(upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag" My name is Rob Sharkey.

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

I started a podcast which led into an XM Radio show, which led into a national television show, which led into me being right here today.

But today, today is not about me.

Today is about DeAnne Bloomberg.

How are you doing, DeAnne?

- Hi, I'm good, Rob.

- Yeah.

Now is it... A lot of people say DeAnna or DeAnne.

- It is DeAnne and it's one word and I got a middle name.

So it's not not like, you know, Jo Beth, Mary Beth.

- You capitalize the A, I mean, do you do that to be difficult?

- No, I didn't.

That was that's how my mom and dad... That's how it shows up.

I will say this, looking back on my birth certificate, it's all caps, right?

I mean, back there in typewriter days.

So, but mom and dad always... That's how I learned to spell it.

- So it was basically your choice to do that.

Anyway, it's great to have you on the show.

We've known each other a long time, haven't we?

- Yes, we have.

- From back in the day.

You are the director of issues at the Illinois Farm Bureau.

- Issues management.

- Issues management.

- I mean, I just wanted... 'cause otherwise that opens up a lot of stuff.

- I mean, does the A in management have to be capitalized, too?

(both laugh) Oh mercy.

You are from Orion, Illinois, which is not in Bloomington, which is well where the Illinois Farm Bureau is.

So, what do you do?

You drive every day?

- I don't drive every day, couple of days a week, but some weeks are heavier than others, but as you get older.

So my door to door commute is about an hour and 40 minutes and so it actually is a good time for me to wind up and wind down and you know, I can get pretty wound up.

- It takes you that long?

To wind down?

- Sometimes it can, sometimes it can.

- I believe you.

- I knew you would.

- You and your husband, Brent, you live on the family farm.

It's the great-grandfather Otto Swanson's homesteaded.

Now, who would that?

- That would be his maternal great grandfather.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- All right.

So, this was a farm that was established in the 1900s, like early?

- Yeah, very early.

So, the barn that is still standing there today, which by the way, the wedding gift money went to put a new roof on that barn.

- Your wedding gift money, went to... - Put a new roof on that barn.

So it is still standing.

- Okay.

= All right.

But it says 1919.

So you could probably go late 1800s.

I meant to look it up and confirm when Otto arrived here.

- Oh, maybe he built it the first year he got there.

- He might have.

- So, you're making stuff up.

- I'm not making stuff up.

- It sounds to me like you're making stuff up.

- I'm not.

I'm not making stuff up.

- So, were you a farm girl?

- I was.

- Yeah.

- I grew up just across the river in Eastern Iowa, Clinton county.

Went to DeWitt Central High School.

- That sounds fun, what was the mascot?

- The mascot was a saber tooth tiger.

- The DeWitt sabers.

- The Dewitt central sabers.

And I went to Low Moore Grade School.

- You always got to add a little extra capital A in everything, don't you?

(both laugh) What kind of farm did you grow up on?

- Diversified grain and livestock.

- Okay, so what was the livestock?

- Farrow-to-finish hogs, cow calf, dad put out cattle up until he passed away.

Just, you know, one of those classic, I would say Americana farm in the 60s, 70s, where it was diversified.

Corn, soybeans, we had oats, you know, so we'd have straw but had a corn crib.

So the original idea, I mean, value added was livestock.

- Yeah.

That's the way it used to be.

- Right?

- You are the youngest of six kids.

- Uh-huh.

- Explains a lot.

- It does.

It truly does explain a lot and I'm a bonus child.

- They found you on a secret level or what do you mean a bonus child?

- So the way I explain it to people is mom and dad were married in 1950.

First child was '52, '54, '57, '58, '59, '68.

I was born in '68.

So, eight years later.

- Oh, so you were a surprise.

- I was a surprise child.

- Okay.

- I like to call it bonus.

- It happens.

- It happens and I'm really grateful that it happened, right?

- Now, is that farm still operating?

- It is.

My brother next closest in age, Murl, is on the home family farm and then his oldest, Christopher, is just in the neighborhood and it's still in the family farm.

- Okay.

I am not going to get in your family dynamics, but you and I were born in an era when...

I'm the youngest of six.

I'm the boy, I'm the only boy.

My parents did that because the boy was the one that was returning to the farm, not the girl.

That's different now, isn't it?

- It is different.

You know, actually out of us six kids, Murl is the only one that didn't go to college and graduated from DeWitt in '78 and started farming.

And he's there and we're all grateful that he is carrying on the family farm.

- It's hard to explain sometimes to people outside of multi-generational businesses, like the importance of keeping that business together because a lot of times a farm or business cannot support two, three, all the siblings coming back.

- No.

So my dad passed away in 2006.

And right before then... And you know, farm bureau was always doing their state planning seminars and all those pieces.

