SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Gerard Widolff from Tampico, IL 6-20-24
- ♪ Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah ♪ ♪ Unstoppable, unshakeable ♪ ♪ But it rolls off the tongue, unbreakable ♪ ♪ It's unavoidable, you're so relatable ♪ ♪ In between the lines, start to loosen up your mind ♪ - And welcome again to Shark Farmer Radio, hey! I'm your host Rob Sharkey. We're in the studio today just outside of Bradford, Illinois. It's a warm one, as they say. - It is a warm one. Does this mean it's a good growing day, though? - Oh, who knows? - It didn't... - Farming's stupid. - The corn didn't really respite last night, though, I don't think. - It's fine. I don't know, it's not pollinating. The beans... - No, that would be bad, wouldn't it? - The beans are, you know, you'd dang 'em. One, you spray 'em. But they're looking good. - We did, we got them sprayed before we left for Oakland. - Last Saturday, yeah. - Yeah, it feels good to be back. Oh my goodness, so you spoke in Oklahoma City, hadn't spoke there before. We were at the Omni Hotel, and we were talking to 1,100 people in the audience, which was... - That'd be 1,100 for our Canadian viewer. - And they were like meat scientists, and butchers, and professors, and oh, total, I geeked out. It was a total science-y adventure. - Meat nerds, and that's their term, not mine. - It is, it is, and you know, meat nerds, and they give you a card that has their name, and it says, "Nice to meet you." I'm like, "Oh, golly." - But you know what cracks me up the most is the snacks. You know, when you go out to get coffee and snacks at like a meat convention... - Yeah, no donuts. They don't give you donuts. They give you like... - Beef jerky. - Beef jerky and links, and... - Yeah, all the good stuff. So if you're in Keto, that's a place you wanna go. - Fantastic. - All right, but today, let's go to old Tampico, Illinois. We're gonna talk with Gerard Weidoff. How are you doing, Gerard? - Good, really good, a little warm, but yeah, doing very well. - It happens. For people that don't know, where is Tampico in a once-great state of Illinois? - Tampico is east of the Quad Cities, about an hour, or between Peoria and Rockford, kinda in the middle of that triangle there. - Yeah, gotcha, and you've been farming there for quite a while, haven't you? - Yeah, yeah, I'm in my early 50s, I've been farming since right out of college, so yep. - Mm-hmm, did Tampico still have a high school when you were there? - It did, it did. Yeah, I graduated 90, and then 96 is when they were swallowed up by the big town of Proftstown. So. - Oh really, you guys didn't go Bureau Valley, huh? - No. - They didn't value them. - Actually, the Valley really wanted us, and our old superintendent was down there and thought we were gonna go that way, but it just didn't happen, so. - This is Gerard talking about every single one of his ex-girlfriends. Yeah. (laughing) - Now Rob, come on. (laughing) - We had a chance to meet you on Friday when Rob was speaking in Bloomington. It was great to meet you, and the thing that struck me, we've got to talk about how you grew up in small towns, and you said that you had 11 siblings. What was that like? - Yeah, it was fun. Actually, I am the youngest of 11. When my parents moved over here in the early 60s from Ohio, Illinois, they moved on to a pretty poor sand farm, and all the neighbors thought they were gonna go bankrupt and starve to death because there was four or five of these little ones, and Mom, Dad had 10 kids in 12 years, and I showed up with five kids. - Whoa, whoa, what did you just say? - 10 kids in 12 years, wow, your mom is a saint. - Did they just find them on the street? - She thinks she's done, and five years later, here comes Gerard. (laughing) - Well, you know, funny you mentioned that, Emily. Mom always told me that she thought somebody was missing, and when I showed up, there was 11, and my parents are saints, obviously, both my mom and Dad, and people used to give them a hard time, or they'd be on the street or talking to somebody, and you have 11 kids, and that would upset my mom, 'cause my mom loved children. She loved babies, all kinds of children she loves. Well, she came up with a line that my siblings really do not like, but her line was, well, it took us 11 times to get it right. (laughing) That would quiet people up pretty fast, but she didn't say that because I was the best, or whatever, but she said that just because it was a way to end the conversation, 'cause it embarrassed her, and