SharkFarmerXM's podcast
Tom Uthell 8-8-24
♪ Unstoppable, unshakeable ♪ ♪ But it rolls out the town unfreakable ♪ ♪ It's unavoidable ♪ ♪ You show relatable ♪ ♪ Rebetween the lines ♪ ♪ Start to loosen of your mind ♪ - And welcome again to "Shark Farmer Radio." Hey, I'm your host, Rob Sharke. We are alive down here in Effingham, Illinois at the Technology Days. How you doing, Mrs. Sharke Farmer? - I am fantastic. It's great to be here. I can't believe the weather. I mean, we have to talk about the weather 'cause we're farmers, right? That never gets old. But I was expecting to sweat. I mean, this is, you know, Southern Illinois. No, no, it's beautiful today. So if you're around Effingham, you got to come. - I'm sorry, it's a beautiful facility. You've seen it if you've driven, what interstate's this? - '57, '70, or here? - Yes, if you're driven by, it's the one with the giant cross. And then Bex has their facility right here, annual technology days. First one we've been to, isn't it? - That's right. They've had several already, four, five, maybe, around. But yeah, this is the first one we've been to, and we'll be in El Paso next week. - Illinois. - El Paso, Illinois. Yeah, I have to specify that. Like, don't go to Texas, right? - Yeah, you would hate that. It's not just Emily and I talking today. We have a guest, Tom Atel from Atel. - Atel. - You tell. - You tell. - Yep, you tell. - You told me that, like literally a minute ago, I already forgot it. - It was only 16 seconds ago, but that's okay. - He's known for butchering names. We have to tease him about this. - Short, short memories as well. - Yeah, you're from Effingham area? - Yes, sir. Yep, born and raised. - Really? You never moved out, huh? - Nobody else will have me. - I see that. Did you go to school somewhere? - I did, actually, believe it or not. Got my GED just last week. I'm kind of proud of that. - I don't know if you're joking or not. - Really? You'll figure it out. - I didn't get my GED, so no. Born and raised, actually went to school to Topless High School and graduated in 1990 back in the good old days. - To Topless, that's a home of somebody, isn't it? - Yeah, the wooden shoes, they play a little. That's really about it. A little baseball, but mostly basketball. - I guess I'm thinking Metropolis, a Superman. - Yeah, Superman, that is not us. - Chester is a Popeye. - Yes, that's true. - Home of Popeye, and you guys, Topless has-- - Wooden shoes. - Yeah. - The Hill Toppers. - Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Hill Toppers, yeah, cloggers. - That's unimpressive. - It is very unimpressive, really. I'm not sure. I guess we didn't have anything else to be remembered by. I'm not sure. We weren't good at anything else. - You, in junior college area, you majored in accounting. That was in, like, what time period? - 1990 to 1992, so back when there wasn't much money to be made in farming, and commodity prices were depressed. Land prices were obviously as well, and so I went to college to study accounting just to, you know, learn something else, I'll say. And, you know, I knew it wasn't an issue, so it was gonna be able to figure out something else, and I like numbers, so. - So do you think you went into accounting because you watched your parents struggle through the '80s? What was that like growing up in the '80s on your farm? - Oh, it was tough. I mean, I remember a lot of the hot dry weather. You know, a lot of droughts, '88, '83 was bad. I remember both of those. You know, it was just tough. Commodity prices were tough. You know, that was back before crop insurance, and so there wasn't a safety net. - Yeah, a lot of people don't know that there was a time before crop insurance. - Exactly. And there was a time before LDPs and, you know, loan payments and everything like that. So, you know. - A lot of people don't know what LDP is there. - Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's a government program where, yeah, where you're guaranteed a set price. I think it was $1.89 on corn, if I remember it right, and $5.32. - I think it still is. - Yeah, we might find it again. - Well, we're headed there quick, you know, the market short, so. - Yes, so you did, did you go to work for Bax? Was that a seed dealer? - Yeah, I was a seed dealer, so that started 22 years ago. So I actually did a lot of jobs. I actually worked for a local plumber, built houses, carpentry, and then actually built cabinets after I built my house. So the carpentry business got slow in the area. We were actually in the hog businesses at that time. I quit my job, kind of, because they didn't have any other work to do. And so we built some hog barns, started raising feral and hogs, and then I built my house right after, not long after that. And then I went to work for the local plumber again, that I actually worked for in high school, and got tired of that. We were, you know, moved. We were working outside the area, staying overnight. I was married with young kids, and didn't want to do that a whole lot, so I actually worked for a cabinet shop. And the DSM for Bax hybrids at that time started, I think in 1998 or 1999, we started planting some of their corn right after that. We put cabinets