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

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

A lot of people think that farmers and ranchers, it's almost like a mythical person, right?

Especially here in Illinois.

The rancher, the cowboy, do they really exist or are they just, you know, something there on "Yellowstone?"

Well, today's guest is a perfect example of yes, they do exist.

Today we're talking with Steve Lucie from Basco, Illinois.

How you doing, Steve?

- I'm doing well.

Thank you for having me over here this morning.

Appreciate it.

- So you just wear a cowboy hat, but you've never been on a horse.

That's what it says here.

- What'd they say?

I just saw it here a while back.

All hat and no cattle.

(Rob and laughing) I do have the cattle and I do have horses.

I didn't have horses for much of my life though, when growing up, when I was a kid, my dad didn't have horses.

He actually called them hay burners, but... - Which was right.

- They do burn some hay, I'll tell you.

But my wife, she is actually the eighth generation of equestrians in her family.

People that have had horses in her family.

So she has had a long history of having horses.

And we were just like, you know, we keep the heritage of my name going, the Lucie name, fifth generation, but we need to do something for her side too.

And so we decided to get horses of our own.

And since I've had them, obviously I just fell in love with it and we use them a lot on my farm.

- So did she grow up just riding for fun or did she compete, something like that?

- No, she grew up riding for fun.

But her father, my father-in-law, who is a great man in my opinion, he worked in a factory most of his life, but he had a small farm in Northern Hancock County.

And he grew up as a boy, his dad had horses that they used on the farm.

Like he was one of those guys that actually had a team of horses that would plow a field when he was a young boy.

And he broke horses when he was a young boy for money.

- Oof.

- Yeah.

(Rob and laughing) And they did it the hard way back then, you know, trying to get it done quickly and in a hurry and literally broke them.

So he'd been thrown off of a horse more times than we cared to count.

But he's 80 years old and still rides a horse.

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Good for him.

- And he's literally a horse whisperer.

I learned a lot about everything I know about horses from him and he's one of those guys that can just look at a horse and know what to do and he's patient with them and it's just amazing to see.

- Nice.

Where is Basco, Illinois?

- I've had about half a dozen people ask me that just on my trip over here today or in yesterday?

Basco is southwest of Carthage, Illinois.

It's in the Warsaw School District.

And Warsaw, Illinois is on the Mississippi River.

So we're about, I'd say we're about 13 to 15 miles just east of the Mississippi River as the crow flies.

We're just a little small one stop sign town.

We have a grain elevator in the town, and we do have a tavern, The Office tavern.

- [Rob] Oh, I would hope so.

- Yeah, they have the best chicken around in Hancock County.

- That's an opinion.

- Chicken night is Wednesday night.

And it's packed in Basco, Illinois.

I think there used to be, I don't know the population, used to be 50 in Basco in town.

We don't live in the town, we live outside of town.

But when my sons went off to college, we always joked because the census went down to 48.

But it wasn't from them.

They weren't in that census.

But it was a fun joke to talk about.

- Was it two hours from Peoria?

- About two hours.

- Okay.

- Well, thank you for coming.

We appreciate it.

You're a fifth generation farmer.

So what all are you raising on your farm?

- So obviously we have cattle, but we raise corn, beans, corn, soybeans, and wheat.

We still raise quite a bit of wheat on my farm.

My brothers and I farm together.

My dad and my uncle used to farm it and my grandpa before him.

And we've gained a little more acreage over the years.

My wife and I bought some acreage to add to sort of our family farm.

And I rent some ground from my father and my aunt.

They still own some of the property, but corn, beans and wheat and then cattle.

We used to raise hogs when I was younger.

Dad and I did it kind of out on the pasture the hard way.

And we got out of that when all the confinements started coming in and we didn't wanna do that, so we got out of it.

and the price got bad in the early '90s.

We dropped that and expanded our cattle herd, which has worked out well.

- It's looking good right now, isn't it?

- Yes, it's really good right now.

- I don't know about when this airs, but right now we're doing all right.

- You know, it's really good right now.