she was offended by that, those questions. - Well, and people are so judgy with big families, I don't know why that is, but they like to comment. - Yeah, yeah, and it was, I tell you what, it was very ideal growing up with, you know, Dad was on the farm, and obviously, mom stayed home, there's a lot of work to do with 11 children. So, you know, she was there every day when I got off the bus at school. So, but, you know, being the youngest, I always wanted to be, you know, with the older kids, and with that five-year age gap, I wanted to be doing what they were doing. Well, my birthday is in November, and back then, the cutoff to go to, you know, Tampco, I think everybody was in December 1st. So, there was a discussion, if I should be going to kindergarten, or whatever, you know, as a four-year-old, or wait, you know, hold your back a year. Well, I heard mom, Dad, talking about that, and I said, "Hey, I know when the bus is coming, I'm getting on the bus." - Yeah, but you could have been the bigger kid. - Well, yeah, you know, but sports wasn't real big in our family, and so, it really didn't matter, you know? - So, what was it like growing up in a Catholic family? - It was great. - Say, I did. - You did even have to say. (laughing) - Other than, you know, the sleepovers, you know, I'd go to my buddy's camp, and, you know, you'd stay up half the night, and Dad would show up, 'cause we had to go to Mass on Sunday morning, you know? (laughing) But it was good, you know, and that was how they raised us, and it was, you know, back then, you hated it, you know, it was embarrassing, but now I'm very grateful that's how we were raised. - Actually, for your area of the state, that's kind of a small Catholic family, and then it's, you all know how to, you all know how to graze kids up there, or something in the water. - Yeah. - All right. - We do have to go to break. Today we're talking with Gerard Weidoff, now he's from a Tampico, Illinois. We come back, we're gonna talk about his farm, we're gonna talk about what he's farming with, we're gonna talk about strawberries, we're gonna talk about insurance, my goodness. How could you not hold on and listen to the rest of the show? We'll be back. All right, after the break. ♪ A rule breaker ♪ ♪ Hold tight, he'll roll you through every acre ♪ - 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. (upbeat music) It's that time of the year where you can maybe start doing some other stuff, the post-brain is done, other corn. And that's kind of nice because that's our last pass. Now for the guys that have the tall sprayers, they're, we've got the fungicide, where they're gonna have a plane or a ground rig put it on. - That's right, or a drone, maybe. - Yeah, I think we are gonna try some drone in some of the goofy fields we have. - Yeah, I can see them doing that. Yeah, absolutely, and some of those are just so hard on equipment too. I can see a drone being a better option. - Yeah, we've got one field that is more terraces and anything. - Yes, absolutely. - All right, today we are in Tampico, Illinois. We're talking with Gerard Weedoff. Gerard, hey, do you ever listen to agriculture podcast? - I do, yeah, yeah. - We got a great one for you this week, Mr. Weedoff. Do you want to know why? - Why is that? - Why is it's episode number 420? (laughing) - You know, it's funny. I had, you know, young men are kind of stupid. - What? (laughing) - I was born in 1972, so the first licensed plate I put on was Weed 72. (laughing) - And how many times did you get pulled over? - Not near as many as I should have. (laughing) - All right, you were raised on a farm. And you went back to that farm. Was that always a plan? - No, when I, you know, amazingly, all 11 of us children went to college. So, you know, my dad didn't even, he didn't even get to go to high school. So he really pushed education and we had a very small farm, you know, for that era, but it was just big enough for us to eat. And when I went away to college, where I lived, I lived with a bunch of farm kids and they were like, why aren't you gonna farm? How old's your dad? So when I, when I came back to the farm, he was 65, ready to retire. So he just stepped away and said, there you go. So you wouldn't sign a note or, you know, help me anyway when you have 10 siblings, which was totally fine. So I had to go through-- - What kind of, I mean, you're right out of college, but you got no money and who wants to lend it to you? - Well, nobody. So I had to come through the FSA guaranteed program, which was fine