it's nice to have a big fancy building and all, but just making do with what you can and adding to it is just as good, I think. So kind of going off that a little bit, when do you make your decisions on, like, when to add buildings or how to expand? Because, you know, with a limited amount of land, I know you can only add so much.
- [32:38]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So really, you know, when we did all these buildings before, you know, before COVID it just worked. Everything worked pretty well to cash flow or, you know, borrow a little bit of money to make it work. And. And it was pretty easy where today, with the cost of everything and, you know, our input costs are so much higher and the building costs are so much higher, you know, you really get. I'd have to think a lot more. A lot harder about it and probably do a little more budgeting like I have my customers do when I work at the bank. We do a heck of a lot more budgeting to make sure it's going to work now as compared to what we did then. And, you know, when we started buildings, it was, you know, hey, I'd like to have this huge shed, but let's just start by build enough to get the babies inside. Then it was, hey, I got a little washroom. Let's get a bigger washroom. But it still didn't cost that much. You know, let's just make the washroom a little bigger, and then let's build a spot for our open use. And then finally, a few years ago, we connected all our buildings and put way too much into a shed, but it was just a case where that was the next thing to do. And, you know, I just sit and I looked at it, and I'm like, it's a lot of money. But, you know, my kids were starting to show, and if we spend the bulk of our time outside of work out there, we might as well enjoy it. And right now, I can tell you, Sutton really enjoys riding her scooter all around there.
- [33:59]
Brad Amthauer
So, yeah, it works out in itself.
- [34:03]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Right, yes, exactly.
- [34:06]
Brad Amthauer
So you mentioned a little bit about, you know, your customers when you're banking and stuff. So let's kind of go into that route a little bit. What inspired you to balance these two worlds and how do you feel like they complement each other?
- [34:20]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So, you know, I guess I look at it like we're raising show animals and it is when, you know, we had to buy our place, we did it all on our own, that we weren't going into dad's shed or something like that. I'm not taking away from people that do that. But you know, we had to look at this and say, okay, I got a balance of I need a full time job. That way I can know that twice a month my paycheck's going to come in, I have insurance, I have a retirement. And the sheep side can just be gravy on top of that. And you know, the sheep price is like, it goes up and down. Flushes could go bad, AIs could go bad, babies can die. You know, there's so many, so many things that can pop up that could really put a hurt into you if that was your living. And like people that do this for a living full time, I applaud them and taking that step to do it on their own, you know, they're brave to do it. It took a lot of guts and I haven't had the point to do it. I'm probably a little more conservative and that's probably why I sit and work at a bank. You know, it's easy for me to be, you know, a conservative banker to an extent. And you know, look at this and say, okay, it's a lot safer if I have this job that I can stay at full time and then raise, raise sheep on the side. You know, the fortunate thing as we've kind of gone into this is Robin works at home and that's really helped us to, to balance the whole thing. And you know, she didn't work here at home. We just wouldn't be able to do it. But you know, kind of getting back to what you said on, you know, why I guess I went into the two things, you know, I've always liked, I've always liked helping people. And you know, on the, on the livestock side, that's what I really enjoy about trading sheep and selling sheep, like when we can go and help families and you know, take them from a spot where they didn't know how to clip them right, they didn't know how to present them right, and put them in a better spot and give them a better chance to. To be more successful. I really enjoy that part of this where at the bank, you know, numbers work pretty. It works pretty easy for me in my head, you know, the economic side, it makes sense. And my favorite part about my job, and I put it in my. My review every year. It's never changed since I started in banking. When I do my annual review, my favorite part of my job is when people can come into my office and I'm dealing with their finances and when I can put them in a better spot when they leave my office than when they came in. Because, I mean, our finances are, you know, like it or not, they're one of the biggest, most challenging things in our lives. And I like the ability to troubleshoot that for people, you know, kind of finagle it a little and. And put us. Put them in a better spot and give them advice. And hopefully, you know, whether it's that year or five years down the road, you know, they're like, holy cow, I'm glad you told me that. I'm glad we did that. I'm glad I took your advice. And, you know, that's kind of the. The similarities I see, like, between what I'm doing with this, with the livestock and what I'm doing at the bank. Being able to help people.
- [37:22]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah. And I think that says everything about the person that you are. What advice do you give farmers and breeders when it comes to managing finances, especially during uncertain times? You know, I know that you say that that's one of your favorite parts of your job. So kind of, how do you go about that?
