- 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 Kate Huffman.

Hi Kate.

- Hello.

- How are you?

- Good.

- You're very pink.

(laughing) - That's my go-to.

- That's your thing.

We're gonna talk about that, but that's your, do you say it's your brand?

- I'd say so, yeah.

- Okay, you've kind of created it.

- Taken it and run with it.

- Now, where exactly do you live?

- So my actual house is in Galva but the farm is in-between Galva and Kiwanee, Illinois.

- Okay.

So you did not answer the question, I guess it's Galva.

We'll right down Galva.

- Galva.

That's where I grew up.

- Where did you go to school?

- Galva.

- You're a wild cat?

- Yes.

The Galva wild cat.

- Do they still have a high school?

- We do.

- Really?

- Mm-hmm.

- I was never a fan.

You guys were, you were good in basketball.

- Some years.

- Yeah.

- Don't ask about football.

- Apparently it was, no football week, we always had that one.

(laughing) I remember my senior year we won one game, it was against Galva.

- I think we didn't win a game my senior year.

- Well, I appreciate the win, it was fun.

- You're welcome.

I had a lot to do with that for you.

(laughing) - All right.

You're a farmer.

- I am.

- Okay.

At all, you do other stuff too, right?

- Yes.

Yep.

- So I'm assuming a farm girl.

- Yes.

Born and raised.

- So tell me about the farm that you grew up on.

- Actually, the farm that I am currently running and managing with my father, I'm a sixth generation family farmer.

So my dad is my mentor.

So yeah, so we raise corn and soybeans now.

When I was growing up, we had about 3000 head of hogs out in the field farrow to finish.

- Oh, you were outside.

- Oh yes.

- That's a lot of work.

- Yes, it is.

- Okay.

And it's very difficult with the weather too.

- Yeah.

- So at what point did the family decide no more hogs?

- We survived the '90s, that hog crisis in the '90s, and then my dad started working for John Deere part-time and then we decided it was time for him to go full-time there.

And at that time I was 14 and I watched the last hogs go off the field.

- So the thing is, in 1998 was the hog crash.

Right?

And it was a bloodbath, it was horrible.

The joke was you would take a load of 10 hogs to the rest area and leave them and you would come back to get your truck, and there'd be 20 hogs there.

- Mm-hmm, yes, yes, yes.

- Because yeah, you couldn't give them away.

You couldn't get any place to it.

So, it was the beginning of the end for our family operation with the hogs and you were saying that was the end of it for you guys.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah, was that tough?

- I was so young in the '90s.

I think there was a lot of things revolving around that.

Not only were we going through a bad crisis with the hogs, but my dad lost his mentor on unexpected, it wasn't unexpected, but from cancer.

- Was that his dad?

- His dad.

- Okay.

- So his dad passed away in '97.

So right after we got all of the corn in, he was told the corn got planted and he passed away the next morning, he wanted to make sure.

- So that had to be a tough stretch for the farm, losing the patriarch.

And then with the losing all the money with the livestock too.

- It was, I think I get my stubbornness and my resilience from my dad and that aspect-- - Are you stubborn?

- I might be just a little.

(laughs) - Okay.

If I asked someone that knew you really well, would they say more than a little?

- Yeah.

Ask my family.

- I'm guessing.

- So siblings?

- Yes.

I have a brother.

He is nine years older than me.

My mom likes to say she raised two only children.

- Okay.

Just because you're so far?

- We're so far apart that she basically just, there were two different children.

- I've heard that you would be referred to as a surprise child.

- I was not the surprise child.

- A bonus child?

- She likes to say they were waiting for the best, or I like to say that.

- I mean she's lying.

(laughs) - Hey, she says I'm her favorite daughter.

- All moms say that.

I mean, in your case, she might be right.

- She also has a favorite son too, though.

So you know.

- All right.

You grown up, right, you grew up on a farm.

Did you know that you were coming back to the farm?

- No.