and, you know, off Iran. So always, always worked off the farm, worked for a local seed company for a few years, actually about 10 years, and always kind of had an off-farm job. So, you know, missed some opportunities to grow over the years that I always wished, you know, you always wished you could have had those opportunities to just happen, you know? But dad always said, hey, things happen for a reason. So I just kept my head up and kept moving on. - Well, when you guys were kids, your dad, what did he have like five acres that was strawberries? And was that just for you kids to run and make money and tuck it away for college? - Yeah, exactly right, Emily. So we had, you know, we had to hogs out in the field and we had a, you know, stock cow herd and, you know, all the things you had in the '60s and '70s. And there just wasn't, you know, enough for us to earn, earn money and, you know, a lot of the older ones went knee-tastled or whatever. So in late '70s, they put in six acres of strawberries, hoping that, you know, people would come pick and it was a you pick operation for the most part, but they realized over time that people didn't want to come out and pick. So kids would pick, you know, and sell courts at the stand. So it was a great money-maker. And thankfully when my twin sisters who were next, older than me, went off to college, they tore up the strawberry. So that was the end of the strawberry patch. (laughing) - You say you still use the same chisel plow and auger cart, you bought in '96? - Yeah, so I started farming in '95 and things were good. I can't remember back that far, but I needed a chisel plow and auger cart 'cause I was doing some custom combing it at the time. So I bought a 750 bushel auger cart and a brand new five-shank ripper chisel. - Was it a M&W plow back in the '90s? - No, no, it was DMI. It was one of the blue, blue five and seven DMI. - Look who started farming off fancy. (laughing) - Yeah, I know, the funny thing is I didn't have a tractor pull that DMI. So I had to run a tractor pull a year. (laughing) - What about the cart? Please tell me it was a Bradford industry. - No, it's a Brent 774. - Oh my gosh. - And you can't give 'em a hard time for one new piece of equipment. It was probably the first new thing you ever bought. (laughing) - It's yuck. - Yeah. - Fine. (laughing) - And as a matter of fact, the only other new piece of coat I bought over the years is a fuel cultivator about 10 years ago. So, you know, I don't farm a lot about 500 acres, but it gets the job done. - Well, and you're still using it. So they must've been pretty good purchases. - Yeah, I'm rebuilding the leveler now, but yeah, they have been good. And I farm alone, 100% alone. So I have one front wheel assist tractor that I work ground with on hook on the planter. Plant on hook, hook on the fuel cultivator. And that's my bat wing motor tractor. That's my auger cart tractor. And yeah, that's just how I do it. - Oh, we got to know what it is. - It's the MX-255. So. - I'm sorry about that. - Yeah, I know, it's red. That's the auger cart though, it's red ark cart. (laughing) - You also sell insurance because as, you know, a lot of farmers, you have off the farm jobs. You're not farming full time. Do you love doing that? 'Cause you get to talk with farmers and talk crop insurance every day. - Oh, I do, yeah. You know, and I put a plug in. Hey, go get your acres terrified, will ya? (laughing) - I know. They keep calling and emailing. I'm like, "When's it due?" That's not the point, sir. (laughing) - Yeah, well, you know, farmers, I absolutely love. You know, obviously I'm not big enough to make a living, you know, just on the acres I have. I mean, I could, but then, you know, I'd be living like my parents. (laughing) Yeah, I mean, that's a valid point. - You know, so, you know, the farm, I work for an independent agency here in Tampa and they're fabulous to work for. I'm an outside producer, so I'm strictly in sales, but I get to-- - Go ahead and give 'em a plug. - Sandrock Insurance Cornerstone Agency, thank you. - There you go. - And the Sandrock family is just fabulous to work for. People in the Ag industry know who they are, and the Ag Insurance industry know who they are. - Oh yeah, they've been up there for quite a while. - Yeah, they have. I think Greg started in '88, you know, and we all know what '88 was, so yeah, it's great. I get to go on people's farms every day and talk to 'em and see their operation, but it's also stressful because, you know, I take it personally if something's