(upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag".

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

I started a podcast which led to an XM radio show, which led to a national television show, which led to me being right here, talking to you today.

But today is not about me, today is about my friend, Becky.

Becky Nielsen Hanks, how are you doing Becky?

- I'm doing fantastic, thanks for having me.

- Thanks for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

- I mean, let's just throw it right out there you're my seed sales person.

- I am, so I personally know, Rob.

- [Rob] Yes, you sell seed corn.

- I do.

- Now I think we've had this conversation.

Most people say seed man, seed salesman.

Yeah, but you're do you take offense to that or anything?

- I don't take offense to much.

- That is true, I will say, (laughs) yes, we've been working together for a few years and originally for like, when you just came back and got, go on, this was even before you were married and everything you've learned so much since then.

You're always good at your job, but it's like, now you're all professional and stuff.

- I try to be sometimes.

- All right, where are you from?

- So I am from Magnolia, Illinois.

- Okay I don't, but probably most people don't know where that's at.

- No, probably not.

So we are from the smallest county in Illinois.

So it is a tiny little county and we are about an hour north of Peoria.

- Putnam County.

- Putnam County.

- Yeah, you said there was no stop lights or stop?

- No so if you come through our town you will not, our county, you will not find a stoplight anywhere.

- No stoplights in a full county.

- No unless a bridge is out and then you might have to wait a little bit.

- What's a like kinda pen?

There's no stoplight?

- Nope, no.

- Putnam?

- No, no stoplights.

- Okay.

- Random fact of the day.

- Do you know how Putnam got its name?

Putnam County?

- I would love for you to tell me how you think it got its name.

- Well originally, did you know Putnam was part of a Fulton County it was all one county.

- Was it?

- Yeah and then there was a town on your side of the river and it had like a large German name it was like Farfannuke.

I don't know what it was, but it was a large German name.

And the people that lived there, first of all, they were Irish and they didn't like that and they couldn't pronounce it.

So they changed the name and they changed it to their favorite guy there who was Irish, it's McNabb.

That's how McNabb got his name.

Well, Fulton County, wasn't having it.

She's like, no, you don't change names in our county and they were about ready to start this big civil war until finally they said: "We'll fine you guys wanna be that way just be that way."

And they succeeded and they said, "Hey, we're gonna show a Fulton county.

We're 'Putnam' them in their place."

And that's how I got his name putting him in his place became Putnam County.

- That is the most died joke I think I've ever heard.

- That's not, that's history.

- I don't think that's correct history though, Rob.

- That's how Putnam County got its name.

- I'm pretty sure Putnam County got its name from Israel Putnam, who was a revolutionary war general.

(laughs) - I mean, well, history is interpreted a lot of different ways, but yeah.

- So that's Rob's version.

- Putnam County, yes there is a 102 counties in Illinois.

A 102, a 110, I don't know.

- I'm not sure.

- It's over a hundred Putnam is the smallest.

- It is.

- And there's not much there?

- No, it's a small town and I thankful to have grown up in it.

- That's where you grew up then, that's where the farm was, the original farm?

- So we're on the county line.

So we're between Putnam and LaSalle.

- Oh, you're up North there.

- So the mailbox is in one and the house is in the other.

- Seriously?

- Yeah I always- - Oh that's funny.

- I always say Magnolia is probably one of the only counties that is so small.

That's got three different counties that it's in.

So I live now in Marshall, my dad's at LaSalle and then Putnam is also in Marshall or in Magnolia too so.

- Okay, you told me that when the originally, the original farm was called the duck farm?

- It was, so when my great-grandpa would have settled on our farm in March 1st, 1931, there was so many hedged trees and so much water there that they had actually known as the farm as the duck farm.

- Okay and the hedge trees a lot of people don't know that, but they used to plant hedge rows as fencing?

Back in the back in the day.

I don't know one of the 50s or whatever?

- Well what happened- - I mean, you already corrected me on history once.

I don't know when they planted hedge rows.

- There aint many left now.

- I assume it was a wet farm then.

- It was, it is a wet farm.

We have railroad tracks that are pretty similar to us.

We like to pond a little bit, so.

- You have rail what?

- Rail tracks that go through the backyard, so it kinda goes cuts through the farm and so we kinda catch everybody else's water.

- Did you ever put a penny on those?

- I haven't, I haven't my dad always told me not to play on the tracks.

- You seriously?

- I listened.

- You lived in country and you've never put a penny on the tracks?

- I try not to.

- Huh, it's honestly, it's a bit of a myth.

You have to like, do some chewing gum, put a little piece, not the whole piece 'cause that's gross, little piece of chewing gum and then put the penny on the track.

