SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Sherri Tate from Washington, Utah 7-2-24
[Music] Unstoppable, unshakeable, but it rolls off the town unfreakable, it's unavoidable. You saw a little bull, read between the lies, start to loosen up your mind. And welcome again to Shark Farmer Radio, hey! I'm your host Rob Shark, you were in the studio just outside of Bradford, Illinois, studio powered by Bexide Bread. Can you hear it? Can you hear the... the sheep's foot? I can't. I can't. I am enjoying this. The truck's going in and out today, I'm excited, we're getting our new building. Wow, we're laying down. Every good building starts with a good foundation. There we go, well said. And we're packing the crud out of the ground. We're moving in so much there, so they've got three semis that are moving in dirt, and then me with my pickup and my dump trailer. So they come in, boom, boom, boom, and I'm like coming behind after. I was like, yay, here's a little bit more. It's so pathetic. Well, you know, you guys brought in what? 20 loads? 30 loads of dirt? I mean, every little bit helps, right? I mean, that was our dirt from another one of our farms. So, hey, every little bit saves some money. Yeah, it was the hauling fee. They were redoing like a ditch a mile away, and you know, they were just hauling a dirt, and I stopped, and I said, hey, were you taking that? And so then we put it there. It's been on our farm for 10 years. Yes, and I never even noticed it. And you said, oh, we'll just get the dirt from the North Place. I'm like, what? It's been there so long, I just thought it was part of the topography. Yeah, well, it'll be good to see it done so we can get built in. It's exciting to build something. But you know, then your farm is going to look different for the rest of our lives. That's right. We had to really like figure out how we were going to place this thing because you know, it blocks views, which, you know, we can't complain. We have a 360 view for a long way from our farm. So, but you know, every view matters, right? We're working with the FBI on this. It's so funny. Yeah, FBI buildings. It really sounds. I said that the other day, somebody I go, I got a, I got a Zoom call with FBI and had left them thinking we were talking to the FBI. All right, today we're going to go out to Washington, Utah. We're going to talk about Sherry Tate. How you doing, Sherry? I'm doing great. How are you guys? Sounds like excitement on the farm. Yeah, does the FBI ever watch you? Well, probably probably. Yeah. So we're in the beautiful state of Utah is Washington. So we're on the southern end of the state. Always tell people we're close to Zion National Park, 45 minutes from there. And then we're about 90 miles south is Las Vegas. So we have all the best of all the world all around us. Gotcha. How far are you from Moab? Moab, we're about, well, it's about a six hour drive for me. So I don't know how many miles that is, but six hour drive for me. You know, Sherry, this has nothing to do with you, but it bothered me. So when we were leaving Moab, we're going to fly out of where Columbus Junction, Colorado, right? And you put that in the ways, you know, that tells you where to go, and it sends you to the Junction Airport in Utah, almost screwed us up, Sherry. And I, for some reason, I blame you for that. Well, I'm kind of shocked that Junction has an airport. It's not much of one. Oh, man, we would have been going two hours in the wrong direction. We would have got there and be like, oh, wait, I hate you. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I could see that. Sherry, you are a fifth generation farmer out there. The family farm is a stailey farm. So tell me what all you guys are raising. So we raise our main crop or our main industry is we raise Angus beef cows. So we, you know, during COVID, we started doing direct to consumer beef. Before that, prior to that, we had a feedlot that had about 2,500 head of cows, and we sold commercially. And then, you know, the next generation, my kids, they're like, why are you doing that? Why don't you just sell direct to consumer? They want to know the farmer. They want to know, you know, where their food's coming from. You're doing it all wrong. You know, they're mostly smarter than my generation are sometimes in a lot of things, but common sense, we're still smarter. But anyway, they, yeah. Well said. My son, my son, he's a real businessman. And, you know, he kind of got us on that track. And, and the way things happened with COVID and stuff, it actually was just such a blessing to us to be able to do that. Because when people couldn't get beef or their protein, we were able to still get it for them. And so it really helped boost that part of our business, you know, where we were just transitioning it. It really helped us a lot to go that direction. Yeah. But then you got to admit the kids are right, darn it. They have good ideas. That would be a mistake. I know. I know. I do have very smart kids, and I have to say they're part of