(intense rock music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag", my name is Rob Sharkey.

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

What if you grew up on a farm and you really wanted to come back to that farm, but maybe the economics of that farm aren't allowing you to come back?

Well, this is a show you're definitely gonna wanna see.

Today we're talking with Hannah Gripp from Sheffield, Illinois.

How you doing, Hannah?

- I'm doing great today.

- For the people in Peoria, where is Sheffield?

- It's about an hour and one minute north was my drive this morning.

- Yeah, small.

- It's small, yeah.

I grew up in a small town in Indiana and this one is smaller, so.

- It's got a great bar restaurant.

- Yeah, Red's is there.

Yeah, it's really good there.

And then the Silo, if somebody likes- - [Rob] Oh, Psycho Silo for the bikers.

- If you're a biker, they all like to go there.

- I mean, the crowds that they get on a weekend are insane.

- They actually have a pretty nice food truck too, if you were just driving by and wanna have, like, a lunch or something.

- I've never been there because I don't wanna drive my vehicle into, like, a bunch of bikers 'cause I'll feel- - A little intimidated, huh?

- Yeah, I feel like I don't belong there.

But you don't have to have a bike to go there, right?

- No, I've gone probably two or three times, but I'm also just now becoming a local, so.

- What happens when you move into a small town like that?

Is there a stage where people are kind of hands-off, stay away?

- It can be very intimidating, but I mean there's some other people that have been very open.

Somebody else that you've had on there, one of my friends, she's been very awesome and they're within agriculture.

And the ag community can be friendly once you get involved.

- Yeah, out of all the people you know in Sheffield, who do you like the least?

- Depends on the day, it could be my husband.

(laughs) - That's a pretty good answer.

That's a pretty good answer.

You are from a small town in Indiana.

What town?

- Argos, Indiana.

So it's about 45 minutes south of Notre Dame right off of 30.

- Okay.

- And 31 right there.

- [Rob] Did you go to Notre Dame?

- No, I did not.

- Okay.

Did you go to a school that did not win a national championship this year?

- Unfortunately, yes.

I was a Purdue Boilermaker.

- Yeah, number two is not bad, but it ain't number one is it?

- No.

- Did you think they had it?

- I love my school, I'm proud to be a Boilermaker, but they like to let us down a lot.

(both laugh) So a lot of high hopes, but they always sometimes get our hopes and we let them let them down.

- What'd you study in college?

- Agriculture education with a minor in crop science.

- Okay.

Growing up a farm girl, I mean, is that what you wanted to do was come back at least in ag in some way?

- So if you would've asked when I was, like, 10 years old, all I wanted to do was go back on the family farm.

- Yeah.

- But my dad and grandpa told me I had to go to college.

- Yeah.

- So their philosophy was you don't put all your eggs in one basket, to diversify the farm and stuff like that.

So when I went to college, I was like, what is the most diverse degree you can get in agriculture?

And that was agriculture education.

There's a lot of people that aren't actually in the classroom and they're helping in different ways, but I have an ag ed degree with a minor in crop science and did a couple study abroads to get a better understanding of agriculture in different parts of the world too.

- Yeah, I studied abroad in college too.

- Where'd you go?

- No, I studied a brawd, ended up marrying her.

- Oh (laughs).

- Okay, that's fine.

Alright, before we get to that, let's talk about your farm growing up.

What all were you raising out there?

- So like I said, daddy, grandpa said don't put all your eggs in one basket.

- [Rob] Was that right, by the way?

- What?

- To say you have to go to college?

- At the end of the day there are some avenues, trade schools and different things that people can go to.

A lot of people are pushing towards college, but college, it's more of that networking.

As an ag kid, I would push kids to go to college, even if it was a junior college, just to network and see what's out there.

- It's expensive.

- It is expensive, but I actually am proud to say I graduated debt-free and 10 grand in the bank because I applied to all kinds of different scholarships and that.

So it is possible.

