(upbeat 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 though, today we're gonna be talking with Justin and Ellen Rahn.

How you guys doing?

- [Both] Good.

- You're from Mount Carroll?

- Yes.

- Tell people where that's at.

- So Mount Carroll is 13 miles from the Mississippi River and about 45 minutes south of the Wisconsin line.

- Okay, I'm from Bradford, Illinois.

And growing up, they always said Bradford Illinois was the coldest spot in Illinois.

When I go to look up Mount Carroll, what do I see?

- The record set.

- Apparently, you guys are the coldest spot in... You know how cold you got?

- No.

- Negative 37, I think that was Celsius though, because it's Google.

- Right.

- You know how they do?

- (laughing) Metric.

- Yeah, do you remember that day?

Was it, what, a few years ago.

- I was actually at an NCBA Cattlemen's Convention in New Orleans.

- Somebody was taking care of your cattle?

- Yeah.

- That ain't right, man.

- That's called hired labor.

- Is it?

(laughs) - He doesn't work for us anymore either, so.

- Ellen, were you with him or were you- - I was.

- Okay.

- I might've been on Bourbon Street, but I was there.

- (laughs) That, okay, the whole thing, and I'm not gonna make a big deal about, but this was my childhood, this is all we had, 'cause we don't have a Dollar Store, we don't have anything else, but Bradford was the coldest spot in Illinois.

I don't know, it'd give us something.

There was t-shirts made up.

I'm not even joking.

But now, everybody can Google.

My whole childhood was a lie.

- (laughs) Well, I mean maybe during your childhood it was, but in 2020, we took it over.

- No, you guys have had the record since 1930.

- Oh, okay, I did not know that.

- And you lost it and then got it back.

So there was no, Bradford wasn't mentioned at all.

- It was a lie.

- That's the way it used to be.

You guys are younger, but before Google, I mean you could, hey, I invented the Tic Tac container.

You could do anything, and no one would say anything.

They're like, "Oh, I don't think you did," but I'm not gonna say that, because it's gonna get rude.

Now, you can go in the corner, and you can Google who invented the container that Tic Tac candies go in.

You two seem very uninterested in this.

(Justin laughing) - (laughing) Sorry.

- Maybe with global cooling you'll get it back.

- Okay, you guys farm up there, Mount Carroll.

Did you grow up on a farm?

- I did.

Went to college in Cedar Rapids at Kirkwood Community College and come back to the family farm.

And then 2014, I started farming with her parents and as well as, I got my own ground as well.

- Okay, and so Ellen, obviously, you grew up on a farm.

- I grew up on a farm.

- And what type of farm?

- So we've kind of done it all, I say.

We, at one point, had a dairy, had hogs.

Now we're just beef cattle.

It was an easier route.

- Did you milk?

- I remember the parlor and being there, but I was very young, so.

- That's work.

- Yeah.

- Every morning, that's crazy.

- That was what my dad's family was known for, so my grandparents had actually started a dairy when they moved to Northern Illinois, and so dairy kinda was in their background.

- Where'd you guys meet?

- (laughs) A bar.

- Poopies.

- Huh?

- Poopies, yeah.

- It's a bar in Savannah.

It's a biker bar.

- It's a bar called... - [Both] Poopies.

- You can get the Big Poop there.

- With extra Poop Sauce.

- We should have brought a menu.

- (laughs) Should have.

- I really don't know where to go from here.

(Ellen laughs) What kind of bar is it.

- A biker bar.

- It's a biker bar.

You can get a tattoo there.

You can get... - Can you get bait?

- Probably.

- Yeah.

- I mean, it's along the Mississippi.

- It's along the river.

- [Rob] Are you guys bikers?

- No.

- You just went to meet each other?

- They got good food.

- Okay.

- I was there with some of my friends, and it was, I think all-you-could-eat shrimp night or something.

- Nice.

- And 'cause you know, I like all-you-can-eat meals.

And she was there- - There's shrimp, and it's in Illinois.

- Right.

- It's a long ways from an ocean there.

- (laughs) But she was there.

One of her friends, was it cousin, was playing in the band?

- [Ellen] Brother.

- Brother was playing in the band, and she was, Ellen was actually talking to one of my friends, and they were talking about cattle and this and that, what's going on this summer, and that's when my radar opened up and was like, a female talking about cattle?

- [Rob] It gets a guy going, doesn't it?

- Oh yeah.