me. So, you know, I got to take some credit for their smarts. But yes, they were right. And I do listen to them quite often because, you know, the work smarter, not harder part of things. They're really good at that. I work hard. And they're like, why are you doing it that way? You know, and I still put my foot down. I'm still the mom, but they have led me in some good directions. I have to give them credit for that. Are there many sesquicentennial farms out there in Utah? There actually is quite a few. So where we're located, our little city, I call it little. It's not little anymore. Well, it's little, probably compared to other areas. But, you know, we, we went from like 12,000 people eight years ago to almost 50,000 people. So, you know, some places we're still considered little. But to us, it's like, well, what's happened. Yeah, not to us. Not Bradford. 450 people. We're going to have to talk about this when we come back. We do got to go to break today. We're talking with Sherry Tate from Washington, Utah. Now, when we come back, we're going to talk about that farm being established in 1889. We're going to talk about all sorts of stuff, including agriterism. 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. Hey, you're looking for a great agriculture podcast to pass the time as you're hauling little loads of dirt. Or you're heading for fireworks this week. I mean, everybody's in the car this week. Yeah, listen to stuff. I suppose. Can you imagine just, you know, not having a podcast list too? Come on. We kind of go around the country. Well, kind of. We have a Steve Pitt stick from Maple Park, Illinois. Then we have Quentin Canile from Nebraska, somewhere on the east side, right? Yes. And then Don Bierman from Quinn's Effingham, Illinois. Yeah. So we just talk about growing. We talk about recording your acres and not going into the FSA office. And I think that will upset the one old dude that is always in the FSA office just hitting on the gals behind. He lives for that. And it's the same. I tell you what, I think every county has one because we do. I've done three different counties of where you and it's a different guy. They all look the same. I think they get lonely. You know, they got to go in and talk, but I'm excited to do it electronically. So yeah, have a listen to the podcast. All right. Today we're in Washington, Utah. We're talking with Sherry. Sherry Tate. And now her family is a fifth generation established in 1889. Now, Sherry, the U is Frank Staley and he immigrated from Switzerland and he built a first rock irrigation system. I don't know what that is. So we live in the desert, right? And they had to figure out how to get water to their crops and their cows and their homes. And so they created a rock like a canal, but it's a ditch. It's smaller than what most irrigation canals look like. Just out of the rocks around here locally. And just those rock dishes have been irrigating are what I call our old part of town until like two years ago, the city came in and put the pressurized system in. And we all cried because that was part of our old town nostalgia. And putting your feet in the rock ditches was a childhood memory. And you want your grandkids and kids to do that too, but I understand why they have to change. But so he was very innovative. We have what's called the Virgin River that runs through Colorado. It comes from the Colorado Virgin River and then goes down to Lake Mead. And so that water they built a dam and diverted the water. And there's always a story about you had to get up early to get your drinking water before they left the cows in to drink the water. So it was done. So yeah, you wanted to drink some good spring, nice water. You got up early to get your buckets full. If not, you might have got a little extra vitamins. Yeah, a little extra taste. Could you imagine building those rock irrigation? I mean, this is before loaders, before dozers. This was this is back when they were just back breaking work and they got it done. Yeah, well, and you all, you saw Utah and you saw the Red Rocks and, you know, this is the same here. And, and I often have thought, like, when, you know, they sent, they sent the first settlers here on a, on a LDS mission to grow cotton. And they got here and there was no water and it was a bunch of sand and red rocks. I mean, that would kind of make your day not very good. They actually were able to grow the cotton and, and they built a beautiful cotton mill, which is still standing. But, but the thing is, is they didn't have a railroad or any way to get the cotton from this area. And so that was part of, you know, the, the journey there, but it did settle. We were the first community that was settled in this area and it is a beautiful little community. Most people probably have heard of St. George, Utah. They have the Iron Man here and the Huntsman World Senior Games. So very touristy area, you know, that people come to visit because it's so close to the Vegas airport. We do have an airport though, but. Oh, yeah. Great. Got