And I just did a video on my social media yesterday about it.

People think the price of beef is super high and it's so terribly high in the stores, but still the rancher, he's not getting all that money.

You know how it is, the middlemen gets a lot, the packers, there's a lot of talk about the big four packers and they get their cut, but we're doing better than we have in a lot of years.

But we needed to because we lost so many ranchers, and that's why beef is high.

We lost too many of them due to, you know, prices not being viable to make a profit, droughts, all kinds of things.

- So one of the things that was used as kind of a marker was eggs, right?

- You had eggs, the inflation took off them and then they've quickly come.

And I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but I mean, they went from worth a lot to now they're not worth much.

But a chicken, much different animal than beef.

It takes longer, harder.

Is there any other aspects that it'll keep the beef higher for longer?

- Well, so yeah, they rebuild that chicken herd like overnight, right?

I mean, and that happened.

So then they got an influx of eggs.

So supply and demand that worked.

In the cattle market right now, I've seen guys paying $6,500 for a cow and a calf, for a pair.

Which traditionally, you know, years ago, if you're given $1,500 or $2,000, that's a lot.

So there's not that many cattle out there.

And that's why the price is so high, even for breeding stock.

I don't know when that herd's gonna be rebuilt because the heifer retention numbers that came out in January, were basically even, and what that means is if guys aren't saving heifers back, which are the females, then they're not looking to build the herd in the future.

They sold those females to go to the meat market because they were so high.

You can get a lot of money out of a calf.

And that means the herd won't rebuild very fast.

Because and I save heifers every year religiously anyway.

So the heifers that I save back, it's gonna be two and a half, three years before you get a calf out of them that's ready to go, you know, to butcher.

So it takes a long time to rebuild a cattle herd.

- With the average age of the rancher farmer, I mean, older?

- Older.

- They've never seen prices like this.

Are they just saying, "You know what?

Might as well get out now."

- There's a lot of that.

I'm glad you brought that up.

I'm 56 years old and I think the average age is between my age and 60 for a rancher.

And it's not easy work, you know?

I mean, you're out there... Now we've got mechanical stuff nowadays, skid steers and loader tractors, hay baling is easier.

I still bale square bale hay some.

So that helps keep me in shape a little in the summer.

But, you know, I've heard of a lot of guys that are in their upper 60s, 70s, they'll sell out now when the price... If you can get $6,000 for a cow and a calf and you were thinking about retiring anyway, this is a heck of a good time for them.

So that's what they're doing.

And you know, maybe they rent their pasture out for somebody to bale hay or maybe they turn it back into soybeans and corn.

Some people can do that.

Some of it's just left and nothing happens to it.

And you know, for young guys to get in and buy a herd of cattle and rent that guy's pasture, it's gonna cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So that's not a good option either.

- Yeah.

with you and your ranching a fifth generation and that, I mean, what's it mean to you that you're able to keep this going?

Because, you know, I'm fifth generation as well.

- I thought you were.

- There is some pressure.

- I mean, when you are blessed to have that given to you that you better not screw it up.

- Yeah, I don't know if you guys know, there was a song that came out, it's called "MacArthur."

And I forget all the artists, but it's a country song and it talks about the generations of guys on the farm.

And it gets to the final MacArthur, the younger one, the newest generation and he sells it.

He sells it for a million, you know, he's got a million dollar line of credit there with that farm and he sells it.

And to me, there is a lot of pressure with that.

And I think that at some point I've got at least one son that's considering coming back to the farm.

Both of my sons are in the service still right now at this time.

But one of them is planning on coming back.

So God willing, we'll have another generation come back and take over.

But there's a lot of pressure on me, a lot of pressure on him to make that succeed.

You know, what's the average?

Three generations maybe?

- Oh, I have no idea.

- I think it's three.

If you start talking about five and six, then that's a different animal and it's not easy to do.

And I worry, you know, will we be able to make that transition?

Will we be able to hold onto it?

We don't wanna be the ones to, you know, sell out the Lucie name.

Let's say the Lucie brand, right?