- [37:37]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah. So, you know, at the. On the bank side, you know, I look at it as I'm a partner, you know, with. With my customers, whether it's a business, customer, farm customer, you know, I'm not there to tell them how to do their job, you know, how to run their operation. I'm there to be, you know, kind of a piece of their piece of their operation. They can lean on me for questions, you know, and ask me for advice and, you know, help them work on budgeting or just whatever it is. You know, sometimes you're the, you know, you're their family counselor at times, working at the bank, believe it or not. So, you know, I just always try to be there when they need something, you know, from the bank side, I like to be out. I like to kick the tires and go out and see my customers. And, you know, like I said, you just want to be. You just want to be there for them and, you know, be the person that's willing to pick up the phone, which is not always easy, but I just try to be responsive. And, you know, it's the same time on the breeder side, you know, I guess at the bank, I finance, you know, multiple operations. On the show side in multiple species, you know, there's people I work with. And so that. That's a little different. And, you know, because it's different from my other customers, because they know that I have a. That if they're buying a U or a buck, that they're going to cost more than they should cost if the bank had to liquidate them. And, you know, there's. There's some nuances to it that's just a little different that I probably have a little different insight to than most. Most lenders would. Um, so, you know, I don't mind working with breeders and being able to say, hey, does that make sense? You know, whether it's flushing or, you know, making purchases, building buildings, it's nice to be able to, you know, say, hey, here's my experience. Whether it's at the bank or what I've seen with others or in my own operation, hey, here's what I've seen work. And they then be able to give them advice of, hey, how. Here's how we can get through this. If we set this up, if we set some finances up this way, then you're going to be able to cash flow it better, and I think it'll work good for you. But it's, you know, using my, you know, experience raising livestock definitely helps on the bank side to be able to relate to people. And like you said, in these uncertain times, you know, people like somebody that's willing to talk to them and knows where they're coming from. And that's kind of, I think, a little bit of my specialty.
- [40:04]
Brad Amthauer
Yes, absolutely. Are there any specific financial tips or tools that you recommend for. For livestock breeders? You know, just having experience working with several different ones from different species.
- [40:16]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah. So, you know, from a financial tip standpoint, you know, there's no. We're raising shell stock, and at the end of the day, a bank's gonna. Going to look at that and say, all right, I don't care if that RAM cost $20,000. If you took him to the sale Barn, he's worth $300. And so saying that a bank's only going to lend you so much on that animal, so you have to, as a whole, acquire more assets, whether it's equipment or real estate or something in order to help that bank get comfortable to lend you money if you're going to buy high priced show stock with that. So you know, I, I have a lot of people that I, you know, like heck, I did this when I started. I'll say, hey, why don't you look at some FSA financing? Like if you're getting started and you're a younger individual, I did this when I built my first shed. I use the FSA office to, you know, that they'll, they'll lend you a little more money in terms of loan to value. Basically you don't have to put down as much money on something that you're purchasing. So as they, they were able to lend me a little more money, they gave me a favorable rate in terms that worked for me as a young person to be able to be able to cash flow the first building that, that I was able to do. So the FSA office is your friend. You know, having a good banker that understands your operation is a huge key, key to this whole thing. You know, if you're working with somebody that is just taking your info, passing it on to somebody else that doesn't know how your operation works or even understand what show livestock are, they're never going to get it. You're never going to get your needs covered. You know, when you're in a pickle or you know, something pops up, they're not going to be willing to work with you. So find a good banker and you know that has a good, you have a good relationship with. And I think that that's the, probably the best tip or trick that I give you is you got to have a good relationship with them and they're going to lead you to, you know, multiple opportunities and how to, how to work your finances.
- [42:13]
Brad Amthauer
For sure kind of transitioning this. Let's kind of talk about like some show dad insights. You know, I know that Stella's showing and Sutton will be showing soon. So I first want to start this off with your dad because I know he played an important role in getting you started and was a guy that many people love to visit with at shows and sales. What did you learn from him that you're trying to pass on to your own kids?