- Really?

- No.

So, you talk about the history and how it had to have been a hard time.

And for me, I didn't want anything to do with the farm.

My dad was never around as I was, I shouldn't say never, but he wasn't around, going to basketball games and things like that up until the time he was working for John Deere.

And I really blamed the farm for taking that from me.

I watched all my friends have their dads at their games and things like that while the farm had my dad.

So through that, I didn't want anything to do with it.

I went off to college, went to university of Illinois, went-- - You did?

- Yes.

- Wow.

What did you study?

- I am an alumni.

Finance, in the college of business.

- Okay.

What do they say ILI?

- ILL. - Whatever.

- You're supposed to say INI after that.

- How about I say I went to (indistinct) - Eh, I'm sorry.

(laughing) Oh, but yeah.

So I wanted nothing to do with it.

I even came back.

- What do you mean came back?

- Like in the fall, I came back to help harvest and things and I still wasn't.

My first job was up in the Chicago suburbs.

- Doing what?

- Commercial real estate credit analyst.

- That sounds horrible.

- I lasted nine months if it tells you anything.

(laughing) - So right now, you're working for Compeer which is a financial-- - Yes.

- I don't know, farm AG Lender, I guess that's what you call it.

- Yeah.

So I work for Compeer Financial, which is the Western Illinois farm credit services.

- Gotcha.

And how long have you been doing that?

- I have been there three years already.

- And that's a good job.

- Yes.

I love my job.

- Do you really?

- I love it.

- If they weren't watching, would you still say that?

- I would say that.

I mean, I live and breathe it.

- Why are you winking at me when you say that?

- I'm I winking?

I didn't know I was winking.

(laughing) - But you are farming too.

- Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

- I think a lot of people don't understand about farmers is that the majority of 'em, I can literally only think of like a handful of people that I know that only farm.

- Right.

- The majority of them have full-time jobs or side hustles or something like that.

- Yeah.

Most of actually, most of my clients, I would say a good majority of them do have some sort of off farm job.

- What's that like, because you're young and you're female.

And sometimes you're telling people that are 20 years, your senior, 30 years, your senior, that you shouldn't be buying that, or you shouldn't be doing that, that's gotta be tough.

- It can be.

I think out of everything, as you develop, you have to develop a relationship.

You have to develop and earn your clients trust.

And, that's something that has been instilled in me since I was a child, that you have to earn respect and you have to be trusted before somebody is gonna talk to you and things like that.

So, I love it.

Sometimes it has its challenges, but what good thing doesn't?

- Do you know what I do?

'Cause I go with Compeer too, is I will buy something and then I'll call my guy and say-- - Oh, you're that guy.

- Yeah.

And say, "Hey, just to let you know that I bought this and the check's gonna be coming through, so cover it."

And then he yells and he says, "Don't do that again."

- I don't think he yells at you, I think he's pretty soft-spoken but.

(laughing) - Sure sounded like yelling to me.

So you're doing this and you are back.

So who's all on a farm now?

- So the main operators are my dad and I, and then my mom who, she just retired from her off farm job.

And dad retired from Deer about two years ago, so they're both on the farm full-time now.

But so my mom does a lot of the bookkeeping, keeps us all in line, keeps us well fed and healthy.

And then my brother and his wife are also involved.

My brother actually owns Ground With Me.

He also owns it with my father too.

- Okay.

So you're a landowner?

- Mm-mm.

- At what age did you do that?

- Oh man.

27.

- That's young.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- That's a big job.

- It was a very stressful, but amazing, incredible time.

- So it was an 80?

- Yup.

Yup.

- Okay.

- Bought at auction.

Did the bidding.

- Did you really?

- Yes, I did the bidding.

- I (indistinct) oh my goodness, that was a very stressful moment.

Yes.

Yeah.

- I wish I would have bought ground sooner in life.

- I wish I would have too.

- Really?

Even at what you're saying.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Because I'm sure from when you bought it then, it's already gone up.

