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

I'm your host Rob Sharkey.

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

Agriculture, it's an industry predominantly dominated by men, but that is changing.

We're gonna talk to one of the pioneers of that change.

Today we're gonna talk with Brandy Renshaw.

How you doing, Brandy?

- I'm good.

How are you?

- Yeah, you're a farmer.

- I am, I am.

- Among a lot of other things.

- Yes.

- Yes.

- I like the pioneer part.

That's, pretty cool, yeah.

- Well, you know, the pioneers took a lot of the arrows, so I don't know if it's a good thing or not.

You're from Olive Branch, Illinois.

Where is that?

- So Olive Branch is not as far south as you can get in Illinois, but it's pretty far.

It's pretty close.

So Cairo is the very southern tip of Illinois, and Olive Branch is about 15 miles north of that.

So we are, it took us five hours.

- Five hours to drive to- - Get to Peoria, yes.

- Okay, well, we really appreciate you coming.

- Yeah.

- I interviewed you a couple different things, podcasts and the XM show.

Your story and your life fascinates me, so we basically begged you to come up here.

So I appreciate that 'cause that is definitely a drive.

- We enjoyed it.

It's beautiful.

It's unbelievable the way how different the farms are here, especially compared to where we are.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Down by the river.

- Yeah.

- You grew up on a farm.

- I grew up on a farm, yes.

- Did you know that you always wanted to come back to a farm?

- I can't say that I...

It wasn't ever just in me, like, I guess like most boys that are always, you know, on a tractor, and, you know, like they knew from day one.

For me, it was my dad.

You know, that was my dad.

That was where my dad was, and he is what my world revolved around.

So that's kind of where my love for farming started.

And you know, I don't even remember not knowing how to drive a tractor.

It's just, like, it was just second nature, almost like swimming.

You know, I had swimming lessons very early.

I don't remember not knowing how to swim.

That's kind of the same thing.

I don't really remember not knowing how.

I do remember the very first time that I got in trouble.

I was on the 4020, and I was just driving- - The best tractor ever made.

- Always, yes.

And I was probably, I don't know, eight, nine years old.

- [Rob] On a 4020.

- Yeah, my dad had got a spin ditch, and I had figured out that I could hit that and pop a wheelie, you know?

- Okay, I don't mean to interrupt you, but you just confused a lot of Central Illinois people.

- Okay, that's right.

- Yes.

- We did, we discussed that.

- Explain what a spin ditch is.

- A spin ditch, yes.

So you all tile because you have this beautiful, flat- - It's a rough life.

- Perfect ground up here.

- Yes.

(both laugh) - We are in hills, and we have a lot of sandy ground.

We have a lot of gumbo.

We have a lot of mixed ground.

But the way that our ground lays, we can't tile it.

So, when we have like mud holes or whatever, places that are holding water, we'll run a spin ditch.

So we'll cut a ditch across the field, and we'll run it to a ditch else, you know, that will get that water off of the field.

- [Rob] Surface drain.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yes, exactly.

So some of them can be very deep, you know?

- And you're eight years old in a 4020.

- Yeah, and I found that spin ditch, and I could hit it, you know, and could- - Oh, you're doing it on purpose.

- Oh, I was doing it on purpose.

Yeah, I was doing it on purpose.

I was popping a wheelie on a tractor.

- My dad gene just went, "Don't do that."

- Oh, my dad's did.

My dad's gene absolutely did.

He came around the barn, and man, I was just so proud.

I was so happy that I had figured this out because popping a wheelie was like the ultimate thing, you know, on anything, on a bicycle or four-wheeler, whatever we had.

- This story is starting to hurt my heart.

- Yeah, so that was...

I was in a lot of trouble over that.

I had to get off immediately.

"You're gonna knock the front end out of that."

- He's right.

- My heart was just broken, but, yeah.

- Are are you good at running equipment?

- I am.

- Some people are kind of naturally better than others.

- I am, and I guess I am one of those.

My dad has always said I was the best help that he ever had, but all I knew was- - [Rob] Were you the only help?

- I wasn't the only help.

I can't say that that was the best compliment, him saying that I was the best.

- You're the best out of the three.

- Out of those others.

(laughs) So, yeah, I think to me, it just came natural.

I mean, I just, I loved driving anything.

It was just, I enjoyed it.

I took to it so naturally, you know, and I wanted to, you know?

He had me on every piece of equipment that we owned at a young age.

Like I said, you know, we had semis.

We had our own semis.

Both of my uncles are truck drivers, so that was kind of a second-nature type thing too.

I remember I would stand at the end of our driveway and flag my uncle down if I knew that he was coming down the road so I could ride in his truck with him.

I was just, I just loved 'em.

