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

My name is Rob Sharkey.

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

Today we're gonna talk about small farms and starting first-generation farmers.

We have Kasey Neely.

How you doing, Kasey?

- Good.

How are you?

- Good.

You are from Crawford County, but more specifically, Hutsonville.

- Hutsonville, yes.

- Where is that?

- So we are right on the line of Illinois and Indiana.

So it was about a three-hour drive here.

- [Rob] To Peoria, Illinois.

- Mm-hm - Okay.

Is that where you're from originally?

- No, I grew up about 10 minutes south in Robinson, Illinois, but still in Crawford County.

- There's nothing there in Crawford County.

There's like no anything.

- We have a refinery.

We have a Hershey chocolate plant.

- [Rob] Like the chocolate?

- Yep.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- See, you're gonna have to come down, bring Emily and you guys can get a Heath, fresh Heath milkshake at our Heath Museum.

- You... - Date night.

- All of a sudden this interview got a lot more interesting.

- Yeah, see.

- I didn't know you, you have a Heath Museum?

- We have a Heath Museum 'cause originally the Hershey plant was Heath.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Yep.

So the Heath bar is made there along with Paydays.

- Really?

- Mm-hm.

- Can you buy 'em there?

- You can buy 'em at the Heath Museum.

- Can you buy like factory seconds?

- Yep, at the Heath Museum.

(laughs) - It's like Disney World down there, isn't it?

- Yep.

- Okay.

That area though is mainly rural, mainly agriculture.

But you did not grow up on a farm?

- Nope, I'm first generation.

- All right.

How did that happen?

- I've always, I guess, been really interested in the meat and the food that you eat and we don't have a lot of options for grocery shopping and food sources.

And so I kind of decided to do something about it and started my own.

- Okay.

We had you on the radio show and one of the staple questions we have on the radio show is your town have a dollar store, because mine does not.

Bradford, Illinois, still to this day does not have a Dollar Tree, a dollar store.

We have a Casey's store that was built I think in 1801.

- That's what you said.

And you go the opposite way to the bathrooms is what you do to the new ones, you said.

Is that old?

- The old Casey's, you know when you walk in, you turn a right to go to the bathroom.

That's what we have.

Yeah, but do you guys have a dollar what?

- We have a Dollar Tree, a Dollar General in Robinson, in Hutsonville- - You have two?

- Yeah, and in Hutsonville, they just built a brand new Dollar General at the corner of a cornfield.

(laughs) - What's the deal?

Do you pay people off to get that or what?

- I don't know.

I'm not that high up to know.

(laughs) - Okay.

Let's focus.

(laughs) - Yeah.

I don't wanna make you too jealous that I shop at dollar stores.

- It's not fair, but that's okay.

All right, so no farm background.

- No.

- I mean, okay.

You want to get into growing your food, that's great.

But actually doing it is two different things.

I mean, how do you start?

- So I started with just chickens and my uncle actually has always had beef, so we kind of created and started our own little like herd.

So now we breed and have the babies for beef.

And so I kind of started with that and then grew into beef and then I actually added pigs to my farm, so I can do pasture raised pork.

And then I've been really interested, like I said, in not having a lot of options around us.

So I've been trying to do it for the community as well and sell to the community for those that are interested.

- Did you literally just go down to See 'n Say and the next animal you got to?

- No, but that was one of my son's favorite toys.

(both laughing) That thing, you never know what you'll get.

You might get a monkey or something.

(laughs) - Well, chickens are always the gateway drug, right?

- Yes.

Yeah, 'cause we talked on the radio about chicken math, like that's how it starts, is chickens.

- Okay.

Did you live on a place where you were allowed to have animals?

Did you live in town?

- So, we lived just outside of town.

It technically was in the country, but I just grew up with like cats and dogs.

- Okay.

- Like no one around me, even to this day, like where my parents, they still live there, they don't have farm animals.

- Okay.

You're married.