And so, even at a young age, I remember being in Henry county, calling my oldest brother just saying, "Hey, how are we going to make sure that this farm stays in the family in the state planning."

So, dad had talked through all of us six kids, and we all knew that was the goal of mom and dad to keep that family farm together.

So, we've been blessed, but there were a lot of conversations leading up to that.

- I've talked to a lot of people where it was a sibling that went back and ran the farm but they're very proud of that because honestly that's what it takes.

It takes that whole family agreeing that, "All right, we're going to keep the family going because of this."

You and I can both name off a list of families that were not able to do that, but it sounds like your family was able to.

- Yeah, I think mom and dad always used to say, "I want you to grow up, get a job you really like doing."

And that when you all come home, you'll like to get together.

And my brothers and sisters, my nieces and nephews, everybody thrives on it.

And with us not having kids, guess who gets to be the kind of instigator of getting everyone together, you know.

- It's you.

- It is me, and I'm happy with that.

- Yes.

You've got a very big personality, you have been working with farm bureau for how many years?

- For 30 Years.

It'll be 31 in January.

January 21st, 1991.

- Okay.

I talk about the system in agriculture.

You start out with 4-H, you go to FFA, then you go to young farmers and farm bureau and then to the commodity groups.

Did you start out that way?

Like 4-H, FFA?

- Yeah, I did.

You know, the really quintessential 4-H. Minnehaha, little Fonz 4-H club, got into FFA.

- I'm sorry, what did you just say?

- It was a little Fonz and the Minnehaha 4-H clubs.

- The Minnehaha?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Okay.

Was that a song there's like a... - Well, I did make a cheer eventually out of it for the 4-H basketball tournament, - What was it?

Taking the field mice and bop 'em on the head, is it that song?

- No.

- Bunny Foo Foo.

- No.

- Minnehaha and Bunny Foo Foo.

I think they got married back in the 80s.

- Okay, really?

- No.

- Okay.

Guess I'll have to look that up.

- Cheers.

- Then I went into FFA and then went to college and was never involved with farm bureau at all.

Just graduated from Iowa State, started throwing the resumes out there.

- But did you want to stay in ag?

- Oh, completely.

- Yeah.

- Completely.

The farm crisis was probably the turning point for me like literally where I woke up to my senior year in 1986, my mom started working in town in January of 1986 and my dad was stressed, you know?

I mean, it was that whole pressure of holding onto the farm and watching all the people in the neighborhood and around, you know, all the headlines that were focused on it.

And I just had this moment, like, "Wait a minute, I feel like I can do something here to make sure this doesn't happen to other people down the road."

- So really it was that that drove you into it.

And for the people that don't know.

So you had '78, '79, '80 great farm years, everything was rolling and then the bottom just completely fell out for a multitude of reasons.

And it crushed the farm economies, it crushed family farms.

I mean, it was a bloodbath and every kid that was on a farm like you and I, we remember it, you know, I remember not having a TV 'cause we couldn't afford to get it fixed.

Ugh, I couldn't have a TV, but that made that big of impression into you that that's why you went into something like farm bureau.

- Yeah.

You know, as cheesy as this story may sound, I remember going shopping.

That was also back in the day where you went shopping maybe once in the fall to get an outfit for school and another one maybe for Easter or something.

And mom and I went to Younkers and I wanted to get... - [Sharkey] Younkers.

It was a store back in the day.

They sold the tennis shoes with the rubber soles.

- And I wanted jeans ans I wanted... Back then the trend were like $50, $60 pair of jeans and my mom literally said no.

- You're getting Rustler's.

- Yeah, exactly.

No name because you know what, your dad's price for what he raises changes all the time.

- Yeah.

I know.

- That was my first introduction to price taking versus price making.

- Yes, okay.

So, you went to farm bureau, you start out as...

The Illinois farm bureau you've got, there was 102 counties in Illinois.

There's how many different...

There's one for every county, - There's 93.

- 93?

- Yep.

- 93 county managers, that's how you started out?

- Mm-hmm.

- Where at?

- So, I started in Boone county and I'd only been on the training program I think 60 days before they sent me up to Belvedere.

Belvedere, Illinois.

- Kinda baptized by fire, all right?

- It was.

Six weeks, I think, into that program.

They're like, "Hey, you're going to the county farm bureau office and the office manager bookkeeper/membership secretary had only been there like six weeks.

So, yeah.

- So, when were you actually hired as a manager?

What county?

- 1 May,'91 in Boone.

- In Boone.

And at that time were there a lot of females?

- No.

- No.

- There was some cases where some membership secretaries had kind of moved into that role and kinda helped out part-time.

- Were you first?

- I was second.

First one was Stacy Ramp Shane.

She was in Woodford county.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- All those Woodford county people are a little different.

- I mean, love them dearly.

- What did that mean?

