SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Matt Hargreaves from Sandy, UT 7-31-24
[Music] Now we're walking in this shark farmer radio. Hey! I'm your host Rob Sharkey. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford all night. Still rainy, still no deer plots going in, still no shed going up. Well, you know what, we're going to look on the bright side. There are deer plots in and growing well with all this rain. I suppose. Man, the sun comes out and it's hot. But it's like planting. You can't really enjoy it until everything's done. This is true. Yeah. This is true. Maybe this afternoon. You and I did something last night. We haven't done in years. Years. We went to a movie. Oh my gosh. That was funny. Yeah. I'm a little spoiled. You know, you get in your recliner and you get your popcorn at home and it's kind of hard to go to a movie theater, but it was good. It was fun. Yeah. Wolverine and Deadpool or Deadpool and Wolverine. It depends on which one. You know, like not not kid-friendly. Not kid-friendly. No, not even remotely close. Not even remotely close. You know how sometimes they oh it's our but you know my 15-year-old no not this one. No. No. You would have to explain. Actually, I need somebody to explain half the stuff he said to me. Well, Ryan Reynolds. Yeah, we won't promote that as well. You think who's to you? Because you think they're both a dreamy. Who's dreamier? Is it Ryan Reynolds or Hugh Jackman? Oh, Ryan Reynolds for sure. Really? Oh yeah. Hands down. You don't like the the Wolverine, huh? I didn't like the Wolverine, but you asked which one was better. Anyway, okay. Let's go out to a Spanish Fork Utah. We're gonna talk with Matt Hargraves. How you doing Matt? Doing well. How about yourself? I'm doing pretty good. War in the great state of Utah is Spanish Fork. So Spanish Fork is kind of almost near the center of the state, but we're about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. Gotcha. Now, are you from that area? Are Utah originally? No, I kind of a long story to get there was born in Canada and on the west coast and grew up there. And when I was early teenage years, I moved a whole 5 or 10 miles south into Washington state and grew up there and I kind of love that area and then came to school down in Utah and realized there's a lot more sunshine here than there was where I was in Washington and kind of stuck around there and married my wife and family there and stuck around ever since. It's fantastic. Washington's so beautiful. Were you close to the Redwoods? Did you get to go hiking and biking and all the good stuff? So it's a beautiful spot. We were right. I was right on the Canadian border and on the water. So we had chances to go on the water a lot and we go throw the crab pots out and do that kind of thing. So it's a beautiful spot. But you almost don't notice that to come back that it really rained all the time. It was really cloudy. Again, beautiful spot. I asked people whenever they go and they love it. I said, well, when did you go? And it's usually August, which is fantastic time. But a lot of great stuff in Utah. It's outdoors, persons paradise, a lot of recreation opportunities and hunting and anything you want there. Are you in the country illegally? No, no. I immigrated down with my family. And again, when I was 13. So I am that dual citizenship, I guess you could say, but lived here for a long time, love it here. And my kids went to go up a visit. We have still some family down there, but no, I'm firmly down here now. I'm not sure I'm buying this. Is that why you got married? How did you meet your wife? So we both was going to school. I went to school at BYU and we're studying communications there. It's kind of like my background and met her there. And a lot of her family is all from the Central Park of Utah. They're fruit farmers. They've got sweet and tart cherries and peaches and apples and all those things. And it's fantastic. And going to met her there and very much the city experience that I had. I had family that were an agriculture group that way and had some experiences. My first job was I had about 13 years old. I had done a newspaper thing, but the thought was, why don't you go? You can pick strawberries and you're going to help bring some money in and you can save that for a trip that you want to do with your classmates. I think we got paid about 10 cents a pound. And I may have eaten more strawberries they actually eat. So it's always funny and I actually got maybe not always as focused on the picking as I should be. And so I finally kind of lost about it now that I get to marry into the farm family that way. We very much just get to help out on the side, sell the farmers' markets and those kinds of things. So that's how I met my wife and my family thinks it's hilarious that this city can get the help out on the farm. You are the vice president of communications at the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. So you said you're in communications and college. Was this always a plan? Is this what you always thought you're going to do? You know, you kind of wonder that a little bit. And you have ideas obviously when you're younger of things you might want to do. And for some reason, I thought, well, maybe I'd be in the health care field. I realized I don't be really good with blood. So yeah, why would you even think that? If you look back though, it is funny now because all my report cards as a kid seems to sit around the theme of nice kid that talks too much. Maybe pay attention now and even some of