- [42:37]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So I'd say that like there's two things that are kind of a takeaway from my dad and you know, the first one is just basically how to have work ethic. My dad worked 24 7, sometimes to the detriment of, hey, I just, he worked too much you know, he had his own business, you're self employed and, and you know, you work all the time. And he, you know, he showed me how to work and I take that and you know, I try to show it to my kids and sometimes it's. Stella is extremely frustrated with how much I want to get out of her. And I have people that tell me, well, you work Stella too hard. I'm like, well, I want her to know how to work. You know, I hear people complaining all the time about these kids that are lazy. And hopefully when I get, when Stella walks away, she might hate me at times, but she can say, okay, dad showed me how to work. And you know, that's the takeaway from my dad. And hopefully I can continue to pass that on. The other thing, you know, dad was always willing to do whatever it took to put us in a better spot, you know, to whatever he could do to the most extent, he was willing to, to do to help us. A funny story you might enjoy. So back, I can't remember, I was in high school and we were needing another sheep and we'd always bought sheep from Brian Johnson and we went down there in the fall, dad and I did. And I mean, we, we really had no business going down there. But we go down there and Brian and Freddie took us and we looked through sheep and you know, we picked out a sheep in there, skinnier guy. And you know, that was, I think, 16 hours from home. We went on a weekend and funny thing, we went over to your house and I don't even know if you were born yet, but cashing was pretty little and so your dad and Cash in and Freddie and Brian and we looked through all his sheep and we were able to pick stuff up. But my point that was, dad was always willing to, hey, I think that would be a good experience for you, son, you know, me to go down there and do that. And you know, it was a lot of driving. We didn't even spend a lot on the sheep. But he was never afraid to put himself out there to do something to give us an experience. You know, he did it just to give his kids all he could. So.
- [44:52]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah, for sure. And I really do like that. You know, I always love hearing stories. Just like you said, you know, you guys just packed up and you went on the road and maybe you didn't spend a lot on a sheep and that's okay, you didn't have to. But those memories that you made are something that you hold with you forever.
- [45:06]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yep.
- [45:07]
Brad Amthauer
So kind of going forward A little bit. What lessons have you learned as a show dad that have. Have maybe changed your perspective on things in terms of raising sheep?
- [45:17]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah. So this has changed. There's things that have changed significantly since we started showing. Not only showing sheep, but showing cattle has changed. Definitely changed the way I looked at things a little bit. You know, I've always been someone that I like them things to have some muscle. I like them to handle good. I like hard muscle. Well, along with that comes sheep that don't always move the best. You know, they might be a little. There was ones that were rigid in their neck or their spines were too rigid, and they were kind of a pain in the butt to show. And I know if you ask Colby Williams, you know, he'll tell you, when he was little, I'd be like, hey, you can show this thing. You know, like, just figure it out. Okay. Well, as I've got two young girls, they're showing, I've realized that it is a heck of a lot easier when their necks function right and their spines stay right and those things, joints can move. It's a lot easier to show. It's a lot easier for our family life at home every night when we're not barking as much because the sheep can actually flex and move. So I still like them to handle. Awesome. I still like touch and muscle, but I like those things to be a lot freer structured than I did before we start showing. And I definitely have a lot less patience for ones that are knuckleheads. You know, when I raise bullseye and the stuff, like, there's like, the fictitious lambs we used to have, and in bullseye, like, some of the things were not heads. And, boy, it was easy for me to sell those to people when I didn't have to deal with it every day. But as soon as I started having to deal with it every day, it became a lot less fun. So those things, that's probably the biggest thing that's changed on my outlook of what I'm trying to do and what I think these things need to look like.
- [47:00]
Brad Amthauer
Yes, for sure. So, as a show dad, what has been your favorite memory from the show? Ring with your kids?
- [47:08]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So this I don't even in person, I don't even remember this happening. But there's a picture of Stella going into the grand drive at Denver a few years ago, and it comes up on our Alexa and on our screensaver on our TV quite a bit, and she's walking into the show ring, like, just walking onto that green carpet and it's complete confidence and complete calmness. And that sheep's walking into her hand and everything that we're trying to do, it was like she'd shown that sheep all year and it was like everything coming together. Right? Like, this is why we do that. And I just love that picture. And it's just, it just reminds me of, hey, we can get it done. If we work these things, we can get to that point. And I want my kid to be that confident on that stage. Or confident might not be the right word. Maybe it's comfortable, relaxed, you know, so it's. If we can, you know, continue to put her in spots like that, I just, I look at that and I'm like, that's pretty cool. It was just every time I see that, I see it once or twice a week, and every time it makes me stop and just kind of be glad of what we're doing. How about that?
- [48:24]
Brad Amthauer
Absolutely. And it makes all them barn fights and all that stuff worth it, right?
