SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Lee Hamberg from Randlett, Utah 7-8-24
*Singing* Unstoppable, unshakeable, but it rolls off the town unfakeable, it's unavoidable, you're sure a little bony between the lines, start to loosen up your mind. Hey, welcome again to Shirk Farmer Radio, hey! I'm a ghost Rob Sharky, we're in the studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. Studio powered by Bex Hybrid. You know it'd be nice if we actually got the... Internet speed that we pay for. Oh my goodness, I don't know whether people are trying to play catch up today or what, but yeah, the internet, it's killing me today. Yeah, it's never. You know, I see like on some of the farm shows now that, because when you went to a farm show you never had anything, right? Oh no, because everybody's trying to send pictures. Plus I think they were choking it, you know what they do, you know how they do that. Well, you know you get 10,000 people or more depending on which farm show you're at, sometimes 100,000 people. Yeah, that's gonna clog it up a bit. But I see now that they're using the deer signal off the Starlink for some of these farm shows, which I think is genius. Oh yeah, it's brilliant. Because there's nothing worse than saying, "Hey, I'm gonna meet a buddy at a farm show," and then you text them, "Hey, I'm here where you at," and it literally sits there for six hours. It's cute, I love that, when it's queued up. Okay. Oh, I thought you said it was cute. We're rolling on the farm today, spraying down deer plots, gonna get those planted. Hopefully this week, maybe next. I don't know, hopefully all this week. Re-entry, I would say after a holiday weekend is hard. Yeah, but it's, things look good. We got a half inch of rain last night on the bulk of our farm. Every farm we got got a little bit, so that's nice. We'll just keep it watered. I'm not going to brag about the rain, because we're going somewhere very dry today with our guest. Randall, let you tall. We're talking with Lee Hamburg. How you doing, Lee? Good. How are you guys doing? Good. Did you get a half inch last night? Thank goodness we didn't. Is that too much? No, no, but when we have hay down, it's not welcome, really. I got you. Randall, now where is that in the great state of Utah? It's in the northeastern corner, kind of by the Colorado border. Okay. Do you call that the desert? Yeah, it's pretty desolate. So we met you when we were in Vernal, and Rob was speaking. It was great to meet you and your wife. And you said that it is a desert area. How many inches do you guys get a year? So our average precipitation for the year is seven inches. It can be a little more, a little less than that, so most of that becomes snowfall in the winter time. Seven, as in like your, your, all the fingers on your one hand plus two more. That's it. Yep, absolutely. Good night. Now this year, has this year been a little wetter? Yes, it actually has. Yes and no, kind of a dirt and corn plant that got golden wet. And then a couple of weeks ago, we got quite a bit of moisture. I mean, we got a half inch over three days or so. So that was quite a bit for us. Yeah. So what are you raising out there? So we do alfalfa, grain corn, and wheat. That's our main crop. So your dad started the farm in what, 1984? So your second generation? So you grew up on the farm helping him? Absolutely, yeah. We, he worked in oil field and got the opportunity and told my mom that he was thinking that they were going to buy a farm and do that. They grew up farming his dad and they had a family farm, but they decided to buy the farm and worked for a couple years and quit and we just kept buying farm ground. What is, what's an acre of farm ground? I mean, just ballpark out there. So, depending on the area for some irrigated. So anything you don't irrigate out here, it doesn't. I mean, it's just dirt. So we go, irrigated cropland is usually 5,000 last I checked. I think it may have gone up since then, but. So when you buy irrigated ground, I mean, it has the, well, you have the right, right, to pull the water out. Yep. Yeah. So we're off lakes. So we capture the snowfall rainfall and then we, through, we've got some local irrigation reservoirs. And from there, we've got a pipe. You know, depending, we have all center pivots. There's a lot of wheel lines, some litigation around, but yeah. So yeah, when you buy an acre of ground, you, you want that water right. You get a water right with that. I was surprised when we were out there. How many wheel line irrigators were out there? I figured everybody was like, because you got to move those by hand, right? Yeah, a