not covered. - Oh yeah. - In our words, everything's covered, right? - That's, I assume it is. - We update our list just religiously. - All right, today, we're talking with Gerard Weidoff from Tampa, Illinois. When we come back, we're gonna talk more insurance, but we're also gonna talk about how he met his wife. We'll be back, all right after the break. (upbeat 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. (upbeat music) - Something funny over there, Mr. Shark Farmer. - Absolutely. - Something tickled the old funny bone. - You know, the conversations we have in between, segments, priceless. - I see, just start recording, though. So, so the funniest. - I really hope Will is not recording him, 'cause that's, I think that's how you get canceled. That's how, what's the video where the guy's going insane? We're doing it live. - We're doing it live. Oh my gosh. - Except that was live. - Now, somebody recorded him just flying off the handle. Who was that? He was a late night. - Bill O'Reilly, wasn't it? - Bill O'Reilly. - Yeah, back when he was doing Inside Edition. - Oh, somebody wasn't giving him his cues. - Have you seen that one, Will? - Yeah, but that was live on the TV. He did that. He didn't think he was being recorded, but it was live. - Hey, you said the naughty word, too. - Isn't that embarrassing? You know, you just fly off the handle. - We're doing it live! - Yeah. All right, Will, what's he find for us today? - Well, today I'm in Tampico, a village located in Tampico Township, Whiteside County, Illinois, next to Rock Falls and Sterling. As of the 2010 census, the village had a total population of 790. - Kind of small. - Yeah. - It is known as the birthplace of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States. - Yeah, I think that's about where you stop, isn't it? - Yeah, it's all anybody knows. - I found some interesting info. - Okay. - Tampico is home to the H.C. Pitney Variety Store building. Between 1919 and 1920, H.C. Pitney operated the building as the H.C. Pitney Variety Store. - And the second floor. - Did you say 1919 to 1920? - Yeah. - One year. - Right, right. The second floor apartment was occupied by the family of 40th U.S. President Ronald Reagan. - Oh, I gotcha. - See, there we go. - What's Gerard you said was right like 50 feet from where you're standing? - Yeah, literally 50 feet from where I'm sitting. - Yup. - There you go. Well, you're talking to history. - Right. We got some notable people too. Basil A. McCaskran, Illinois State legislator. Ronald Reagan, of course. And interesting person, Joseph M. Reeves. U.S. Navy Admiral and veteran of the Spanish American War, World War I and World War II, born in Topiko. He is known as the father of carrier aviation for his role in integrating aircraft carriers into the fleet as a major part of the Navy's attack capabilities. - Yeah, they used big rubber bands back then. - Right. But what I found even more interesting, scouring his Wikipedia, is in 1890, he attended the United States Naval Academy where he became a football hero. In addition to his on-field heroics, he is credited with the invention of the modern football helmet, which he had a shoemaker create for him after being told by a Navy doctor that another kick to his head could result in instant insanity. - I feel that way all the time. - I feel like I would get a helmet too. - You'd be a helmet. - So, Tampico, Joseph M. Reeves. He is to thank for these helmets here. - Yeah, I only wish he could remember it. All right, thank you, Will. Gerard, did you know all that stuff? - No, but interesting. Do you guys remember Hugh Downs from 2020? - Yeah, he's still alive, right? - I don't know, but his wife was from Tampico and when Reagan got elected, they, 2020 did a segment here in town. It was kind of cool, it's on YouTube somewhere. - I did, he liked Reagan? - I have no idea. I was eight when he was elected, I have no idea. - Yeah, but you know, people had respect for the president, right? I mean, if you could just catch a glimpse of him or if you were from the hometown, I mean, people would just be... - I remember seeing Reagan at the State Fair and it was like a rock concert. - Oh, yeah. - It was, yeah, it was, I don't know if I was a kid or if things were different then, but I mean, yeah. It, same thing, I mean, I probably, it seemed like things changed it with the first George, you know, the second George Bush where all of a sudden, I don't know, why are we talking politics? - I don't know. - Gerard. (laughing) - Yeah, let's talk some fun. Gerard, how'd you meet your wife? - So, I was in my early 20s and when you're in your early 20s, you're in a lot of weddings. It seems like every weekend you're in a wedding, right? And there was three weekends in a row, I was in a wedding. So one of my sisters, my best friend from college and my best friend from high school. And at the third one, the last one was my best friend from high school's wedding. And so we're at the reception and, you know, I'm tired, it's getting over. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go home and go to bed. Well, one of my buddies gets on the DJ stand and says, "Hey, after hours at Weedman's house." I'm like, "Oh, come on, well, I was 22 years old." - Which was your nickname, right? Weedman? - Yeah, of course, 'cause of Weedoff. - Two. - So, and I was not a stoner by any means. But anyway, I lived on a feedlot, kettle feedlot and I helped the farmer's feed cattle on the weekends. So anyway, lived out in the middle of nowhere and of course, everybody comes back and there's maybe a dozen of us or so. And we're playing cards and I'm tired. I want everybody to leave, but you know, you can't say everybody, get out, right? So one of those weddings, I was given a cigar for being the groomsman. So I'm gonna go sit out in this porch and smoke the cigar. So I'm sitting out on the porch and the party's going on. Well, Heather, my future wife comes out and, you know, I kind of had my eye on her. She was a local girl, a little younger, but she really didn't talk to anybody, you know. So I didn't know, you know, one of them, you know, we're the exact opposite, I like to talk, she doesn't. That's, you know, opposite track. - Lots of mutes and campico, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, so she comes out because there's a couple kittens sitting there and I've never seen these kittens. I don't know where they came from. There's no parent. - Oh, of course, of course. He had kittens by him. This is what he does. - Yeah, no, seriously. Yeah, these kittens, I don't know, so I'm petting these kittens, smoking the cigar and we had that talking for like two or three hours. And I would never talk to her if those kittens weren't there 'cause she would never came out and talk to me. So anyway, she was still at Southern at the time and, you know, the next morning get up and I have no idea how to get a hold of her. This is before cell phones. And I really didn't, I knew her last name, but I knew there, you know, was a different, you know, she had a different upbringing than I did. I didn't know how to get a hold of her. So I called her friends that she was at our party with parents and they should have lost her Southern. And so I'm like, ah, maybe I'll just catch her when she comes back. Well, later that day, I'm looking around for these kittens. No kittens. - She stole the kittens? - No, they literally at my porch for two hours while I pet them and I have no idea where they went. - She stole them without those. - Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. - Yeah, without those kittens, there's no way she would have ever came out. These are not ghost kittens. You're girlfriend at the time stole the kittens. - She took the kittens. - Does that make you look at her differently? (laughing) - Don't tell her that. - That's brilliant, then he had to look her up. See, find your kittens. - Yeah, so about a month or two later, she actually called me to say she was coming home. So, you know, we went out to a party on a Saturday night at a friend's house, one of the guys I worked with there, he had a Halloween party and by galley, when we closed our first house, we realized the first house we bought, our first date was in the party at their house. - Oh, there you go. - Aw, so romantic. - Can't deny love, Gerard. - That's right, and kittens. - No, and it's those stupid kittens. (laughing) - Well, Gerard Weidhoff from Tampico, Illinois. Gerard, I want you to think, I want to thank you for coming onto the show. Incredible, the amount of siblings that you have, that's impressive. - And they all get along, it's fantastic. - Yeah. - Yeah, we do. - We didn't even ask the questions out of all your siblings, which one do you like the least? Didn't even get to that. (laughing) Gerard, thank you so very much, but I don't want you to go anywhere. Sean Haney's coming up next. I don't think he's a fan of kittens, like I heard that somewhere. We'll catch everybody next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ You can carry it if we'll be next shaker ♪