- So it will stay?

- Yeah or else the train is rumbling and stumbling and doing this train stuff and it'll knock the penny off but if you have a little piece of chewing gum and then it gets it down to paper thin.

- It's good to know I might have to go try that, I might have to go try that this afternoon.

- I'm surprised you haven't.

You went to Putnam County High School?

- I did.

- Is this still open?

- It is.

- Is it, how big is it?

- So, I would say my graduating class probably had 50 kids in it, and I would say that our entire county, and then a town or two as well, went to Putnam County.

- That's more than my graduating class, by the way, so you say 50, but I say, hey that's actually pretty good.

- But that's our whole county though.

- Where you valedictorian?

- I was close I did have a 4.0.

- Alright you sound just a little bitter.

(both laugh) - I let somebody else take the lead, it's okay.

- Were you salutatorian?

- I would have been, I think I was tied for third, there was two first.

- What is it, like participation county school or something- - I guess.

- Everybody gets, 4.0 though that's pretty impressive.

- Yup, yup.

- All right, did you go off to college?

- I did.

- Where?

- So I did some time at IVCC, where I got my Associates.

- Yeah.

- And then I went to Western and my grandma ended up wanting to sell her house.

So I ended up buying that.

And then I finished out at Illinois State with a business degree.

- So you went IVCC to Western, to Illinois state?

- I did.

- Because grandma wanted to sell her house?

- Yeah, I was coming back for the farm anyway.

So it was kinda nice to get back in the area and little cheaper and worked out pretty good.

- Is that the house you live in now?

- No, so actually we have a renter house now, and then that's actually, we live just outside of Magnolia now, too.

- So what's the deal with the house and the Euchre?

- So my husband didn't believe me.

We had went to a volunteer fire department smoker one night and- - Smoke, what's a smoker?

- So they have food and then they have games and different stuff, raffles, all that fun stuff.

- Okay.

- And we were there and they were short a person and play cards that night.

So I got asked to play cards and I ended up sitting across from some people that night.

And I told them I tried to buy their neighbor's house And they said, "Buy my house."

So I had to go and tell my husband, after that we were gonna have to go look at a house this weekend and we ended up, we looked at it and we bought our dream house.

- How much do these people hate their neighbor?

That they wouldn't sell their house to you sort of like, "Oh, buy ours."

That'll tick them off.

- They were planning on moving to Florida.

So it worked out perfect.

We caught it before it went in the market.

- Likely story.

- Been looking for years too, so it worked out great.

- Does the neighbor still live there?

That wouldn't sell the house to you?

- They do not, they do not.

- Okay 'cause that would be kind of fun, right?

Just to stand out in the yard how do you like me now?

(both laughing) - You're trouble.

- All right your favorite day though in high school was when you got to drive the tractor in the FFA?

Explain what that is, 'cause I don't think everybody knows what FFA tractor day is.

- Yeah, so we have a week, usually in February every year that is FFA week.

So we get to do things to support FFA.

So one of my favorite days of the year was FFA drive your tractor to school day.

So usually there was probably a handful of us.

There was probably 15 or 20 directors that would show up.

- That's quite a bit.

- Yeah for this school it was.

So it was always fun to get to participate in that.

- Which one did you drive in?

- Oh, I usually, I would usually drive my dad's 290 or 220.

- Oh, a red one?

- Yeah red one, KIH.

- Surprise it made it.

(laughing) - Yeah, you would say that being a green fan.

(both laughing) - Okay, so you went to school, then you got into your grandmother's house.

Now, well, after graduation from college, what did you do then?

- So after I graduated from college, I started selling seed and then I came home and I was also working on my family farm.

So that's kinda what I, what I went into.

- So when you came back, was it a deal like, I wanna be involved in a family farm 'cause this is a scenario that plays out with farm kids all over.

They wanna come back, they're like, all right.

Yeah, you can come back, but it's not like we can support all of our kids full time.

You're gonna have to find something else.

- Yeah, absolutely, so I was trying to find something that was nice and close to home.

I'm also very passionate about agriculture and corn.

So that kinda helped on some of that too, corn nerd, what can I say?

- She's passionate about corn.

(laughing) - I am, but, so, yeah, so it was a nice fit for me and that I was also able to help on the farm too.

- When you started, this is a few years ago, right?

When you started, I would say that was probably when I first started seeing more females show up to the farm selling stuff.

- Absolutely - But it was not common.

- No, no, it was not.

- Was that a little intimidating?

- I think in some ways I felt like being a female and "Ag" was a little easier to make stops.