There's a lot of people that just don't sit down.

My dad actually said one night that, hey, nobody else is gonna pay you $1,000 for writing an essay.

- Yeah, yeah, that's true.

- So, sit there, write an essay and be able to get those scholarships, 'cause there's a lot of scholarships out there that people don't even apply for.

- Yeah, okay, I won't interrupt you this time.

So what were you guys raising in Indiana?

- So we had sheep, pigs, goats, dairy, beef growing up.

And then we did field corn, wheat, soybeans, alfalfa, popcorn- - Okay, stop.

- And custom hay.

Like I said, we don't put all our eggs in one basket.

- I guess not.

You actually raised goats for money?

- Boer goats, yeah.

There's 250 of them still over there in Argos, Indiana - Oh my gosh, okay.

Good for- - Grandma was one of the first ones that brought them over back when I was like- - They're an evil animal, aren't they?

- Yeah.

During 4-H, one of them I had, I called him Houdini 'cause I only wanted to show one goat that year.

He could get out of anything.

We literally put him, like, in a square box with a gate on top because he was getting out of everything.

Somehow still got out of that.

- Oh, okay.

Type of animal you get off your farm.

(Hannah laughs) - The ones that get out, yeah.

- All right, you studied abroad.

Tell me everywhere you went.

- So I did a Maymester in Jamaica, so we were- - [Rob] Sorry.

(Hannah laughs) Alright.

You studied in Jamaica?

- Yeah, I lived in Jamaica for 29 days.

- Where at?

- We were in Kingstown.

It's been, like, eight years now, six years now.

We were all over.

We lived right off the Rio Grande and then they coached us.

- Sounds really rough.

- Yeah, there was about 20 of us.

We were within the classrooms in agriculture down there.

- [Rob] Hope you got sunburnt.

(chuckles) - We did get sunburnt.

Something cool down there, by eighth grade, all their kids know how to raise chickens, dress chickens and cook them.

So it's a life skill, they have to do a profile on them.

- Really.

- So it's a cool life skill down there.

But as you're also driving around Jamaica, you got wild chickens everywhere, so it's something that gives them the skill.

If they need to, they're able to- - [Rob] A lot of poverty?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- A lot of poverty there that makes you remember that how lucky we are here in the United States.

- So you went from drinking rum to what, whiskey in Ireland?

- Yeah, we went to Ireland.

Not making fun of agriculture in Ireland, but we went to a pig farm and I had to laugh.

There were three pigs.

(Rob snorts) (Hannah laughs) - It is different over there.

- It is very different on how they do agriculture over there, but we did go to, like, a water buffalo farm that they- - [Rob] In Ireland?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- They milk water buffalo to make mozzarella.

- That sounds like a joke.

- No- - To make mozzarella?

- Yeah, it's like a pure white color.

It's, like, yeah.

- [Rob] Okay.

- And then they had dairy cattle and all kinds of different stuff there.

It was really cool to see how they do agriculture there.

We were there only for a spring break, so for 10 days.

- Yeah, and then you drank wine in Italy.

- So we did food science in Italy.

So we were like in a prosciutto factory.

The vinegarette, the wine places.

I did not drink wine before that, but they either offer you sparkling water or wine, and I'm not a carbonation person so I had to learn to like wine out there.

- Well, there's good wine and then there's swill, basically.

So don't spend your life drinking swill.

Okay, where did you meet your husband?

- I actually met him at school at Purdue.

We were friends all through our time there at Purdue, and then reconnected at a mutual friend's engagement party afterwards and then the rest is history.

We didn't realize how similar we were.

We were friends all through college and then we're, here we are, got married, I don't know, less than a month ago it was.

- [Rob] So you're newlyweds?

- Yes, we're newlyweds.

- Tell me about this.

- So this is actually the item I brought today, so it is a jar of dirt from the wedding.

- [Rob] Can I open it?

- I mean, yeah, I guess if you wanna smell it.

