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

My name is Rob Sharkey, I'm a farmer.

What is the most valuable substance on the face of the Earth?

Some people would say diamonds, you got gold, you got lithium.

I would argue it's bacon.

Today we're talking with hog farmer, Thomas Titus.

How you doing, Thomas?

- I'm pretty good, Rob, how are you?

- Yeah, am I right?

- I mean, I wouldn't disagree with that.

I mean, bacon's literally on almost everything anymore.

- It is wonderful, isn't it?

- It certainly is.

(Rob chuckling) Now, if we could figure out how to make an entire pig into bacon, I mean, now we'd have something.

- Okay, let's, you know, pork chops, they're good.

- Yep.

- Ribs.

I mean, there's a whole lot of everything there.

You are a pig farmer, correct?

- Yep, I'm a pig farmer in Logan County, Illinois.

- Okay, Elkhart?

- Yep, small town of about 300 right outside of Lincoln.

- That's right on the interstate, isn't it?

- Yep, we have an exit, no gas station, but we have a grain elevator.

- You don't even have a Casey's?

- It's unfortunate, we have to drive to Mount Pulaski to go to Casey's.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- I thought it was bigger than that.

- No, I mean, Elkhart's just about 300-ish plus/minus.

- [Rob] Yeah, but you're on the interstate.

- We are right on the interstate.

- You would think somebody would put something there.

I don't know, maybe you could do that.

(Thomas chuckling) Mobile station, you could put hogs in the back.

- I mean, honestly, I always thought a truck wash at that exit would be relatively logical too.

- There you go.

Are you from Elkhart originally?

- I'm originally from Arcola in Douglas County, just south of Champaign.

- Okay, how'd you end up in Elkhart?

- So I ended up in Elkhart, so I mean, trying to give a little bit of background, so my wife, or my parents, Phil and Patricia Titus, I mean, grew up in Douglas County, diversified grain and livestock farm there, really focused on show pigs for the majority of my youth, and so I mean, we went to a number of county fairs throughout the year.

Transitioned from there, went to Lakeland College and judged livestock for a couple years before graduating from the University of Illinois.

- Oh, whoa, you were a livestock judge?

- At one point in my life, yes.

- Okay, because you have to have an ego to do that.

- I don't know if you necessarily, everyone has to have an ego.

- Oh, don't give me that.

If you're gonna be a livestock judge, those guys are the, they've got the biggest egos on the Earth.

- Well, you have to believe that you're right, though.

- Okay.

- You have to have confidence in your decision.

- I don't know, sounds kind of arrogant to me.

(both laughing) All right, anyway, so you were a livestock judge?

- Yep, so then transitioned to the University of Illinois where I judged livestock there as well, (both chuckling) and then started a career with Cargill, and I worked within their pork business units in procurement for about six years.

Finished that portion of my career out within food distribution and project management.

- What does that mean?

Like what were you doing at Cargill?

- So when I worked for Cargill within their pork business, I did a number of different things all on the procurement or side.

So I was working with farmers throughout Illinois, sourcing their pigs to come into two pork harvesting facilities.

- [Rob] Gotcha.

- In Pierce and down in Ottumwa.

Cargill's pork business has since been purchased by JBS in 2012, so I mean, Cargill no longer has a pork business, but- - [Rob] It's hard to keep up with it, isn't it?

- Yeah.

- They're always moving and shaking.

- They're always moving and shaking, but basically I was a hog buyer.

- [Rob] Okay, oh, they got an ego too.

- Some of them do, yes.

- And then you went to U of I, ego.

(Rob laughing) Okay, what'd you do after Cargill?

- So in between starting with Cargill and the end of my tenure there, I was fortunate enough to meet my wife, and so long story short- - [Rob] No, no, no, we want the long story.

- Okay, short story long?

- Yeah.

- Okay?

- Yeah.

- She is very attractive, grew up showing pigs too.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And I mean- - [Rob] Is there something about that?

- I mean, as a young adolescent, I mean, and as a livestock evaluator, you tend to gravitate towards quality type of just quality in general, and always, I mean, knew who she was.

- Okay.