It had to be intimidating, right?

So you went to a manager's meeting, you wave at Stacy and then the rest are dudes.

- So, region 1A was where I first went and it was all these older gentlemen that were like fathers, some older brothers in there, figures, that had been with the system at that point 25, 30 years.

And I did feel like I was the little sister, you know.

And they really did a nice job of bringing me into the mix, but it was definitely one of those cases like...

I mean, I was young, I was single, right.?

And I was like, where are the young... - Where's the young people?

Did they give you your own section?

Or maybe your own hat?

- Special hat that said "Woman Manager"?

- No, they didn't.

And you know what?

No.

And honestly, I never really made a big deal about it because I grew up with four brothers.

I have four brothers and a sister and Jim, Reed, Brian and Murl taught me a lot.

- Well, that's changed now, right?

- Yeah.

- Is there more women than men now?

- There are.

There has been a trend to hire more and I would always get asked that question by county farm bureau board members like, you know, "What is that?"

And I still point back to that era when we started to really kind of talk about ag PR and getting the word out there and building that dialogue between the consumer or the non farmer and the farmer.

And I think a combination of factors helped even with FFA, getting more people involved and thinking differently.

- I think you and I both grew up in the elevator speech era, right?

Where we were supposed to get on the elevator with like a vegan.

And by the time the elevator quit, 90 seconds, he was supposed to have a steak.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- That didn't work out that well.

(both laugh) - You bring up a good point.

I mean, I was also the 1987 Iowa beef queen.

- Wow, there you go.

I've heard that.

- Yeah, it's been brought up, I think that those... - Do you have a crown?

- I do have a crown and honestly I thought about bringing that but I'm like, "No, that can't be the focus of this entire presentation is my crown."

- It could have been.

- I know, I'm sure it could have been.

- I mean, the interview is going well.

I thought you would've clutched your pearls at some point.

(DeAnne laughs) - What is this?

Well, tell me of your picture, what you did bring.

- So, it is the picture of my family.

And as you can see there, can you see that literally I couldn't...

I was so young, my mom had to hold my chin up in that photo.

- Okay, well see, you should have been doing that yourself.

(both laugh) - But I bring that because that is such the foundation of what I do, why I love what I do and all of our family history.

- As long as I've known you, it seems like your family was like paramount to you.

It was so important.

- Mm-hm.

- Yeah.

And is it just the family, the farm, that whole aspect.

- I just think it's so many different things, whether it's church, we grew up in a small little rural Methodist church and we had our own farm community that was also a part of that.

Not our own but a lot of our neighbors were in the church together.

And I think it is, I mean, even my mom and her background.

- Yeah.

That's changed, hasn't it?

Like you talk about the small Methodist church.

I mean, you probably...

When somebody died, all the ladies did the... That's not happening.

We went to a funeral and they catered it in and it's because people don't cook anymore.

There's no marshmallow casserole.

- No.

However, at the Orion St. Paul Lutheran.

- Yeah.

- When I get the call to make the funeral salad, right?

- What is a funeral salad?

- Well, I mean, you're going to have your... - Just any salad at a funeral.

- Well, it's limited.

I mean, like pea salad, Mac salad, Slough.

- Why would you do a pea salad for someone who'd passed away?

The family has been through enough.

- You know what?

I like to say that I redefined my pea salad and that it's more, it's not just canned peas.

Not because there's anything wrong with canned pea salad.

- All right.

You know, I don't take this show as a platform to make statements very often, (DeAnne laughs) but I'm going to do it now.

Pea salad should be not a thing.

Let's let's let it go.

That was the 70s and 80s, let's move on.

No more pea salad.

- But... - Things just got real.

- They did get real.

- Now's the time where you clutch the pearls.

- Where I'm like (gasps) - Yes.

You were beef queen 1987 and you sang the national anthem.

Now, who were you doing that for?

- So I, you know, you grow up in church, you sing in choir.

I was in musicals in high school.

- [Sharkey] Really?

Which one?

- "Once Upon a Mattress", "The Princess and the Pea."

- Okay.

- Okay.

Carol Burnett made it popular.

And actually Sarah Jessica Parker reintroduced it on Broadway a couple of years ago.

- Oh, probably because they saw you.

- Probably, completely, right.

So, I wanted to keep that going.

and so national Anthem really is on my bucket list.

And so I tried out at the River Bandits at Modern Woodmen Park in the Quad Cities.

- [Sharkey] It's just like the Peoria Chiefs of Quad Cities.

- Exactly, exactly.

- But just not as good.

So.

- So, that's my release, right?

My creative... - To sing?

- To sing.

- At the baseball games.

That's really cool though.

Were you scared?

- Yes.

(Shirky laughs) - Did you choke?

- Well, for people that are watching, they finally probably remember that I sang for the Orion and Rockridge football playoff games, completely blacked out.