- Well, I didn't know if it was gonna be like- - No, I mean, like it's just soil.

- From where though?

- Some of it is from my family homestead deck in Argos, Indiana where I grew up.

- Silty loam.

- M-hm.

- Yeah.

- And then a half of it's from where Chase grew up on his family farm.

- [Rob] Oh, you mixed it?

- So we mixed it as like a unity ceremony, so we can always remember where we come from and our roots.

- Oh, instead of, like, the candle, you did this.

- And so then when Chase and I get married, when Chase and I build a house here in a couple years, which would be our family farm, we're gonna plant a tree on the family farm using that soil.

- Okay, and are you gonna run around going "I've got a jar of dirt"?

- Oh, just like, yep, Captain Jack.

- Is there a beating heart in there somewhere?

- It's hidden in the middle.

- Okay, we'll let that be.

Okay, when you married your husband, you married the family and your family is the Gripp family.

- Yes.

- Which has ag business, retailer, all sorts of stuff up there.

Tell me about you moving into the role with SweetWater Technologies.

- So Chad wanted to give back to the next generation on giving them the opportunity to- - [Rob] This would be your father-in-law?

- Yes, Chad, my father-in-law, give them the opportunity to take our knowledge with the drone industry that we've established the last two years and help that next generation trying to go back to the family farm.

- Okay, let me interrupt you again.

What do you mean, like, the drone?

Explain that.

- Oh, I guess drone.

So we spray with drones up about an hour north of here.

So we take fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and different stuff like that and put them on with more precision with a drone rather than competitors on like planes and ground rigs and stuff like that.

- I used to think it was, I used to think it was dumb.

I'm like, how does that ever, how are you ever gonna do that?

But the technology has picked up and I mean, if I went out and bought a new sprayer, half a million dollars.

I can buy how many drones for that?

I mean, drones are what?

- You can buy a lot.

- 30, 40?

- They're around 40.

- Okay, so you can buy a lot of drones for the price of a sprayer and now all of a sudden, drones are looking like, you know, maybe they're not so bad.

Yeah.

- Yeah, Chad dived in full speed two years ago and they sprayed 30,000 acres with just eight interns and four drones.

And then this last year with 10 drones and 18 interns, they sprayed 90,000 acres.

So he wants to be able to give that knowledge in how he's been so efficient ability to younger kids that are trying to go back to the farm, because right now, sometimes agriculture isn't the easiest to come back to.

- [Rob] What?

- No, it's not.

(both chuckle) Like myself, my dad and grandpa told me I had to go to college and go work for somebody else for five years before I could come back.

So being able to give those kids that opportunity, 'cause, you know, a lot of kids like video games now and drones are very similar to that.

- They're super cool.

Yeah, and these are big.

- Yeah, they're big.

It's probably as big as where we're sitting right here.

- Yeah, can they pick up a person?

- They can, but legally the FAA would not allow that.

- I don't remember asking about your legal opinion.

Can they pick me up?

- They can pick you up.

(laughs) - That's awesome.

Can they pick the camera guy up?

He likes to do stuff.

We should have brought one in.

Man, missed opportunities.

- They could've picked it up and then they could have been filming from up there down.

- That would've been good from that angle, right?

Like the Instagram chicks, yeah, okay.

So if I was a farm kid, I wanted to go back to the farm, there's not always a place.

- No.

- Just, there's not enough money to go around.

So you're offering a way that they can basically kind of start a business using SweetWater Technology?

- Yeah.

- Explain that.

- We offer everything that they potentially might need except for a water source, some mixing area and actually going out and talking to the farmers for them.

They do everything that they potentially might need on the chemical side, the agronomy side, the drone, making sure they have a new drone every year so they're staying up to date on the latest technologies.

- [Rob] They only last a year?

- So they last around roughly, there's not really a proven number yet.

But around 10,000 acres, you know how your phone battery starts going bad?

- Yeah.