Did your husband, is he on board with all this?

- He helps some, but it's mainly all me.

- [Rob] Okay, that's not the question that I asked.

(both laughing) - He goes along with it anyway.

(laughs) - Does he have a choice?

- Probably not, but again, when I'm doing most of it, I don't really give him the choice.

But no, he does a lot.

He helps a lot with like the big projects.

Like he built my big pasture coop.

It's pretty big.

I couldn't even tell you the dimensions.

He could.

But he helped build that and he helps feed hay and stuff so that way we have a gate person and a equipment driver and stuff like that, so.

- Okay, so originally when you started farming, was it just to feed yourself or was it as a business?

- To feed ourselves, and then I got more passionate about it and people started kind of coming to me about possibly, you know, them buying some off of me.

So I decided to start up an actual business.

I'm actually registered in the state of Illinois.

- So what does that mean, registered?

- So like if I'm actually a registered business under the state of Illinois, so I pay the taxes.

I'm actually like a business.

I have like a little piece of paper that says I'm that.

- [Rob] So you have to do that as just like selling eggs?

- Technically not, but if you want to be able to grow, like eventually I would like to offer like meat subscriptions and like boxes, kind of like that one, but like where you can like pick more of what you want and I would like to have like a little farm store where people can come to the farm and be able to buy the meat or during the summer maybe veggies and stuff.

So in order to grow and do stuff like that, and really I guess reach what I would like to, I thought that was the easiest way and kind of wanted to follow the rules.

You know.

- On the radio show I asked if you were a hippie, and I think I made you upset.

- (laughs) No, you didn't.

That wasn't me.

- That wasn't you?

- No, I didn't get upset.

I said if you wanted to call me a hippie you could.

- Oh, are you a hippie?

- Well, last time I said you was up to you to decide.

I do sourdough bread.

I raise my animals.

What was the other thing I said?

I said I used essential oils.

- [Rob] Oh.

- Yep.

- Okay.

- So then you said, "Well, it's decided."

- I mean, we were leaning.

Now, yeah.

- Now we fell.

(both laughing) - I think it's very cool, because a lot of people talk the talk, right?

They want their food raised a certain way and they will try to, you know, change the way that other people raise their food.

You have gone to the other step.

You're like, "I want to eat food that is raised this way."

You're actually doing it.

It takes it to a whole new level.

- Yes, and it is a lot of work.

(laughs) - Yeah.

Starting with the chickens.

So like tell me, if I go and I buy these eggs from you, how are they raised?

- So my eggs, the chickens are free-range pasture-raised, so basically they have free range of the 32 1/2 acres.

They can come in and out as they want, always have access to clean, fresh water and food.

And then the meat chickens I raise on pasture.

They're actually in mobile coops, which is, there's a picture on one of the newsletters, but I actually move 'em.

- Tractors?

- Yes.

- They call 'em tractors.

- They call 'em tractors, but there's no engine.

You have to use a tractor to move our big ones.

So it's kind of funny on that one.

But, yeah, the little ones you can literally just pick up and move.

Now, for me it's not literally just pick up and move.

It's a little tough, but I move them daily, sometimes two to three times a day as they get bigger, so they're on fresh grass and bugs.

- And that keeps from like the more standard way of chicken farming where they're in a pen and you're just feeding them and that.

- Yeah, I don't do that.

- But there's nothing wrong with that.

- No, but... - That's where the hippie is coming out a little bit.

- Yeah, so there's nothing wrong with that, and in order to feed everybody, that's something we have to do.

I can tell a difference in the fresh and the quality of the food, so that's why I choose that.

But I still go to the store and buy meat.

- And that's why I can't argue with you because you do it.

I mean you're walking the walk.

That's what I respect so much about you.

Even though, you know, maybe if I don't agree with you 100% of the time.

- I know, and that's what you said.

You accidentally slipped on the podcast that you prefer store-bought meat.