- Oh yeah.

Especially this year alone, look at what real estate values have done.

- Okay.

I mean, and you're farming that?

- Yes.

- It's gotta feel cool, right?

- Oh, it's incredible.

- Well, you grew up on a farm, the home farm, and then we're farming the, I don't know what Smith place the Jones place, but now this, this is my place.

- Yeah.

You walk on that and you know that's your crop that you're growing and oh, I go starry eyed thinking about it.

I love it.

- It's hard to describe.

- It is.

And those are my favorite deals at work, when I, as a loan officer to work with is the guys who get to make their first purchases.

You get to watch that excitement, I love all of my transactions, but yeah-- - Oh you're a liar.

- I do.

(laughing) - Everybody has that one customer.

And I know somebody popped into your mind.

- Oh man.

- Maybe a couple of people.

(laughing) Yeah.

Oh, well I think it's very cool.

- Thank you.

- Especially because like, when I grew up, I have got five older sisters and it was just always assumed that the boy came back.

That has changed.

- It has.

Yes.

There are a lot more females in agriculture and in farming that are doing the farming themselves.

- I swear that's all I see coming back is females now.

It's like the pendulum is switched.

So I think it's kinda cool.

I look at my daughter and I don't know if she's coming back, but the fact that she can, yeah.

What I like about you is you bought your farm.

Right.

I can tell you she's earned it because you always had the other job.

You wanna tell people where we met?

(laughs) - Well, I like to say you were the troublemaker and I was working-- - I was literally doing, no.

You were working.

- I was, I was working.

- We went to a Surenos.

And I had my hunters with me and one of my hunters I think was paying attention to you.

And then he's like, "Hey, you need to interview, she just bought 80 acres."

I'm like, "No, she's too young."

- That is about how our conversation went down.

Yeah.

And then you actually realized it was true.

- Let's switch gears.

Let's talk about the pink hat.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- So what is that?

- So Pink Hat Farmer is my social media handle that I go off of and I started wearing a pink hat anytime I was on the farm or doing things where I could wear a hat and it's really turned into like I'll be walking in a grocery store and I'll hear, "Hey, pink hat farmer."

- Really?

- Yeah.

So-- - So a farmer having a brand?

Yeah.

That's stupid.

- I mean.

(laughing) - It's funny how things have changed (indistinct).

- It is, it is.

I think my primary thing about Pink Hat Farmer, be it on Instagram, Facebook, even Snapchat, my goal is to bring awareness to women in agriculture, female farmers and to bring awareness to agriculture in general.

I mean, us farmers we're 1% of the population now.

That's 99% of people that we need to explain what we're doing and we're not out there trying to kill anybody or anything.

- Playing devil's advocate, but why?

They should just go to the grocery store and be happy.

- Yeah.

But they wanna know where their food comes from.

- It's an odd concept for us to get.

- It is.

- It's like we know what we grow is safe and it's hard to understand why somebody want it until you talk to 'em.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

Then you realize, all right, I understand why they think that or I understand why they, yeah.

- Yeah.

Because they've been so far removed from the agriculture world they don't understand that if we hurt our own ground or we hurt our animals or livestock, we hurt ourselves.

- Exactly.

- So we're not gonna do that.

- It's common sense to us.

- It is.

But it's trying to help them understand that because it's a different thought process.

- I don't think I can communicate with like the soccer moms, but you can.

- Sometimes.

Yeah.

- Well, I know you can a lot more than I can.

That's why I like to see like the females come up, but still with as many females that are coming back, you're still a minority.

So, I mean, what's that like to go to an auction, go to John Deere, go to a farm bureau meeting and you're the only chick.

- I'm kind of used to it at this point.

- Are you?

- Yeah.

I mean, I'm a female ag loan officer.

At first it kind of bothered me because it would be like, I'd come in to make a seed order or something and they'd immediately talked to my dad on my farm.

