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Episode Transcript

Tim Strathman (00:00):
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everybody that watched episode one or listened to episode one. All the calls, messages, everything, we're really excited about what we're gonna bring to the table and what people we're gonna bring into the conversation. And speaking of, Thomas is here and we're gonna talk dairy today. So Thomas, give us a little bit of background on the, on the operation you've got here.

Thomas Enneking (00:19):
Okay. I appreciate you having me. It's always good to have a voice for the industry. But anyways, I'm a fourth generation dairyman. The family farm started in 1914. I just checked the sign out front, so we're good. We know that is not fake news. My parents kind of grew the herd and then I was able to, I've kind of was day to day from time to time during high school and college. And I drove back and forth from K State to here quite a bit. And, uh, then got an opportunity to kind of come back and take the reins and have been going with it since. We started out. Well, my parents started out milking about 120 cows and grew to about 180, 2 50 kind of organically. And then we jumped about three 50 when we converted to hay barn over to, to a bedded pack barn.

Thomas Enneking (00:58):
So we had three 50 for a wall. I kind of thought that was a good number. I didn't think I was gonna get any bigger. And then in the heart of Covid, everyone kind of struggled. And there was a dairy that just started two years prior, or two or three years prior to Covid. And sometimes you get ate up by the madness when you get $12, a hundred weight milk. Sure think things don't work. And I got a phone call from Dean Becker actually, and he said, Hey, you're a young dairyman in the area. Do you wanna somehow increase your workload and help this bankruptcy situation out? We'll pay you good money, uh, be the herdsman for a while and just, uh, 'cause it was a perishable asset, so they couldn't, they couldn't just liquidate right away. They had, there was three investors involved, two banks, FSA.

Thomas Enneking (01:34):
It was a muddy situation and a lot of people had a lot of liens and a lot of leverage. And so they called me in just to run the dairy, uh, keep the cows alive, keep the cows fed, keep the cows milked until they were able to figure it out. And, uh, one conversation led to another. And before I knew it, we were in conversations to purchase the dairy. And, uh, it, it was an interesting thing I learned a lot. Handshakes don't go that far. Paper and pen is the best way to do things. But about nine months later, on January 1st, 2022, uh, we purchased, uh, the north dairy and I didn't triple overnight, I guess, uh, I tripled nine months later. Uh, but went from 350 to about a thousand cows very quickly. And now we've kind of found a little spot in kind of paying down some of the debt that we kind of occurred, uh, buying the second dairy. But I guess opportunity came and I try, kind of ran with it for better or for worse. Uh, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, but that's how everything goes

Tim Strathman (02:29):
After school. Did you head to K State? If so, what'd you go to K State for and

Thomas Enneking (02:34):
Yeah. Uh, after I graduated, I think everybody in Nemaha County goes to K State. I grew up a ku That's a fair assumption. Yeah. Yeah. I grew up a KU fan, which, which is one of the darnest things 'cause uh, K state's predominant AG and kus not, uh, but I grew up KU fan, but I'm not sure if, if you're going to college because of athletics, you probably shouldn't go to college. I should not base your decision off that. Excellent. So, so I, I, I went to K State Ag BS major, uh, with a minor in actually public speaking, believe it or not. No idea how no

Tim Strathman (02:59):
<laugh> That's why you're

Thomas Enneking (03:00):
Here. I, I, I, I just, I don't know, I just was going through it. I'm like, that sounds cool. So I was a major and I AgBiz with a minor in mass communications, actually, I believe is what it was. I'm not sure. But anyway, so I went to school. I take class Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and actually drove back and forth and wouldn't kind of help run the operation. So that wasn't the best. But the old Honda Civic, she gets like 35 miles to the gallon. So, you know, a tank of gas got me,

Tim Strathman (03:22):
I'm telling you, a whole

Thomas Enneking (03:23):
Week. It was the greatest

Tim Strathman (03:23):
Car ever. And back then, gas probably wasn't, you know what it is today. Yeah. So probably wasn't a bad deal.

Thomas Enneking (03:27):
I filled up at the, at the gas tank here at the dairy. So to be honest, I had no idea what gas cost. Still don't know. But anyway, so I drove that back and forth a lot. If I was able to master, if I gig like a Tuesday, Thursday class, that worked better because I guess I was here more. And then actually two and a half years into K State, I dropped out. And my older brother, uh, was on the operation at the time, and he found an opportunity actually, uh, he became the herdsman for the north area. We bought, um, that was prior to a two hand changes. He was the herdsman for Jerry Spillman Heartland Jerseys. Yep. Jerry Spielman retired and then Seneca Milk Company bought it. So I'm just gonna clean that up a bit. But my brother had an opportunity and, uh, he left the dairy operation here, the home farm. And, uh, it kind of seemed like it was a good time to come back full time. And for better or for worse, I actually partied more in Manhattan once I dropped out then when I was there. Not that that's what the college is about, but there's a small experience involved with that. Yeah,

Tim Strathman (04:17):
That's a lot of it. Yeah. <laugh>.