- Have a vague memory, when she was a very, very talented in track in junior high, she had a Conrady on the back of her shirt, always wore red shorts, very vivid memory of this.

- [Rob] Now, when she showed pigs.

- Yeah.

- Was that in the day where they had the bling all over the rear end of the blue jeans?

- That would've been pre that.

- Okay.

- That would've been like the roper era with no pockets on the back.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah, so I mean, a little bit more dated.

- Well, you never forget that time in your life, 'cause like when I met my wife it was in the '90s when the girls had the hair, you know, poofed up.

- Yeah.

- I still think that's the best hairstyle, so you're probably a fan of the roper, the pocketless ropers.

- I mean, they probably aren't my favorite I guess, but I mean, at that point in time, I mean, with young girls as well or teenage girls, hair color becomes something more that's prevalent within their style.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Had nice, bleach blonde hair.

- [Rob] Oh.

- And so always knew who she was, but then as I became more involved with pork producers, I was intern for Illinois Pork Producers in 2006, guess who was on the board?

- I'm guessing you're- - Her dad.

- Oh, okay, would've guessed wrong, but all right.

- And so, got to know her entire family very, very well.

- Were you feeling him out?

Like, okay, how many acres am I gonna marry into and all that stuff?

- Well, some of my questions made a lot more sense in the future.

(both chuckling) - Okay.

- But I mean, they showed pigs and showed lambs as well, very involved in the livestock industry, and my father-in-law was on the board for Illinois Pork for a number of years, and so through my internship, got to know their entire family extremely well.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Except for my wife, Breann.

So I knew her mom, dad, both brothers very, very well.

I mean, they volunteer at the Illinois State Fair at the Pork Patio nearly every single day, so I mean, I knew her entire family extremely well.

- [Rob] Yeah, what's wrong with her, though?

Why wouldn't she talk to you?

- Well, she had a boyfriend at that time, and- - [Rob] Messes everything up.

- It certainly does, but I mean, timing worked out, so I mean, after my year internship, I was volunteering at the Pork Patio, getting ready to wipe down some tables, and lo and behold, guess who was sitting with her mom at one of the tables?

- [Rob] Yeah?

- I walk over there to go talk to her, she gets up and walks away immediately as I was approaching, not after I sat down.

- Sounds really romantic.

- So I had to sit there and I talked with her mother, which I knew very well based upon my internship from the prior year, so had a conversation and waited for Breann to come back, and then the rest is history.

Our first date was at the Bud Tent at the Illinois State Fair.

- [Rob] Yeah, that's romantic too, yeah?

- I mean, I think so, and so- - So the boyfriend was gone?

- The boyfriend was gone at this point.

- Did you have anything to do with that?

- Absolutely not.

- Okay.

- Nope, absolutely not, but everything worked out, and so we got married in 2009, moved out to Wichita, Kansas for about six years like I mentioned, and there was an opportunity to move back to my wife's family farm.

My wife's youngest brother, Ross, passed away in a car accident when he was 18, and so there was somewhat of a gap in the legacy and labor as well.

- [Rob] Mm-hmm.

- And so we had an opportunity for us to move back.

We wanted to get back closer to home, more involved with, have our children more involved with, I mean, a similar type of upbringing that we had.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Versus being 10 hours away in Wichita, Kansas.

So we moved back in 2012, June 4th of 2012, and so worked with my wife's family for the last 10 years.

- [Rob] Is that awkward to work with your father-in-Law?

- No, he and I have a great relationship.

I mean, we have differing of opinions sometimes, but we're able to, cooler heads will prevail.

- Tell me everything that's wrong with your father-in-Law.

- I don't think this would be the platform to do that, Rob.

- It'd be a lot of fun, wouldn't it?

(both laughing) No, it's gotta be tough to come into a family operation, whether you're the husband or the wife, especially under a horrible situation like you did, because I don't know, the whole coming in to help, but whether that's your place or not, did you ever feel awkward about that?

- It was a struggle because coming from more of a corporate type of structure back to a family farm, I mean, I struggled for a number of years just with the hierarchy and how roles everyone played, and I mean, I come from let's have team meetings every Monday or have multiple calls throughout the day to we might have a conversation once a week or once a month that has any type of true impact upon long-term decision making.