Didn't know where I was at.

- Like you passed out?

- I didn't black out.

I couldn't remember where I was at.

'Cause I put the Lord's prayer and national anthem in the same category.

Once you start, it's gotta keep going.

You know what I'm saying?

- So, did you say the Lord's prayer while doing the melody of the... - No, the national anthem, though.

I stopped and said, "All right guys, let's take it from the top."

- Did you really?

- Yeah, and my nephew to this day and his buddies are like, "What's going on with aunt DeAnne?"

- Did they boo you?

- No.

- Did they throw things?

- No, they didn't throw things.

- Did they want to?

- I don't know, they were stressed out.

They had to play.

It was a beautiful Saturday.

- Who won the game?

- Orion.

- Okay.

- They did Rockridge.

- I don't know.

- Okay.

- All right, focus.

Let's get back to women in agriculture.

So, you were kind of a pioneer.

Well, you were, whether you want to be or not.

I mean, it's completely different now, but say you have a young female come up to you and say, "Hey, I wanna get a career in agriculture."

What advice do you give her?

- I just talk to the value of just honing your own skills and really just focusing on your strengths and don't get pulled into some of those gender identity pieces to where like it's just...

I never ever thought of it.

You know, it never entered my mind.

- Really?

- And I trained a lot of county farm bureau managers, a lot.

And that's never come up.

Just focus on doing the work and doing it well.

I really do want to focus though too on bringing in that business and that production ag piece.

I was never that solid in agronomy, but there are some fantastic...

I really applaud them for what they're doing in that space because I'm like, "Ugh, Agronomy 114."

It's not that I don't love the crops, it's just, ugh.

- Ag is a bit of a slow mover, right?

When it comes to trends and that and there's times where we're behind.

A lot of times, a farm they get wrapped up inside their fence posts.

That's what we say.

Always look outside your fence post.

When you're involved in farm bureau, you're kind of in a difficult situation because the members are making the policies, but I'm sure you see things that need to change in a person's behavior or thoughts or that.

How do you go about that?

How do you go about that tight rope.

- Yeah.

I think that having two brothers, I have a brother that's a purebred Angus breeder in Southwest Wisconsin, and then my brother in the home farm and then nephews.

I think staying in touch with those, knowing what's going on the farm and then being able to back myself into those conversations, if you will.

So one of the things, if you remember, when Illinois farm families started getting going, and they talked about back to your point about elevator speech.

Remember let's have a dialogue, not a monologue.

So one thing would be listening, right?

- That's so hard.

- And having an open mind.

- I literally have not heard a thing you said in the last half hour.

(DeAnne laughs) - Oh Rob, it is so good.

I'm glad I'm here with you.

- Well, it comes back to that system because... And I'm giving the FFA, the 4-H, and farm bureau, I'm giving them all credit because they've changed and pivoted, but it used to be monologue, We need to tell people why they should be so thankful that we're feeding them, which, you know, in a way they should, but there's, I should be thankful for the electricity, the hot water, all this stuff.

So, they have pivoted.

- Completely.

And, let's face it too, I think we also pivoted during the supply chain that evolved out of the pandemic.

I think people really started to realize how many different players there are in entire supply chain.

And let's face it, we've also gone through just people, got frustrated, vented, and they have a way to sometimes tune it out.

- Yeah.

- Like my mom would...

If my mom were alive today, she'd probably be like, "No wonder we have such dysfunction 'cause people just pick up their phone."

You know, it's always just one or two people.

I mean, back to your point about having a lady's potluck.

I remember sitting through women's committee meetings and just the amount of steps and conversations to hear everyone's opinions and ideas.

- Yeah, exactly.

All right, If people want to find you on Tik Tok, where do they go?

- They don't.

- No Tik Tok?

- No.

I think I just got demoted.

- Any social media?

- Yeah, uh-huh.

@DBloomberg on Twitter - And farm bureau it's just like you just Google Illinois Farm Bureau, right?

- Right.

- Yeah.

And you are the director of issues management.

- Mm-hm.

- (laughs) So that's why we make notes.

Well, I'm sure people will want to get a hold of you and direct you on issues.

- There's no shortage, but it is interesting to try and see how they all are interconnected.

- Yeah.

- Because there's a lot of them that are.

- It's tough because that's an organization that's taken all of agriculture in wanting to...

Yes.

So, what you do is very important.

And in all seriousness, you have done an amazing job at navigating your career and helping farming and agriculture.

You've helped my farm.

I know you have in your career.

So, I want to thank you for that.

And I really appreciate you coming on the show.

So, I'll stop being nice now 'cause I can tell you're getting uncomfortable.

So, DeAnne Bloomberg.

Thank you so very much for being on the show.

Really, really appreciate it.

And everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(upbeat music)