Thomas Enneking (04:18):
So, so I was able to kind of, right when I turned 21 actually, I, I dropped outta college and came back to the farm and kind of kept running it from there and would bounce up on the weekends every so often and kind have a good time with the boys. But, uh, that's kinda how it all went down, I guess. H

Tim Strathman (04:32):
How'd you manage going to school at K State? The hour drive there? The hour drive back and working. I mean, that, that seems like a lot. Yeah,

Thomas Enneking (04:40):
It seemed like a lot, but I guess when you're young, you might as well do it. Yes. I guess I, I like cows more than people at the end of the day, so it was like, it's like I, I got my people time, not need my cow time, or I might go crazy. So I might've been an insane asylum if I went to school five days a week. Uh, so maybe that's a blessing in disguise.

Tim Strathman (04:55):
When, when you were at K State, how many were you milking at that time?

Thomas Enneking (04:57):
I'd say about about two 80 to three 50. Okay. It fluctuated from time to time, but yeah, we, we got, we probably hit that 300 number when I was probably 18 or 18 to 20 or so.

Tim Strathman (05:06):
So now what's the day to day look like in terms of the family dynamic? How many, how many people does it take to keep it moving? Yeah,

Thomas Enneking (05:12):
We got 13 full-time employees and then including myself, four family members. Uh, so the, the employees are all Hispanic naturally. Um, they do all the milking, all the caffeine. And then I have two guys that are outside guys. And then one guy's the feeder at the North dairy. My dad, he's kind of just the roamer, the, the wisdom, uh, whatever you wanna call it. But he kinda just floats around and tells everybody how to do things. I tend to listen a little more than my brother Gerard, but either way, uh, I take it how you want. He's valuable. He, he does a lot of hay hauling, bailing hay. He loves to be hay at night. So, you know, have at it. My brother Gerard, he handles the, the farming side of things. He's the mechanic, uh, me and him, which I shouldn't say me and him, he predominantly built that freestyle barn that we were working on when you showed up. Yep. Um, so he's a mechanic, you know, he, he worked for Brunos for, uh, I think two to four years. Oh, perfect. So, so they paid for school and he went to Vo-Tech and Beatrice. Yep. And not Beatrice.

Tim Strathman (06:06):
Beloit.

Thomas Enneking (06:06):
Beloit. There. You, you go, went to Beloit for two years. Great school. Yep. Yep. So he was a Beloit mechanic. Worked for Brunos till they, they had a contract there. Uh, he had to work for I say X amount of years. I think it was three years. And they paid for his schooling. Uh, he might've worked a tick over three years, but then he came back as well. Uh, and he does all the farming. I, I really, I know how to start a tractor. That's about it. Um, so it works out well. My mom, she still does all the mixing at the home farm. Uh, she's got that farmer still engraved in her. She wakes up every morning at 3:00 AM Wow. And gets get, yeah, it, it just, she could go to bed at 1:00 AM She's still up at three. It doesn't, it doesn't matter what, how it goes. That's, that's crazy that that internal alarm clock has been engraved. 'cause my mom and dad, they, they for 30 years milked the cows, fed the calves, mix the feed, you know, every day, all day. You know, they were married to the farm more than themselves, some would say. And I don't think if I, if I had to do that, I don't think I'd be daring to be quite honest. Sure. A as bad as that sounds, I guess, uh,

Tim Strathman (07:01):
It's, it's a lot of work though

Thomas Enneking (07:03):
That that's, uh, you know, every once in a while you have to have some personal time, but so they, they, they ran it forever. My mom, every day, her whole life got but 3:00 AM to milk the cows. So she's still got it going. I'm not sure she'll ever not wake up at three, but she does the mixing. And then my job is, is I'm the herdsman for both dairies, I guess. So wake up in the morning, breed cows, uh, then I drive to the north area, breed cows, uh, then, you know, any fresh cow problems, any sick cows, kind of handle all that, you know, in the front part. And then kind just put out fires for the most part, you know, which

Tim Strathman (07:32):
I would guess you got a lot of those do need with as many as you've got.

Thomas Enneking (07:34):
The, the fires are constantly burning, so it's whether, whether it's a milk pump or cows out or sick calves or, or moving calves, treating calves, working calves, uh, you know, anything that involves a, a cattle of any form drying 'em off, I handle that. But the thing that's gonna happen every day is I'll breed the cows. Yep. So, uh, God, God kind of made me a smaller Lanier guy, so I was built to breed cows and pull calves. So I guess, I guess I fell right into it.