I feel like sometimes when I pull up, I might get asked the occasional, " Are you lost?"

But after I got that through that, it was nice to be able to sit down with the farmer.

And they kind of wanted to know a little bit about me 'cause there's not a lot of women that were out in "Ag" at that time.

Which is pretty cool to see that there are a lot more roles like that now for women.

- I would say there's almost more coming back to the farm now and coming back to jobs like that then there are guys.

I don't know, it just seems that way to me.

- Yeah I feel like on a personal level, I can get to know their farms.

I can get to know their families.

I can get to know different stuff like that too.

So I think kind of the personal relatable thing goes pretty well with being a woman in "Ag" and growing up around it too.

- That's probably a lot of it because it would be intimidating to pull up to a lot of times, right?

You're pulling up to a farm, you're pulling into a shop, there's the grumpy farmer and maybe a grumpy hired hand and maybe a grumpy son, they all hate each other 'cause they've been fighting over the planner and who's doing it right and who's doing it wrong.

And then you show up and it's not fair because we can't be mean to you like the guy that shows up.

- Well usually, if I'm bringing chocolate chip cookies or something with it is a little bit harder to be upset about that.

- I don't ever remember getting chocolate chip cookies.

- Oh, I don't know.

I'm sure there was a few snacks along the way.

- There were some snacks, yeah whatever, I don't remember.

(laughing) - I think it's great that it is, it definitely has seen a shift in there.

So, I mean, do you ever do it, do you ever like have a younger female that is interested in coming back?

I mean, if she wants to come back, do a role like you, I wanna go back to the farm, but I need to like work somewhere else or something.

What advice are you gonna give her?

- So, my advice would be to absolutely do it.

I think that coming home and being able to do some of that stuff, but still see the outside world and kinda get to know other operations, being a female in "Ag", I've run into a lot of other females in "Ag" through my jobs.

Through whether that's crop adjusting or seed sales.

I've been able to meet a lot of different women that are doing the same thing.

It's also neat too, 'cause I meet a lot of grandpa's and dads that are like, I hope my daughter knows that she can do this too.

- Yeah.

- And I think that's probably one of my favorite things that I get to hear said through the countryside.

- It's funny, well, I don't know if it's funny.

To me it was a shocker because I was talking one time with someone about the kids coming back to the farm and my daughter was there and I was talking about the four kids and afterwards she's like, I never really knew that was an option for me.

Why would you think that?

I guess, yeah, it's not just a seeing it, but I think us as farmers, we need to be sure to tell our daughters that yes, they have a chance if you want to come back.

- Absolutely.

- I really hope all four don't come back.

'Cause I don't know how that will work.

(laughing) - They might have a few outside jobs.

- That's yeah, exactly.

- But always welcome back.

- I went to your wedding.

- You did, you did.

(laughing) - I look at this duck I can't stop thinking about it.

- I think it's funny when I hear other people tell those stories sometimes too.

- Okay, well let me tell a story.

- So if I had that, so if we had to talk about it, what is funny about the duck for you?

- You're up there it's a beautiful, it's an outdoor wedding, right?

It's a beautiful day, you two are up there.

You and Kyle you're in love and all of this and then all of a sudden we hear this quacking and it's like loud and it's not a duck.

You can tell it's like a fake quacking.

You had left your phone, which has a ringtone of a duck, like a Mallard quacking up at the, like the podium, which is where the microphone was.

And it just kept going, and going- - It rang tw- - And going.

- It rang twice.

- The whole ceremony.

- It rang twice.

I had to laugh with it, we are using it to play the music and if the preacher hadn't just said, "Hey, I'm gonna call anybody out that has their phone on.

We want a nice ceremony, no phones."

And he had no more than 10 seconds later said that and I can hear it coming through the Intercom and I just start laughing 'cause I know it's mine.

I think life's pretty unpredictable and I think sometimes you just gotta laugh and go with it.

- You guys seem like you had fun with it.

- It was.

- And that's the key.

- And it made for some pretty awesome photos.

- Yeah, it was a fun wedding.

- I think Kyle has forgiven me.

- He's a pretty forgiving guy.

You're selling seed, but you're also doing the crop adjustment the crop adjusters for insurance?

- Yeah.

- Tell me about that.

- Yeah, so I kinda mentioned earlier, I'm a corn nerd, so I kinda wanted another avenue that I could do some of that with.

So I get called in when hailstorms come through and that kinda stuff, I get to evaluate damage and kinda look at fields for that kinda stuff.

So corn wheat, soybeans, you name it.

So I that's been a really fun role that I picked up recently.

- So I, as a farmer, I have an option to buy insurance on my crops for hail, for wind?