- Well, did you do this brand or were that generations before you?

- Nope, this is my design.

I actually designed this brand at my welding table.

I do welding and everything, carpentry.

But I took some metal and I had drawn it out on paper first and I just took some metal and I cut out the main L and then I found a couple pieces to make the ends 'cause I wanted to look a little wonky.

And I welded that- - A little flare to it.

- I welded that old steel brand together and I welded a rod on the end of it.

And the first cattle I branded, I hot branded with that thing.

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

I did it the old school way several years ago.

But I had- - Do you have to brand in Illinois?

- No, you do not.

- Okay.

- I had to register this brand with Illinois because if you brand an animal in Illinois, it has to be a registered brand.

Still the old laws hold up.

And if you're out west and you try to design a new brand, there's millions of them.

But in Illinois there wasn't very many.

So this got approved right away.

And they sent me, I have a certificate and everything.

- They're probably thrilled to get it.

- Yeah 'cause not many people do it.

But since that time I've ordered freeze brands, they're special brands and I freeze brand and I really like the freeze branding.

It works really good.

It turns the hair white and it's a little easier on the animal and you can just see everything very well.

And I do it because I live in an area where I've got some neighbors close to me.

Everybody's got a lot of black cattle around anymore.

And my ear tags would always get torn off.

And I have a lot of timber land, so the cows getting the timber and rub the ear tags off and things like that.

And branding was just a good way to, you know, it's weird because you're going back to old school.

- And in today's world, a lot of times I'm like, you know, we should maybe think about going back to more old school instead of being quite so progressive all the time.

And sometimes the old school things work.

And this is one of those times.

- I think that's why people like you, and you get asked to talk nationally.

I mean, you've been on national news and that.

I mean, how are these news organizations, why are they finding you?

- You know, I don't know for sure why, but I was fortunate enough last year I did several talking about beef mainly.

One of my colleagues that we mentioned before on Awake Illinois.

I started a group back during Covid or got in with a group called Awake Illinois.

And one of my colleagues, Shannon Adcock, did a interview on Fox News with Sandra Smith about some child advocacy stuff that we were working on.

And somehow or another, they followed up and saw my social media.

I had done a video out in the timber talking about tariffs.

And so they wanted to ask me about tariffs and beef and stuff.

And then after that first interview, it just kind of went wild.

So, I don't know, maybe it turned out okay I guess because they wanted me back.

And then Newsmax has had me on several times.

I guess I just got lucky, but I'm glad to be a voice for beef because we need that.

- So, I mean, obviously you're busy enough on your ranch and your farm and doing all that, but you do get involved with a lot of different organizations, like you talked about Awake Illinois or involved in some political stuff and that.

I mean, that takes time away from your farm, your family.

- It does.

- Why do you do that?

- Well, I was on the school board at Warsaw, Illinois for 17 and a half years.

And my wife's a teacher and she taught there.

Now she teaches in Iowa.

But what started it was one day we were going through all the Covid stuff and I walked into that school as a board member.

I walked into that elementary school, it was in 2020 in that fall, because we started our school back.

We had enough guys on the board that said, "We're gonna send these kids to school because we need it."

And I walked into that school and I walked by the kindergarten classroom and I saw kids in kindergarten and desks spread all out, and they had their faces covered and it was dead silent.

You could hear a pin drop.

And I've been around enough kids and I've been around education long enough that I knew that something wasn't right about that.

I didn't know everything that's now been shown about Covid and what happened.

I didn't know all that, but I had a gut feeling that something was wrong, that what we were doing.

And so I decided to stand up against it.

And we did.

And I started a local group called We Stand for our students.

And then I got with Shannon Adcock in Awake Illinois very quick.

And we ended up, you know, the whole story.

We ended up suing the governor of Illinois and winning.

And kids, you know, kids got to- - You won?

- Yeah, we won.

- Did he have to pay you?

- No, he didn't have to pay us, but... - He's got the money.

- He still had executive orders, still was forcing school children to be in masks, you know, and clear up to 2022.

And we won that and people were freed.