in one of his houses, and he was, he's a good salesman. He wanted to make sure we tried their hybrids, and so we did. He rolled back in his chair. I'll never forget it. I could actually take you to the house right now. We were putting cabinets in his basement. He rolled back in his chair, and he said, "You know, we're looking for dealers in the area." And I said, "Man, I've never sold anything in my life." And so, went over for a tour, and met Lee Grewlin. Actually, he's passed away now. He's been, Lee Grewlin was ahead of sales at the time, and he told me, "Just keep smiling, you'll be able to sell." I said, "Well, I don't think I could sell it and ask him a pair of gloves." But he said, "Keep smiling, you'll get it done." And so, so far it's worked. Later, I found out that the next sales manager at Bax hybrids, I won't name his name, 'cause he still works there, but... - Well, you got to. - I can't. But him and my seed advisor, my DSM, actually, I never make it being a Bax dealer. - So, just 'cause you weren't very good. - Yeah, pretty much. Can't talk. - Can you, you can't close? A lot of people can talk, but they can't close. - Well, apparently I've closed a little bit. It's, you know, I've been at it for 22 years. - So, you have sold a bag of seed? - Yeah, one or two, I think this year's six. - Congratulations on that. - It's a big deal, it's a feat. Everybody's got to have goals. - I sold seed for a while, and I could not close. - Really? - I could talk to the guy for hours, but I couldn't close. - No, kids. - Is that why your wife contacted me to get on the show, because you can't close? - Oh, look at that. It's time for break. (laughing) - Today. - Wow. - Today, the show's up. - I'm here at Beknology Days in Effingham, Illinois. This is the one before we're gonna be in El Paso, and then at Atlanta, Indiana to finish off. Today, we're talking with Tom Utel. When we come back, we're gonna talk about his career. We're gonna talk about Epic Ag. Sounds like a marble movie. We'll be back. All right, after the break. ♪ A ground shaker, a road raker ♪ ♪ 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) - We are here at Beknology Days in Effingham. Beautiful, beautiful day, isn't it? - Oh, it's just absolutely gorgeous here. I'm watching the kids jump around in the little jumpy house over there. We've got ice cream, we've got donuts. I mean, you know, it's all about the food at first. I mean, come on. - We're sitting here and we're seeing like all the products that are in the rewards programs, and man, there's some nice looking stuff, some nice trucks. You got the thundercracks over there. Yeah, so we are thrilled to be here at Beknology Days. We are talking with Tom Utel. Tom is from the Effingham area. Tom is very serious, and doesn't wanna mess around anymore on this interview. - Whatever you say, you're the host. - So, DSM, that's the district guy, right? - District sales manager, yep. They can change their names now. They haven't had an identity crisis. They're a seed advisor today, so. - So, do you have like people under you or is that just? - I actually-- - Oh, I don't know. Boy, I don't know. - Probably 10 years ago or so. There's five of them now full time. And so, there's a couple guys that sell a little bit under me. One of them's not been here real, real long. The other one's been here for quite a while, and-- - Which one do you like? - The least. - Well, can that change by the day? I mean, do you wanna know right this minute, or is that just like-- - Well, yeah, right now. I mean-- - For the week. - We're in the moment, man. - In the moment, everything's in the moment. I really, I don't know. They're all doing really good right now, to be honest. - Ah, okay. - I'm not being serious. That's the truthful part, that's-- - I can't tell when you're being serious. - I know, the GD thing screwed you up. - Tell me about this epic egg. - Yeah, so, we were formerly Utah seed sales. I don't know where we got that from. We needed a name, and that's what we did. It was not official, and I don't know. I've been wanting to change the name for a while. We just never got around to it. Struggled, you know, as you know, there's a lot of different names, and a lot of businesses in Ag, and they've all got something neat and catchy, and a couple of the ones I wanted were taken. Obviously, you know, that's a legal thing when you set it up as an LLC, or an S-Corp, or whatever. And so, I seen a sign one time, and I don't remember what it was, but it was epic, and I'm just like, "Well, what about epic egg solutions?" And I know solutions is kind of overused in the Ag world, but that's what we do. We try to solve problems, but-- - You can do that whole thing, you know, in a world where agronomy is not taken seriously. You can count on epic egg. - Yeah, some people confuse it with epic egg, but yeah. - With what? What'd you say? - We won't talk about that. