SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Dot Jenson from Tremonton, UT 7-22-24
[Music] Now walk away getting the shark farmer radio, hey! I'm your host Rob Sharky. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. Studio powered by Bex Hybrid. I think I've finished with the mowing for the first time this year. That's record time I would have to say. Yeah, it's never really been high on my priority, but nobody likes mowing ditches and waterways. I despise it. I hate it. I just, I can't stand it, but apparently that's what landlords want to see. And I always do our fields last because you know, I always want to keep the landlords happy. Well, absolutely. And I also see that we've got Stephen out there and he is washing the combine. So we must have like a big, what is it? A thousand point check on the combine. No, I don't know what it is, but it's annual inspection, which I don't know. We've had done on the farm because I don't know. Everything's gotten weird and nobody can find help or whatever. So you basically, whoever can look at it, we have look at it. Well, there's always parts to replace. All I see is dollar signs when we have that done. I swear it's, it's 10 grand every year. Oh my gosh. It's like here, you really says replace this and we have to go, "Is this necessary?" And that's probably without inflation. That's probably going to be 15. Oh, don't tell me that. You put me in a bad mood. Probably would be wise just maybe to trade off. I'm dealing with old. Good try. Good try. I'm just trying to save you money. All right, let's go out to Utah. We're going to be talking with Dot Jensen. How are you doing, Dot? I'm doing great today. So the town in Utah, how do you pronounce that? It is called Tremonton and we're an hour north of Salt Lake in 15 minutes from Idaho border. Is it very big? I'm thinking maybe 50,000 with the outlying areas. Okay, so yeah, pretty good size. Is that where you're from originally? I'm originally from Yuma, Arizona. I grew up down there. I still lay claim to it. I was a Yuma High Criminal, the mascot of Yuma High School because of the Yuma Territorial Prison. I grew up down there working in a feed yard. That's where my dad managed to feed yard 30,000 head cattle. We work there all the time and grew up horseback, horse showing, barrel racing, roping, whatever. I got to learn a lot about the cattle business and from him and I called them the True Mexicans of Carols, the Mexican cowboys that he had. I learned a lot from there. Oh my gosh, yeah. I bet that was something. I bet you did everything on horseback. You probably learned how to rope cattle and all kinds of things, even at a young age. I did and some of my treasured things in my house are the old rawhide rietas, the ropes that they made. They used and they handed to my dad when they left and I have them in my home and I learned how to send horses tails and I have a probably 18 foot horsehair rope that one of them. I helped gather the horsehair for that rope and I had that in my home. What are the ropes that smoke when they run them through the saddle horn? Oh, those are more your nylon ropes and it's just honestly the hard pull down of it and maybe the rawhide ones do. It looks cool when they do it. Yeah, when they really get in actuality and I think it is the rawhide because it would be the leather on the leather, I believe. Yeah, I don't know anything about it but like whenever you're scrolling through social media, I always stop at those. That means it's cattle are running hard and fast and you're trying to stop. So growing up in Yuma, that's like a huge ag area too. Don't they grow like all kinds of lettuces and every kind of vegetable you can imagine? It is. It is a solid bowl of the world is what I'm told and I grew up riding my horses like I say in the feed yard but I went out and we tried to alter the lettuce fields and cantaloupe fields and cotton fields. There was a lot of cotton there. There was actually a lot of citrus too and then now dates are there but I grew up just riding. That was my playground. We actually lived in town and were thankful because we had a swimming pool but it was like 10 miles out to the feed yard and that's where I spent. I mean all of my time. So I asked I went here to Arizona Western College out there and I mean I guess that's where I love really grew to connected grounded in agriculture farm. When you left Yuma did you take the train? No, that's going to Yuma. Oh, that's right. Yeah, you took it took it back home. And why yes and why we have the the criminal mascot is because why they were working on building the Yuma High School. They held part of the high school was held at the Yuma territorial prison. And as the post that teams went up to Phoenix or the opposing team, you know, they were called the criminals and it just became the mascot for Yuma High School. Oh, my gosh, my high school seemed like a