- Whew.

- The mating rituals of Mount Carroll, Illinois.

(everyone laughing) So you no longer farm with your family, correct?

- Correct.

- Okay.

So was that just a deal where there wasn't room for you, or you just were moving over, working with her family?

- No, it was a transition of, there was plenty of room at my parents' farm, actually.

I'm the oldest of five children, and my other two brothers still farm with Mom and Dad.

And it was just a, I wouldn't say better opportunity, but farming with family can be difficult, and those that can make it work- - No, no, we don't talk about that.

(Ellen chuckling) I've been there.

I mean I've worked with my dad, and now I'm working with my oldest son, and both times I've never been the problem.

(Justin laughing) - Right, right.

- Never heard that.

- No, not at all.

And, Ellen, so you also have an off-farm job?

- I do, I've got a couple.

- Okay, well name one.

- So one, I am a channel seedsman or dealer.

I sell corn and soybeans to guys throughout our neck of the woods.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And then my other one I work for Birds Eye Foods, and I procure green beans, carrots and sweet potatoes.

- So, okay, just like the Birds Eye, I don't know, I don't buy groceries, but that's the- - So if you eat a steam fresh Birds Eye packet that's got green beans in it, I was in the field at some point.

They do different things like with the carrots.

There's Marie Calendar Chicken Potpies, PF Chang, a whole bunch of different (indistinct) brands- - Are the carrots from up in your area?

- They're from all over the US and Canada.

- So they bring 'em all into- - Yeah.

- Where is the factory?

- Darien, Wisconsin, so just across the Illinois state line.

- Okay, is that far from where you live?

- About two hours.

- You go into work two hours every day?

- No, I've got the great job that I could to go to the fields if I want.

If I need to go to the plant, I can go to the plant.

Or if I'm just gonna work from home, I'm gonna work from home.

- How do you learn about carrots?

- Oh, it's been a survival-of-the-fittest for me.

So I knew nothing about carrots going into this job.

Actually, they're a pretty easy crop to handle.

- Is it really, because I heard the whole carrot thing was underground.

- It is underground, yeah.

- Maybe Bradford could be the carrot capital of the world of Illinois.

- It was a joke, underground.

- Underground, 'cause they grow underground, get it, yeah, anyways.

- Yes, and no more ripping on Bradford.

(Ellen laughing) We take it enough.

(laughs) But not only carrots, you had to learn about the other stuff, green beans.

And I wouldn't even know how to grow any of that stuff.

- So I actually, I had done seed corn production in Wisconsin, and we got engaged, and I was gonna have to come home to Illinois, because for some reason, he didn't wanna move the farm for me.

I don't know why, but- - [Rob] Stubborn.

- Right, yeah, so the company that I was working with, I had the ability to transition over to green bean production.

And so I took that on and that's where I started learning just basically from the ground up.

- And you're wanting to move on from that?

- I am.

- Yeah, why?

- I'm gonna retire.

- You're a little young to retire, aren't you?

- I don't know, vegetables is kind of straining, so.

- That's funny.

- Sorry.

- That's funny.

(Ellen and Justin laughing) I do the jokes here by the way, but that's- - My bad.

- But that's funny.

So in January?

- Oh, I'm hoping it's before that.

I'm hoping not to make it through all of care pack this fall.

- You can quit anytime you want.

- Yeah, I actually, I think I quit in January, but it's fine.

- Okay.

And you're selling the seed corn and beans.

I mean, how's that going?

- Great.

- [Rob] Hey, you have to talk to neighbors that way, right?

- I do, yeah, I gotta see what they're doing.

- Really?

- Yeah.

And then we gotta make sure we get the planter out before them, but.

- Oh, I get that.

So what's that like, just pulling up to some farmer's farm, because most farmers are old, right?

I can say this 'cause I'm a farmer.

We're on the young side of farming, but you're pulling up there as a woman to a guy that's been buying seed from a man for the last 50 years, how's that go?

- I think it actually gets better and better as it goes on.

I think some of the guys see me out there in the fields walking and see that I'm actually there looking out for them, and it transitions into more and more business eventually.

I actually had a farmer one time that I'd worked with for a year that never led me to believe he had any doubts in me.

And after that first year, he flat out told me, he said, "I didn't think this was gonna work 'cause you're a female."

He's like, "But I'm here to tell you I was wrong."

And so I thought that was one, really awesome, that he never led me to believe that the whole time.