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, so yeah, that's what it is. So, you know, we focus on agronomy solving problems. That's what I enjoy to do, have forever. But, you know, there's a lot of problems and a lot of things to be able to overcome out here. Daily, weekly, and monthly, and yearly as we all know in Ag. And so, that's what we try to do, is strive to solve people's problems. - Okay, you guys, you're doing some YouTube on that too? - Yeah, we actually do YouTube. We haven't been as active as I would like. That's honestly, it's a great way to get out there, but as you guys know, it takes a lot of time. You know, we've got a guy local that does some editing, but a lot of times our messages need to get out quickly, and it's not been a focus. You know, we try to run pretty lean as we have to, and so we don't have a crew. Obviously, you guys run very lean as well, but we need to do more-- - It's because we're broke. - Well, it's, I'm in the same boat. Remember, I'm only gonna sell six bags each year, so. (laughing) But yeah, it's tough. I mean, but it's a great way to meet people and reach out and extend your reach more than. Our biggest problem is we can't get in every field every year, and so a lot of times when you can send a video out, the big thing for us is it'll help get some people out in the field and take a look at their problems, or their fields, and it's like, hey, I've got that too, why don't you come look? So it helps everybody in the process. - So is that the gist of your YouTube channel? Is that if people wanna go and see what problems have been on other farms, or they're facing something this year, and they're like, okay, what did they do? It's a good place to go and see where they can solve a problem? - Yeah, that's exactly what we want. And then we like to be on the cutting edge of technology. We've had to Chris a lab soil probe on there a few times, and, you know, new technology stuff over the years before we had any time to do any YouTube. You know, we were big in drones back before drones were big, and just a lot of different things that we've done that, again, we haven't take time. I know I've got a good customer that we both know, and he's on social media, and he's told me for years, he's like, you need to get on there and do it. It's like, I just never, ever did. - Who's that? - Well, a couple people might know him by growing corn 2020. - Growing corn. - So, I don't know. - Tony, you're eating. - Tony. - And on TikTok, I don't know, do you have that app? - I've never heard of her. - You've never heard of her. - Yeah, I mean, she's a very nice person. - Is she? - Yeah. - Yeah, she is. - That's wonderful. - Oh, maybe out of, I don't know, download the TikTok app, and... - I've got it. - Yeah. - Really, yeah, I have to look him up. Maybe, I don't, he's done a couple videos, I think. - I'm gonna look that, write that down anyway. - Yeah, write that down. - Growing corn 2020 something. - Yeah. - Anyway. - Yeah. - Is that help being affiliated with like, BEX, right? Because they're the ones doing all the shit. And I mean, does that help when you're talking about it? - Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's a great way to help people solve problems. And I've always said that PFR won't always necessarily solve all of them. But if you're trying to do something new on your farm, look at the PFR book and see if they've already done it. Maybe doing the exact same thing that didn't pay, or didn't have an ROI on their farm, maybe you need to go a different route. You know, not still adds value. Not every product's gonna work every year, right? And not for everyone. So figure out the management styles, figure out why it did work, and that's what PFR does a great job. It finds the reason why. And then it can help you implement it on larger acres. - Do you guys ever do something and you find out you're like the opposite of what the PFR was, and you call 'em up, said you guys are wrong. - And I tend to give people a hard time, especially when they don't need it, but so. - News to me. - Yeah, so no, there's always interesting studies, and obviously not everything's always gonna work. But most generally, there's a reason why. If it didn't work and it didn't work on my farm, there's a reason, right? - Yeah. - So there's always good products. There's a reason as to why things happen and don't. And that's the biggest part that we like to try to figure out, right? Because you can buy the same product I bought, she can buy the same product we both bought. It works for us too, and it doesn't work for her. Well, I always want to know the why. Why didn't it work for her? - Look at it, he thinks you're not a very good farmer. - Plus, you're down here in Southern Illinois. I mean, it's different from Atlanta, Indiana. But yet, that's why I like about the PFR book. It's regional, it's not just all right, this is a one-size-fits-all. - No, that's exactly right. I mean, the regional part is huge. Yeah, it's planted here for a reason. And yeah, so it's a... - So what does your farm look like today? - My brother and I farm together around 1,000 acres, so we haven't grown much. They're extremely high here, just like they are everywhere else, right? - Like how much? - A good acre. - There was a land cell here two weeks ago, brought 1,000 acres. - Okay, well on that note, we should go to break. (laughing) - We come back, we're gonna find more about Tom's farm, plus more about the epic egg. Gonna find out about his hobbies, and we're probably just gonna make fun of people. - All right, we'll be back from Effingham, Illinois. 