prison too. Yup, y'all just a little more dramatic out there, I guess. Well, if you've ever been, you know, it's great museum and that you wouldn't want to be there in the summer. No, that's what I was thinking about the catalog too. We've got a lot of questions. We do have to run to break. But today we're talking with Dot Jensen, who we met out at where do we meet in? We were in Vernal, Utah. Oh, yeah. So she was a ways from home too. Yeah. I don't know what hiking out there. Oh, it's fantastic. We took an Uber. The Uber driver thought we were nuts for dropping us off in the desert. I'm like, please come back. We will tip you well back for us. We'll be back with Dot. All right, after the break. [Music] 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. [Music] What is it, Monday? Yes, and I have a case of the Mondays. I don't like working on Sundays, but since we are gone, I mean, yeah, we worked all yesterday. So it does, yeah, it doesn't feel like a Monday. It feels like stupid. It feels like it should actually be Wednesday by now. We had so much to do to get ready to go to South Dakota. Yeah, which we will be out there Thursday. Yeah, we'll do the show live, the XM show on Thursday from Ag PhD Field Day. And we go up there and do the show right before Brian and Darren talks, so that'll be fun. It's always a good time out there, such good people. One day show, everybody just gives it their all. Yeah, we're also going to be doing the name of that tool from... Do you know where yet? Is it the brand booth? I think we'll be at the brand booth, yeah. Yeah, don't come up there and just yell the name of the tool because that ain't fair me. Oh, that's so funny. And then the older gentlemen, the farmers, they love to get behind me when I'm not looking and get the tools out of my wagon and tell me what they are and you can hear them in the background when we're taping. I'm like, guys, you got to get up here and be a part of this. Oh, no, no, I won't be on film. Get out of here. It's like a farm cat. Get out, get out. All right, today we're talking with a dot Jensen from a Tremonton, Utah. She was telling us how she grew up in Yuma, Arizona. There are 30,000 head feed yard, but she lived in town and had a pool. Hey, that's important. When you live in Yuma, it's important you have a pool. Yeah, absolutely. So you majored in agribusiness and then your cattleman's daughter, but goodness, what did you do? I came up to Utah State University and then I did the unpardonable sin and married a sheepherger. Yeah, because they don't like each other, right? The sheep guys and the cattle guys? You know, nowadays they do, but the history has been. No, they don't. But nowadays they have learned to get along and actually how they benefit each other. So what did it used to be? What's the history? Is it because of a fight and over who gets to put the sheep or the cattle out on the grass or they fight in over water? What is it? Mostly the grazing because sheep would graze it down more and they felt like them that cattle didn't have the feed that they needed and they have thus learned that rotating in sheep and cattle, you can do both. You know, you can put the cattle in first. They eat it down. The sheep can come in behind and it all works now, but it used to be, you know, in the old West days, if the sheep were there, they thought they ruined all the grazing and there was no feed for cattle. And cowboys just felt like they were superior. You know, there's actually an old Warner Brothers cartoon. I think it's a porky pig one where that is they show the battle between the sheep guys and the cattle guys and the bad guys like no sheep in this neighbor or whatever. So I mean, it was, it was a thing. And it's funny because that caught my attention. Then I would look through the comments and nobody knew what it was about. It was pretty much the grazing from my understanding. You know, and so nowadays, like I said, you know, in this family, you know, they didn't ever like to have cattle on the on the their summer ranges and stuff, particularly, but now they do. And anyways, they found where they very much work together. If you rotate them right, and stuff. You said you so you married the sheep herder. You say now divorced non secession planning played a part net. What do you mean by that? I think it just caused a lot of problems. There's a lot of. I work for NASA to national like statistics calling, you know, and everywhere I see it was huge for us is. We stayed on the farm. We worked the farm. We spent 30 years on the farm. And the others didn't and then die. And then there's just a lot of issues that have come up and not and where do we belong. And oh, yeah, now we have to make a living and not getting along. And, you know, how do we do it? Do we look out for our our children? You know, I feel like we weren't looked out for and and. Personality is not wanting to cause