So that's why I had to bring you some to change your mind.

- I think it was eggs, the store-bought eggs.

- Oh, was it eggs?

Well, I brought that too.

So at least I'm covering my bases.

- I think I'm in the minority though.

I think most people, if you eat a store-bought egg and a egg like yours, I think most people are gonna say they like yours.

- And I actually have a lot of people now, I've gotten quite a few regulars that they can't really do the store-bought now 'cause they can tell a difference.

And I do high-quality feed and stuff, so I really pay attention to what I feed my animals, so I think that comes out in the quality too.

- So tell me the process of, you have an egg.

Your chicken lays an egg.

How does it get here where it's able to be sold?

- So these are actually unwashed, so they don't have to be refrigerated, so that's why I did unwashed.

But for my customers, they can choose unwashed or washed.

99% of the time they're washed, so I clean them.

- Okay, I didn't know that.

- So, and you always want the tip down when you store your eggs.

(laughs) I'm gonna boss you on your own show.

- So what happens when you wash 'em that you can't- - There's a bloom on the outside.

It's actually like a clear protective coating that you can't see.

And a lot of times it'll actually change the color even of the egg when you wash the bloom off.

- [Rob] Really?

- Yep.

- But, okay, so if I wanted to bake a cake, right?

I should wash this first?

- Yeah, I would, just because there could be some stuff on the outside.

- Do you just like rinse it or scrub it, or?

- I do both, yep.

And you wanna do warm water and you wanna make sure the water's warmer than what the egg is.

- Okay.

Okay.

Because people watching don't understand ag, not so much.

But so people think if they go, they take this home and they sit on it that they could get a baby chick.

- No, they're not fertile, no.

- Yeah.

So these are non-fertilized eggs.

- Non-fertilized eggs.

- Gotcha.

Tell me about the beef, because that's a big jump to go from a chicken to a cow.

- And I have like seven cows.

So it's seven big steps then, right?

(laughs) - [Rob] Yeah.

- So I have pasture.

I have it fenced in.

I have a little house for them.

So I do the grass-fed beef.

So they free-range in the pastures, and yeah.

- With the chickens?

- No, so those are different.

I'm eventually maybe gonna do that.

I have pasture behind my house, and then to the east of us, we have pasture that's fenced in, so the chickens, the pasture-raised chickens in the coops that I move the tractors, they're in the pasture behind the house that's not fenced in.

And then the free-ranged could go anywhere.

They don't really go in the fence since it's fenced off for the cows.

- This is like what a lot of people would refer to as regenerative ag.

- Yes, I do a lot of that.

I actually have some pictures on my Facebook that I've posted where you can see just in our grass and our pasture, the difference of the grass from where the pastured chickens were.

- This is kind of a throwback to what agriculture used to be.

Very diverse.

Now we've gone more to like a monoculture where if a farmer is raising chickens, he's only raising chickens.

And corn, you know, same.

- And it's kind of as fast as you can kind of to turn over and get him to grow fast.

Mine is kind of opposite, yep.

- Yeah, the hippie way.

- Yeah.

The happy, healthy way.

- Well, let's take a look at your end product here.

So this is the beef?

- Yep.

That's the beef.

I brought you a very lean one.

- Very lean beef.

- Yes.

- You've got the packing peanut.

Are these edible?

- Yep.

That's why they're called peanuts, right?

- Are they really?

- No.

- Oh.

- (laughs) No.

- That was a horrible decision.

- I didn't grow those either.

- I thought it was gonna be funny.

- Bad decision?

- What were we talking about?

All right, tell me about this.

- So that is the grass-fed beef.

So I raised the cows and it takes about 2 1/2 years on pasture, versus about 10 to 12 months for your typical grain-fed cow that you would get at the grocery store.

So I have a lot more time and energy into mine.

So it was grown with love.

(laughs) That's what I always tease people.

Then I take it to a federally inspected facility where it gets processed and packaged.

