(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.

But today we're gonna be talking with Seth and Kimber King.

How are you guys doin'?

- Good.

- Good.

- You crazy kids.

- How are y'all doin'?

- Good.

- You are from, how do you say it?

Leonore?

- Leonore.

- Leonore.

(Seth and Kimber chuckle) Leonore, that's up in LaSalle County, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

I'm from Bureau County, and I gotta say I don't know how we really think of you guys in LaSalle County.

- We're fancier, probably.

- That's what it is.

You know what it is, you have a Red Lobster.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- You can't beat the biscuits.

- Those biscuits are good.

And now you have a Rural King.

That's not fair either.

(sigh) - And a Menards.

I don't know, do you guys have a Menards?

- No, but there's one in Kewanee, so I guess we kinda claim that.

- You guys do have Kewanee, I like Kewanee.

- Nah, Henry County.

- Oh.

- Ugh.

- But yeah, Bureau County.

You know, we should move on from this discussion.

You guys, you're from Leonore.

That is not a very large village, is it?

- No.

- About 123 people.

- One two three people.

- One two three, mm-hmm.

- Do you live in it or outside of it?

- We're just outside across the section, about a mile to the west.

- What is in Leonore?

- Most people know Smitty's, the bar and grill.

- There's an elevator.

- There's a really big elevator for the size of town, yeah.

We call it the Leonore Skyline.

- Ah.

- Yeah, it lights up really nicely at night.

- And for the non-ag people, elevator is where farmers take their grain.

The big tall bins and legs and that.

You guys, you are farming, aren't you?

- We are.

- Yeah.

- We're doing our best.

- You're first generation.

- Yeah.

- Which is, they used to be a myth.

It's like bigfoot and that, and then all of a sudden all these first generation people come out, like yourselves.

It's exciting.

It's hard work.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- [Rob] Let's go back to the beginning.

Now, where did you two meet?

- We met in the Champaign or Bend area.

I was a police officer at the time, and she was working in social work.

- Yeah, I was at a residential treatment center for children.

- It sounds like a movie plot.

You guys were, I dunno, breakin' big case, catching the big villain.

(Seth laughs) - Catching children that were running away.

- Is that what it was?

- Yeah, we were restraining a child.

- So you were like an official, I don't even know the terms.

Like a beat cop.?

- Yeah, a patrol officer.

- Okay.

- Yep.

- [Rob] Did ya like that?

- I did, most days.

I enjoyed it.

It's a great job.

- I always thought it'd be, both your jobs would be hard to do.

Just kinda, there's no thanks in it.

- I think it takes a special person, but yeah, you have to find the positives.

I don't think they're gonna come to you.

You have to find them for yourself.

- [Rob] Gotcha.

- And there is a lotta police support out there, despite what you might hear.

- What?!

- Yeah.

(Kimber laughs) On an intimate person-to-person level, there's a lotta people that do come up and thank ya.

Which is nice.

- I always thought everybody complains about the cops until they need 'em.

And then it's like, why aren't you here yet?

(Rob laughs) - That's right.

- Okay, so you guys met though, but when did you move to Leonore?

- Last year, fall '21.

- [Rob] Okay, and why'd you move up there?

- So my dad had called me up, and he said that there was some ground with a farmhouse up for auction.

And he asked if we wanted to go in on it with him.

And at first we were pretty against it, and we had our lives established, and we had good jobs and everything.

And then we got thinking about it, and the house was bigger, there was more acres.

The barn was bigger and had a shed that we didn't really have.

And so we're like, well, we'll go look at it.

And we ended up putting a bid in, and we got it.

- And we had a few cows at the time too, and we were pretty much maxed out at our old place in Gifford.

So this was gonna give us an opportunity to potentially expand, which is what we wanted.

We wanted to get a few more head of cattle, so we were gonna be able to have a bigger barn, a little bit more pasture ground.

Not that we have a lot now, but expand a little bit, at least.

- You came from a farm family.

- Yeah.

- Did you, Seth?

- I did.

My family's history actually, as far as being in Illinois goes, they started coming in the El Paso area and then moved continuing east on Route 24.

They, throughout the years, kinda moved that way, ended up in Ford County, and then now I'm kinda back west again, kinda where they all started.

- Kinda like a reverse wagon train.