little motor on a frame and you go out there and start them up and roll them for a couple of rolls and then start them for the day. Okay, forget that noise. Yeah, I like your center pivots. Those probably don't give you any problem. You just sit back and watch them work. Yeah, I know, but almost every day there's one of them going haywire, but they're better than wheel lines. Yeah. So 84, I mean, so that's fairly, fairly a young farm in agriculture terms. Did you always know that you wanted to come back and, and be part of it? So, I grew up on the farm. I, I enjoyed farming quite a bit, but as soon as I graduated high school, I went to a year of college, didn't love that and just come back out and got a job. Out in the oil field for a couple years, and then got the opportunity to work at our local telecommunications company, which is one of the better jobs in our area that you can get in the equipment operator. Okay. That we got to get into. We do have to run a break. Today we're talking with Lee Hamburg. Lee Hamburg. He's the bearded farmer on the old social media from Randlelet Utah. We come back. We're going to talk about running big equipment. 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. Yeah, the, the meeting that we met Lee was not, it wasn't in Randlelet. It was in, what was the name of the town? It was Vernal. Vernal Utah. Yeah, that's a cool place. Today we're talking with Lee Hamburg from, Lee Hamburg from Randlelet Utah. Lee, how far are you from that, that skinwalker ranch? From skinwalker ranch, we are five miles the best. We're pretty close. Do you believe in all the hype of the skinwalker ranch? It's funny because, yeah, in our area, people are like skinwalker ranch. That's nearby you somewhat. Do you know anything about it? And yeah, we're pretty close to it. Growing up, whole life kind of knowing that. Do I, I don't know. I try not to get into scary stuff. We have to be out in cornfield and stuff in the middle of the night. I'd rather not think about stuff like that. I want to know about stuff like that, Terry. You're five miles away from it. So you ever seen an orb? Yes, that's the answer. Oh, come on. Now we, we had to hire kind of like a super uber to get out of there and the people that were driving us. They said they've seen stuff there. They used to work on that ranch and then Emily was a son or something. He went by it in the house of Stanney and five minutes later he came back. It was like 30 seconds of house burnt down or something. Oh my goodness, a super uber. That is hilarious. I mean, we did hire people to drive us four hours from Vernal down to Moab. They could have been serial killers for all we knew. I know they didn't stop talking. They ended up being fantastic. We heard about all of the, the back lore. Yeah, but like before that TV show came out, I mean, was that a did it was just kind of something that people joke about? Yeah, it's been popular in my whole life. I mean, it's definitely picked up popularity since that TV show. I actually have a cousin that works on that. So cool. Does your corn grow better around the, around the ranch? We get crop circles. That's called irrigation pivots, but that's funny. Okay, so when we went to break you, after school, you started to become a heavy equipment operator. What all were you running? We were running backos, trackos. We did some, you know, we plow in fiber optic cables and stuff. So we had some bigger plows, cat D7 plows and stuff. And we were pretty much, most of us could run about anything. Mm hmm. How deep is the soil there before you hit rock? Oh, it depends where you're at. Some places you can go down quite a ways, 20 some places. It's on the surface. Hard parents. Oh, I wonder out there, like a percentage of houses. What would have basement? What percentage? Most, most actually do have basements. It's not uncommon. My parents actually have a basement. So. They're down in the little hole, kind of in the swamp. So, it's always wet down there. Well, I would want a basement too, around the aliens. I think that'd be a whole lot less probing. Okay, we have to focus. We have to focus here. We're talking. Yeah, I don't remember here. We got all the notes. I don't remember anything about being five miles from the skinwalker ranch. Okay, well, I'll move on. I will move on. I can tell Lee doesn't want to talk about this because somebody's listening. At least now we have an audience for the show. Hello, government. Okay, so you worked heavy equipment and then tell me about the how you guys bought that first farm. Tell me about the setup to that. So, you and my wife got married in 2014. I