- Well, you're supercharging those every 10 minutes.

So, you know, those batteries go dead so you have to buy new batteries, and then also the efficiency on the drone.

So, like, you would have to buy new batteries if you wanna replace those old ones.

Wear and tear, you know?

- Yeah.

- If someone's taken off on a gravel road or something that's gonna break some propellers, or say maybe a bird runs into them.

- [Rob] Does that happen?

- Yes.

- Really?

Okay.

- Or you have somebody out there that wasn't paying attention, they run into a power line pole or something like that, or a tree, they got so close to that.

So there are some things that you have to be paying attention, so that's why you have a pilot and a spotter.

- So when these things are flying though, they're running off GPS.

So it's not the whole time where the person's on the joystick or whatever.

This field has been programmed and then the drone goes in there and does its thing, but you still have to sit and watch it so it doesn't hit.

- So there's cameras on them.

A lot of people are like, oh, can you take aerial photos and that?

The cameras are there, but they're not high tech cameras.

They're more of you can see where you're flying around if you're gonna hit something that way.

But us at our operation, you can do it automatic takeoff and land, but for us we just do a manual takeoff and a manual land and then we let it fly through the GPS.

- [Rob] How many you crashed?

- I have not crashed any.

- Huh.

- Yet.

(Hannah laughs) Always have to yell yet.

- So I mean, this would be pretty cool for a kid.

I mean obviously there's a lot of kids that dream of coming back to the farm but just can't do it.

Not only that, but you get, you know, a truck, a drone, a generator, and it all looks cool and fancy and that.

I mean, is it hard to pick responsible people?

Because you guys are investing a lot into them.

- It can be hard, I guess you would say.

There's a lot of people outside the agriculture industry that are trying to approach us too.

There's some people that they might not be this year, they might be next year on.

They're still in college and they aren't done until the end of May and be able to get them trained up on that.

Like, we do have a lot of internships, so we also do have 25 kids coming out this summer.

- [Rob] Wow, all from Purdue?

- No, not all from Purdue.

- [Rob] Most from Purdue?

- A lot from Purdue.

(both laugh) It can be difficult, but we like to make sure we're setting them up for success, 'cause that's the last thing we wanna do is give somebody this opportunity that potentially, you know, doesn't have it that they're gonna be successful at it, you know?

- [Rob] Yeah.

Do you help them learn how to sell?

- Yeah.

- 'Cause not everybody knows how to do that.

- We have a sales class.

- Oh, do you really?

- Yeah, we have a sales class.

They have access to all the agronomy stuff we have actually on our website if you went to www.sweetwatertechnologies.com We have a partner portal, so once they're a partner, they have access to all this information to help them, what questions to ask, drone research.

- Really?

Okay.

You guys think of everything.

- Yeah, we have whiteboards in the office that we sit down and just think of all the possibilities.

(both laugh) - Let's talk about your grandfather.

Unfortunately, passed away this past August.

You guys were pretty tight.

- Yeah, grandpa and I were pretty close.

Actually in third grade, we both started doing the show cattle together, so that was some fun things.

Actually we were delivering some of those goats up to Michigan one time and we had just a little bumper trailer on at the time, and we drove by a Hereford show.

So my first show heifer was a Hereford that we put in that little bumper trailer.

- [Rob] Oh really?

Back hauling.

- Yep, and hauled it back.

- Yeah, that can be hard on a farm, losing, well, you know, he was I guess the patriarch at one time or at, who knows.

But yeah, that can be hard on a farm.

- Yeah, it can be difficult on that.

And that's why agriculture, it's the very loyal and family-owned and operated businesses that it can be hard when you lose someone that way.

- Yeah, exactly.

So is it just your dad farming out there now?

- Yeah, my dad's farming now and my cousin, Clay, is helping out on the farm, and grandma's excited for this new year and new adventure.

- It's not too far out there.

- No, it's about three and a half hours.

- Yeah, yeah.