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) - Welcome back to Shark Farmer Radio. We're live in Effingham, Illinois at the technology days. Beautiful, again, what interstate is that? - Interstate 5770. - It's kind of loud. Do you think they could shut that down while we're doing the show? - Yeah, plant some ever greens or something there, maybe, I don't know, yeah. - Could you imagine putting a sign up there at the center stage, shut down, because back-- - Because of the stuff. - Eyebre's wanted it to. - Didn't he, didn't he, didn't he nice to try? - You know, there's a good publicity, and then there's some you would never recover from. - Might be one of them. - Yeah, exactly. - Today, Emily and I are talking with Tom Utel from Effingham area. He is, what do you say, owner, epic egg? - Owner of Epic Egg, yep. - Yeah. - Yep, we just changed your name a couple of years ago. Yeah, diversified a little bit, and try to provide solutions for people, and yeah, I've been at it for 22 years. - So, going in a break, you were talking, ground down here is about as high as anywhere. You and your, you're about 1,000 acres, just corn and soybeans? - Yeah, corn and soybeans. - Yep. - No wheat? - No wheat, believe it or not. - Beck sells wheat, what's going on? - They also sell cover crop, I don't plan any of that. - Well, you're down here, south enough, that you can get away with cheater beans. You just don't want to work. - That's exactly right, yep. - Typically try to sit in a recliner and drink Dr. Peppernade Bambans. - So every year, well, I should say a few years ago, that every year we were gonna try something new on the farm, just to kind of mix things up, because you know, when you're corn and soybeans, it can get monotonous, and you want to try new things and keep it fresh. What are you trying on your farm, especially with your Epic Egg solutions? You know, you're always solving other people's problems. Do you have plots on your farm, or things that you're trying to kind of show, can you showcase everything? - Yeah, we're, so with, when this facility came on, we, we, on our own farm, and you know, just to be able to highlight some of what we're doing, exactly what you said, but with this facility in here, we don't really need to do that anymore. We're still continuing to do the trials. We just don't necessarily have people come out and look at them. There are some here, actually, there are some that we do that they don't do here, that I probably should start kind of back up on a smaller scale. Just, again, there's some, excuse me, stuff outside the box that, you know, it's kind of, kind of out there. It's not mainstream in any way, shape, or form, and some of that stuff you don't talk about until it becomes there. - The people might make fun of it, John Deere. Is that what you're suggesting? - Well, maybe not John Deere, but maybe the fertilizer companies, I'm not sure. You know, maybe John Deere, maybe International, I'm not sure. - Oh, we don't talk about the red stuff. - Might be the other kind of seed companies might pick on, I'm not sure. (laughing) - Growing up in Africa, it's beautiful down here. I mean, your ground is pretty flat. Is that your farm? - It's, yeah, our farm is really flat, too flat on a wet year. - Yeah, you get troubles keeping the water off of it. - Yeah, we can't get rid of it. We don't have any internal drainage, so no tile really in this area. Outlets are a problem because we're so flat. - Why not? - We don't have drainage. - Just can't go anywhere with it? - Yeah, don't have the drainage ditches to go to. We're all surface, I'll say 99% surface right in this area. - You can pump so. (laughing) - That wouldn't be your problem anymore. - Probably isn't the right word, but yes, there's people who try to send it to their neighbors. You know, sometimes the neighbors don't want it. I don't know, they give them something. - I know, they're just trying to be neighborly. - Yeah. - What other hobbies you got? - Well, I'm thinking about getting into podcasting. Would you recommend it or? - Yeah, it's a thrill everyone should experience. - Is that right? - Yeah, no, I really don't have a lot of hobbies to be honest with you. I need to get some. Actually, a lot of people don't know, I've actually started taking some pilot lessons, but that's probably really the only one. - What are you flying? - Just a small archer. - Is that like a Cessna? - Yeah, small, yeah, a little small. - Single engine. - Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. - Can you do a barrel roll? - I've not tried, I haven't asked the instructor if I'm allowed to yet. And that's usually what I do when I get on a bench plane. I'll ask if I can, if they'll do a loop-de-loop and they do it. - You don't ask, you just, you know, apologize later, right? - Right, right, right, right. - Oh, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to do that. - Right, right, whoops, my hand slipped. - Is that a lot of math? - No, it hasn't been yet, but I've, I don't have that many hours in. I've only got 14 hours in, so I'm, I'm alone. - I hear