those. So maybe I always knew I'd be talking or speaking to people. But the thing I love about it, I just like to tell other people stories. Maybe I don't have as cool ones myself. But you have to meet some really cool people and tell their stories, which is what's fun. Yeah, just make them up. Yeah, take their stories and make them yours. There's people that have made careers off of that. Yeah, I met one person who said my memory is so good. I can remember things that never happened. So I think it was my dad. All right, today we're talking with Matt Hargraves from Spanish Fork, Utah. The VP of communications in Utah Farm Bureau. When we come back, we're going to talk more about working at the farmers markets because I would not do well at that. We'll see what Matt's doing. We'll be back right after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell, or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io. That's commonground.io. Make sure you go check out this week's podcast, short form podcast, is David Hayden. If you eat a stencil, it was probably made by one of the machines that he sets up, right? Well, he's been all over the world. So yeah, you just name a food and he probably said something to do with it. You are also speaking. We leave tomorrow. You're going to be down in Greenville, Illinois, at the Illinois Wheat Association Summer Forum. Wheat. That's how you say it wrong. It's wheat. Wheat. So you'll be doing the after-dinner keynote tomorrow night and then we move on down to Nashville. Where's that at? It's in Illinois, right? Greenville. Yeah, down by St. Louis. Yeah, that's close. That's nice. I know it. Okay, and then we go right to Nashville, where we talk to the good people. You know the problem in Nashville, it's too many people with common sense. We need to find a bigger city with... I don't know if typically people say that about common sense. Some of our best videos were when we went into a certain college down there, but we can't do that anymore. Absolutely. Well, I mean, we have to get a hall pass. To do that. I just run really fast from the security yards. Today, we're talking with Matt Hargraves from Spanish Fork, Utah. He is the VP of Communications at Utah Farm Bureau. So Matt, I mean, what do you do? You just go to work and just start talking? Yeah, yeah. Some people think I pretty much just sit there and early days, we just be on the internet on Facebook and those kinds of things. But really, the thing I love about this job is just be able to get to talk and visit with really cool farmers up and down our state. And what I kind of view my role, especially since I haven't grown up in and around agriculture every day my whole life, is to try and connect. That's what I'm a connector really. And so try and connect one of our farmers with the 98 and a half percent of the rest of America that doesn't do that and try and build some trust into how we get our food and how people understand the process behind it. So that's kind of what I get to do. And you can try and create some strategies behind that and working with the media or working directly with consumers. We have that option, a lot of those options now. And so try to find what's the best way to do that, how to connect our people who are often in remote areas or busy making the food and growing the food that we all eat. And so anyway, I get to kind of fit that role in between there. So you didn't grow up on a farm, but you married into an orchard. So you work a farmer's market. And I bet you have to have some skills to talk to people. Is it hard to connect with a consumer sometimes when they ask questions that a farmer or rancher might dub is a pretty silly question? Or do you kind of enjoy it connecting them? You know, I enjoy it. Sometimes you do get the question that's kind of funny. And sometimes it's even done their field trips I'll be at. And you do get the question about chocolate milk and those kinds of things coming from brown cows. But generally, I think people just, they're not, they don't know. They didn't grow up in it. And so I think it is trying to also build that understanding and maybe take, well, it might be second nature for me, but it's not necessarily for somebody else. And so just to take it honestly is an opportunity. And so it's fun. It's kind of hard because it takes a lot of hours, some of the best weather of the year. But you get to go out there and it's a great experience to bond with my family. I've got three boys. And we've been doing this for years and they get to come and work at the market. So it's a good opportunity for them to learn how to visit and communicate with other people. Then you have to exchange money. Sometimes you're giving samples out, those kinds of things. And we sell a lot of peaches and apples at the market. So you're dealing with getting the peach fuzz everywhere, that kind of thing. But it's great. And most people get to resample tree ripen fruits. And then there's just, there's nothing else like it. And they just love it. And we've been doing it for a lot of years. It's just kind of neat to see the relationships you build. I mean, in some ways it seems kind of silly. Like I'm just there to sell you a few things for a few weeks and I'll see you next year. But you really get to know these people. And they come back at probably 80, 75, 80% of our business are repeat customers that come back pretty much every week or at least every other week. And so it's really neat to see that. They talk about our kids, see how they've been growing since they were when they