- Honestly, as a farmer, that sounds like way too many conversations.

- Yeah, I mean, we're more focused upon the operational side of our business and not as much on the management sometimes.

- Okay, so you're still doing this today.

What's the operation?

- So today we raise corn, soybeans, and hogs, a few beef cattle as well.

My brother-in-law, Brett, he manages the grain side of our operation.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And my father-in-law and I manage the hog side of our operation.

So last spring we decided to liquidate the sow herd, which turned out to be a pretty nice decision because the market crashed.

- Yes, which are the mommy, the mommy pigs are the sows.

- Yep, the mother pigs are the sows.

- So you were breeding.

- Yep.

- You were having baby pigs, but now you get 'em at what weight to start out with?

- We'll get 'em from about 15 to 40-ish pounds.

- [Rob] Okay, and then raise 'em to what?

What do they want 'em now?

- 280-ish.

- [Rob] Really, that big?

- We target 287.

- Okay, all right, they used to be able to, they get above 250, you'd get docked, but I guess genetics are better, or what's the deal?

- Now it's 320, you get docked.

- [Rob] Oh really?

- Yeah.

- That's a big animal - That's a relatively large dock, but yeah, I mean, so I mean, the efficiency side and we're able to raise these animals to larger weights and produce more pork that way, but we have to continue to be mindful of cut size as well.

I mean, we don't want a pork chop the size of a dinner plate.

- [Rob] Some of us do.

- Some, yes, you and I may, but I mean, our average consumer at a restaurant probably doesn't want a 20 ounce or 24 ounce pork chop to have to work through.

- Yeah, so tell me about this thing here.

- So this was actually a gift from my mother.

They were on their 25th wedding anniversary, and it sat on my desk for about 20 years.

This would be two pigs mating.

Picked it up somewhere in Mexico.

- It is anatomically correct from what I can tell.

- It's a great talking piece.

- That's intimate.

- Very.

- I feel like I shouldn't watch.

(both laughing) That's hilarious, I've never seen that before.

I mean, honestly, if I was on vacation, even though I'm out of hogs, I'd probably bring that home.

- Yep.

- Yeah.

Okay, do they have names?

- We've never named them.

I mean, I could possibly talk to my two young daughters, but that's another conversation I don't want to have either.

- Yeah, that opens up a whole- - Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I'm not ready for that.

- The birds and the bees and all that stuff.

You are involved with Ever.Ag, tell me what that is.

- So Ever.Ag is essentially a technology based company.

We have a relatively large influence within the dairy space, also within the grain complexes as well, from a marketing standpoint, crop insurance, and the company as a whole is more technology driven.

And we've been growing relatively aggressively the last, I'd say five years through acquisition.

So the group that I specifically work for, Ever.Ag Livestock, was formerly Partners for Production Agriculture, Kerns and Associates, et cetera, so I mean, if you do read any of the hog commentaries or hog periodicals, I'm sure you've seen Joe's picture in the "National Hog Farmer," and Steve Meyers, our lead economist, one of the great economists of all time, and so I mean, he's one of our highlights there as well.

So essentially what I do within Ever.Ag is I work with pork and beef producers across the Midwest, specifically Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri to help manage their market risk, input costs, work with them on renegotiating contracts with their packers that they work with.

We broker some weaned pigs, market hogs as well, and so it's a relatively diverse group that I work within, but I mean, it's continually growing and it's an exciting opportunity that I've been able to further develop myself.

So kind of leading into that with the liquidation of the sow herd, it kind of freed up a little bit of time for me to pursue some other passions as well, and I mean, benefits, retirement, et cetera, and things like that are- - It's always good.

- Are always very good.

- Okay.

- With young daughters that have been accident prone the last five years, insurance is important.

- [Rob] What accident prone?

- So in a very short amount of time, we spent probably 10 days in the ER.

Would've been two years ago, my youngest fell off a horse.

- [Rob] Oh.

- Broke every bone in her arm, spent three days in the PICU.

Was a good recovery, though.

- Okay.

- But still, it was scary as all get out.

- I imagine.

- And then my oldest daughter got a concussion at school.

- [Rob] Oof.