it's hard, but is it just because they're just so much, you got to do so many hours and all that? - Yeah, take in, a lot of ground. I mean, there's going to be a lot of math come into it as we keep going, yeah. - Yeah, are you flying the drone too? - Oh yeah, we've flown drones for, I don't know, 10, 15 years. - Yeah, is that catching on down here, the spraying weather? - Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. In a big way. - I honestly, when I, a couple years ago, I kind of laughed at it, but we had a couple fields sprayed with it this year, like the smaller timber ones, and man, it didn't take them very long. - Right, no, it doesn't. There are, there are great means of application. I mean, if we think back and think about reality, right, ground rigs aren't going to be able to cover all the acres, you know, airplanes and helicopters aren't going to be able to cover all the acres. It's another means of application. I'm not going to send anyone, I'm not going to say it's any worse. It's a means of application, right? Sometimes timing is more important than the means, and we're actually talking about trials. We're actually doing through PFR, a trial on our farm where it's ground versus helicopter versus drone. We did it last year. There really wasn't a difference, but there wasn't any disease to speak of either, and they're doing it. So it'll be interesting to see what the yield results come out to be on a larger basis than what they can do on the farm here. - You got disease this year? - No, there's really not much disease to the south. Yesterday, actually, a little bit of southern rust popped up, about 30 miles south of here, but very isolated in two fields at this point. So I'm sure it'll spread. Obviously, it's all weather dependent, but-- - Yeah, we got white mold up by us. - This year? - Yeah. - Literally in one day, three different agronomists call and say, "Hey, we found white mold in the area." - And you've had a lot of wet weather then? - Yes, and I don't like white mold. - Right. - I've only had a once, and I remember I pulled into the field, and it went around the end rows, and I was like, "This was before yield monitors were accurate, and I'm looking into back." And I'm like, "Where are all the beans at?" Because they look beautiful, but then there was just like a size of a BB. - Oh, yeah. The huge yield, Robert. - Sure. - You're from Effingham. How big's that cross? - I actually don't know how tall that thing is. I know, yeah, I can't answer that. - Should you go up in it? - Not that I know of. - Well, you're from Effingham. - They don't do tours. - They don't do tours. - Who owns it? - I don't know that either. I know a group of churches actually got together and funded it with some outside help. - Gosh, we only had someone from Effingham. - No, I mean, if you really wanna know the stats, I could get really, do you wanna know down to the inches? - Yes. - Yeah, it's 128 feet, six inches. - It is, you're probably not far off, actually. - I could have lied about the whole thing, and you would have believed me, 'cause you wouldn't know. But, you know, Google knows everything, and you just have to, you know, search it. I don't actually know how tall it is. It's big. I can see it from here. (laughing) - Yeah, they light it up at night. It's pretty neat. - Oh, do they? I don't know if we've ever been by it at night, have we? - No, we haven't. But we talk about it every time we go by. I love what it is. Definitely gets people talking, which is the whole point. - Yep, around the Easter season, they turn colors. I think they make it purple and red and different things, so it's pretty cool. - Oh, cool. - Different lights. - If people wanna find you, find more about Epic Ag. Like, where do they go? - Yeah, we're on TikTok, Epic Ag Solutions. We're on YouTube, and we have our own website. We don't post a lot on our website. Obviously, again, all those things take time. But, yeah, we're there. - They need to hire some kid. - We could, yeah, like a 13-year-old to do it. Maybe you're nine. - Who was that gal you were talking about? You could hire, growing corn. - That's right. Yeah, yeah, she would do it. She's, she could probably get us a couple hits. - Yeah, she probably could. - Yeah, I don't know if it's legal to pick on her. Do we, did we have to have a disclaimer? Did she, she had to sign off? - Nobody actually listens to the show, so I really, we've never run into that whole legal, not legal thing. - I don't know what that either. - Time has been interesting to talk to you. Are you looking forward to seeing all the stuff today? - Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I'm usually inside. I'm working on trying to finish selling those six bags, and so we'll go to the other shows and actually get out more than we will here, to be honest with you. - Yeah. - So, I have a lot of customers come visit. We've been blessed with a lot of good loyal customers, and so yeah, this is a big day for us. - Very good. Time to you tell from Effie Man. We are gonna have to say goodbye from Effie Hell in Illinois. The fact knowledge you days, we'll catch you next time. ♪ Carrotty fool, carrotty ♪ ♪ Carrotty fool, the next shaker ♪