- Yeah.

- For federal crop?

- Yeah.

- So I buy this and it's not cheap, it's a very large check but if a hailstorm comes in, that is one thing that can definitely wipe out a crop completely.

- It can.

And it can be pretty fast coming through too.

So, I mean, usually everybody I talked to seems to say that they have the best crop they've ever seen growing usually that happens too, so.

- Well yeah they're gonna tell you that.

Even if it was a horrible crop and a hailstorm, oh man, that thing probably was gonna go well over 300 bushels.

- So I hear that a lot.

I think it's also really personal too, because that's, people have a lot of time and their whole life is involved in their crop.

So crop insurance kind of is a nice savior to have for those kinda storms and stuff.

- Okay, so this is a scenario, what happened?

Hail comes a, hit your crop, right?

- Yeah.

- I call you, you come out and you pull up a leaf that has been decimated with hail and you say, "Oh, that's not that bad."

And we're goin over here, going "What are you talking about?"

I mean, that is always the argument that goes, when you get hail, that's always what's happening.

It's the adjuster against the farmer and they're never happy with each other, but you're looking at it as what it's gonna be at harvest time.

- Right.

- How much yield you've lost.

The farmer is looking at it as like good night, look at it now, it looks like it's been sat out on a road all night.

- It's very personal on, like I said, our farms, our livelihoods and so I think with being a farmer myself, I understand that as well too.

I understand that personal aspect, but it's kinda like if I punch you right now, you might get a bruise, but you're probably gonna heal from it, so not always.

- What kind of example, is that?

- Yeah kind of, so.

- I see how she does it little intimidation by her.

- But sometimes it comes out of it, so, I think that-- - Is that what you do when you get out of your truck?

Do you tell that story?

- No.

- Hey, listen, you're gonna unhappy, but if I slug you right now, you're gonna heal maybe wink, wink.

(laughing) - I've never tried that one, by the way but.. (laughing) - Does it help though, knowing that you're a farmer?

I mean, do you try to establish it right off the bat?

- I feel like it usually comes up.

I don't usually always bring it up, but I feel like it does come up.

I think people are usually curious to know, like, have you ever looked at corn before?

And yeah, the answer would be, yes.

So, but it's also taken that personal aspect out of it too though, I mean, it's different.

If I go look at my own farm, that's been hit with hail too.

I'm gonna have those feelings as well, too.

So sometimes it's nice to have an outside look at it as well.

- One thing I really liked is you sold me seed this spring and then you come back to get the big plastic boxes at the seed coming in.

And your dad was with you and you were over there.

I think you were arguing with my hired man about something.

(laughing) - I wouldn't ague with Dan.

- But probably not bringing cookies or something like that.

- Probably, probably.

- Yeah, and I'm talking to your Dad and he is, there's transition going on in your family.

- There is.

- To you and your brother, from your dad's farm and he I've seen this in a lot of times, the farmers really struggle with this.

Your dad was very, very proud of both you and your brother and the transition.

And it was honestly, to me, it was very touching to hear him talk so lovingly in and how proud he was of you two.

- Thank you, I think it's been really neat.

So we're a fourth generation farm.

So I think my dad was very open when his dad was kinda giving the farm to him or starting to transition him.

So I think he had that openness into the farm.

And so my dad's always been excited to see us taking over and to see us getting involved.

So he always talks about retirement one of these days, but I know he's still going to be around, but I think it's just the excitement that he has taught us so much and he gets to see us kinda going out and doing some of that stuff now.

And it's really awesome to be able to feel like he's proud of us when we're doing it too.

- Well and don't let it fool you.

I mean, she's sitting over her all nice and sweet and that your dad looks like he could rip a phone book in half.

- He's the biggest Teddy bear though.

- I'm gonna take your word for that.

- You can even ask Kyle, he's not too bad.

(laughing) - It is uncomfortable.

The conversations that you have to have though, right?

- Yeah.

- Because you're talking about succession, you're wanting to let the parents know I want this farm, but you don't wanna be greedy too.

- Yeah.

- And they want to say, I want you to take over this farm, but they don't wanna push it on you.

- Yeah.

- How do you guys get over that?

- So I think we have a lot of open conversations about it.

And then I think slowly kind of transitioning in has helped us on that some too.

Being open to talking, I think has been the easiest thing for us though, or the best thing for us.

- Okay, you do have the thing where you've got a brother too?

- I do, yep, so my husband.

- How does that go?

- Yep, so my husband and I also farm with my brother.

So this last year, my dad actually had a shoulder surgery.

So my brother and I got to pick up a lot more work than we're used to.