And I said, "No, I wanna talk about this variety or this variety."

And then they've slowly begun to realize that, "Oh, she is actually the main operator."

And taking over for my dad, my dad's been incredible with the transition me taking over.

This is what seed we need.

This is-- - That's taboo.

We don't talk about that.

No seriously.

In ag, we do not talk about the transition.

We do not talk about estate planning.

Your family though seems to be fairly open about it.

- We are open and transparent.

We've learned from past experiences and the pain that we have walked through and still walk through is something that we don't want myself and our future generations to come to endure.

And we've learned that if you have a hard discussion first, it's usually easier and less painful than to have the secrets creep up when you're six foot under.

- I like to bury it all deep inside into a ball that will eventually erupt.

I mean, you say it so, I mean, it's good to have that hard conversation, it's so hard to do it though, 'cause feelings are stupid.

- It is.

And everybody's feelings are different.

You can say something that you think isn't gonna hurt somebody and it does.

And it is but I guarantee you, the feelings aren't gonna be as bad if you have that discussion right up front and say, "This is what I want for my legacy.

This is my goal.

And how do I help us achieve that?"

'Cause bottom line is, is this, isn't my legacy I'm creating.

This is six generations back that I'm carrying the torch for my dad's carrying the torch for.

And hopefully our seventh generation will do that too.

And I think that across the board in agriculture is what needs to be said.

That's what we need, open and transparency.

- I want my kids to continue the farm.

I also don't wanna ask 'em to do that 'cause I don't want to put that pressure on 'em 'cause I felt that pressure.

It's not fun.

You guys have had that conversation.

Really?

- Yes.

Never once where we asked to come back to the farm.

I came back to the farm and my parents asked me, "Are you sure?"

And I said, "Yes."

And to this day, we all still talk about it.

- So your mom, your dad, your brother, and you you're all on the same page?

- We're all on the same page.

- Do you know how good that is?

- It's an incredible thing and I wish every single family farm could have it.

- Yeah, I do too.

No, I mean kudos for you guys.

- But like I said, it didn't come out of nothing.

We went through the pain that I feel like every family farm can talk about.

- The awkwardness (indistinct) You are chairman of the, what do you call it, Young Farmers?

- Young Leaders.

- Young Leaders.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

So you're also on the farm Bureau County Board?

- Yes we are.

- Okay.

So how'd you get to be the chair?

- I don't know, maybe by default, but.

- Did you have to break some thumbs?

- No, I didn't.

I really didn't even have to campaign much.

I seem to have a lot of ideas and was nominated on the floor to be chair and I accepted and no one else got nominated, so I'm not, and then I became chair.

- You're on the county board.

I mean, are you the only female?

- No, actually I'm also one of the older ones too.

We have quite a few-- - The what?

- Yeah.

We have a very progressive farm bureau county board.

It's awesome to see we have several women on our board.

We also have several young farmers and we have just very good activity throughout our entire county farm bureau.

- That's come on such a long ways.

I mean, that's great because I mean, it used to be, you had women's committees for everything in ag.

So it's good to see that.

I mean it's-- - Yeah.

We even have, I like to brag a little bit.

So farm bureau had done the professional membership a few years back.

We have the first professional membership from our county.

- I don't know what that is.

- So instead of being a farmer, you can have what's called a professional membership where you still have a vote in farm bureau, but you're not a farmer.

- So like, if-- - Like your agronomist.

If he-- - If you were just a Compeer person.

- Yep.

If you were just in the ag industry, if you worked for the ag industry, I shouldn't say just, but yeah.

So that's a new thing.

Yeah.

- God, change is weird, ain't it?

- But change is good.

What's that cliche, change is the only constant.

(laughs) - Don't be throwing philosophy around here.

- Gotta help you sometimes.

- So 2018 was the first year you did the entire season farming?

- Yes.

2018.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Was that good?

- Yeah.

I'm really glad it wasn't 2019 though.

