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Episode Transcript

Tim Strathman (00:00):
<Silence> Hey everybody, welcome to the next episode of Humble Ground. Pretty excited. The actual first video we did for Humble Ground I believe was with Corbin, and I think it was during Harvest this year. And I said, Hey, man, can I come out and just film some stuff and see what happens? And it, and it went off really well, and we'll get into that later. But without further ado, Corbin, thanks for coming on, man

Corbin Becker (00:20):
Yeah, thanks for having me. It's pretty exciting.

Tim Strathman (00:23):
Yeah, no, it's, it's fun. I think you and I have been talking a ton since then, and you know where this is gonna go and what's gonna happen, and we've actually got a, a cool collaboration going on right now to where you can get some of Corbin's products through his brand, through our website, and just kind of raising awareness both ways and, and he does it for us. So it's kind of neat to kind of be in partnership about that. But I guess give us a little bit of information on like, what do you remember the first memory of farming is for you?

Corbin Becker (00:54):
Oh probably our grade school. Second, third grade would be harvest time, honestly. I mean, all of us packed in the combine with dad, just enjoying life, not knowing what would happen down the road.

Tim Strathman (01:11):
I tell you, it's, it's so neat hearing stories about Yeah. Riding with dad or grandpa or whatever. And, and what's really funny is most people's stories are like, ah, it's probably too young to be doing this. Or looking back, it probably wasn't the safest thing in the world, but hey, you know, he made it here. Yeah. So I, I'm sure are you a third generation farmer then? Yep,

Corbin Becker (01:32):
Third gen generation for our farms was established in 1991 by grandpa. He got the opportunity to move back here. He and him and grandma were living in St. Joe. He was a big tech guy there at the hospital, and he moved back, got a chance to buy the home, his home place, and kind of started out there.

Tim Strathman (01:53):
No, that's awesome. When, when grandpa moved back, was your dad involved somehow or was that way before?

Corbin Becker (02:00):
That was way before.

Tim Strathman (02:01):
So how'd your dad get involved? I

Corbin Becker (02:03):
Guess so he, they kind of, he was pretty young, I think still. And that's when they come up with four R. It's all the dad and his three siblings. And then dad didn't go to college. He kind of started right outta high school. His RD is, was a mechanic. Randy started flying a helicopter and he still does that. So dad kind of just stuck around and worked alongside grandpa.

Tim Strathman (02:30):
Did they have cattle back then, or was it just row crops?

Corbin Becker (02:33):
They actually had pigs and cattle and pigs was like kind of their big thing back then, and they got rid of that. I was too young. They, gosh, I can't remember. I was too young to remember when they got rid of 'em. But

Tim Strathman (02:50):
It, it's cool to see how operations evolve over time and what they, what they get into, what they stay in. But no, I think I guess give us a little bit on how, how'd you come into play? Is that something that you've always wanted to do? Is that something that kind of as you got a little bit older through high school, that that kind of became an option?

Corbin Becker (03:10):
Yes. After high school, well, during high school, I kind of had to make a decision. Mom and dad always said, go work for somebody else after high school or go to college. And Ethan, my older brother, he took the opportunity, went, worked somewhere else, and then came back and I was like I'll go to college, get a degree in ag, maybe opportunity comes up, I can go do something else. And so I went to college, went there for a year. That was right when Covid hit, so it was kind of a useless, I was more partying down there than actually going to school. And then I got the opportunity a year after, so it was 21 that grapple was kind of slowing down and didn't really wanna work as hard, so I talked to dad and he's like, yeah, we got a spot, come back and work for us. So I moved back and been here full time ever since.

Tim Strathman (04:05):
Yeah, that's probably how'd that conversation go? At least it sounds like they were pretty willing to have that conversation. At least op open a spot, whereas sometimes you talk to people and they don't really have I was in Montana and the guy was like, I really wanna come back and move to the ranch, but they didn't really have the revenue to, to justify it. So they were like, well, if you're gonna come back, we gotta figure out another source of revenue just to be able to make it work. So it's cool that you guys already were established and did dad kind of welcome you with open arms at that point?