issues or speak up. And cost a lot of that. And I'm very I have a couple of my kids that are kind of in the same situations or could be. And I'm really and then I talked to farmers, regular basis about. How it they aren't doing things and people that have spent their whole lives there doing everything to keep what mom and dad had going. Then all of a sudden mom and dad are gone and they can't keep going because the others take it out from under or they can't afford to stay in or. Whatever. Like, yeah, it was last week's podcast and were the young the guy he was figuring out, taking over the farm. And then one day is a great uncle just showed up and said, Hey, get ready for a farm sale. Yeah, my son edits those podcasts. And he's he was saying, Can you believe they they never even discussed? You know, they didn't really even have a talk of the succession. I'm like, well, your grandfather and I never had that talk either. So I mean, it's it's something that everybody says is important. But I was just as guilty as everybody else is. We assumed. Yeah, you assumed and then, you know, you don't want to step on toes. You don't want to hurt feelings and nobody wants to talk about it because it means that probably someone has passed away. And that you're moving on and nobody wants to talk about that. So yeah, succession planning so hard. And it's so, so important, you know, and if you do it right, like. Rena Rena talked about after the internal, you know, if you can do it right, you can still be connected to your family and take care of things. Yeah, even though I mean, everybody has that family member they don't like. Who's yours, Dot? You don't have to share that. She's like, do I have to narrow it down to one? So that you have six kids. Do they all work in agriculture? All that one are tied into agriculture in some way. Yes, my, I have one daughter that has a seventh farmer is in 15,007. And she plant that they grow all their farm for crops that also help feed and also so that they can. Here in Utah, they look like they're in the Midwest and they were close with browning guns to do all their filming for birds at her place. Oh, nice. And then I have a son that actually works for Idaho Farm Bureau and I was pregnant with him with my very first Farm Bureau thing. And so he was destined to be. Sounds familiar. Yeah. Well, I tell you what, we'll get to line up with the rest of your kids, but we do got to go to break today. We're talking with a Dot Jensen from a tree mountain, Utah. Yeah, we'll get back. We got to find out what all our kids are doing. Plus we're going to do a little Farm Bureau talking. Emily loves when I talk Farm Bureau. We'll be right 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. It's time for tree mountains, Utah's favorite radio segment. Where in the world is will? Well, what have you got for us today? Today I'm in tree mountain, which is the city in Box Elder County, Utah. My favorite bug. The population. It reminded me of a turtle. What, Box Elder Turtles? Is it a turtle? Do you have the Box Elder Bugs in Nashville? I don't know. They smell fantastic. You'd know it. Yeah, anyway. Well, the population was 9,894 at the time of the 2020 census. And as of 2024, Tremontan has an estimated population of 13,000. And as one of the fastest growing municipalities in the state of Utah. Gotcha. Although the first settlers came to Tremontan area in 1888, it remained largely uninhabited until just before 1900, when land agents started promoting the Bear River Valley as a place for Midwestern farmers to relocate. Small groups from Nebraska and Illinois began to arrive in 1898. And these settlers were a diverse blend of Protestant faiths in contrast to their mostly Mormon neighbors. Oh, the Mormons were out there. I gotcha. When a town site was laid out in 1903, the new town was named Tremont at the request of the German colonists. But within four years, the post office had it renamed to Tremontan due to confusion with the central Utah town of Fremont. Especially with the German accent, I could see that. Right. Some of the major employers include the maltomeal cereal company with celebrity foods, crumprese, motor company, intertape polymer group, Inc., and in April 2008, Lazy Boy announced the closure of its Tremontan facility and the layoff of 630 employees. Their chairs are overrated. I'm just going to say it. Right. We got some notable people though. Lee E. Teetlebaum endowed professor of law, Reneal Anderson-Jones. Oh my gosh, you can't even fit that on a business card. Jay Sylvester, a U.S. Olympian and the former men's discus world record holder, and the first Mormon to participate in four Olympic games. Okay. Also another Olympian, Marlin Shirley, two-time Paralympic 100-meter champion. All right, you know him. Yeah, he's been called the fastest amputee in the world. Oh, he is known for being the first lower extremity amputee to break