- And that escalated to we thought everything was fine, and then she passed out at the volleyball game, so we spent more time in the ER, and that was an 18 month recovery process.

- [Rob] Oh my gosh.

- For the concussion.

It was unreal.

- [Rob] Oh, they're nasty.

- And so the insurance side of things has become much more important for us.

- Yeah.

- And so after we liquidated the sow herd, I mean, that provided me some time to pursue some other passions as well, garner some additional sources of income, and I mean, just further develop myself.

I mean, we need to begin to look at different ways every day.

- [Rob] Which is this Ever.Ag you're talking.

- Yeah, yep.

- Actually, when you were saying what you were doing at Ever.Ag, I was looking at the thing, so I didn't hear what you were saying, (Thomas chuckling) but basically, so if there's a hog farmer out there, you're gonna help them how to market their pigs, how to buy their pigs, all that stuff?

- Yep, and manage, I mean, their futures, options, risk as well.

We utilize the livestock risk protection and gross margin, which is subsidized by the USDA RMA quite heavily, so since that subsidy increased in 2020, livestock risk protection or LRP became much more advantageous to use, 'cause it went from like 13 to 20%, up to 35% at those top coverage levels, and so it becomes a more valuable tool to be able to manage a client's risk.

- [Rob] You're smarter than I am.

- I don't know about that.

- [Rob] All that stuff you just said, how does that like come off the tongue?

- I've been very, very involved in advocacy for a number of years, Rob, so I guess, and I mean, you did mention earlier I was a livestock judge.

- I did, didn't I?

- Yeah.

- And you went to U of I.

(Rob chuckling) - Yeah, so I mean, you have to be able to support your beliefs.

- Yeah.

You were the president of the Pork Producers, when was that?

- That would've been two years ago.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And so, I mean, my mother-in-law, or not my mother-in-Law, my mother was actually president of the women's board back in the early '90s.

- [Rob] I didn't even know they had one.

- Yes, yep, they had two separate boards.

- [Rob] That's no more, is it?

- That is no more, so they merged, and I couldn't exactly tell you what year, but I mean, I've always been extremely involved within the pork industry.

It's always been my passion, and so- - 'Cause your president now is one of those females, right?

- Yep, Cheryl Walsh, doing a great job.

- Yeah, okay.

So what did you learn when you were doing that?

- So as president for Illinois Pork Producers Association, I really began to, in just my involvement with the State Trade Association, the value that those associations bring to agriculture and our members throughout the state, being a unified voice, carrying the torch, and being able to have that representation in the legislature and having those relationships with the state representatives, and from a marketing standpoint too in education, and so I mean, utilizing those checkoff dollars to effectively continue to build confidence in the pork that we raise across not only Illinois, which is our primary focus, but across the globe as well.

- You know, my dad used to talk about when he was raising pigs, I guess it's like the late '70s and early '80s, they would have the pork producer meeting, the county one at a high school gym in Wyanet, Illinois, and they would completely fill the gym.

Like 600 people would show up for this thing because there were that many hog farmers.

I think in the county now, probably less than, you know, one hand you could probably count, probably raising more pigs, but when you talk about an industry that has shrunk that much, and then trying to talk about the benefits of it, it's hard, isn't it, when you talk to politicians about how beneficial livestock industry is to the state?

- And as an independent producer, that's why it's even more important to be involved within your state associations, because I mean, those decisions that are made directly impact you.

If you're a contract grower, it's more indirect, the impact maybe if you work with a larger integrator or a larger farm that supplies you pigs from a wean to finish type of scenario.

And so there is quite a bit more impact from an independent standpoint that, I mean, at the end of the day, it's your bread and butter and you gotta protect it.

- Do they listen to you, the politicians, when you go and talk to 'em?

- We have a great relationship with a number of our politicians.

I mean, from a state and national level, but I mean- - [Rob] Do you have to bribe 'em?

- I mean, unfortunately, we don't.

I mean, we have a Bacon Day at the state house, it's coming up May 4th, so I mean, that's one way to.

- That would work for me.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, have you tried it?

- Tried?

- Bribing 'em?

- I have not personally.

I don't know how effective that might be.

I mean, might get away with it.