Corbin Becker (04:36):
Yeah, so Ethan actually wanted to start driving a truck. So we bought a truck and cattle pot back and started Becker Transportation. So he on the road full time, he still is. And so it was just dad really. And dad's like, at that point, dad's kinda like, yeah, I really need somebody else. And I was like, I, I would love the opportunity to come do that work alongside you.

Tim Strathman (05:06):
And that's so cool. I think a lot of people never get to think about the fact that you got to work with dad and grandpa, and I know I've been out with you guys at Harvest and your mom was in the combine and your brothers and you got a sister. And, and so the fact that you can work with family, multiple generations of family at that is the coolest thing in the world. I'm sure there's days that it's probably if, if I was working with my brothers and my family, I'm sure we'd have some days that we probably didn't think that, but at the end of the day, you can look back and say, you know what? I got to work and, and spend time with family at the same time, which is a lot of people don't get that right,

Corbin Becker (05:40):
Especially during harvest. It kind of shows it all there. 'cause We got mom, dad, and then Ethan comes back, he stops hauling cattle, comes and drives a truck, grapple, helps out during harvest. He still loves driving a semi during harvest. Then we got Jared Flynn, he helps run a combine and then me and then Grady and Malena after school when they're out and Grady's right in the grand cart as soon as he gets out. And then Maverick, of course, he's down playing football now, so he, any opportunity he gets, he loves coming back also.

Tim Strathman (06:14):
And that's, that's again, I don't think people a lot of people probably don't appreciate it realistically, you know, because it becomes day to day and you just don't think about it. But looking back in a lot of years, I think you'll probably really appreciate the fact that you got to spend those Yeah, those memories with grandpa, mom and dad, because a lot of people don't get that. Yeah. And I think that's, that's

Corbin Becker (06:32):
Neat. Truly, truly a blessing.

Tim Strathman (06:34):
Oh, a hundred percent. So on the day to day, what's the day-to-day look like outside of Harvest, obviously where you have a ton of people helping, but who's, who's actually working day to day?

Corbin Becker (06:44):
It's just dad and I. So mornings we, we have cattle, so dad and I take care of feeding fat cattle, which right now we don't have a whole lot. And then we have quite a few cow calf pears also that we have to take care of.

Tim Strathman (06:59):
Perfect. corn and soybeans,

Corbin Becker (07:01):
What's, yeah, just strictly corn and soybeans used to do wheat, milo and kind of got out of that before I remember. So

Tim Strathman (07:09):
I was gonna say that that seemed to historically over the last, at least five or 10 years, it seemed like that's just taken a pretty, pretty immense decline. Which again, it's all business, you know, at the end of the day. Yeah. Do you guys alfalfa, anything like that?

Corbin Becker (07:24):
Yeah, we have a little bit of alfalfa and then we actually do quite a bit of bro hang, I should say during the summer, do some custom work and a lot of our personal stuff, so,

Tim Strathman (07:38):
No, that's neat. On the cattle side, is that something that, like, was that always there and, and, and that's just grown or is that always been like, you guys have a pretty decent feed yard that I've seen? Has it always been that big or did that kind of just eventually grow over time?

Corbin Becker (07:56):
No, it, it's eventually grown over time. We used to have cattle just right out here actually. And then we kind of slowly started expanding up there where the main feed yard's at now. And I don't, I don't know about the cow calf pair. It's grown a lot ever since Ethan got outta high school, which if I tell Ethan all the time, if it was up to me, I'd sell every single cow calf pair. But he loves doing it. So we, that's what we do.

Tim Strathman (08:21):
Hey, you gotta, you gotta have things that everybody loves. I thought it was neat. Corbin does a really good job, in my opinion. Being a younger person is, is pretty active in social media. I got to watch a couple of your lives on, on TikTok, whether that be in harvest or just a couple days ago you were doing some tillage. And it's really neat. I think you do a really good job of expressing your love for agriculture and people would ask questions about why are you doing this? Or what, you know, what is that? Or things like that. And I think ag needs more of that, like really, that's why we're doing this at the end of the day, but it's so cool to see you doing that on a daily basis and, and people engaging with you because I think so many people realistically just, just don't know a whole lot about it. And so, have you had some interesting questions or anything on Oh, on your lives?