to bring the gamblers in. Well, now has, has the town grown around your farm? Yeah. So, like I said, even up to five years ago, you know, we were pretty open space. We live in the area of town, which is called the Washington Field because it was only agriculture out there and mostly alfalfa fields and a cattle with a few dairy farms. And, you know, there's, there's two farms standing, our farm and another gentleman who just passed away like two weeks ago, his farm and his kids are farming it. But we, yeah, we have homes all around us, you know, multi million dollar homes. These aren't just little, little homes. These are big homes and everybody moved out there because of course it was beautiful with all the green fields and lush lands. And now they're like, Oh, what happened to all that? Well, I love what you guys are doing there too because, you know, you could have easily sold your land for a pretty penny probably where you're located. But you guys really think it's important for people to know and be educated about where their food comes from. So you keep your farm going and you have a whole agritourism thing going on, don't you? Yeah, we do. And, you know, when we started, that's been 23 years ago, we started it. It was still definitely farms all around us. And we started it because we felt like kids had lost the connection with where their food had come from, not only kids, but people in general. So we started as a corn maze as an educational tool to get to get kids to the farm to teach them to educate. And little did we know, you know, that it would be where it is today. And now we have, I mean, well over a hundred thousand people come through our farm here and we're constantly, it's so important to me that education part of agriculture because it's so far removed from all of us. And, you know, the people just do not realize who feeds them. And, you know, to me, like just to make connecting those dots for people to understand, you know, it's just, we do a lot of school field trips and just some of the questions, even the parents ask, I'm like trying to not give them that look like, are you kidding me? But there's a lot of that going on. And so I almost feel like I have a spiritual obligation, if you will, like that I have to hold on to this. I should say I get to because it is so that important. And, and we always feel like we have a gathering place, like a place of refuge because it's different. You step away. People come on the farm and they say that all the time, like, oh, feels different here. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, definitely. All right, we do have to go to break again. Today, we're talking with a Sherry Tate from Washington, Utah. We're going to talk more about the, the, because, I don't know, that'd be my worst nightmare. I like to be alone. We're going to talk more about the agro-tourism. We're going to talk about all sorts of stuff 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. [Music] It's time for America's favorite radio segment. Not just on this station, but the whole American. Yeah, we're in the world is wandering. Will, will, what do you have for us today? Today, I'm in Washington, Utah. Washington is a city in South Central Washington County and is a part of the St. George metropolitan area. The area is also known as Utah's Dixie because the Mormon pioneers who settled the St. George area came to the area to raise cotton, which was milled at the cotton mill in Washington. Oh, like Dixie land, huh? Gotcha. See, Sherry was right on that. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a group of 28 families to attempt to grow cotton. The cotton mission, quote unquote, was led by former Mississippi cotton plantation owner Robert Dockery Covington. He must have done something wrong, honestly. They're like, yeah, you grow cotton up there. Yeah. A beautiful part of the country, Washington is home to the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, which is a 44,724 acre national conservation area in southwest Utah. It's remarkably specific. It is a part of the larger, multi-jurrous, dictionall Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, which was created in 1996 to protect the habitat and populations of the desert tortoise and other species. Nice. Part of the NCA was designated in 2009 as the Cottonwood Canyon and Red Mountain Wilderness Areas, which are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Yeah, those tortoises, they eat the cottonwoods. Did you know that? I love it. A site to see in the RC NCA is the Elephant Arch, which is a small natural sandstone arch in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area in northern Washington, United States. The arch, which resembles the trunk and eye of an elephant, is part way up a hillside at the end of a dirt hiking trail. The arch has not yet been officially named by the United States Geological Survey. We saw a lot of arches in Utah and every single one is gorgeous. There was an elephant arch in Moab that looked like the