- I've gotta say it's pretty damn effective.

- Yeah?

(Rob chuckling) - You talk about servant leadership, you kind of touched on it there.

You think it's important even for like a farmer to get involved in leadership, being a servant, all that stuff?

- I certainly do.

As I call myself younger, I'm 40, Rob, so I'm not nearly as young as what I used to be.

- [Rob] As a farmer, you're pretty damn young, yeah.

- I mean, if we look at the statistics from Farm Bureau, I'm still a baby.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But I mean, for the longest period of the time, whenever I'd go into a boardroom and I'd sit down, I was the youngest person in the room.

I'm no longer the youngest person in the room.

I'm kind of getting closer to that middle.

- [Rob] Really, they got some under 40?

- We've got some under 40s in a few instances.

- Nice.

- But the importance of being involved, we're all busy, and I mean, if you have children and young families, the comparison to my youth and their youth, there is none, because they are so much busier than we are, and that's the primary kind of- - Do you think so, or are you just, is that in your head?

- We probably volunteer them for more activities.

- Oh.

- There's more opportunities.

- Oh, gotcha.

- I mean, from a club standpoint, I mean, travel softball, basketball, et cetera, than what we had whenever we were kids.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And so I mean, a lot of the times, I mean, the pushback is, "Well, I don't have enough time."

If you don't have enough time, someone else is gonna be telling your story, and potentially having more impact.

- [Rob] Those vegans.

- Well, I mean, it could be.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Or I mean, it could be about, I mean, estate taxes.

- Oh yeah, that too.

- And so I mean, that impacts the entire ag sector.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so I mean, it's important to be involved with your state associations to help direct where those potential checkoff dollars are going.

If it's in reference to education and marketing on the legislative side, it would be a different portion of, it wouldn't be checkoff dollars, and so it would be utilizing PAC dollars there to work with legislators, and so a little bit different approach there.

Within the pork industry, we've got our National Pork Producers Council, which is essentially our legislative arm, and National Pork Board, which is more so marketing and education.

- Yeah, well, and that's important to separate those two because the checkoffs, every time you sell a pig, a little bit of money goes into this kind of marketing.

I don't know what it is.

It's a checkoff, that's that's what it is, but you have to separate.

That can't go into endorsing a politician.

They're very specific about that.

- Very specific, and so the checkoff side of things is mandatory.

Through National Pork Producers Council, we have the strategic investment program, which is 100% voluntary, and so I mean, the majority of the producers across the United States do participate in that program, but I mean, there's still opportunities to grow that.

And so from a legislative standpoint, I mean, that's how we fund, I mean, the staff that National Pork Producers Council has, and I mean, essentially, I mean, outreach to those legislators.

- Where are they based out of, the national?

DC?

- Both in Des Moines.

- Oh, Des Moines.

- We do have a DC office as well.

- Okay, who grows the most hogs now, is it Iowa?

- Who grows the most hogs, yeah, Iowa's number one.

- [Rob] Used to be Carolina, right?

- Yep, we're number four.

- Are we really?

- Yep.

- I would have guessed- - Don't ask me who's third.

- Okay.

- It's either Illinois or Missouri, but, or Indiana or Missouri.

- Okay.

- But I don't know exactly.

- Well, it makes sense, I mean, the corn belt.

- Yeah, I mean, so I mean, Smithfield liquidated a number of sows last spring, and so that's what really impacted the downturn in the market, and so what you see now is those pigs getting moved from North Carolina to Missouri to funnel into those plants there, so I mean, you're just bringing the pigs closer to where the corn's at.

- It makes sense, yeah.

You mentioned that you're 40, right?

- Yeah.

- Well, you just made it, you were Illinois Soybean 20 Under 40 award.

What's that mean to get acknowledged with that?

- I mean, it was a great honor to be acknowledged like that.

This is the second year of the 20 Under 40 program, and so I mean, I was recognized by Illinois Soy back in 2015 for some advocacy work that I did with US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, and so I mean, this is a great way to, I think, not only expose some of those more progressive minds within the agricultural space, but at the same time invigorate them to what's actually going on within those industries.