- Yep.

(Rob laughs) - So was this always the goal?

Like, when you guys got together, you got married, was it in the back of your mind that, yeah, we wanna do something farming-wise?

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah, we got our first bull calf before we were married.

I don't even think, we weren't even engaged yet.

- Well she told me she wanted a horse.

And at the time, I lived at our old place in Gifford, on a little three acre farm, had a barn and whatnot.

So having a head or two of livestock wasn't outta the question, but she wanted a horse.

And I was like, I don't really like the idea of starting out with a horse.

I was like, how 'bout a cow?

'Cause I have background with Angus cattle.

I grew up working with- - You can ride a cow.

- You can, yeah.

That's on my bucket list of things to do, eventually.

- Did you ever get the horse?

- No.

- No.

- We have a miniature donkey though.

- We do have a mini donkey.

(Rob chuckles) - And he's the best.

- You know the key to a good marriage is compromise.

(all laugh) So this place comes up.

Now what I assume, right, that your dad was more interested in the tillable part, and then you guys were gonna do the farmstead.

- Yep.

- Right.

So we bought the buildings, the five acres that they're on, the house.

And then, yeah, so he's doin' the tillable acres.

And then we started workin' on putting fence in.

There was no fence there.

They probably hadn't had cattle there in 70 years, so all the fence was ripped out.

I put all new fence in last year.

Still got a little bit to put in.

- Really?

Where do you learn that?

- I just kinda went for it at our old place.

- Was it YouTube?

Is that what he did?

- I was gonna say the internet, yeah.

(Rob laughs) - YouTube, yeah.

Well I grew up working on a Angus farm, though, and my dad had cattle.

So I learned, I would say, the basics there.

And then there's still things now that I'm like, ah, I shoulda done that different, you know, putting fence in and whatnot.

There's always something I can do better, for sure.

- You know, like on our radio show, Emily really tries to get first generation farmers.

'Cause like I said, growing up, that was what we were told.

In college it was like, you cannot start farming on your own.

You just can't do it.

So when we see people like that, she jumps after 'em.

90% of 'em say they learn how to do it off YouTube.

It's an incredible resource that the generation before you didn't have.

- Yeah, I mean I think that's a lot of what makes it easier.

I'm on a lotta Facebook groups for just ag or Highland cattle and things like that.

And yeah, you can learn a lot without having people down the road from you.

- Yeah, without payin' for it.

- Yeah.

- Exactly.

- I coulda hired somebody to come in and put all that fence in.

It woulda cost us probably five times what we spent.

But instead I'm like, let's just do it, and we'll do our best and kinda learn along the way.

Do it on a budget.

- Is there a Leonore Facebook gossip page?

- Yeah.

- They have a history page.

- Same thing.

- Same thing.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- (laugh) Okay, the cattle that you have though, it's kind of unusual.

Tell me about the Highland cattle.

- So we have Highland cattle.

So they are originally from Scotland.

They're hairy, they have long horns.

You might have seen pictures of them at Target or Hobby Lobby.

- Why would they be at Target and Hobby Lobby?

- They're aesthetically very pleasing.

- Oh, pictures of 'em.

- Yeah.

Not the physical animal.

- That'd be really convenient.

- That would be great.

- I've been going to the wrong damn Target, I guess.

(all laugh) - Yeah, every time I go to Target and I see the picture, I'm like.

(sigh) - But when we went from the idea of let's not get a horse to let's get a cow, we were actually originally looking for Jerseys, 'cause she just likes how the babies look.

- Jerseys are cute, they are.

- I'm gettin' a theme here of how you pick your animals.

- Yeah, (chuckle) it's all been a learning process.

But we went and visited a Jersey farm and realized it's a lot more work, 'cause you're obviously milkin' 'em at least twice a day.

So then, because of the craze of Highlands, it's a fad.

I would consider it to be a fad.

For us, it's become a small business now.

But for most people it's just, like she said, aesthetically pleasing.

It's just somethin' cool and attractive.

But at the time, she was like, "Well let's get a hairy one."

Let's get a beef cow, but something like a Highland.

- Something a little bit less what everyone else has, I guess, was part of it.

It's like, well everyone has Herefords and Angus, and I'm like, I want something different.

I want something that everyone else isn't working with right now.