And after that, the whole, you know, everything, the wheels kind of came off.

- So it's just the right thing to do to get involved in stuff like that.

- That's it.

- Okay.

- And I just had a conversation with another neighbor of mine that's possibly going on the county board, and he was worried about, "Well, what are people gonna say?

And people gonna be upset with you if you do things on the county board."

Because I'm on the county board now, but I said, "Listen, it's really simple.

If you go on there with an agenda, it's not gonna be good.

But if you go on there and you just do the right thing, you know, if you do what makes sense and what's the right thing, 99% of the time you're gonna be all right.

Because you're doing what's right."

And even if it's standing up against the masses, you conscious is clean.

You just gotta do what... You have to have good character and do what's right.

And not everybody's gonna agree with you.

- I think in a lot of times, county board's a perfect example is if you just take your stand and you tell people, "This is why I'm going to vote this way," it's the wishy washy, wanna please everybody, that's the one that people really get mad at.

They're like, "Oh, Steve, you know, that he's gonna vote that way.

And this is because don't even bother with him."

I mean, they're probably not gonna vote for you, but they're gonna respect you.

- Maybe that's true, I think there is an amount of respect.

And I think you do have to take a stand at times.

I don't think you can just constantly be on the fence, especially in today's world.

And you know, that's what we did at Awake Illinois.

We stand up for children and we stand up for what we think is right and parental rights and all of that.

And that all goes down to me being a... I think it was a good mix because I'm from downstate and they're from upstate.

And you know, agriculture's the same way.

If we don't stand up for our heritage and our, you know, beef organization and our beef industry, we're gonna get steamrolled too.

And if we get steamrolled and guys like me disappear in this country, then everybody else out there is in jeopardy.

Because, you know, I made the comment, if something blows up and we have this mass big problem in this country and people can't get food or can't get supplies.

In my county, in Hancock, there's myself and a handful of others, we can feed our whole county and others.

But other people can't do that in other industries and other places.

And and that is one of the most important things there is.

And we're less than 1%.

And I think sometimes people don't think about us.

- Do you ever get frustrated?

It seems like the world is just moving on from traditions and you are not.

- I get a little frustrated with that and, you know, I don't want people to get it wrong.

We use technology, you know, as best we can.

But again, sometimes traditions are the easiest and best way to do things.

Sometimes just getting on a horse and riding out into the pasture and timber to find a momma cow that's had a calf, you know, half mile away in the timber is the only way that you can successfully make sure she's gonna save that calf if something's wrong.

So either that or walk, but traditionally that's what they did and that works.

So why get away from what works?

That's what I say.

And as far as in this country, we had started to slip away from traditions of, you know, saying the Pledge of Allegiance or standing up for the national anthem or whatever it might be.

And, you know, I hope that's coming back and I don't want that to just come back because of one political movement or something, that needs to come back from inside the hearts of Americans.

Whether they're ranchers or businessmen or teachers or doctors or whatever.

It has to come back from your heart as an American.

- This is a PBS, so we can't endorse anybody.

But you said you wanted to announce your running for governor.

(Steve laughing) - I've been asked, but I'm not there yet.

Honestly, I'm not there.

But we do need a... I think it's pretty clear we need some kind of change in our state.

- You'll never be elected governor in Illinois.

- No.

- You got way too many morals.

- Yeah, well, I don't know about that, but I'm a flawed man.

(Rob and laughing) I always say tell people, you know, everybody thinks you're a good man, Steve, and I appreciate that.

I'm like any human being.

I'm flawed and I'm a sinner like everybody else.

So, you know, we have to look to the Lord to forgive that.

- Getting back to cattle, what you were talking about on some of the national news was the big four, I mean, it's a monopoly, oligopoly or something like that as far as there's not really real competition for the Packers.

Do you think that'll ever change?

- Boy, I don't know, Rob.

It's gonna be tough to change because I always advocate for that.

And it's absolutely true.

You know, the big four, some of those are pretty foreign owned.

So now we're talking about a couple of those out of the big four that are not American.

That worries me.