- Yeah.

Well, that's kind of a good lesson to it.

Is it just how ever changing.

I farmed for over 20 years and no two years have even come close to being the same.

- Yeah.

We've endured.

2018 was a great year for us.

2019 everybody knows we don't talk about 2019.

It's like the curse word year.

2020, my entire family farm was hit by hail.

- Oh, was it?

- Yes.

So I learned that-- - Did you have insurance?

- We did.

We did.

- That helps at least.

- Yes.

Yes.

Thankfully we had some great adjusters out that helped us out, taught us a lot and taught us how they were doing things, why they were looking at it in a different way, what to look for going forward in the crop 'cause let me tell you, hail damage is pretty heartbreaking.

- It is.

Yeah.

I mean, everything you put into that crop, I mean all the planning, because I mean right now, I mean, we just got done with harvest.

I'm already onto next year.

So all that planning, all that work of putting it in, spraying fertilizer and everything.

And to have it wiped out.

- In five minutes.

- Just like that.

I've had it blown down, literally, we just left.

We got in the car and we left for a few days.

We went to Wisconsin.

(laughing) I would not advise that, I would go somewhere more fun.

So are you ready for a lifetime of that?

- I love it.

Yeah.

It's all the blood, sweat and tears.

I mean, you get done.

I mean, think about it, when we're sitting in the combine, it's the greatest feeling in the world, watching all of, we're reaping the benefits of all of our hard work and more.

And seeing that and working through what am I gonna purchase next year?

I feel like there's a little competitiveness in every farmer though, too.

- Oh yeah.

- How can I grow the biggest, best crop?

So it's always like, is that seed variety gonna be the one?

- Unfortunately my neighbors are all better farmers than I am, it stinks.

If people wanna find you on social media, where do they go, where do they find the pink hat?

- On Instagram, I'm @pinkhatfarmer and then Facebook it's just Kate Huffman.

- Okay.

Is it important for a farmer to be on social media?

- I think so.

I really do.

Like I said earlier, we're 1% of the population.

So we need to get our stories out there and giving that story on social media, just educating people, that's the fastest way to get your words across.

I mean, you could share something and it just goes on and on and on.

- Okay.

You ready?

- Yeah.

Okay.

- So this'll probably be six weeks, I'm guessing from today to when this will air, you're gonna have the website up by then?

- Let me call my person, I will try.

- This is where you'll learn I'm okay with awkward silence.

- Okay.

- Till you say yes.

- When is six weeks?

- It'd be about six weeks from now.

- Thank you.

- About 35 days.

No, wait a minute.

36.

- Awkward silence is stressing me.

(laughing) - You should do it.

You should get it up.

It's not that hard.

It's a very cool concept.

And I think a lot of people will gravitate.

I mean, everybody wants a pink hat.

- I mean, maybe we will do it in six weeks.

Yeah.

- It'll be embarrassing if you don't now, 'cause where should people go to find this?

- Pinkhatfarmer.com.

- You do have the name?

- Yes.

(indistinct) - You'll be fine.

Six weeks.

- I already have it.

Yeah.

- Okay.

I think it's very neat.

I've always been impressed with your tenacity.

I've always been impressed how well you have navigated because we had you on a podcast, it was funny to see, not funny, it was cool to see all the people that know you comment on what a great person you are, that must be nice.

- That's humbling.

You don't realize the amount of people you impact.

I'm honored.

Sometimes I don't feel like I deserve it, but I just try to be nice.

- You probably don't.

- I don't think any of us deserve it sometimes.

- No, it says a lot that people are willing to comment and stuff and say stuff like that.

So I've enjoyed getting to know you over the years.

So Kate Huffman, maybe somewhere around Galva, the pink hat farmer, go follow her on all these socials it's very, very cool what you're doing.

Very, very cool that you've been able to purchase ground at such a young age.

So Kate Hoffman, thank you very much, everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

(upbeat music)