- [Rob] Really?

- And yeah, he had a Kenworth, and I was so small, he would sit me in his lap, and he was a big man.

He would sit me in his lap and shift the gears with me.

- [Rob] He wouldn't let you shift?

- Yes, well, he had my hand under his.

- Oh, I gotcha.

I gotcha, okay.

- And we would shift.

And so really, he's the one that taught me, and we actually lost him this year.

And so, that's in me too, you know, the trucker part.

- You do that on social media.

I see you driving a truck.

Are you legal?

- Oh, I am now, yeah.

I've been legal since I was 21.

Now, in what sense, you know?

- Yeah, I know.

(Brandy laughs) Oh, agriculture.

- Now that depends on if it's DOT legal or... (laughs) - I would say as early as only like the past five years, seeing women in agriculture, it's not uncommon now.

It's fairly common.

- Right.

- But when you were in agriculture, probably not so much.

- Not at all.

I was actually the only female that I... And really still in our area, it's really not common.

Like, women in ag, what is considered women in ag in our area is more on the business side, you know, like working in the office, like some of the agriculture offices or things like that.

But as far as hands-on farming, I honestly, in my radius, I really, I don't know of any women that farm like I do.

- Really?

Okay.

- Yeah.

Now, on social media, that's a big thing though.

You know, I see it everywhere.

- [Rob] They're coming out of the woodwork.

- Oh my gosh, and it's incredible.

It's so incredible, and I was like, "Wow, there are others," you know?

(laughs) I never knew.

But even at the grain elevator, you know, gosh, I was the only one for years.

Occasionally maybe one or two women would come through driving a semi, but even that wasn't very often.

- Did you take any crap for being a woman?

- Yes, I did.

There's gonna be that in anything.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But, you know, there were a lot of men that didn't feel like women needed to be in that.

I had a lot of people that were very proud to see me in that role, a lot of men that were like my dad, very humble and kind.

And then there's a lot of jealousy.

When I bought my first farm- - [Rob] Oh, that'll do it.

- Oh my gosh.

(Rob laughs) That's when a lot of it came out that I didn't even realize, some of the people, some of the comments, yeah.

- It was fine when you were doing your little thing- - When I was just, yeah.

- And you were down here, but, oh, all of a sudden, "That's the farm I could have bought."

- Right, exactly, and it had been for sale for years, you know, but when I bought it, then that was a big thing.

Again, that's not everyone, but it was definitely there.

It was definitely there running equipment when I could run equipment better than grown men.

And, you know, there were little comments at the bars and- - Eh.

- Things like that.

- [Rob] You're always gonna have that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- You not just farm as a woman.

You farm in a different area.

You were kind of poking fun at us up here in the black line, and rightfully so.

I mean, I haven't even planted this year, and my corn's already looking fantastic.

- Yeah.

- You know, and this is what you're dealing with, right?

- That's what we're dealing with.

- And that is just sand?

- So that's kind of in this, and you can't see it as well.

It kind of got shook up, but this is some potting soil I put at the bottom of like the real dark, nice, beautiful soil that we had.

And then the river sand we have anywhere from a couple feet to 10 feet or more even, over our best ground.

And that was in 2016 when the levee broke, which we had had many levee breaks throughout the years.

But that one has stayed exposed, and it's the biggest levee break that we've ever had.

That's a half a mile long.

And the Corps will not repair it.

You know, I don't know the cost to do things like that, and I'm not trying to cry about it or anything, but it was devastating.

- I would.

I would be so ticked off.

- It is.

- If I owned a farm next to a levee that the Army Corps is responsible for, and that blew out, and now my farm is junk, and they won't fix it, I would be, I'd be furious.

- I think we've all already been, and we still are.

You know, and what really, I think, to me, what bothers me the most is it has been eight years, and we've still had to farm that.

So in all these eight years, they've promised a buyout, which is great, you know, good.

Come in with a buyout.

You know, buy it out or help or do something.

If you're not going to put our levee back and let us restore our ground, do something.

So that promise of a buyout came through, and it's been eight years.

So that's what upsets me the most, is that, that my dad has had to deal with not having a crop.

So our taxes have raised.

Our insurance is raised.

You know, and we have no crop.

We have no crop at all, ever.

- [Rob] How can they raise the taxes on it?

- You would not believe our taxes down here.

But, you know, driving up here, I'm like, "Oh, okay, this is why they think all of Illinois is this way," you know?

- Yeah, I get it.

- And it's true, it's awful.

Taxes are awful down there, but we...

I don't know, we have a lot of people to support down there, I guess.

(both laughs) - Yes, and we... You talk about, you know, your dad.

I love you talking about your dad because I love when family gets along.