But two, it was really awesome and rewarding too that he acknowledged that.

- Yeah, I mean, I'm doubting this interview.

- That wasn't me either.

(Ellen laughs) - He still doubts me, but.

(laughing) - So who's all involved in your farm now?

- So we got two full-time hired hands, and we share workload.

We're over at her parents' place, which is 25, 30 minute commute from our place.

And that's where most of the cattle are located, and her dad's got a full-time hired hand and a part-time guy, so we just all work together.

- [Rob] And what all are you raising?

- We got mother cows.

We finished those calves out and so you could say we're a backgrounder, slash feedlot.

Then we got corn, soybeans, alfalfa, wheat, and then we raise some specialty crops on the side.

We do oats for the cover crop business and rye as well.

- For our non-farming friends that are watching, tell me what a cover crop is.

- It is a crop that I would say is not considered to be a corn, soybeans, your wheat.

It is a crop that is gonna be used to either help with soil erosion, soil health, and then be terminated before the intended crop is to be produced.

- You're not making money off a cover crop.

You're not sell, okay, I shouldn't say that.

You were already giving me the side eye on that.

You aren't looking to harvest a crop off a cover crop.

- Yes and no, 90% no, unless you're a a beef cattle guy where you are harvesting the forage, grazing the forage, chopping, baling, whatever.

But in 99% of the field applications that we do, we're cover cropping in front of corn or soybeans for the practical reasons of soil health, the erosion, you know.

Corn is raised on our crops from May 1st till November 1st, and then that soil sits dormant.

If we can raise a crop and keep building, let them microbes eat on something and and whatnot, then we're trying to do what's right.

- We've used it on our farm for some of our weedier places.

It does help with weed control.

You can come in there and just smoke everything in the spring and then plant right into it.

It's worked well.

We have a white-tailed deer outfitter, so we do food plots, which a lot of the same stuff I'm putting in the food plots, you're probably putting in these cover crops, radishes and turnips.

They get huge and they really go down there, and they break up the soil in a way that tillage probably can't.

- Yeah, it's been difficult to get a lot of weed acres up north this year, when I say up north, compared to here, just because of the price of wheat last fall was around $10.

So a lot of guys thought, well I'm not gonna buy $1,200, $1,500 (indistinct) to put weed out, and wheat was an exceptional crop this year, it did phenomenal.

It was some of the best ever wheat that they had for lack of moisture.

But getting cover crops established in this drought year has just been real tough.

I mean right now, we got radishes the size of a pencil, and they should be the size of a carrot.

- How did you get into it, the whole cover crop thing?

- So, when I started helping her dad out in 2014, some neighbors then were dabbling in the cover crop world.

They bought a pallet of rye from FS or another dealer, and they wanted to use her father's drill as well as a tractor and a laborer to run the drill.

And her dad's got a 15-foot drill and ended up putting in about 400 acres of cover crop that year for his neighbors.

And the next year it was doubled.

And it was at that point in time I realized that my time is more valuable than 15 feet at a time across the field.

- 15-foot drill is what, a John Deere 750?

- 750, yeah.

- Yeah, those things were, in the 80s into the 90s, everybody had 'em.

I've put in a lot of acres with a 15-foot drill, and it makes me want to hurt things, it's horrible.

It's terrible, because I mean literally, you feel like you are not going anywhere, - Right, yeah.

- Are you still doing it with a 15-foot drill?

- Nope, so after that second year, I ended up buying a a 42-foot air seater and- - [Rob] (laughs) That's a little bigger.

I went from 15 to 20 foot.

No, let's just go ahead and go big.

- So that has drastically changed the efficiency.

- [Rob] I bet it has.

- As well as picked up more acres.

- [Rob] Plus your sanity.

- Yeah.

- I don't know, I still don't think we have sanity at the end of fall, but yeah.

- [Rob] Okay, very good point.

- Like last year.

- [Rob] Again, I do the jokes.

- Sorry.

(laughs) - No it's... (laughs) But has it gone well?

I mean, are people adapting to the cover crops?

- Yep, I would say there's more acres actually spun on with fertilizer if we get timely rains.

- [Rob] Honestly, that's what we do, yeah.

- It's cheaper.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- They don't have to see me, but they can still buy rye from me.

- I wasn't gonna mention it, 'cause it kind of puts you outta business.

- Not really.

- I'm trying to calve cows.