Corbin Becker (09:08):
Yeah, no, it's kind of I eyeopening when I do that. I just finally back during planting season actually is when I first went live and I had like 200, 300 people in there just asking questions, what are you doing? Like, why are you doing this? I kind of just like, wow, not very many people really understand what all goes on in agriculture. So like, it was like, all right, I'm gonna make this kind of a normal routine, go live when I'm doing stuff and try to show people what agriculture is about.

Tim Strathman (09:42):
I, I think it's, I think it's awesome because I think what's really cool about it two things. A you're, you're just raising awareness and realistically you're driving a tractor, and I don't mean any offense by this, but you got thing, you got time to kill. Especially nowadays with GPS and things of that nature. And so rather than just scroll TikTok, I, I think you're, you're making good use of it and making it educational. And, and again, people are always gonna, you're gonna have idiots out there. That just is what it is. See that every day when it comes to agriculture. But the fact that most people genuinely just are, are interested in it and curious in it, I think is, is cool. You're giving back and for you where you've kind of started another brand, it just makes people want to be invested in you more. And so I think there's a a lot of advantages to doing that. So speaking of that, where did, where did the idea to start middle of nowhere come from? I mean, was that just a sitting in the tractor had too much time on your hands or what? Yeah,

Corbin Becker (10:41):
Pretty much. No, it's kind of been something that I've wanted to do for a few years and financially a couple years ago, just couldn't do it. And yeah, I was just sitting there one day back in, it was actually started in April. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. Just take the leap and see where it goes. And I was like, first I gotta come up with the name. And I was just out doing my own thing and I was like, middle of nowhere, just out. We're out here in the middle of nowhere. So that's where I started and got some drawings drawn up and sent them over to Casey actually. Yeah. And she sent me back quite a few logos and I loved it, stuck it on a hat, and here we are.

Tim Strathman (11:25):
It, it's so cool to see it. I was just at a, at a ball game last night, and then we were actually at the state football game, Centia which Corbin is one of the coaches and his brother played for the state team. They got second place, incredible season. It was so cool to see how many people, now that I, I've seen it, like my son's wearing one, he's off camera. How many people support the brand? And I, I think what's really neat is you're always gonna have buy-in from friends and family or local or whatever which is cool. But I, I've seen a couple of your snaps and stuff. To see people buying that from places that you don't even know anybody, I think is, is incredible. We had an order come through Friday in Mississippi. I don't know that I know anyone in Mississippi, <laugh> and I saw that order come through and they'd ordered like four shirts, you know, and, and what's cool about this is people will care enough, like your live videos, people will care enough to watch the content you put out, go to your website and buy a hat from you, not because they know you, but they feel like they know you in some way, shape or form.

Tim Strathman (12:27):
So what are, have you had any of those where it's like, man, I don't know anybody there, but they just bought something from me. Like, this is the neatest thing in the world. Yeah,

Corbin Becker (12:34):
So we had a Black Friday sale this past weekend, and there was one from New York, couple from North Dakota. I'm just, it's crazy that it's the word reaching clear over there. I mean, yeah, it's awesome. Kind of awesome. I mean,

Tim Strathman (12:49):
In, in this day and age, it's so, it's so neat, especially like love it or hate it. Tiktok is obviously a controversial thing. I'm on there, you're on there. We've both seen the benefits of being on there. And so to be able to see people supporting a, a business that they know nothing about is the coolest thing in the world. Because it's not like you're selling a product that solves some problem, you know? And, and you can go and, and you can have it at Menards, like they just wanna buy it because they know you farm, they know you care, they know you just put a brand out there because you, you had a vision and now they're supporting. It's the, I just think it's the coolest thing in the world, man. And I hope, I hope people go check it out. We'll put a link and everything in there for that. What's, what's your fiance think of the business? <Laugh>? What, how, how difficult was that? My wife, so the only reason I say that is my wife usually tells me all my ideas are crazy. But occasionally lets me run with a few of them. So how was your fiance when you said, Hey, I just wanna launch this brand and just see what happens?