- Okay, I got a question, and I'm just gonna ask it.

So are they pets or are they potential meat?

- All of the above.

- They started out as pets, for sure.

But now we have one in our freezer.

We've got two in the lot that will be in our freezer within the next year.

And a few neighbors' freezers probably.

We're slowly moving into raising registered Highlands.

So now the majority of our stock are registered.

And this next year will be our first year that we're having registered calves that we're producing on the ground.

- So is that for breeding stock or?

- Breeding stock, show stock, mm-hmm.

- Gotcha.

- Yep.

- How do they taste?

- Well, so far we've only had ground beef.

- Is it different though?

- I couldn't tell ya.

- [Rob] Than Walmart.

- I don't think the ground beef is, I couldn't tell you a difference.

So we are not raising Highlands to be special and organic.

We're raising them for beef, and we're gonna feed 'em out on grain just like you would an Angus or any American beef cow.

So our plan is to still produce good quality beef that people around here like, while raising an animal that's heartier, and has better marbling in it, and is a little bit easier to work with, you know, outside of the horns.

(chuckle) - Well they have horns, don't they?

- Yeah.

- Both the boys and the girls?

- Yep.

- Okay.

And the hair, I'm assuming they probably do better in the winter?

- Yeah.

What was it, two nights ago?

- Yeah, it was- - Jasmine was out?

- Mm-hmm.

- It was four degrees, one chill, and yeah, our big girl, she was just layin' out in the wind, just livin' her best life.

- Jasmine.

(Kimber laughs) Crazy, crazy cow.

(all laugh) Do they get too hot in the summer though?

- They can, yeah.

We'll usually make sure they have somewhere to get in in the shade, and then we'll kick fans on too.

Really not any different than a lotta people around here'll do if they raise show stock or whatnot.

But they do pretty good.

Their horns actually help regulate their body temperature.

- Say what?

- Their horns.

You can go up to 'em and hold onto their horns in the wintertime and keep your hands warm.

- Yeah, they're hot.

- This is a family show.

(all laugh) I'm joking.

Kind of.

With the Highlands, it is a very popular breed right now.

Was it when you got into it?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I would say it was definitely getting there, if not already there, yeah.

- [Rob] Is there other people around you that have 'em?

- There's a handful of people in Illinois, but I don't even know the closest person to us.

Maybe an hour.

- I think it would be hard to find probably registered breeders.

- [Rob] Where did you find 'em?

- We bought our first three registered from a family out in Colorado.

They had been showing them, and they decided to get out and switch to a different breed.

And so we bought them.

- [Rob] Did you go out and get 'em, or were they shipped in?

- They actually were already going to Iowa to pick up some cattle, and so it worked out pretty well for us that they just drove a little bit farther and came by and dropped them off and then went on to Iowa.

- If someone had a Highland cattle around us, the whole neighborhood would know it.

And then you'd get all the old farmers drivin' real slow just to check out your fences and make sure you're not screwin' up.

- Well we live a quarter mile off the road.

We have a pretty long lay.

(Seth laughs) - You lucky so and so's.

(all laugh) - But people do.

I mean, I've met people that I don't know, 'cause I don't know a lotta people, I've only lived in the area for a year, where she knows a lot more people 'cause of her family, but they're like, oh, you're the ones with the Highland cattle.

Where I work, I work at a seed and feed store, and guys will come in with cattle, and I'll talk to them about their cattle.

And they're like, oh, you're the one with the hairy cows.

I'm like, yep, yep.

And I don't know what they think.

They probably don't take us very seriously.

- Yeah, I don't think so.

- But that's okay.

I mean, we're gettin' there.

- Well, okay, this is my two cents on it.

A lotta the first generation that come in, yeah, they don't have the big herds, they don't have the big farms.

But what they do is have the bigger margins.

I mean, you're puttin' a lot more work, you're puttin' a lot more thought into the marketing and all that, and you are gonna get the bigger margins off it.

So I don't know the trade off whether, you know, if they can make fun all they want, you're gonna make more money per head than most people are.

- That's the plan.

- Yeah.

- That is the plan.

- Yeah.

(all chuckle) - One thing too that we really try to do is, because that breed is already really docile, we try to be really hands-on.

So when we do sell a calf, you can put your five year old granddaughter on it and give it rides around the farm, which is what one of our first buyers did.