Trying to dry corn, ship corn, keep the combine going and seed wheat and rye at the same time, so- - [Rob] Spin away.

- Yeah.

- We also grow the rye though, so technically, it wouldn't completely be cutting us out.

- Oh yeah, okay.

I would've thought maybe you guys were a little north for cover crops.

- Rye and wheat works well, especially for the grass style.

But if you're gonna put radishes in behind soybeans, yeah, we're too north, not gonna lie.

- Why is there a shoe on my desk?

- We were told to bring a conversational piece.

Let's have a conversation.

- Okay, I mean, didn't realize this was the Old Mother Hubbard talk.

(Justin laughs) Is she the one that lived in the shoe, Old Mother Hubbard?

- She was, yeah.

- Yeah, had so many kids.

What size is this?

- 18.

- That's a big, it's a got cow crap on it, that's a big- - Fresh off the feedlot this morning.

- You don't get that on other PBS shows.

I hope they're getting the shot of this, because that kind of hurt to do.

(Ellen and Justin laughing) So I've got 13, and it looks like...

I look like a little person compared to you.

Yeah, how tall are you?

- Six eight.

- Oh, well see, that's not fair.

(Ellen laughs) They'll edit out how I struggled to get my leg up here.

Yeah, boy that's a...

They say a good building needs a good foundation.

- Can walk on water when it's frozen.

- Ellen we got your shoes too, but your- - I'm a little smaller.

- But it's probably got more cow crap on it.

- It probably does.

- What kinda shoe is that?

- On Clouds.

- I don't know what that is.

- They're the best tennis shoes ever.

- Are you joking?

- No, I'm serious.

- Is it like a Fisher Price?

- No, so it's like a Swedish brand, but I used to have plantar fasciitis really bad, and I transitioned to those tennis shoes, and I don't have it anymore.

- I'm glad it made you happy.

I prefer to buy my shoes from a country that takes a stand every once in a while, America.

(everyone laughs) You guys are also involved in leadership.

Ellen, what do you sit on, what board?

- I'm on the Illinois Corn Growers.

I am District 2 chair.

So I represent Jo Daviess, Stevenson, Ogle, Carroll, and Whiteside Counties.

- What does one do on the Corn Board?

- On Corn Growers, so we're like the policy side.

So we have Corn Congress actually down at the Commodity Classic, where we're trying to implement new policies and procedures at a national level that are gonna best represent our farmers.

- You corrected me because there's two, it's confusing, right?

- It is.

- Because there's two separate boards.

- There is, so there's a Grower's Board, which is your policy, marketing, which is your checkoff.

So they're the ones that get to take all your money and do fun research projects.

- And you have to wade through policy.

- I do.

- Do you like that though?

- Actually I've enjoyed it quite a bit.

I've learned a lot of new things from the other side and seeing different angles that I appreciate more.

- Okay, and Justin, you sit on the Illinois Beef Association?

- Yep, I recently just moved to the policy side.

I had served two full terms on the checkoff side for Illinois beef, and now I'm on the policy side.

- Again for our non-farming friends, explain what a checkoff is.

- So a checkoff is, it's governed by our Federal Government, but it's simply, you could say a tax, but most commodities got it.

So wheat's got it, corn, soybeans, pork, dairy, beef.

- [Ellen] Poultry.

- I think poultry's got it, but (indistinct).

- [Rob] A of things, even like propane.

- [Ellen] Correct.

- Sure.

- I mean a lot of, I dunno, commodities have- - Fertilizer's got it, there's tax on that.

And that money that is pulled away is considered a checkoff.

And a checkoff is money that goes to the national organization and then it trickles down to the state organizations.

And that money is only supposed to be used for promotion, for research, for let's say, sustainability, but a lot of it's into promoting our products, whether it's here in America or overseas for export or teaching these, like in beef, we got China, we got Japan, teaching those people that always cooked with chicken or other foods, how to implement beef into their ration or pork into their ration or their ration, I mean their diet.

- It probably doesn't make the chicken farmers happy though, huh?

- Probably not.

- We're all fighting for the same thing.

- (laughs) You're right though with the checkoff.

It can't go into the policy side because- - Correct, it's illegal.

- Well and you might not agree in theory, like if I am forced to pay a checkoff penny, and that goes to a candidate that I vehemently, vehemently?

I really don't agree with, then that wouldn't be right either.

- Correct.

- So yeah.

But we're all promoting the products.