- [48:28]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yes, very much so.
- [48:31]
Brad Amthauer
So kind of going forward a little bit, what are, what are your goals for your sheep breeding program in the next few years? Kind of. Where do you see your program going?
- [48:43]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah, so, you know, for me, it's always been, I've always raised ones with muscle. You know, I think most people, they'll say, you know, ones of mine, they'll feed into top shape, touch, you know, and have, have plenty of shape just front to rear to them things. And not that they all do, but, but the majority of them do. And, you know, I've been trying to make them fuzzier because that's, it's what sells and we got to make them fuzzier. So continuing to do that and continuing to make those things better looking and just more flexible and not give up the shape that we have. So that, you know, that's kind of the big thing I'm focusing on. And I think that's like this whole livestock showing, like it's just a continual progression. You know, when you look back at where sheep were, you know, we chased extremes, but at the end of the day, like, they, the best ones tend to just get better. You know, we'll make them shallower and we'll make them thicker, we'll make them shallower, thicker, but we haven't given up too much to get those gains. And I just think we just keep getting, keep getting better and better, and that's what I'm just trying to do.
- [49:54]
Brad Amthauer
And where do you hope to see the future of the club lamp industry? Kind of both as from a banker standpoint and from a breeder standpoint.
- [50:04]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So from, from a breeder standpoint, I think there's definitely things that, that are looking up in the industry. Like participation is awesome. Like our Iowa jackpots, We've had multiple shows with over 200 head, which we've never had at these shows. So that's great. I hope we continue to see participation. I hope that the high costs of some of these sheep don't scare families from getting into to showing. That's, that is a fear for me. But the, the positive thing about that or, and it's, it's just my opinion, but I think a lot of these sheep that win, they're not the high dollar ones. You know, most, A lot of the ones that are the five figure ones, very few of them end up the ones in the end. It's a lot of the cheaper ones, kind of mid range ones that people can afford that they put the elbow grease into and those are the ones that end up, end up winning. So I hope, I hope we continue to get new families and like continue to grow this deal and be able to make it work for, for all breeders. You know, this goes back like from, you know, the banker standpoint. What I hope to see, you know, it's hard for people to cash flow this. Like you have to have a very good job to be able to have very many ewes and be able to afford flushing and afford semen. And I mean, I look at it in my operation, it's like, you know, if you're flushing to high dollar semen, that's no big deal because hopefully it works and then lambs are worth more. But then on your general AI use, you know, you really got to look at it and say, okay, what is that cost? Is that beneficial cost wise for me, you know, am I gonna, you know, at 50% conception on $300 a unit semen, is that beneficial? On my AI use, is that going to make ones that are sellable on the bottom half of my U base And I hope that people can continue to afford to do this from top to bottom because we need little breeders as much as we need big breeders. And I hope everyone can continue to afford to do it because our just, our costs are high, not just teaming costs, but I mean, our. I'm in the middle of writing, you know, checks for breeding expenses and you know, we know how high that is. It's just, it's a lot. So I, I hope we don't run people off just due to just overall expenses.
- [52:31]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah, and I thought you brought up a very interesting point there, that not all high dollar sheep are the ones that are winning the shows. Because I know like when I was for example, when I was a senior in high school, my best lamb I had on feed that year was a lamb that we were literally about to send to the sale barn because nobody wanted him. He was skinny, he just like wasn't turning out. And we went to worm those a little bit before we were going to take them to the sailboard. And Brian was like, hey, what's that thing set him up. And I kid you not, he's like, go put them in the show pen. And I showed him that year, he seven days later he won a jackpot. And it's just like that is not the type of sheep that you see or the things that you hear. But there's a lot more of that going on like you say. And we need sheep like that because believe it or not, those 1500 dollar ones, 750 ones, however much those, those also pay your bills now payday on a, on a high end sheep. That's awesome. But realistically, every sheet pays your bills.