So we try to make that margin even more focused on being able to provide an animal that you can raise as a pet if you want, but you can also eat it next year.

- Yeah, you should run 'em out to like, I dunno, like orchards and that, or Christmas tree farms, where they can, I don't know what they do.

- People do.

- Pretend they're a reindeer.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, and that's what you do see a lot around here, are people that raise 'em for pets, or they cross 'em with, you know, so they've got a pretty coat, or they raise 'em as minis or something like that.

Whereas we're trying to be true to the breed and just raise good quality registered animals.

- I like the renting idea.

In fact, you can put a sign out by the road, says, we don't rent pigs.

Does anybody get that reference?

- You lost me.

- No (sigh).

Okay.

- Don't know.

- It doesn't matter.

(Kimber laughs) - Nobody, you don't get that reference?

Lonesome Dove?

All right, it's fine.

It's fine, we're moving on, we're moving.

(laugh) Okay, let's go back to when you bought the farm.

So, what kinda shape was it in?

- The barn was dirty.

Really dirty.

- I mean, yeah.

- There's a lotta stuff in it.

It was basically their catchall.

It was like, ah, we don't know where to put this, we'll just shove it in here and we'll forget about it.

- [Rob] I couldn't imagine.

- Lotta junk.

- Yeah, it's still got a lotta work.

- I mean, the house, could you move right into it?

- Mm-hmm.

- Oh, that's nice.

- But wall and ceiling wallpaper downstairs.

Floor to ceiling paneling upstairs.

Shag carpet.

The good stuff, you know.

- [Rob] Like the seventies stuff?

- Mm-hmm.

- [Rob] Was it pink?

- No.

- Okay.

- There is some blue in the bathroom, though.

(Rob laughs) The tub shower is blue, so.

- But you guys, you're like into preserving history, correct?

- Mm-hmm.

- In fact, we got a sign here.

This is very cool.

Tell me the story behind this bad boy.

- Okay, so when I first found it, it was in our barn.

Our barn was finished around 1922 by the same family that we bought the farm from, just three or four generations prior.

I was in the oat bin, which they would've filled to feed horses back then.

The plow horses.

The oat bin's right next to the old horse stanchions.

And so inside the oat bin, the wood would not have sealed tight, so they used tin and whatnot, old pieces of lathe, to fill in those cracks so the oats wouldn't go through the cracks.

And so this tin was all cut up, and I noticed it.

- You could see that.

- Yeah, it's all cut up.

And I noticed it, and I started pulling pieces off.

And I'm an International guy.

I love old International.

I collect old International memorabilia.

And it was just, it was like finding gold.

So I spent probably an entire afternoon just pullin' piece by piece off as gently as I could.

- Well, it's something most people wouldn't do.

They don't understand the beauty in that.

- Well, anymore, most people woulda tore the whole barn down, let alone go through it and pull the cool things out, and then try to preserve the barn.

We're gonna be putting a new roof on the barn soon, things like that.

Hopefully the barn's there way longer than I'll be here on this earth, and the next generation can enjoy it.

- You know what it is, I actually made that perfect.

- Oh, don't say it.

- As if it was a John Deere sign.

- I knew it.

I knew it.

(all chuckle) - I'd have to disagree.

If it woulda been a John Deere sign, that woulda been fine.

But I woulda sold it, I woulda got rid of it.

- We've tore down our, we had a crib, right?

But I remember goin' in there, and I've seen where my grandfather and my father have cut up old license plate and did the same thing.

Because they were always leaking, and it was a very quick fix just to patch it up there.

So any farmer's gonna see that and go, oh, that's super cool.

You could probably sell that.

- Oh yeah.

I've posted it on the social medias, and guys are like, like guys that know what they're talking about, like you don't see that sign in any condition.

So I think it's a pretty rare sign.

And it's local.

It was a dealership in 1923 in LaSalle.

So it's something that I'll always keep.

- I like it that you guys appreciate, even though that was not your family's farm, that you appreciate the work and the history that went into where you guys are going to build your legacy now.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- It's important to you.

- It is.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I somewhat feel like it's like we owe something to the family before to make sure that it lives on, I guess, the way that they probably originally intended it to be when they built it.

- The history, what was named after the battle point of Point Pleasant in West Virginia?