And you said, you know, your world revolved around him and that I interviewed you on a podcast, and you were very open about your mom.

And you get feedback from podcasts.

I was, and my wife, were both stunned at the amount of comments we were getting back from people that could relate to your story.

- Really?

- And we talk about paranoid schizophrenia- - Yeah.

- Which honestly, in my uneducated mind, I thought was really, really rare.

My gosh.

- Yeah.

- The people in agriculture came out of the woodwork- - Really?

- And said that they had or they knew what you were coming from.

- Oh, wow.

- Can you tell us about that?

- Yeah, and that, you know, that makes me so happy.

I'm so glad you shared that with me because it was so hard.

For so many years, I wanted to tell my mother's story, but it's hard because, you know, in a way, you feel like it's not honoring her.

- No, yeah, I get it.

- You know, because she was so embarrassed, and it is an embarrassing thing, and it was a hard thing.

But on the other side, that's what I hope.

I want her to be understood.

- Yeah.

- You know, now I'm to the point, like, I want all these people to know the truth about my mom and how hard it was for her life, you know, what a hard life that was for her to live.

- Now, when she was struggling, did you all know it was paranoid schizophrenia?

- We did not get that diagnosis until, I think I was probably 15.

- Okay.

- So, the first time I remember her being in a mental institute, I was in first grade.

And that's the first time I remember going to visit her.

And you know, it's kind of like a Jekyll and Hyde that you deal with because it was like, I had my mom that was a wonderful, wonderful mom.

She was nurturing.

She was everything a mother is.

And then she would have these episodes, and she would kind of turn into this other person.

And it was a little scary because, especially as a child, because you don't understand.

The biggest thing was that she, with her being a paranoid schizophrenic, she didn't express all of these feelings to everyone.

It was my sister and I. we were her safe people, you know?

So we knew what she was saying and thinking, but we were too young to know that that was wrong or, you know.

- [Rob] She thought everybody else was against her?

- She thought.

I remember going to the grocery store and her thinking we would be followed or us being in a room, and she'd be like, "Sh, they might be listening."

And of course today, you know, that's probably true, you know what I mean?

(laughs) Like, the phones or whatever.

But, you know, then it was just kind of like, so, you know, kind of embedded in me.

I always kind of had this little weird feeling, not because I have it, but just because that's kind of a thing that you don't know is instilled in you as a child, you know, when you have a parent telling you that, like you're always being... She always thought she was being watched, you know?

- You had a parent that went into a mental institution.

Were you embarrassed as a kid?

- I was confused when I was little.

I didn't know what that meant.

I knew that my mom was sick.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- And then as I was older, I don't know how many people knew that she was ever institutionalized.

- [Rob] Okay.

- But there were people that knew.

You know, we're in a small town, and there's talk, and of course her friends knew what was going on and then...

So yeah, everyone knew that something was wrong.

And then she got to the point after she and my dad divorced, she got to the point that she would do things in public.

You know, like, I mean, I came to her house one time, and she had written all over her car in magic marker, just things like that.

Or she would be seen walking up and down the road or, you know, just things like that when you're older, and you get a phone call, "Hey, I just saw your mom over in Cape."

And you would think, "Okay, well let's just go get her help," right?

That's the hardest part about mental illness, is, one, they're usually very intelligent.

My mom, she was so smart, and they think that everyone is against them.

There's only certain people that they trust.

So when we did, when we would try to get her help, the only way that we could get her help, if it wasn't voluntary, is if she was a harm to herself or others.

So at the point that she was walking up and down the road, we could kind of cross that line, like, she's a harm to herself.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So then she would have to be arrested.

Well, then she would just sit there and tell 'em, "Well, I..." You know, you can't get into the mind of someone that doesn't want you in there.

- I think it's really brave of you to be able to talk about it because if your mom had cancer- - Right.

- Again, it's the same concept.

You can't help it.

- Right, right.

- It's a disease either way.

- Right.

- But there is such a stigma around the mental illness, and the only way that stigma's gonna be broke is by people like you yourself that are gonna share those stories.

- I agree.

I agree, and I agree that there's so much out there.

You know, it's not... Like you said, it's not as rare as- - Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe it.

- Yeah, yeah.

So just mental illness alone.

And I think all of it, it goes hand in hand with drugs and alcohol, and, you know, people try to self-medicate.

So, you know, what do you do?

And I think getting them help is the biggest issue.

That's the biggest issue.

- I would love to talk more about this, but time, this is what it is.

- Of course.

- And I want to get to the other side of you.

You are a farmer, also an entrepreneur.

You have... Well, my gosh, I don't even know what all you're doing, but I think you own a small town at this point.

- Yeah, I think we might, like, Schitt's Creek Two maybe?