And that one was actually at a local butcher shop.

But we have several around this to where people can sometimes choose depending on how much they're buying.

- Gotcha.

Grass-fed would you say tastes different?

- A little bit.

It's more lean.

I prefer it, but I don't know if it's because I'm used to it either.

- I think it has a lot to do with it, what you're used to.

Maybe the first time you eat grass-fed, it'll be kind of an odd taste.

- That's What my husband says, but I think he's gotten more used to it now too.

- Okay.

Again, he probably didn't have a choice.

- No, it was what was in the freezer.

(laughs) - And then we got this.

This looks cool.

- Yeah.

That's actually up, I take it to around Arthur, Illinois.

- Okay.

- The chickens.

- Oh, to get butcher.

Now was that, because we talk to a lot of first-generation farmers, homesteaders, the problem always seems to be to get the shackle space to get into a butcher.

Has that been a problem with you?

- Some, especially chickens since there's only one in our large area that even does it.

So a lot of times you have to schedule, you know, a year out to do it.

- Gotcha.

Can you do the thing, like you take the whole thing (growls) you know, like in the cartoons, the whole drumstick?

- I can't do that, no.

I'll let you try it and you film it.

- These are big.

That's bigger than you'd get at Walmart, right?

- Yeah, and those are probably from like average size.

I mean, my chickens, since they're a pasture-raised, they don't get very large.

Like my average whole chicken was around four and a quarter pounds.

- [Rob] Okay.

- So it wasn't huge by any means.

- Okay, this is you being funny.

- Mm-hm, yeah.

I had a shop at the dollar store for you since you can't.

- At the dollar store.

And the one date you put in there.

- Yep, was in September.

There's not an official date yet, but we actually started last year.

Well, I guess this year.

But a farm-to-table dinner where it actually features my meat.

So they serve my beef and my chicken at the farm-to-table dinner.

- Okay, that's gotta be a good feeling, doesn't it?

- Yeah.

It's very exciting and I helped a lot with it.

Like I helped with a lot of the setup and tear down and advertising and stuff.

So, it was a lot of fun.

It was very intimate.

It was kind of in a brick alleyway.

So there's very limited seats.

- [Rob] In a brick alleyway.

- Mm-hm, so you're in an alleyway in town and there's brick on both sides and we decorate it.

You'll have get- - Is there thugs?

It sounds like there'd be thugs or hooligans.

- Oh, you already said we live in the rural area, so, we don't really have that.

(laughs) - Okay.

Alleyways are apparently a nice place, right?

- It's just like a block north of our courthouse.

(both laugh) - So who gets a newsletter?

- So it's people, so these are actually extras.

So it's anybody who purchases from me in that month or people who request them.

I have 'em digital so I can send 'em out digital.

Or if you actually pick 'em up, you can... - [Rob] That's you and a chicken.

- That's me and one of my pastures.

Look how white and pretty it is.

- Yes.

Very, very pretty.

(both laugh) So why would people, okay, if I was wanting to get involved in this, right?

I wanted to get involved with you and get food in a newsletter.

I mean, sell it on me.

Why would I want to do that?

- So mine is just... To me, I could tell, I've actually had blood work done and stuff back whenever I was pregnant.

The doctors could actually see the difference in my blood work based on the meat I was eating.

So that, and just knowing where your food source comes from.

Like I know when I eat my meat, and so do my customers, how it was raised, where it was raised, and what they're getting, what their product actually is.

- And again, that's where you and I kind of, we differ a little bit, right?

Because I'm a big proponent of everything you get in a grocery store is healthy for you.

I would be correct, you would be wrong, but we're just gonna pass over that because we're friends, right?

That's the whole thing though, is what I truly, truly respect about you is, I mean, you're not just talking the talk.

I mean you are here, you are growing your own food, and you're growing it for other people that have the same beliefs as you.

- Yes, right.

Like my farm and my products aren't for everybody, right?