the 11-second barrier in the 100-meters. Okay. Wow, 11 seconds. Yeah, I bet you couldn't do that with two feet there. I couldn't do that three times that. Also, and it doesn't say Tremontan, but our valley right here is the candy bomber, Jay Halberston. And the worm movie with Tom Hanks, where the four brothers were killed. Oh, yeah. Can't say the name of it. Yes, yeah. And they just did a memorial at the Tremontan Cemetery for them. Wait, so they're from, the brothers are from Tremontan? Well, we have Tremontan, Garland, Boswell, Thatcher, that all is blended together. That's where I came up with that 50,000 thing. This valley right here, and that's where, like, we have a great big huge mural of Jay Halberston, the candy bomber on one of the walls of town. It's beautiful. I could send it to you, you know, take a picture. And then, but, yeah, what's their name? Orks from brothers? Yes, yes. Oh, yeah. That, uh-huh. And they, like I said, for Memorial Day this year, they have their big because they're buried in the Tremontan Cemetery. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I'll update the Wikipedia. That's right. Okay. You know, because Tremontan and Berra were rallied, they considered themselves the same, but, you know, there's these fine lines of Garland and Deweyville and- Oh, yeah. We're all aware of that. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Will. County. Anyway, so there. Today we're talking with a dot Jensen from a treatment in Utah. Dot, you were, okay, you're going through your kids. You get a pheasant farmer. You get a farm bureau employee. What else we got? I've got a, um, I got a massage therapist. That's handy. And then, I've got some that works. A lot of minerals off the Great Salt Lake where they might potash and stuff for fertilizer and everything for farmers off of the Great Salt Lake. I've got a daughter that is an entrepreneur and started her own windshield business. And then I've got a daughter out on a ranch in the middle. They've run probably 2000 head of cattle and 190 South Baker who I don't know. It's a little spaced out. Yeah. South sprick in a community of five kids in a school of K through 10. So, Dot, you are busy doing a lot of things. Yeah. Running up your kids and grandkids and all this. You take a lot of time to volunteer. Why? Why do you feel it's important to be involved with farm bureau? Farm bureau. I have a passion for it. I started doing farm safety to help people not get hurt and kids not get hurt. And then I found it's the true voice of agriculture. The largest farm organization represents all farmers. It doesn't matter what type of farmer. Also, I love the fact that it gives young farmers and ranchers voices. But it gives women voices. I think in the 17 ag census, I think it said 37% of farmers are women owned now. Farms are women owned. It gives us a voice and an opportunity. Farm Bureau leadership has training to its members that is burned down to anybody. Organizations pay thousands of dollars for the leadership and advocacy training that we are able to receive to help us learn to run better businesses, to be able to go and talk to our legislators and our congressmen. And tell our story so that we can look out for the good of all. And then one of my favorite things is actually being the... I feel like farm bureau needs to be many faces because you know yourself. If you go to your child ball games and you see certain people there, you might not realize what they do, but you see them later and maybe they're promoting something or saying something, you're going to trust them because you see them. And I feel like women, it's statistically proven, you know, consumers trust women. And we want to promote what we do because what we do is so important. Well, I love when farm bureau members get together too because I feel like the young can learn from the older and the older can learn from the young and you can share ideas. And sometimes you don't get a chance to do that unless you're part of an organization like that. Oh, absolutely. That was kind of my biggest thing when I got in to be the state chair is I wanted to bring these age groups. I didn't want to be just the old women's club that per se used to just quilt or whatever. I wanted to bring because that's right where I had my children of that age. They're getting involved now and I want to give them opportunities for them to continue this on. No, and that's that that enough cannot be said good about that. Unfortunately, we are bumping up against the clock. Dot Jensen from a tree mountain Utah dot it was a pleasure to meet you out there and thank you for all that you're doing. Thank you for being such a champion for farmers and agriculture and ranchers and all that. But that don't go anywhere. Sean Haney's coming up next. He thinks sheep are superior to cattle. Don't know what to say. We'll catch everybody next time. [Music]