two ears in the trunk. Now Emily saw an elephant, I saw something naughty. I got some laws here a long time since we had some laws, but we're not often in Utah. And in Utah, birds have the right of way on all highways. Oh, there's going to be a lot of convictions there. Yeah, like wily coyote. Oh, no wonder. Yeah. In Utah, it is illegal to fish from horseback. We've heard that before. I think that was a Washington one as well. It is illegal not to drink milk. Yeah, dairy farmers got to love that one. Yeah, mandatory milk drinking. And lastly, in Utah, the husband is responsible for every criminal act committed by his wife while she is in his presence. Man, I have never been so tempted to say curse word on this show, but I'm calling BS on that one. You'd be in trouble, Robbie. That's right. That's an old Mormon law. They can have it. All right. Thank you. Well, today we're talking with Sherry Tate from Washington, Utah. Sherry, did you learn something? Yeah, I've learned I'm breaking the law, breaking the law. Sherry, you're a fifth generation farmer out there, and the city has approached on you. You remember that movie up, Sherry, where they just kept growing around them. And finally, he had to hook a bunch of balloons to his house and leave. Yeah, at what point, I mean, are you just going to hold your ground or is there going to be a point where enough enough? You know, that's such a tender question, I would say. Like, obviously, people say all the time, are you crazy? Like, you spell out, move, go do something. I guess for me, like, I love what I do every day. I don't, um, the encroachment, the, you know, the new little rules and laws that seem to come down on us because somebody's annoyed by a fly at their house or something like that. You know, it's been a little bit of a battle that way because I felt like when we started, I really did do my homework and, and our permitting process and everything that we, we had to go through. I felt like I covered me pretty well. But, you know, 23 years later, here we are. And of course, I mean, honestly, we have contributed to the growth because it's not really easy to drive a tractor out on a four lane road to go to your hayfield across the valley, you know, because all the property was all spread over through the valley. Now we just have, we're, we're down to like 75 acres right in the center, like I said, of homes. Most of our neighbors are so happy we're there. They're, they'll, they'll deal with the flies or whatever, you know, the dust here and there. There's a few newcomers that have moved in and. What's their names? They know who they are. It reminds me when she talks about people saying, oh, you should just sell your farm and saying it so flippantly. Like, why are you staying? It's a lot like people ranching down on the border. They're like, well, why would you stay there and fight that? Well, I mean, it's been in the family for. Yeah, sometimes hundreds of years. Yeah, I'd be building a moat and putting up a turds and all that stuff. Sure. Before we get too far. And I want you to talk a little bit about your daughter's side hustle, the, the coffee thing. Can you tell us about that? Well, I was just going to say, so my kids, you know, growing up on the farm, they were always like a little bit embarrassed when we started the corn maze and that was their job. And now it's so popular and, and, and they've kind of taken some ownership and pride in it. And so two of my daughters, my oldest daughter, she just in March, her and her husband opened up a fun little coffee trailer called the grit and the grind. And they just, they're killing it. And we haven't parked at the farm. And then my other daughter, she opened up food trailer. It's called the burger stop grill or the BS grill because my dad opened up. We had a burger joint when we were growing up up in town, but the road widened. So it went away and it was very popular. And so we, we just bought a food trailer and, you know, we're serving up some of the best burgers in town. And so it's really helped bring more people to the farm. We have a little silo. We took our old silo and renovated it during COVID and it is a farm market store gift shop, if you will, and we sell our beef, beef directly from that store. And we do a lot of things. I mean, weddings, family reunions. We've had some big political. Oh, yeah. Well, I tell you what, Sherry. If people want to find you on social media or the internet, where do they go? Staley Family Farm. So it's F T A H E L I daily. Yes, there's no why in it's to S T A H E L Y. Just, just like I didn't say. All right. Sherry Tate from Washington, Utah. Sherry, thank you so much for talking with us today. I know Emily had a great time talking to you out in Utah. But Sherry, I don't want you to go anywhere. Sean Haney's coming up next. He's not a fan of Utah. Well, he almost got lost in a corn maze once. That's why. Oh, you are throwing shade, aren't you? That's her, Sean, not me. I'm not legal, required. Sherry, Sherry, Sherry, the next Sherry, go.