But at the end of the day, chicken is chicken whether you get it from the store or you get it off a local farmer.

And it kind of takes it back to like, like you said, like the old school days where you're staying more local, you're keeping everything local in your own community.

- Yeah.

And if people hear this and they go, "All right, I want to eat what she's producing," they're gonna have to pay more.

- To some extent.

But right now, I try to be very careful with that.

A lot of times my prices aren't that much more than what you would get at the grocery store.

- [Rob] Really?

They should be.

- Should be, but I'm not- - I mean, seriously, because- - I don't get paid for my time basically.

Honestly, I don't.

- Okay, is that just you being nice?

- Well, yes, and because I have a passion for it and I enjoy it and I wanna be able to offer it to the community.

If it's so outrageous, you know, then nobody, it doesn't benefit anybody.

- Yeah.

What do you charge for this?

Half dozen eggs?

- $2.50.

- That's about- - What you would get at the store.

- Actually if you go into like a Kasey's or like a convenience store, I'm sure it'd be more than that.

- Yep, well, you wouldn't know that, right?

'Cause you don't have a dollar store to shop at.

(laughs) - Throwing shade stuff.

(both laughing) - But yeah, so my prices aren't not much different.

And eventually I would like, as I said, to grow to offer like meat packages where you could build a monthly box, or a few, you know, like a quarter box and be able to get it that way.

And eventually it would be neat to be able to ship it to people if that's... - [Rob] Possible.

- Yeah.

I've looked into it.

It's just more of getting to that point and getting to that store point.

I just need to grow and take my time with it and not get too ambitious like I do.

- You've got an off-farm job, right?

- Yes, I have a full-time job.

- Okay.

I mean, is there a goal to not and to do this full-time?

- Of course I would love it.

I would really love it.

But I don't know.

I try not to think that way 'cause I get, I'm a doer so whenever I get into that mindset, I'm trying to be careful and not grow too fast and too big.

So eventually it would be neat, but again, I'm also trying not to focus on that I guess.

And if it happens, it happens.

- Would it require more acreage?

- Yes and no.

Maybe, possibly it could.

But I think if I could ever get to like where I could have my own farm store and people could come and shop, I think that would help a lot.

- I think you'd do well at it because I think you could sell what you're doing.

'Cause it's not just the product, but you're selling the passion, and that's not something you can teach.

That's not something that you can read on a label.

That's immeasurable.

- Yeah, and a lot of my customers, a lot of 'em are regulars and I call 'em the friends of the farm community.

And so we kind of have like our own little, you know, I guess group of friends.

It's almost like a little family.

So it's really fun.

That's been part one of my favorite parts, is getting to meet everybody.

- So tell me about that.

So like, what's this?

- So if you were to, your first order from you, whether it be a half dozen eggs or a half a cow, I would give you a welcome packet.

So there's a welcome slip and then there's a, yep, which is that, a little welcome slip.

And then it just kind of says, "Welcome to the friends of the farm community."

And then there is a trifold brochure that just talks about some of the products, some of like the nutritional parts.

- You don't see the old trifold brochures much anymore.

It's kind of a lost art.

- Old school, right?

Taking it back.

So there's that.

It shows some pictures of the farm and then it just kind of has some of the nutritional benefits of it.

And then that is a products brochure.

So it actually has the products that I offer and sell.

- [Rob] Nice.

- And some pictures of it, some colored pictures of it so you can really see what you're getting.

- You go to a lot of work with this then.

- Yeah, I spend a lot of time.

- I mean, not just the raising of the food, but the- - Yeah, I put a lot of time into it.

- I'll take that back, 'cause I don't want to, you had it all clipped up here and I don't wanna mess that up.

Yes, we're good.

- And you better not mess up your gift from me.

(Rob laughs) See, I welcomed you to the friends of the farm community.

- Oh really?

Well that's nice.

(both laugh) Tell me about the eggs.