Was that Gifford or was that Leonore?

- So when we were in Gifford is where we started with the cattle.

And originally, we were calling our farm Short Femurs Farm.

- Short?

- Femurs.

- Okay.

- Yes.

Well, 'cause we thought about getting into the mini cattle.

So obviously they're short.

We have a mini donkey.

- I'm short, she's short.

- Seth claims he has shorter femurs- - So many jokes.

- So.

- I would be a lot taller if just my femurs were longer.

I got a full man's torso.

(all laugh) - So it's a fun name, but it's not a very serious business name.

I didn't feel like people would necessarily take us very seriously.

It's more of like, I don't know, just... - It's fun.

- It's not as formal.

And so I was like, we need to revamp this.

And if we're really gonna be serious about having a business, we need to come with a different name.

So, what, a mile, half mile east of our house?

- So we also enjoy the history in Gifford where we lived also, and kind of researched that.

So there was a forest preserve just basically across the section from where we lived in Gifford at our farm there.

And the original post office that served the local five families of pioneers that moved to the area, the grove trees where the post office used to be was still there, and there was a marker.

And the marker said that this original area, these five families that moved here were from the area of Point Pleasant, where the Revolutionary War kinda kicked off.

And so they named that area around Gifford Point Pleasant.

And so we just thought that was really cool, and we thought it was a good name.

- And then we moved.

So.

- Then we moved away.

(all laugh) But we took it with this.

- Yeah.

- I think a lotta people watching, and especially the ones that are more seasoned, right, are gonna appreciate that this next generation coming up appreciates and wants to preserve history.

You guys haven't been married that long, correct?

- No.

- No.

- Four years?

- Four years.

- Wow.

That's still newly wood.

I think it's six years, you can say you're no longer a newlywed.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Lookin' forward to that.

- Yeah.

(giggle) - So they say the thing is, if you're married, you should never sort cattle together.

Is that true?

- Yes.

(laugh) Last night was pretty decent.

We did pretty good.

Last night we put three through the shoot, gave some shots and stuff.

We're gettin' better at it.

But yeah, I usually get upset.

And I would say you probably do too.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

(laugh) - Well, and honestly, whoever, sorting animals is probably the most frustrating thing that anybody could probably do.

- But there's a lot of, I like to call it like reviewing tape afterwards.

It's like, okay, so these are the things.

Like, where did we go wrong?

And how do we make sure that when we do it the next time, I'm not upset with you?

Because you're gonna do it the way that I thought we should have done it in the first place.

(chuckle) - Do you use adult words?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

(Rob laughs) Not super often, but yeah.

It happens.

- Yeah.

- Are you guys on social media?

- Yeah.

- So where can people find ya?

- We have Facebook and we have an Instagram, which is Point Pleasant Cattle Company.

And then we also have a website, which is PointPleasantCattleCo.com.

- Okay.

So what's the dream?

What do you guys want to do in the future here?

- I don't know if we have time for all that.

(chuckle) - [Rob] Look, we got two minutes, is what we've got.

- I would say, we just talked about this the other day.

At the end of the day, when we're ready to retire, we would like to have all of her dad's 80 acres in pasture and hay ground.

Her dad's probably gonna see this and be like, wait, what?

(laugh) - [Rob] Nobody watchin'.

(all laugh) - But we would like to have a lot more pasture ground than we do.

I would love to have 20 head of breeding age cows.

- But I'd be happy with 20.

I don't think we need- - I don't think we'll ever probably get bigger than that.

- Anything crazy, yeah.

- And that's really it.

Fix our farm up and.

- The goal is always him work part-time, farm part-time, and then I'll carry the benefits on my full-time job.

- Are you looking to go back to social work, or are you happy farming?

- It's tricky.

I like both.

I'm okay, I think, with working full-time and then farming as much as I can when I'm home.

But yeah, I like social work.

- Well that's good.

You guys, you're an impressive couple.

I love how you work together.

I really appreciate you coming on.

We had you on the XM show.

I really appreciate you guys coming here, because I think outside of agriculture needs to see that ag also includes people like yourselves, and not always the giant combines and the auger cart.

Real people starting out, starting their own traditions, and becoming successful.

So I think it's a lotta fun to talk to you guys.

So I appreciate it.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(upbeat music)