- [53:26]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So yeah, we all want to sell high dollar ones like so I never want to say that's a bad thing because it's great. But we got to be able to sell the other ones too. And you know, everybody wants to buy in the spring. You want to buy this big white legged one. I don't say everybody, but those are the ones that bring the premium in the spring. And you know, they're like leg wool is worth a minimum of $2,000 on your sale price and probably more than that on some of these things. And if you can make it big and white, that might be a five thousand dollar increase in, in the price here the lamb that you're selling. But the fact is by the time you work them legs all summer and then like them big ones, some of that might shuck out or they get so darn big that you actually have to cut them down when you get to your state fair major show, you probably got to cut them things in half so they're proportional. And then the one that was cheaper, that wasn't as big legged in the, in the beginning we were able to grow enough leg wool on that that it looks right and ends up being as bigger, bigger legged than the big legged high $1 in the spring. So maybe I'm saying that as somebody who's saying I need to put more leg wool on my sheep so if you guys want to complain to me, call me at home. Or you can, it's okay.
- [54:37]
Brad Amthauer
Yes, for sure. So to wrap this up, I have a few fun questions for you. If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice from when you started, either as a breeder, a banker, a dad, what would it be?
- [54:50]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
So when I started showing, we did it on our own, like when I showed as a kid, we did on our own and it was kind of the way things were. I wish we would have gone out and got help quicker. It doesn't matter what level of help that you get, but you have to be willing to go out and get help and I wish we would have done that quicker when I was younger. There's lots of things I should give myself advice on now, but, you know, when I look back, that's probably the biggest thing. I wish we had got help quicker from people that knew what they were, you know, what they were doing and were successful on a high level and it took us a while to get there and I definitely wish we'd have done it a lot quicker. And I feel that, you know, my kids, they're not that we got her figured out, but they're fortunate to come into a situation where, you know, we're getting it, we got things going in the right direction versus when I started showing. So.
- [55:43]
Brad Amthauer
Absolutely. And being where you are now, what is one thing that you went maybe on the cheaper route or maybe on the more expensive side of things that you regret now?
- [55:55]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Always build things bigger. So, like my first, I built a first little clipping room. It was the first thing I'd ever built. And at the time I was like, ah, it only needs to be this big. Well, if I just would have built that thing four foot bigger in both directions, life would be a lot easier and no different than the first big shed we built. If I just would have built that like 10 foot wider, which wouldn't have cost me that much more money, I would have a lot more space for pears. And so, you know, to save a couple thousand, I probably could have made a significant amount more by my lambs being healthier, if my barn would have been a little bit bigger. Hopefully that makes sense.
- [56:37]
Brad Amthauer
So, yes, that does. My last question I I have for you is if you could go back to one point in the show lamb industry, when would it be and why?
- [56:49]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
I would like to go back to what's called a pre AI point, when people were buying books at your sedalias or wherever else and, you know, the time of makes the daily great again when you know, whenever there's you know, the barns were full back at that time where people actually I'd say bought bucks, bought into programs and really I'd say put more focus on genetics and predictability of how them sheep are going to breed and feed versus now where we're I'd say probably just breeding to popular bucks and not maybe focusing as much on keeping our genetics lined up for predictability.
- [57:37]
Brad Amthauer
Well, Brad, thank you so much for sitting down with me today. We really appreciated your insight on the club lamb industry and also from a banker's perspective as well as a show dad. If you're en route through Beeman, Iowa, be sure to stop by and check out amphour club lamb thou. Thanks again, Brad.
- [57:51]
Kaitlyn Sister Urban
Yeah, thank you.
- [57:56]
Steva Robinson
This week on THE Essentials, we have JD Pruitt with Essential Feeds and he's going to talk to us about two of their products called Uniform and Keep It On. And both of these are probably products that you're maybe familiar with. I feel like Keeping on is the kind of product namesake or like the main product that if you think essential show feeds that we've all seen for years, it's of kind of, you know, the little bottles that we use in the red drenches or you see them in different species, not just in sheep. And then Uniform is their other, other product. That's a high fat supplement that you can pull up through a syringe. And JD Will tell us more about that, about how you can use that not just in drenches but in terms of getting them ready, whether you're getting ready to go for a jackpot or into your state fair push. But let's get into this next segment with essential show feeds. Well, J.D. thanks for joining us today. As we're heading into the state fair rush down here and people are getting ready to hit the shows down south and out west, what essential product would we use to kind of get them, you know, into show day shape, whether it's in a drench or what product, I guess would we use from essential to kind of get them bloomed up and into shape?