Not everybody understands how you get different colors.

- Yeah, I was actually bummed about that, which that's part of, I guess this time of the year, I don't do artificial light on my chickens 'cause it actually kind of stresses 'em out.

They're made to go slower in the winter.

I was really hoping to get some blue and greens and some pinks, but all I had was brown, so.

- You got paint, don't you?

(laughs) - I can't tell my tricks now.

Different breeds lay different colored eggs.

- So like in the summer you'll get more variety?

- Blue.

Yeah, and I actually call it splash of color.

So every dozen or half dozen you buy, I usually try to stick at least one or two colored eggs in your order because it makes me smile when I get 'em, and so I like always think like, "Oh, I'm making 'em smile."

They open it up and they have pretty eggs.

- How are you finding your customers?

- Local.

Just word of mouth.

- Really?

- Mm-hm.

- And are you full?

- I sell out of eggs every week.

- Well, that's awesome.

Because I think a lot of people do sell eggs, and I think they just have their perpetual sign, you know, five bucks a dozen or whatever and they never sell any.

- Yeah, I'm on Facebook and so I think a lot of people find me that way too.

- Gotcha.

All right, well, if people want to find you, where do they go?

- So on Facebook or Instagram, it's at Neely, like my name N-E-E-L-Y Farm Illinois.

All one word, @NeelyFarmIllinois.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And then I think you can Google it.

I set up a Google and I think when you click it, I think it would take you to my Facebook page, since it's public.

- I think you're probably gonna grow.

- I don't know.

- Not just because of what you're raising, because honestly, when you talk about this, you can see that you're passionate about it.

- Yeah, I am.

- I feel bad for your husband.

- (laughs) I know.

He's not super into it, but hey.

Then my little boy loves, he's three, he loves helping on the farm.

- Well, that's invaluable.

- Yeah.

Our regulars, he'll actually get excited when he hears one of the regulars has another order and he'll actually help me pack 'em.

We practice counting and he'll pack him in the container for 'em.

- How old is he?

- Three.

- Oh wow.

(both laugh) - So it's like an all family in kind of thing.

- Well that's very cool.

And I mean, that's honestly, as he grows up, that's stuff that you're never gonna get back, that you're always gonna remember, and it's probably gonna outshadow everything else that you're getting out of this.

So I mean, that in itself is worth doing it.

All right.

We're almost out of time, but in the future, you want to talk.

You've got some hogs now, right?

- Mm-hm, and eventually I would like to get a dairy cow and offer some grass-fed milk, which I've never milked a cow, so we'll see if I stick with it, (laughs) but I'm gonna at least try it.

- Oh, it can't be that hard.

I mean, they've been doing it for years.

- Right?

That's why everybody does it, right?

- And then when you meet people after, like, I don't know, let's say six months, a milk and a cow, you meet someone, you can shake their hand and just- - So see that's what we're gonna have to do.

You'll have to have me back and then you can see if there's a difference.

- [Rob] Well, I got sensitive wrists.

- Well, you're just gonna have to toughen up, I guess.

(both laugh) - Okay, and then what?

You're gonna have 'em all, alpacas and goats.

- This is what you said last time.

Nope, I'm trying not to do that too much of a farm that style.

I'm trying to stick to the true basics, I guess, to be able to offer it.

- [Rob] Okay.

- I'm gonna try not to have too many farm pets.

- Well, we'll see how it goes.

- Yeah, we'll see.

- I think we do need to do a follow-up with you in a year.

- Okay.

We'll see where I'm at.

Maybe I can offer you some more stuff in your meat box.

I think you're gonna come with tie-dye.

- And a headband and... (both laugh) A essential oil diffuser.

We'll go all out.

Now you're giving me ideas.

- Kasey Neely, thank you so much for being on here.

I really, really appreciate it.

You're a lot of fun.

I love your passion for everything that you're doing.

Congratulations.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(intense music)