were younger. And yeah. Really? Oh yeah. Man, I would, to me, it would just be a deal where they came up and they wanted some peaches or whatever. And then they start asking stuff. I was like, I would just hand them the bag and tell them to move on. No, it's fun. It's a lot of fun to do that. And there's some of my best advertisers themselves. And then a lot of people come up and my customers will say, Oh, you got to get these are the best ones. You have to try this one. And so I get to do that. I get to introduce them to the fruit that they've never heard of before or seen before. Some things I thought, I thought everyone's heard of this, but you know, they, they haven't. So it's fun. Do you feel like the consumers trust farmers? I mean, do you think that when they ask you questions and you tell them the answer, do they argue with you and go Google it anyway? Or do you feel like they trust us? You know, there may be some that are, have questions about it or they maybe think it should be grown a different way. But that's the minority. And even then, I tell them, well, that's great. Like the great thing about American agriculture is there are so many choices and options. So if you don't like how I raise it, you know, we, we're a conventional farm. And so we, we use pesticides when we need to, not as we like to because they're expensive and all those things. If you want fruit grown a different way, I'm sure there's somebody that's going to do it there for you. So, so I just look at it as a great opportunity that way. But I think the majority love to hear from it and they, they can't feed us as their experts, right? We're, we got to have your people, right? You have people that know how you fix your cars or you don't have people that, and this is where they're fruit people. And so they come and ask us questions. And I think it's no different than really majority of them. We all get that in different aspects of our life. I go to film my car with gas. I don't really think a thing about how I got there. Right? I don't think about that much about the, you know, this, the, the mining of different minerals in our country, the oil production. I don't really think about the extraction. You're fine. I just, I put it in the car. And I think that's how a lot of people feel. And so just giving them the opportunity to meet a farmer, a lot of them probably never have before. It's, it's a great, it's a really opportunity really than anything else. Yeah, 10 seconds, Matt. What's more frustrating? You as a working as a farmer's market, are you working with Farm Bureau when you have other farmers that trash away, you raise crops to sell their own? Oh, I'd say it's, I don't know if there is a frustration part of it. It's just a different opportunity. And so really that, what I think I love is just there's a whole lot of options. So I get to, I get to deal with it with however they come. And that's the, that's the wonderful thing. There's so many choices and be looking at their different opinions however they want. It's way too nice. He's way too nice. I suppose you have to be though. Today we're talking with Matt Hargraves from a Spanish Fork Utah. When you come back, want to talk more about his job. Plus we get to talk about the Olympics. Have you been watching that, Mrs. Shark Farmer? I have a little bit. I have not. I haven't seen one thing. We'll talk about it right after the break. This segment is brought to you by Common Ground. Are you looking for an easy way to buy, sell or lease your land? Well, check out Common Ground where they connect landowners and farmers and hunters too, by the way. Go to commonground.io. That's commonground.io. It's time for Spanish Fork's Utah's favorite radio segment. Where in the world is well? Well, what you got? I'm in Spanish Fork, which is a city in Utah County, Utah, the United States. It is part of the Provo Orem metropolitan statistical area. I was wondering that. Okay. Spanish Fork Utah is the 20th largest city in Utah based on the official 2017 estimates from the U.S. Census. They broke the top 20. I bet they're proud. Spanish Fork lies in the Utah Valley with the Wasatch Range to the east and the Utah Lake to the northwest. He so didn't say that right. I don't know if he said that right. Wasatch. Wasatch. What's that? What do you think Matt? Wasatch. Wasatch. Oh, so close. Spanish Fork was settled in 1851 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as part of the Mormon Pioneer Settlement of the Utah Territory. Its name derives from a visit to the area by two Franciscan friars from Spain, Silvestre, Velez de Escalante, and Francisco, ata Sanio Dominguez. That's a good try. That's forever farewell. They followed a stream down Spanish Fork Canyon with the objective of opening a new trail from Santa Fe to the Spanish missions in California. Between 1855 and 1860, the arrival of pioneers from Iceland made Spanish Fork the first permanent Icelandic settlement in the United States. No ding for that. No. Well, the Angeles Theater in Spanish Fork hosts live shows collaborating with theater companies, including Great Hall theatrical experiences and other events such as live music or rock bands. Yeah, those are cool. Right. We've got some notable people here, though. We've got Bearback Bronco Rider, Casey Field. Oh, oh yeah, oh yeah. We've got Lucky Blue Smith, male model. That's our first male model we've ever had. I haven't heard that one. What makes them so lucky? I don't know. Good looks, I guess. That's true. And we've got Gail Halverson, a U.S. Air Force candy