was still working with telecommunications company. And for a couple of years, you know, just doing that. I'd help dad. And once in a while, you know, come home on corn planting and do harvest, the fun stuff. And then dad told us we ought to come to a Farm Bureau event. So we went out to the state convention for the Utah Farm Bureau. And we're sitting there talking and he's like, you know, if you want to come back and farm, that's an opportunity that most people do not have. So we got talking about it and we went to look at purchasing some ground and went to the FSA office. They gave you a pile of paperwork and they say, all right, so that out. So we did that and we took it back in and the ladies are like, well, most people don't bring that back, but we can't loan you any, you know, we can't loan you this money to buy a farm because you don't have any experience. So we need you to get experience and what we can do is give you an operating. Now, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. They didn't tell you that before you filled out the mountain of paperwork. No, no, they didn't. But my dad, that's how he got his first farm also. And he said they gave him a pile of paperwork and they pretty much want to sort out to make sure you're willing to do that. Yeah, we got to have like what Emily, is it two or three years of farm experience? Yeah, yeah. Is it three years? Okay. All right, so what'd you do then? So I took out an operating loan with them. I leased 50 acres, 30 of it irrigated the field 50 acres. You got 35 acres center pivot. And we started growing corn with that, you know, just use his equipment and do that kind of for, we did that for two years and then they changed some things. We went into that essay lady. She was excited and she said, you need to start looking for a farm because we can, you know, you've got this experience you've been doing pretty well. So we started looking for farm grounds. There's not a lot of farm ground in our area. I mean, most everybody's keeping a hold of their ground. So we went to work on it and we found a larger farm. It was 300 irrigated acres. And dad said, you know, we can, if you're going to, we've talked about quitting full time job and coming to the family farm being a part of it. And he said, you know, we need more acres if you're going to come on. So he purchased part of that farm and we bought a separate sale that was a part of that. And it was 128 acres. So he was able to get that deal through. And yeah. Oh, that's awesome. And we found a little bit and we got our own farm acres. Yeah. Well, 120. That's a big chunk to start with. Okay. All right. We got to continue to talk about this. I will get off the skinwalker stuff. Okay, Emily. That's all I want to ask. But that's, that's okay. Today we're talking with Lee Hamburg from a Rendelet, Utah, the bearded farmer on the old social media. We come back. Yeah, getting started with that started with that first hundred twenty. 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. It's time for Utah's favorite radio segment. Where in the world is Will? Well, what do you have for us today? Today I am in Rendelet, Utah, which is a census designated place in West Central Utah. I don't know what that means, but okay. Uintah County, Utah. You, Unitah, how do you say it, Emily? Well, I don't know why I'm asking you. Absolutely. Unitah, is that how you say it, Lee? Uintah. Uintah. In the year 2000 census, its population was 224, which was a 21% decrease from the 1990 figure of 283. It's aliens. Rendelet began as the site of a school for Ute children in 1892. The Utes, yeah, that's who goes to school. Yeah, Ute are the indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture of the Great Basin. They have lived in sovereignty for several hundred years in the regions of present day Utah and Colorado. Okay. According to the Copen Climate Classification System, Rendelet has a semi arid climate abbreviated BSK on climate maps. Or a desert. Located 10 miles southeast of the town of Rendelet is the Orae National Wildlife Refuge, also called the Orae National Waterfowl Refuge. Established in 1960, it straddles the Green River for 12 miles and covers 11,987 acres. Okay. A portion of the refuge is leased from the Unitah and Orae Indian Reservation. The refuge was created for the use of both local and migratory birds with funds provided by the sale of federal duck stamps. Ah, the feds. Yep. This side of the refuge also holds the Orae National Fish Hatchery, which was established in 1996 to help hatch razorback suckers, humpback chubs, Colorado pike minnows, and bonytail chubs. Pretty sure