Corbin Becker (13:49):
Yeah, she was at the beginning, she's like, I, I don't think you should do it. Whatever. I was like, let's just do it. And now she's pretty supportive until I tell her I got another round of hats coming in. <Laugh>,

Tim Strathman (14:03):
Especially with the wedding coming up, that's probably a really controversial subject.

Corbin Becker (14:07):
Yeah, no, she, now she's helping me ship out hats at night and kind of stepping in the business with me,

Tim Strathman (14:15):
Which, which is neat. You know same, we got shirts in the other day. We, we ordered a bunch of those ketchup shirts and so my wife came down and my two girls came down and started folding them up. And then, dad, can I put the boxes together? And, and I think it just, it's something neat to do together. Speaking of, when's the wedding? It's gotta be coming up right?

Corbin Becker (14:35):
June 28th.

Tim Strathman (14:36):
Okay, so you got six months. Yep,

Corbin Becker (14:38):
Yep.

Tim Strathman (14:38):
She's got six months to figure out if she actually wants to be married to you. <Laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. I'm excited for you all two great people. Two great families. It's cool to see. Did you go, did you all start dating in high school?

Corbin Becker (14:53):
Yep. Started my, well went to prom my junior year. She was a freshman, and then we just went as friends. And then my senior year we started talking, started dating, went to college, had a little trip up there and then got back together and yeah, got engaged this past March.

Tim Strathman (15:17):
What's the, what's the future look like? Is that something you've thought about? Like being, being a far kid growing up at the farm as a little kid, is that ever something you thought like, Hey, one day I want my kids? If, if you're having kids to be a part of that.

Corbin Becker (15:32):
Oh yeah. I would love to work alongside my kids, obviously. But it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be a struggle just 'cause, I mean, I'm even struggling right now. Trying to buy farm ground around here is tough. So that's kind of why I started the hat business, have a little bit more extra income, so if something does come up, I have the finances to buy it. But no, I think in the future I'd love to have my kids work with me.

Tim Strathman (16:03):
What, what's that like coming back to the farm, knowing that things are so expensive? I mean, we're sitting in front of two combines that I'm sure weren't the cheapest things in the world. You look at farm ground, not cheap, everything seems to be going up. What, what gives you hope to, to continue farming and, and push through this and, and be the next generation? I guess?

Corbin Becker (16:26):
Honestly, it's just the love for it on and I just see what dad has built and I just obviously don't wanna see it collapse. It's just something that I've loved through these 22 years and want to expand it even more.

Tim Strathman (16:42):
No, it's, it's awesome. It's, it's great to see young people move back and wanna farm even given the challenges, you know, like I've talked to a bunch of people all across the country and the first thing is man, it's, it would be hard to, to start out from nothing this day and age. Yeah. And so fortunately you're able to come into an established business that doesn't mean for everybody watching that doesn't mean by any means that there's not added costs and, and a lot of things going on that are not in your favor, but to see you love it enough that want to come back and take on the challenge, I think is awesome.

Corbin Becker (17:16):
You know,

Tim Strathman (17:16):
Knowing that, hey, there's gonna be some good years and there's gonna be bad years, but I think the good outweigh the bad and I think knowing that, yeah, you, you've been able to be a part of something that's grown and continue to grow, and now you get a, you know, take it to the next level hopefully.

Corbin Becker (17:32):
Yeah. I've just seen what dad even grapple have been through and grapple's always talking about all the struggles that he went through to start out with. It's just like, why, why would he work for all that? And I just watch it just wash away pretty much.

Tim Strathman (17:49):
No, I, it'll be tough, but it'll be, it'll be rewarding. And, and like I said, if you get to do it with your family, it's not like you're, you're taking it on alone by any stretch of the means. Do any of your other younger siblings have a desire to come back or has that been talked about?