So I think that was kinda neat getting to do a lot more activities and be on the farm a little bit more.

So we took care of all the planning this year.

So my dad got to do two rounds.

So just to say, didn't break his record plan.

- That's a big deal I mean-- - Yeah!

- Don't let it-- - No!

- For the patriarch to let go of the planner is a huge, huge deal.

- It is, it is and so I think this year, he didn't have a little bit of a choice with some of it because he wasn't able to be in there with his shoulder.

But I think this year was a great learning year for Alan and I. I mean, we've been farming together since 2013, but I think this year kinda making the decisions, what farmer we had in to next?

What needs to go here and kind of making those decisions.

Who's gonna be in the planner today?

Who's gonna get seed today?

And I think doing all those decisions was really great and eyeopening for us this year.

So I think being able to talk to each other and work together and stuff, I think made our future look really good.

- It needs to be done.

- Yeah.

- It needs to the patriarch or whoever's running the farm.

If they wanna hand it over it, they do have to hand it over, just my opinion, okay.

Your husband is Abraham Lincoln's nephew?

(laughing) - I don't know about nephew, but they are distantly related though.

So I don't know if you knew this, but Nancy Hanks is Abraham Lincoln's mom and-- - Yes, I didn't know Nancy.

- You didn't know her?

- No.

(both laughing) - You've probably heard a few stories, but-- - She's from Putnam County anyways.

- No, she's not, that's not true.

- It was a joke.

(laughing) - But yeah, so my husband would be a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln.

So I feel like that's pretty special.

- Do you get like a penny or something it's just kinda cool, I don't know.

- I mean, we can start collecting them if that makes you feel good.

- That, I mean, that is kinda cool though, because obviously he's probably one of the most prevalent people in American history.

- Yeah.

- And to have some sort of connection to him.

- Yeah.

- I mean, you married into so you kinda cheated your way into that.

- I did, just a little bit but the first time I heard that story, I had to go look it up just to make sure they weren't fibbing on me.

- And he's Tom Hank's cousin.

- No, but they would probably also be distantly related to Tom Hanks as well.

- Tom Hanks?

- 'Cause Tom Hanks, the actor, is also related to Abraham Lincoln.

- Is he still on that island, without volleyball?

- I don't think so, but that was a good show.

I loved Castaway.

- That was a good movie.

- It was.

- Wasn't it?

I mean, he didn't say a word hardly in the whole movie, but I watched the whole thing.

(both laughing) Okay, what do you want people to know?

- I think- - You you've come back to the farm.

- I have.

- What do you want people to know?

- I think I want people to know that they have the option to do that.

That being a female in "Ag" is an accepted thing, that working together with family can be difficult, but it can also be really rewarding.

And I am really thankful that I've had the opportunity.

- Well we didn't talk about is your competitive shooter?

- I am, I am.

- Okay, do you bring that up when you're doing the hail adjustment too?

- I usually don't lead with it, but some of the people that do know me have been known to ask if I'm packing today.

- Just keep shooting or like the pew-pew?

- So I've actually done both.

So when I was growing up, when I turned, I dunno, 15, I think I joined a competitive pistol team.

- Oh really?

- Yeah, so I.

- Was that at Putnam High School?

- It wasn't, it definitely wasn't.

We used to go to gun camp and so I learned that there.

(both laughing) - You used to go to gun camp.

- So we learned a few things there that was based out of Bloomington and so I got picked up for the team there and we traveled around and we would shoot competitively.

We also got trained by the army and some different things, so.

- Really?

- Yeah, so I've met some really cool people along the way with that.

- All right.

I mean, that's a little scary and intimidating, you still do it?

- I haven't done it in the last couple of years, but I hope to get back into it.

- People wanna find you on social media or anywhere, - Yeah.

- Can they find you?

- I hope they do.

- Where?

- So they can find me on Facebook.

It would be Becky Nielsen Hanks, and they can also find me on Instagram and sometimes I use Twitter.

- Nielsen is a N-I-E-L-S-E-N. - It is, it's probably the first time...

If you didn't have a cue card, I'd be really impressed.

- Did, oh no, with out the cue card there is now way.

(laughing) So, Becky it's been fun to get to know you.

- It has.

- It really has.

It's been fun to see you really grow into your role as a seed salesman and now with the crop insurance and now as a farmer.

- Yeah.

- So yeah, it's been fun to watch the whole journey.

So thank you for coming on, really appreciate it.

- Thank you for having me on, and letting me tell my farm her story.

- Absolutely, Becky, thank you.

And everybody else we'll catch you next week.

(heavy upbeat music)