bomber. He is a candy bomber. Yeah, senior officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force, best known as the Berlin candy bomber or Uncle Wiggly Wings. He gained fame for dropping candy to German children during the Berlin airlift from 1948 to 1949. And lastly, we got David Abbott Abjinkins, the 24th mayor of Salt Lake City, as well as professional race car driver. Jenkins' interest in motorsports began with racing motorcycles on dirt tracks. He then became interested in land speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Yeah, that's what they do out there. They go on those dry lakes and just go fast. Yeah, yeah. He drove the Duzenberg Mormon meteor. You take sponsors or you can get them. Yeah. He drove it to a 24-hour average land speed record of 135 miles per hour in 1935. Oh, wow. Okay, good for him. And in 1940, he set the 24-hour record of 161 miles per hour average that lasted for 50 years until 1990. That's rather impressive. I am just really glad I didn't have to ask what a candy bomber was. Oh, it's a cool story. Well, yeah, now I'm going to have to Google it. Thank you. Well, today we're talking with Matt Hargraves from Spanish Fork, Utah. Matt, did you learn anything? Well, I did not know about that the speed racer, but yes, Wiggly Wings, however similar to common, he would tell the kids that he would dip his wings back and forth a few times. And so they'd know it was him that was coming and he would come and he would just drop candy out of his plane for these kids during the Berlin airlift. It's a pretty awesome story. Yeah, you win wars with your heart, not bombs. Well, and you know, you're dropping candy like, what kind of like marshmallow? You should have heard stuff. Can you imagine getting hit by piece candy? You would think so. You would think so. In fact, they still do that in northern Utah. In one city, they'll come and they'll, where he has spent some time to him, they'll drop some candy for the kids. So hopefully they'll take out the crop dusting before that. Tell me about the urban encroachment around your family's place. Yeah, so this goes in much of Utah. I'd say probably 85% of the state lives within a stretch of land called the Wasatch Front. That's about 80 to 100 miles long and probably 20 miles wide. And that's where most of the state lives. And so some of the best farming ground is kind of getting taken up by development, by growing the fast growing state and they're supposed to double by the year 2060. And so, unfortunately, just as it comes, as it happens, rather than doing some ways of development, it'll take areas that are nice and flat and level. And so they'll build there. And so we've lost some of the best farm ground in the state that way. So we're working to try and help people different things. There's conservation easements, which is one option that may work for people. Other things that they've farmed here was really instrumental in helping pass this tax reform bill back in the '60s, which again, tax reforms are super exciting, but it really helps land get taxed at a production value rather than just the market value. And that may be one of the only things keeping agriculture around a lot of the Wasatch Front area. So it's just hard. And even just as a personal level, this is my family's farm. It's growing. People are growing around it. There's talk of building different highways and things through different areas. And so, it's kind of hard. You try and think about how we can plan things so we can still keep a production productive farm. But it's also hard to stop growth and progress that way as well. Matt, if farmers were to have Olympics, what events would there be? Well, we've done some Agri-lympics. I'm a big Olympic nerd. So, you know, you could be like pushing round bales. You could do something. We had something recently about trying to tag the one cap that his mama really does not want you to get close to them. Oh, you want to do violent stuff. Okay. This is like the old gladiator stuff. Maybe a milk tasting, you know, like Napoleon Dynamite? Which one got into the onion patch? The onion patch, yeah. I think it would be fun. You know, typically like the county fairs and that don't have like the the bail toss or whatever, where they get the high school kids up there and they grunt as they throw it. But yeah, the bail rolling, would that be uphill or downhill? Oh, we just did it on a level field, but you've got to have some obstacles you have to go around. So, yeah, we could do some hurdles of some kind too. You know, that's in both skates. That's a we. Matt, if people would want to talk to you, find out more about Utah Farm Bureau, any of that stuff, where would they go? So, we're on social media, this Utah Farm Bureau and Facebook and Instagram. It's a good place there and we're happy to engage with people. We've got some videos on Utah Farm Bureau on our YouTube channel. And so, love to do that and Utah Farm Bureau.org. But just appreciate all you guys do. We're just trying to connect to people and help them see how we're trying to feed them. I also think we should have a welding competition, except the caveat is the ground wire has to be half-coated. Yeah, you've got to put a little challenge into it. Yeah, put that one on your list. Matt Hargreaves from Spanish Fork Utah. Matt really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. Don't go anywhere though. Sean Haney's coming up next. He's one of your natural Canadians, which I'm still, we're going to check on you, Matt. We'll catch everybody next time. [Music]