Corbin Becker (18:05):
I think Grady for sure would. I think he's already trying to talk that into having him come back right after high school, but he would, I think he would definitely help out or even drive a truck part-time. So, and then Maverick, I don't know about him yet, but

Tim Strathman (18:22):
Yeah. Yeah, he's got a lot going on right now, so that's probably not something on his mind. Yeah. But which is great. It's so fun following you guys and seeing you guys are everywhere. I don't know how you farm and do all the, all the other activities you all do or, and, and how your mom and dad keep up with all of it, but man, they're on the sidelines and they're on the, and they're in the stands and it's incredible to see week after week. And I don't, by no means make all the games, but it's, it's awesome to see the family. What's really interesting is the Becker family has had some troubled times, I guess maybe would be the best way to put it. So we live in Kansas which is in the Midwest, which is in tornado alley by a mile. I mean, it's, and, and so all of us have been around tornadoes and seen tornadoes, but for some reason your family seems to have like a magnetic field right here at this particular farm. So can you talk about that a little bit? Because I don't know any other family that's been <laugh> affected by tornadoes as much as you guys, and and it's not a laughing matter by any means. Yeah, yeah. You can look back probably and think, man, this is crazy that this has happened.

Corbin Becker (19:29):
Yeah. So June of 2010, we lost one of our, our machine shed. I was actually in the hospital with pneumonia with mom and my younger three siblings. We got a phone call. Dad's like, you guys need to stay at the hospital. It's getting crazy right now. So we're like, okay, it can't be that bad. And we get back, pull into the driveway, shed's gone. Dad, Ethan and Randy were actually in the shed when it blew over. They, Randy threw Ethan under that, actually that combine right behind me threw Ethan under combine. They all three got underneath it and walked out and it was just gone. And then built it back the house. Nothing else was really damaged, then built it back. And then May 28th, 2013 is when everything went. It was about two 30 in the afternoon that day and like kind of started cooling off.

Corbin Becker (20:28):
We knew it was gonna storm, but we didn't know how bad it would be. And we look outside and there was a funnel cloud about a half mile away or so we went to the basement and about it took like 10 minutes and dad came downstairs, he's like, buckled down, it's coming. And it actually sat on the house for like five minutes. It was just so slow moving and walk outside after, and everything's gone. And there's actually a grain bin sitting on top of the house. And just right across the road is where it picked up and just dumped all the trash right there. So that, yeah, it's been two crazy events around here.

Tim Strathman (21:09):
I guess. Talk about when, when that happened, where do you even start? Like will you walk up the stairs and just, you know, fortunately, no, no fatalities or anything like that, but that's a lot to walk out and see your entire farm gone. Yeah. Your farmstead gone.

Corbin Becker (21:26):
Yeah, so grapple actually was sitting half mile down the road watching it just take everything. And he pulled in and this is a funny story that we always tell. He pulled in and a two door pickup, and we all pile in. All eight of us are in this three seated pickup. And he's driving real slow. I mean, he pulled up right to the back, back door and he's driving slow. We're leaving mom's like, what are you doing? Like, hurry up. Because there was another one building just west of here again. And grandpa's like, I don't wanna tear up your grass. Mom's like, are you serious right now? So we went over to Grandpa Halls, let everything kind of settle down, came back and there was people everywhere. I mean, the community around here is amazing. We've, we say it all the time, anybody around here says that. I mean, hundreds of people helping clean up. And we got a house in golf that we stayed in for four months, five months till our house was built. Again,

Tim Strathman (22:32):
It's just crazy to see the, the amount of support. We, we are super fortunate to live in Omaha County, Kansas. I'm not saying that there's other counties or or other small towns that are as supportive, but I have, it's hard to find. And, and what's crazy is you see all the tornadoes come through, like it, like this summer for example, I think there was like five tornadoes within 30 miles a here. Yeah. And, and the amount of people that at, at a drop of a dime will go help their neighbor or help people that actually they don't even know, you know, like 30 miles from here, they lost 25, 26 houses. There's one fatality. The amount of people that were like, can we go down there and help? Like, there was so many people that they had to like, stop, like say, Hey, we can't like, have any more people come. I think is just a special place. And it, I think it's super, you know, special about farming communities. Like everybody wants to help out. So what was it like knowing that, like people that you've never talked to, maybe people you've talked to once or twice just showed up and, and said, how can we help? Like

Corbin Becker (23:33):
It's just, it's special, honestly. It's just knowing that we have people standing by our side through anything. And luckily it was, we were done planting. It wasn't in the middle of harvest. And personally, I think if it was in the middle of harvest, there would've been farmers,

Tim Strathman (23:49):
Oh, a

Corbin Becker (23:49):
Hundred percent right here asking if we needed fields cut or anything. It's just awesome to live around here knowing that we got people behind our backs.