(laughs) - Yeah.

(both laugh) - So, yes, because of our dynamic and where we farm and how just the way that the levee has has hurt our operation, we can't 100... Well, we're losing a lot of ground, and it's not like you can just go find that.

So we do have other businesses, and I have a boutique.

It's in Anna, Illinois.

- [Rob] Boutique.

- Boutique, boutique?

I know, I say both actually.

- It's Botox, boutique.

- I think it depends on how fancy you are.

I think fancy people say boutique, and then, like, just us Southern people are just, "Boutique."

- If you're, yeah, farming, saying it's boutique.

- I guess so.

It's boutique.

(both laugh) You have to kind of "ooh" it.

I don't know.

So we started that, and my husband and I are pretty good at flipping properties.

And so after seeing what we had done to that building in downtown Anna, we had a few people come and, you know, kind of lay these other properties in our lap, like, "Would you please do something here?"

So- - Okay, oh, whoa.

That's a wonderful little version of that story.

I remember you telling the truth on the podcast.

- The truth.

- There's a building that should have been torn down by any sane person, and you didn't.

- Oh, yes.

- You wanted to restore it.

- That was my first one.

- You made your husband not tear it down, and then now everybody wants you to fix everything up.

- So that was my very first one in Olive Branch, and yes, we were supposed... We went there to give a bid on tearing that house down, and I begged them to not tear it down.

- Oh my gosh.

- And we bought it.

- Your poor husband.

- Yeah, yeah, my poor husband.

(both laugh) - The old buildings that do get saved are just, they're so cool.

- They are, they are.

And actually, after we saved that one, we found out that like, my great, great grand, my great, however many greats, aunt and uncle actually had built that house.

And one of my great aunts, she's passed away now, but she came to visit, and she was telling me all these stories about them growing up in that house.

So then, then it was special, you know?

So then I was so happy that I restored it, and that's really where it started.

Yeah, that's where it started.

But I just, I love anything historical.

I love preserving.

You know, you come up here and all these old, beautiful buildings in this town, that's what I'm trying to do there because we don't have the preservation like you have here.

I mean, it just, everything's just gone.

Like, you know, those towns were dying years and years ago.

- Well, let me hit...

This is unfair 'cause it's a question out of nowhere.

But you are sitting here in Peoria, Illinois.

You're down there in Olive branch.

I mean, I don't think the people in Peoria understand what a small town...

They understand small towns, but not like that in Southern Illinois, river towns.

- Right.

- What do you want people in Peoria to know about where you live?

- (sighs) Well, actually, we're really kind of a hidden gem.

It's beautiful down there.

As much devastation as we have, I believe, and I'm not 100% about this, but we have a lot of wineries where we are.

And I believe that we're in the top- - You have my attention.

- We're in the top five.

Now, I'm talking about Anna, where my businesses are and not so much in Alexander County.

But we are in the top, I believe top 10 places that grow the Chambourcin grape, and I may be saying that wrong, but that's why we have so many wineries.

And it's really beautiful.

Like, it's called like a little Napa Valley.

And I think that if it's ever discovered, it could be big because we're so close to everyone.

You know, we're a day trip from a lot of places.

We're pretty close to St. Louis.

I mean, we're not too far from you guys for you guys to come down and visit.

- I would definitely come down for a good- - Well, you were in SIU, right?

- I was.

- Weren't you in Carbondale?

- Go Salukis.

- Yeah.

- Let me ask you this.

If people wanna find you, social media or internet, ask you questions, all that stuff, where do they go?

- So I am on... My boutique is on Facebook and Instagram, and then I'm also on Instagram, and it's the_farmers_daughter_il.

Because I'd been hacked, like, I had to keep coming up with different ones- - The_farmers_daughter_il, but underscores.

- Yes, underscores.

- They'll put it under here so people will know what the hell you're talking about.

- I'm also on TikTok, and I'm also on YouTube.

So YouTube is TheFarmersdaughter.

I believe that one is so_il and then- - Southern IL?

- Yeah.

- And then TikTok is- - I would encourage people to go follow you and watch you 'cause I really enjoy your accounts because there are people that farm for social media for likes and clicks and that, and then there are people that farm and run businesses and do it in real life and then just show that on social media.

That's you.

- Yeah, yeah.

- You're very genuine.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Yeah.

You're maybe not the best at taking a compliment, but... (both laugh) - Am I not?

Oh, I thought I was.

- No.

Brandy Renshaw from Olive Branch, Illinois.

Again, go follow her.

I don't know what your future holds, but the way that you represent agriculture and the way that you're able to portray us as an industry, I hope there's big things in your future.

So, Brandy, thank you very much.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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