- [59:05]
JD Pruitt
Yeah, so one of the products I think that everybody should use and most people do is Uniform. Uniform is a high calorie product that I use almost year round because there's always a lamb or a goat or any species of livestock that we're just trying to get a hair fresher, maybe just trying to get a little bit more fluff on their rib or trying to get their loin edges, that hip loin junction just a little bit smoother. So uniform is something that we start using at the house. If you're not using it now and you're, I would say three or four weeks away, it's a good product to start getting them on at the house. Drench them. It pulls up in a drench gun. It's high calories, it's got a lot of energy. We give anywhere from 10 to 30 cc's twice a day. Then we also mix it with our drench just for that extra calories. Because that way if you get on a trailer, if you got a long drive to your state fair, whatever national show you're going to, it's just going to keep them calories and keep the, the energy in them so they don't stress and they kind of wither away. Everybody's had one that's stressed.
- [60:08]
Steva Robinson
Okay. So speaking of drenches, I think keeping on is probably the product a lot of us are maybe most familiar with from essential over the years. Can you kind of explain to us what keeping on is? Why, when we should be using it and how to use it?
- [60:21]
JD Pruitt
Yeah. So keep it on. When people think essential, they think keep it on. I think every species of livestock is using keep it on, keep it on. Pretty much just in layman's term, it's going to add the, the muscle shape and the texture. It's going to add the expression that we want. So when we're, when we're showing market animals and even. And even commercial use and breeding use, we want them to have that pop is what we use in the livestock term is we just want them to have that shape and keep it on is going to do that. There's a lot of different drenches out there. People might have their own. You can use just a single bottle and start two or three days out depending on where your animal is. Condition wise. I always like to. What I do is I start like on a bottle about three days out. I'll fill the bottle a little. 8 ounce, 12 ounce bottle up. I like putting a little bit of uniform in there. I think it reacts better. And I'll give like a half a bottle twice a day, three days prior to the show. And you can kind of up it up as you get to the show and kind of seeing what each animal reacts. There's a lot of different drenches out there, but that's a product that we all need to use just because it'll give them that handle and that desired look that we're all looking for.
- [61:39]
Steva Robinson
Perfect. And so if any of our listeners wanted to get either uniform or keep it on, how would they go about doing so?
- [61:45]
JD Pruitt
Yeah, so the easiest way is you can get on our website, you can order it on there. There's a lot of feed stores out there that carry it. Another good way is just look on the website. If you have mine or Barrett Carlisle or Dakota Quickels number, give us a call, shoot us a text message and we can get you some or find out where the closest is to you.
- [62:05]
Steva Robinson
Perfect. Well, thanks for joining us today. And for all of you who are listening, be sure to check out essentialshowfeeds.com on championdrive.com thanks. Well, thanks to JD for joining us. We hope you guys are finding the product spotlight that we've added for this season really useful. Part of what we wanted to do was make it where you could actually, you know, kind of get it spelled out to you. Why do I use this product? What does it do and how would I give it and where would I get it? So we hope you're finding it useful. If you have a product that you'd like to have featured on the Product Spotlight, get with Sister or I or any of the novel designs, Champion Drive Girls, and we can kind of talk you through the details on that and then be sure to visit championdrive.com we have a new page on there called the Product Spotlight page where you can learn more about the products that we have talked about and it'll be similar to our Study Showcase page. So it's a good resource that you can keep going back to and let us know any feedback. As always, you know, this was kind of started because it was some feedback we got from others. And so far the first couple product Spotlights have been great feedback as well. What else is going on on championdrive.com.
- [63:10]
Brad Amthauer
Sister yeah, so you know, you mentioned different products that we have on Champion Drive and I know that we have some sponsors that are always up on Champion Drive. Rural Supplements is one of them. And you know, sometimes when you think of roll supplements, you literally think of like only roll supplements just because that's their name. But they carry everything. They carry different brands of everything. They carry halters, like wraps, tights, whatever. I mean, they kind of have everything. I feel like anytime that somebody asks me, hey, where can I find something? 90% of the time I redirect them to that website just because it's so much easier. And I'm very familiar with all the things that they have so be sure to check out rural supplements if you're in need of anything for your show lamps or getting ready for state Fair or just heading into the fall shows and you need a little revamp. Also on Champion Drive stage, see online sales. We all, we have an ad up for them every day about sales that they have going on. But right now they have a lot of click to claim sales on there. So if you're ever in the need of kind of wanting to know who's selling what or what's selling the night, be sure to check out Champion Drive for that because that's also another feature that we have up. And we also have other things as far as like the integrity banners and stuff like that whenever, you know, they have a sale going on too. So be sure to check out Champion Drive whenever you're in the need for any show. AM or breeding sheep sales going on.