Tim Strathman (23:58):
Yeah. And then speak of this year I remember there's a bunch of tornadoes this year. It seemed like it was really crazy year for some reason, but I remember the one that would've been coming for your house. We actually, of course in, in the Midwest everybody, you know, if the, if the tornado come and they'll get in their house most of the time. But once it goes past, like everybody follows them and it's always like calling up the next person that you know's, like, hey, it's like right outside your window. So I had a buddy, his wife had sent a Snapchat out out their back patio, the Alverson's, and I'm like, man, that looks really close, you know, and they're like, probably should go. And of course he's out working. And then I was like, man, that thing's just moving the slowest possible thing. And then I see your mom post a video, I think of your sister, like out there just screaming at it. Yeah. because it was headed directly for you guys. I don't know what it is about this place, but fortunately you've been able to escape it without any major injuries, which is incredible. And hopefully no more tornadoes. 'cause Again, I don't know any other family in the US that has had as much trouble with that as you guys have.

Corbin Becker (25:06):
Yeah. Dad said if another one hits, he's moving, he's

Tim Strathman (25:09):
Gonna, I'd probably quit. I'd probably <laugh> I'd probably be a pretty safe bet. Yeah. Go, go find some other farm ground somewhere else. And, and, and start over. What's, what's the future look like for you? If you could, if you could imagine 20, 30 years down the road?

Corbin Becker (25:25):
Well, I told, actually told dad when I moved back that I wanted to double farm ground. And we're kind of not moving anywhere right now, but that's kind of the future is I want to expand the farm ground and Ethan's probably gonna want to expand the cow calf side and expand the trucking side of it. But that's kind of what the future looks like.

Tim Strathman (25:52):
No, it's awesome to see what you guys have built and, and like I said, couldn't ask for more standup people. I've been super fortunate to know you. I haven't known you that long. We, we moved down to the area 10, 11 years ago, but every time I've been around any of your family members, you guys have been nothing but great to me. And so pretty exciting to have you on. What's, what's the best memory you have all time of, of farming, whether that be from the time of your little kid from the time now. What, what sticks out in your mind as something that you'll never be able to forget?

Corbin Becker (26:24):
Probably I'm, I'm gonna go back to harvest again, just 'cause that's a special time around here. It was which is almost every day after school, we would all, all five of us kids would pile in the grand cart with mom and then get to the combines. We all separate, just go, two of us would go with dad, a couple of us would go with Randy, who's, who used to run a combine and coup one of us would go with Grappl, help him unload trucks. But yeah, that was definitely a good memory.

Tim Strathman (26:52):
And I think, again, there are so many people that just don't understand how, how great that is to have that, you know, like I, I would've gave anything to work with dad or grandpa. Both of my grandpas passed before I was even, even a little one. And so to think that, man, you get to spend so much time with your family look back and I, I'm sure you definitely should cherish those moments 'cause Oh yeah. A lot of people don't, don't get that. I guess to close being a young guy, moving back, what would you say to somebody else that is in high school or maybe even in college and thinking, maybe I should move back and farm or maybe I should have that conversation. I'm sure there's a bigger conversation that has to be had, but what advice would you give somebody that's even thinking about it?

Corbin Becker (27:38):
Yeah definitely have the conversation and if it can't happen right away, just I would say either go work for somebody or if you're kind of a school guy, go to college. Get that ag degree. And there's, especially around here, there's so much ag around here that you can get a job until you get the chance to come back and work for the family farm. 'cause It's, just take that challenge honestly.

Tim Strathman (28:05):
Like I said, check out the website. I'll put links in the bio. Go buy a hat. Go buy a shirt, go buy 10 of 'em. It's Christmas time. Buy a whole bunch of 'em. The biggest thing you can do to support humble ground and what we're trying to accomplish and raise awareness for ag and, and bring different stories and different crops and different things, is to like, subscribe, share whatever it is that you do. We appreciate the sport so far. And we'll catch you the next time.