you've made all four of those up. Not much of a fisherman are you? Apparently not. Bonytail. Skinwalker Ranch, previously known as Sherman Ranch, is a property of approximately 512 acres located in West Unitah County, bordering the Unitah and Orae Indian Reservation. It was popularly dubbed the UFO Ranch due to its 50-year history of odd events said to have taken place there. According to investigative journalist Keller and NAP, they saw or investigated evidence of close to 100 incidents that include vanishing and mutilated cattle, sightings of unidentified flying objects or orbs. Large animals with piercing red eyes that they say were unscathed when struck by bullets and invisible objects emitting destructive magnetic fields. Among those involved were retired US Army Colonel John B. Alexander, who characterized the NIDSI effort as an attempt to get hard data using a "standard scientific approach." However, the investigators admitted to "difficulty obtaining evidence consisted with scientific publication." Yeah, Lee said there was none. Yeah, that's a bunch of big words for the deep state, shut them down. Is that what happened? No. I'm just kidding. I mean, reading this Wikipedia, to me, it's like this guy bought the ranch. This guy purchased the ranch for $200,000 in 1996 because he heard a bunch of stories of cattle mutilations told by the family of the former owner. Yeah. And then, like, you know... It's an odd flex to sell a farm. He's probably guarding, you know, to keep some sort of mysterious allure to the ranch. Okay. Well... Skeptic. So is Lee. All right. Thank you, Will. Lee Hamburg from Randall at Utah. I told you I wouldn't talk about it anymore, Lee. But Lee, where did you meet your wife? So I met my wife after work, actually, at the local gym. You mean bar? Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of an odd place. I'm just checking you out while I was working out and decided that would be a good idea. You pulled her in, pulled her in with a gun show. That's what you're saying. Absolutely. You've been married for 10 years. You've got three kids. Was she all into going back to the farm? She's been awesome about it. She grew up about 45 miles kind of northwest of Randall at up kind of closer, just in the foothills of the mountains in Mount Endinge. And her family, they run black Angus cattle, registered black Angus, so she'd come from a cattle ranch and she didn't know where Randall at was hardly, but she may have been through it once when she was a kid. We started dating and for our first date, we went to the corn maze that's actually not far from her house and had a pretty good time. And I told her, I was like, you know, if you want to see a corn field, I know one way scary of this, so that's what I did. We went out and walked through to one of our family corn fields. With the aliens? Yes. With the aliens. That's a, that's a hell of a first date. Surely. So your wife has taken some of the wheat that you guys raised and she has kind of like a side hustle going on. Tell us about that. Yeah. So we, we grow about two acres of sweet corn and her, my mom and my sister. They go out and they sell it pretty much, you know, they couple local farmer markets. My wife does it mostly out of the bed of the truck or on Facebook and that keeps them involved. They like it. It's enjoyable for our kids, teaches them, you know, they go out the night before and they pick a pile of sweet corn and then they go do that. So, and then we started growing wheat a couple of years ago, we had real bad drought. So we decided that if we put some acres in the wheat, you know, it doesn't take as much water. So we'd be able to use the rest of that water to finish off our corn. We got real interested in making flower arrangements or wheat arrangements. So we cut some of that down for her and she'll make some wheat arrangements and sell those around the town and, and pretty fun. She does a good job. Lee, if people want to find you social media, where do they go? So my is at bearded farmer, that's on Instagram and that's pretty much only social media I have. Okay. All right. Well, very cool. Lee, the way you guys farm out there is fascinating seven inches of rain a year, but yet y'all seem to make it work and you've dodged in the skin walkers and the aliens and all that stuff. But hey, I want to thank you for coming on the show. I really appreciate it, really appreciate sharing desert agriculture and we need more of these. That's right. All right. Lee hamburger from Randall at Utah, Lee don't go anywhere though, Sean Haney is coming up next. He doesn't believe in skin walkers. Go figure. Go.