You guys were awarded Illinois Soybean 20 under 40 Award.

What does that mean to you guys?

- We got a really nice hat.

- It is a hat.

(Ellen laughs) No, it is a nice hat, but we'll just say it's a hat.

- It's a hat, yeah.

- Did you just get one hat?

- No, we each got one each.

- We each got a hat.

- Okay, I might have to talk to the soybean folks.

Maybe we could bling up a hat a little bit or something.

And you guys are the cream of the crop, the best of the best.

- You would think that it'd be something a little- - There's your hat.

- Yep.

(everyone laughs) How does one get nominated for this award?

- We got nominated by our peers.

I got nominated by the Illinois Beef Association.

- I was nominated by Illinois Corn.

- So to think that there's other people that like me, that's kind of cool.

(Ellen and Rob laugh) - But you didn't win separately, right?

- We did.

- We did, yeah.

- Oh, you both won?

- Yeah.

- Okay, is there a ranking system?

- If there was, we didn't get to see it, but- - That would be fun to see.

- I would like to think- - Alphabetically, she's in front of me.

(Ellen and Rob laugh) - Well what does it mean, because, yeah, what you guys do, you're working for yourselves, your family, your farm.

What does it mean that actually somebody comes in and recognizes you both, that you are improving agriculture in your part of the world?

- To me it's humbling, just that somebody, I try not to be front and center.

I guess that's why you're on TV, and we're a visitor.

- [Rob] Vanity.

- [Ellen] Right.

- But I try to be a part of association boards, whether it's a church board or, you know, we were on 4H back in the day, and that kind of taught us leadership, and our parents and grandparents taught me, at least, and I'm sure her side as well, that be a spokesman for what you're a part of, whether that's ag or whether that's a different job.

But for me serving on beef and her serving on corn, we feel like that's our way of giving back to our roots, because if we don't speak up, there's gonna be four or five other people that are against us.

And in the animal rights world, we see that day to day.

- Yeah, Ellen, what are your thoughts on that?

- I thought it was pretty rewarding and very humbling too at the same time that somebody's taking recognition towards all the extra hard work we're putting in.

I feel like we're also in our building stages of our lives and our farm where we're probably putting in a lot more extra work at this point so that in the future, we can hopefully enjoy it a little more.

- That's the goal, right?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I remember being your age.

There wasn't much free time.

But hopefully, it all pays off in the end.

- I find it scary, 'cause it just reminds you that 40's coming pretty fast.

(Ellen laughs) - Why don't you shut your mouth.

(Ellen and Justin laughing) - Because 50's coming too.

If people wanted to find you guys on social media or the old internet, where would they go?

- We've got a Facebook page called R&H Seed Solutions.

On Twitter, my handle is SeedCornGirl.

- [Rob] Clever.

- I know.

- How long have you had that?

- A long time actually.

- I was gonna say, yeah, I can't believe that's not gone.

- Yeah, I think I've had it since 2012 if not longer than that.

- [Rob] Okay, you've earned that?

- Yeah.

- Okay, anywhere else?

Are you on social media?

- He's got Twitter too.

- I got Twitter, I'm @GreenT800, but I just scroll through and look at all the things I wanna see.

I'm not very active.

- [Rob] GreenT800.

- I had a GreenT800- - [Ellen] Kenworth.

- Well I still got a green one.

When I wanted to get Twitter, I said I wanted to get like @JustinRahn, and she's like, "No, do something different."

- Yeah, mine's, I got 8430, the best tractor I ever made in my Twitter handle.

A lot of farmers will do that.

Why would you have that?

Well, that's my first combine or whatever.

We're odd people, aren't we?

(Justin agrees) Yeah, (laughs) I wanna thank you guys, because that was a long drive coming down here to Peoria, so I wanna thank you guys for doing that.

Also, I wanna thank you guys for what you're doing for agriculture.

It would be easy just to, well it would be easier to just farm, do your seed selling and that, but also to do the leadership on top of that, that says a lot about you two, not just as a couple, but as individuals.

(upbeat rock music) - [Both] Thank you.

- You're not very good with compliments, are you?

- No.

(laughing) - Have you been in any party leadership?

- You know, that's a...

Boy, I'll be darned if we're not out of time.

(Ellen and Justin laughing) I've got kicked out of more commodity groups than you'll... All right, (indistinct), Justin and Ellen Rahn.

Thank you guys very much.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.