You donate a a lot of time.

I mean, why do you do that?

- My philosophy at the end of the day is somebody donated their time to me, so I always like to donate back.

So now being over here for I think what, 14, 15 months?

Starting to get involved locally and be able to give back to the local community and join some different organizations to be able to- - [Rob] In Sheffield?

- Yep, Sheffield.

- I didn't know there was any.

Is there like an Elks Club?

- No, there might be I guess, I don't know.

(both laugh) But volunteering at like the local FFA and the 4-H, the Farm Bureau and different stuff to be able to be involved within agriculture.

We do a lot of the fundraisers too.

SweetWater Technologies donates a lot stuff for that.

- Yeah.

Is there much difference between where you grew up in Indiana and Sheffield, Illinois?

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah?

- I thought I lived in rural Indiana growing up.

You know, you could get to the grocery store in a nice town to do some shopping, like, 15 minutes away.

- [Rob] Yeah.

You have to go to Kewanee.

- Kewanee, or Princeton, Sterling, or come down here to Peoria.

- I would come down here to Peoria.

(both laugh) Princeton's pretty good, but that Kewanee, that's a rough town.

- Well, Sheffield actually has the Super Royal grocery store.

- I heard that, yeah.

- It made national news.

- You still have the, what was it, the ZBest or whatever?

Oh, must not.

Like, the fancy restaurant.

- No, not that I know of.

- Yeah, they come and go pretty quick anymore, yeah.

I'm surprised, I mean, because you think, you know, especially in the ice states, rural America is rural America, but yeah, I imagine there's a lot of subtle differences.

- We have a lot more trees.

Y'all don't have trees around here.

- [Rob] No, why would we?

- 'Cause back in the, you know, '80s, the farmers took out the fence lines and that.

Make fields bigger.

- That's we do.

I've never met a tree I didn't wanna take out, yeah.

- Yeah, back home there's a lot more trees.

There's some sandier spots back home, but I feel like there's a couple more sand knobs over here.

- Yeah.

You say being involved in ag looks different for everyone.

- Yeah.

- What do you mean by that?

- So I grew up, I guess, on a diverse livestock and grain farm and you know, I've had my show cattle ever since I was probably, you know, 10 years old there.

But going off and studying agriculture, I was a little disassociated with the farm.

You know, I'd come help on weekends and be able to farm that way.

And then studying agriculture, giving back that way.

And then coming now full circle, my husband and I farm and then we're bringing actually the cows over this weekend.

We finally got fence built and pasture built, so.

- [Rob] Did he have a choice in that?

- Yes and no.

- No.

- He likes them.

- He doesn't like them.

He might say he liked them just 'cause you're newly married.

- No, we brought four feeders over this last year and did freezer beef and sold some locally.

It was nice to have locally raised beef that way.

So yeah, he enjoys them.

He wasn't around him his whole life though.

- He enjoys them.

Like I enjoy my wife's horse.

(Hannah chuckles) - Yeah.

- Being involved in Gripps up there, it probably does give you a little more chance to get involved in the community, meet other people.

Definitely meet people in agriculture.

- Yeah, it does.

That was one thing when I was working in the construction industry, 'cause I graduated during Covid from Purdue.

And I told myself I wasn't going to a classroom, so I turned down a couple jobs.

So when I worked in the construction industry, I really enjoyed my job, but I didn't love it.

It wasn't what I was passionate about.

So now being back within agriculture and be able to give back to the next generation and being involved, I really love my job.

- You're from Sheffield, but the Gripps and SweetWater is in, what is it?

You say you're out in Wyanett?

- Yeah, Wyanett, that's our headquarters there.

- Yeah, so basically if anybody goes to Wyanett, it used to be the auction place, right?

That's where you guys are set up now.

- Yeah.

- You built the big, well, you've really built onto the place.

- Yep, the mixing facility and the 32 tank, that's there now.

- [Rob] How many gallons is that?

A lot?