So specifically speaking to soybeans, I mean, I was a pork producer, there was a couple beef cattle producers as well, but primarily grain, and so getting the exposure during that awards and recognition banquet to all the things that Illinois Soy might do, and so where they might be able to fit into either stepping on a committee or stepping on a board.

I mean, committees are extremely crucial to every state trade association, so I mean, if you can't make that type of time commitment to be on the board, participating in one of those committees is a very valiant way to be involved.

- Mm-hmm, and as a pork producer, I don't know if a lot of people know, I mean, their number one ingredient is corn, but then it's soybean.

- Correct.

- So pigs do eat an incredible amount of soybeans.

- Yep, so I mean, of the production of a market size pig that's 300 pounds, I mean, 60 to 65% of your total input cost is just in corn and soybean meal.

- Mm-hmm.

Have you been able to find that balance between work and personal life?

(Thomas chuckling) - My wife would probably say for the last 10 years it's been a struggle, but I've been much more aggressive in approaching a greater work-life balance.

- That's not what she says, look at that, needs to spend more time at home.

- Yes, she does say that.

(Rob chuckling) I mean, I'm surprised that was written on there.

- Me too.

- So, I mean, as a farmer, you're consumed by the daily activities, and I mean, I was very, very guilty of well, if I get X done today, I can do Y tomorrow.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But there's always Z.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And so, I mean, my list never got short enough.

I missed quite a few crucial moments throughout my kids' young lives whenever they were between birth to five, six years old.

- But that's a balance.

You're not gonna make every softball game.

- No.

- You're not gonna make everything, but you know, I don't know, as a fellow dad, we just try our damnedest anyway.

- Yeah, and I mean, I'm not gonna lie, Rob, I was grumpy.

- [Rob] Well, you're a livestock judge.

(both laughing) - I mean, working 10 to 14, 16 hours a day every day, seven days a week, I mean, begins to wear on you.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And so I really want to rebuild that relationship with my two young daughters, and so, I mean, kind of the transition that I've had within my career has kind of lended to that quite significantly, and so having a work-life balance, and having something that you have passion about that you don't have to work within every single day, I think is important as well.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So about a year and a half ago, I was looking for something that didn't squeal.

My entire day was consumed with something that squealed in some capacity or another, whether it was a pig or a child or my wife squealing at me because I wasn't here.

- That's funny.

- Wasn't there, or the pigs were hungry, whatever it was.

So I started going to a CrossFit gym.

- Okay.

- And so, I mean, I did something for myself that I never would've guessed, and oddly enough, I would say most farmers across the US have a distinct advantage when stepping into that gym, especially if you're a pig farmer.

If you're picking up pigs, you're pulling pigs, you're moving pigs, a lot of those functional movements, you have a distinct advantage in.

- [Rob] For the CrossFit?

- Yeah, and my height is in a disadvantage for a number of things, but it's a bigger advantage on some others.

- [Rob] How tall are you?

- Six eight.

- [Rob] Yeah, your sister's tall too.

- Yeah, she's like six one.

- Yeah, yeah, we used to party back in the day.

- (chuckles) That does not surprise me one bit.

- Actually, we didn't, yeah, but we did know your sister, fantastic.

Do you have social media?

- I do have social media.

I do not have near the presence that I used to, so whenever I was, it'd be about 10 years ago, I was recognized as the Face of Farming and Ranching for the US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance that was supported by basically every trade association within the ag barnyard in some capacity or another, whether it's National Pork board, National Corn Growers, soybean, whatever it might be, it was supported, and so we were essentially spokespersons for the ag industry, so we would attend a number of different events throughout the two year tenure that we had, and so myself and five others were recognized as Faces of Farming and Ranching.

- [Rob] Oh, very cool.

- Erin Brenneman, have you talked with her before?

- Nope.

- She was one of the additional Faces of Farming and Ranching and so has a very active social media platform.

- Okay.

- But to continue to build on that conversation, I was very, very active on social media for about five years and then just decided to delete it all.

- That's the best thing to do.

All right, speaking of deleting, we've gotta go.

Thomas Titus from Elkhart, Illinois.

Really appreciate you coming on the show.

Really appreciate everything you do for agriculture.

- Thanks, Rob.

- Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(upbeat music)