- [64:34]
Steva Robinson
Yeah, and now is always a great time for traffic on Champion Drive as well. There's all sorts of show results coming in. Over the weekend was California Youth Expo and Indiana State Fair. Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, they're all coming up. So busy time of year and there's always a ton of results. And as always, thank you to the people that help us get results because obviously we can't be at every single show. So that's always, you know, we're very appreciative that of those people's help. And speaking of that, we are looking for someone to help us get results from the Kentucky State Fair that's coming up in a couple weeks. We don't have anyone this year that can be at it. So if you're interested in helping us obtain results and coverage from there, be sure to reach out to us. It is a paid position and like I said in the past, we've had ambassadors or people that are able to be there and we are looking for someone in Kentucky. We've kind of done our work and look, look pretty far and haven't quite come up with someone that's able to do it. So if it's something you're interested in, we're always looking for someone to help us on that specifically for the market lambs reach out to us.
- [65:35]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah, and I know speaking of State Fair results, you know, we also have exhibitor spotlights and breeder spotlights that are on Champion Drive. We try to update where we try to get the grand reserve and. And the breeders of the grand and reserve and interview those after each state fair or expo. So be sure to check out Chamney Drive there's some pretty interesting questions up this year, so be sure to check those out. What do you have up for there? So you suck.
- [65:58]
Steva Robinson
I was just going to kind of reiterate our packages that we came out with for social media packages. They've been really popular and a lot of interest from the last episode. So if you did miss season one or episode one of this season, we talked about the new social media packages we came out with. After we did the so you suck live at the party, we came out with three packages that were kind of geared off those conversations we had with breeders. The first one is an on demand package. That's where if you have an idea of what you want to say, but you just need, you know, a sharp graphic to go with it, or you have a general idea of what to post, but you need, you know, someone to build a graphic for you. The on demand package through novel designs is what you're after. You're still responsible for posting and executing everything, but you buy these in prepaid packages and, and so you might buy five or ten social media graphics and then you just email in at any time. It's like, hey, Siva, I need a graphic. I've got a click to claim sale coming up. Can you put together a graphic that has these four bucks on it? Or maybe you say, maybe you want a thank you graphic for a sale or you want to get, you know, an upcoming haul in AI date advertised or whatnot. You just kind of send us what you, what you have in mind and then we put together something that goes with your brand. The next package is the strategy package. This is, you know, you need to post something, but you don't really know what to start. And if someone would just kind of line it out for you, and if you consistently had a plan, you could put it in motion. You can take care of the posting and the execution of it all, but you just, you kind of need someone to tell you, well, what should I post? And I feel like a lot of people fall into this range, especially after the party sale conversations that we had. I feel like a lot of people are just maybe a little bit shy about posting. I'm kind of that way. And sometimes it's, you know, you're, you're maybe not confident of like, oh, is this a good thing to post or not? So in this scenario, we build you a monthly content calendar which outlines exactly what to post and when. And it kind of is tailored to what you have going on. Your upcoming events, your goals, maybe some of the winners you've had come in. And it also includes three custom graphics, and we only include three custom graphics with it because some of the posts might not require a graphic to go with it. It might be just using a picture from, you know, your AI day. Or maybe you have the winners pictures and you want to post those, and you don't technically need a graphic for that, but if you want to add more graphics to it, you always can. Based on what we come up with for a content calendar for you, that's the strategy package, and then the last one is the takeover package. These are my favorites. This is kind of for the people that just want it taken care of. Social media is not your thing, but you still know you need a presence. You kind of let our team take care of it. And one thing I think we're very mindful of is knowing and being aware of what people's tones want to be like. Some people want to come across as an expert or very funny or, you know, very modern and on point. Other people want to come back as, you know, just here's kind of the facts. Here's my winners. Here's what we have going on. A very, you know, like, kind of quiet deal. But they know they still need a. Need a presence. Like I said, these are kind of my favorite ones to do because we really get to put a spin on it that's unique to your brand and your voice. So that's called the takeover package. And if you're interested in any of these packages, reach out to any of us at Novel Designs.
- [69:12]
Brad Amthauer
Yeah, I know that you said that we've had a lot of interest in those, and I know that there's been several emails coming in about those. So be sure to let us know if you have any questions about any of those things, and I guess we'll catch you next time.
- [69:24]
Steva Robinson
See ya.