- Yeah.

Off the top of my head I'm going blank.

- Yeah, more than I could afford to fill.

- It's huge.

Chad's also talking, my father-in-law is talking about putting a pretty mural on it so it makes it more than just a big black tank.

- Really?

We got the gals for you.

We've interviewed some girls in a mural- - Oh okay.

- On our other show.

And yeah, they're from out West, but yeah.

They do a fantastic job, so we'll hit you up after the show.

- So then when people are driving through Wyanett, then they'll see the pretty picture.

- Can you paint me in there?

You can paint the whole Gripp family and then I'll be in the corner going like that.

- Yeah, we'll put Shark Farmer.

(Rob laughs) - Are you proud?

I mean, you come into a different community, but you're part of a very well-known family, well-respected family.

Does that make you proud?

- Yeah, the song that's came out late, what was it a year ago?

"Take my name and make it yours", like, I was very proud with growing up- - [Rob] Is this where I act like I know what it is?

- No, it's okay.

- [Rob] Is it a country song?

- Yeah, it is a country song.

But growing up, I was very proud.

I actually asked my dad if I ever had to change my name, but coming into a well-known family and respected within the community, Chase has said take my name and make it yours.

And I've been trying to do that in the last couple months, I guess you'd say, and I'm excited for the future for us.

- What was your maiden name?

- Harrell.

- Hannah Harrell.

(bell dings) See, you can still throw homage to it, right?

- Yeah.

- Was it a big wedding?

- 316 people.

- [Rob] Oh my gosh, why?

Why would you do that to yourself?

- Well, your friends, your family, it adds up real fast.

- Yeah, and especially when they're newer out of college.

I mean, you've got all those friends, even your high school friends, you're still inviting, you're still talking to.

And I suppose you can't get away from that with your generation 'cause you had Facebook.

But when I got married after college, I had spent four years since I saw people from high school, so it was like, yeah, we don't have to invite them.

You had to.

- Yeah, but I'm somebody that people are worth driving for, so even if I lived at Purdue and they lived in a couple hours away or so, I always travel to friends and family.

- Okay.

Well, people don't forget that.

- No.

- Yeah.

Well, let's say I am someone that is interested in flying a drone and going into business.

Where would I go?

Like social media, websites and all that.

- SweetWater Technologies on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

We have all those social medias.

- [Rob] TikTok?

- We do have a TikTok, I forgot about that one.

- [Rob] That's what all the kids are doing these days.

- Yeah.

- It might be banned by the time this comes out, who knows?

- I'm also not very talented on how to make a video.

I try to make a couple videos but- - It didn't work?

- They're not as cool as when everyone else makes them.

- Were you embarrassed?

- No, I just, I don't do any of the dancing ones.

- Maybe that's what you gotta do.

- And then if they wanna find us online, it's www.sweetwatertechnologies.com.

- Yeah, I think it's fantastic.

I couldn't imagine, because I struggled when I first came back to the farm, right, trying to figure out what to do.

But a lot of times you would never go into business by yourself because there's so many unknowns.

- Yeah.

- First of all, when you're young, you don't have the money, you don't have the experience.

But I mean, you've got a ton of ambition, you've got a ton of drive and I think it's almost just like a perfect match for what you guys do, so.

- Yeah, a lot of people are like, oh, they're just trying to get really big real fast, but at the end of the day, 'cause our slogan is we wanna do 1 million acres agronomically sound, not just 1 million acres, one summer.

(both laugh) It is to actually help those family farms.

It's not to, oh, let's try to get as big as possible.

It's to give back to that next generation and help them come back, 'cause there's a lot of people like, oh, they're just keep business small or, you know, all that.

But we're actually trying to give that back to the next generation.

- Hannah Gripp from Sheffield, Illinois.

SweetWater Technology.

Thank you for being on the show.

- Thank you for having me.

- It's been fun to talk to you, been fun to get to know you here the past few months.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(intense rock music)