I think that's the first step we gotta do.

We gotta start looking at what's going on there.

But it's not as easy as just eliminating the big four because we don't have the infrastructure in place to replace them.

So that's my concern.

I think we need slow change.

We need to get less regulations.

So, you know, maybe we could have some smaller meat packers around us in Illinois for guys like me to take beef to and sell to you.

And that's a start.

But I don't know if that's gonna change.

It's not gonna change anytime soon.

- I thought Covid was gonna be the spark for that 'cause then Emily and I, we started interviewing people that were doing the direct to consumer and that.

And now we're interviewing those same people that are, "Yeah, you know, it was great for a while.

Now it's kind of fizzling off.

So it was frustrating."

And it seems to all come down to the availability of a reliable packer.

- That, and ease.

People like things easy.

I'm not, you know, bashing anybody.

I like easy things too, but it's easy to just go to Costco or wherever people go to buy their meat, right?

And they can go in and they can buy two steaks and they don't have to deal with a freezer full of meat and thawing it out and everything.

Or paying me for a quarter or a half a beef, which is a lot of money upfront.

So I think that's where we gotta change things.

We gotta make things easier for them to get from me to them.

- You go into Walmart, Costco, the meat, perfectly safe.

Perfectly safe.

It's good for you.

Good for your family.

Does not taste the same as getting it direct.

I will fight that hill till I die.

It's just not as good.

- Well, I mean, you can see the videos and look up, not necessarily every product, but they inject a lot of those products with water basically, or some solution that, you know, to add a little weight to it.

You know, they can sell that instead of selling the weight.

You don't know where it's come from.

I think somebody did a study, they did DNA test on ground beef and they had like 300 different DNA samples or something.

Don't quote my numbers, but it was a lot.

And if I sell somebody a package of ground beef, it's gonna have one from one animal.

- Maybe two.

- Maybe.

That's how it's, I think that's the most important thing, the quality.

And I think we need to get to that.

We need to get to sort of a mandatory country of origin labeling where we know that that beef has come from an American rancher and really most American ranchers are trying to build the highest quality they can build.

- Yeah, yeah.

It shouldn't be that hard.

And I know that argument has gone forever.

Steve, if people wanna find you social media and all that, where do they go?

- I'm on X, that's my biggest one.

And I'm also on Instagram.

My X is, I think it's like cattleguy92.

- They'll put it on the bottom of the screen.

So if you're wrong, everybody knows it right now.

- Yeah.

Right.

(Rob and Steve laughing) And I am starting a website, luciecattlecompany.com.

So we're gonna have a website up and going to sell, you know, some local beef.

I sell quite a few beef locally, just friends and family.

But maybe I'll expand on that a little bit.

- Can you sell outta state?

- No, well, I can sell outta state If I go through a USDA inspected processor and they process the meat and we have to pay them, or the person that buys the meat would have to pay them and then I could have that frozen meat shipped.

The problem right now, a lot of people are having with shipping meat to say New York City is the price of shipping.

When you're shipping something that's heavy, there's a lot of cost to that and that makes the cost of that steak double or triple almost what it is.

You know, I've had a beef butchered last month for someone and they paid me for the beef, they paid the processor and they've got between $6.50 and $7 a pound in the total package.

So imagine $6.50 for a ribeye steak.

That's cheap.

Right?

- That's, yeah.

- But if you go to ship that, then the price goes up.

So I always tell people, find your rancher in your state.

Find your local person.

- That's why I was just thinking New York rancher should be killing it.

- Yeah.

- Well, Steve, I want to thank you for making the trip.

I know it's a long drive and I want to thank you for what you do for agriculture, because I know a person like you really just enjoys being out there, farming and ranching.

But you take the time to take your phone, turn it around, and actually talk to the people out there.

You take your time to get involved in organizations.

You take your time to actually talk to national media organizations, which as a farmer, I always want, I always want my voice being set out there.

So I want to thank you for all that you do for agriculture.

Truly, truly appreciate it.

Steve Lucie from Basco, Illinois, thank you.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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