Tim Strathman (07:58):
Everybody's got their own thing.

Thomas Enneking (07:59):
Yeah. Yep. Yep. So that's kind of where we go and uh, it kind of works out well. And my brother handles this thing, I handle my thing and my parents have really kind of stepped back a bit. Uh, they still work every day, but they've kind of let us make decisions. Good. So

Tim Strathman (08:13):
Did, so it started in 1914. Would that be on dad's side or mom's side?

Thomas Enneking (08:17):
Yeah, my dad's side. This is my dad's family farm. I guess it was Ecae generation for fourth generation Ecae. Uh, my mom grew up in Wet Morton, actually. Her parents milked cows too, but I think, I would've say they probably got out in the seventies. That could be, that could be off by a couple decades. But that's my number. You're in the vicinity. <laugh>. There you go. 1971, April 3rd, 1971. The equipment.

Tim Strathman (08:36):
Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.

Thomas Enneking (08:37):
Don't fact check that. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, so she grew up, grew up farming as well, and I don't, there's probably a love story somewhere how they met. I really don't know it, but, uh,

Tim Strathman (08:46):
I bet, I bet it was about the dairy industry. I'm sure they met at a, at a conference or something,

Thomas Enneking (08:50):
Or my dad was playing softball one day and she saw him hit a dinger and she's like, that guy right there. Holy

Tim Strathman (08:54):
Cow. He's mine. He's mine, he's

Thomas Enneking (08:55):
Mine

Tim Strathman (08:56):
About those, the kings, man, those any kings you guys. Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (08:58):
Yeah. But anyway, so that's how that happened. And, uh, yeah, so my dad's farm, my grandparents ran it. My great-grandparents ran it. I'm sure my great-grandparents probably milked, one cow had one pig and three chickens. But I think everybody back in the agriculture day did, was very di diversification was pretty prominent back then. Uh, except the quantity wasn't quite as high.

Tim Strathman (09:16):
What's your earliest memory of being on the farm and, and milking? I mean, were you helping when you were a little one? Yeah,

Thomas Enneking (09:22):
Probably. I got I think, two memories that I kind of like, well, which I, we'd, we'd always rotate who got up in the morning. It was always best you if you, if you milked with my dad. 'cause he got up at like four, 4:15 AM My mom was like 2:50 AM <laugh>. So, you know, there, there, there's a lot more sleep involved if, if you got my dad's shift. Yeah. But either way, I'd always milk in the morning predominantly with my mom, I think. And she would, I would always, she would always milk one cow into a, a glass cup for me. And then I, I would drink that milk and the cow's name was Brownie. Uh, we weren't very deep thinkers. The cow was brown. That's why we named her Brownie. So,

Tim Strathman (09:53):
So I guess it makes sense, man.

Thomas Enneking (09:54):
Yeah. It says I, no one's confused at that process. Um, but when I kind of got older and I kind of understood numbers a little better, uh, brownie was a high SME cell cow, which is mastitis pathogens. So she was like an 800 to a million s medic cell cow her entire life. And my mom was sitting here just stripping that milk right into a cup, letting me drink it. So I'm, I'm gonna at least thank her for my immunity, I guess, you know, I'm like a cockroach now. Yeah. I get, that didn't kill me. I think we're gonna keep on ticking, but I, maybe there's something about the mastitis that made it taste a little better, but it was the greatest milk ever, you know, straight warm, you know, 90 something degrees, just, just straight into the cup and just drink at it. Uh, or every, every time a tree finished milking the condensers, which cools the milk, you'd always, you know, in January when it's cold, you prop up on that condenser and you kinda get the cold breeze blowing on you yet, but you got the warmth of the condenser coming behind you.

Thomas Enneking (10:41):
Some of the greatest naps I've ever had in my life happened right there.

Tim Strathman (10:44):
I can only imagine condenser. I can only imagine.

Thomas Enneking (10:46):
And then the one, I guess memory, it's not really a memory of mine, but it's, uh, I've always kind of enjoyed animals and kind of made things up, I think from time to time. But I think it's some accuracy to it. But we were working in caves one time at the Heifer yard, and, uh, there was a new litter of kitties born right in the alleyway of where the, where we worked in calves. And I swore, which I, I need to look this up, but I swore if you touched a mama's new kitties, she would never claim them again. Yep.

Thomas Enneking (11:11):
I don't know, I think it might be a wife still our farmer's Almanac thing, but I believe it. And my dad was going to grab 'em to pick 'em up to move 'em so we could start working calves. And I just went off the deep and ball and cry and tell him he's gonna kill these kitties and all this. And to be honest, I, he might have, I, I can't, I can't verify if he did or didn't kill 'em. But that was, that was something that actually Dr. Sam Ry now always brings up from time down. He goes, I still remember that time when you were about eight years old, you thought your dad was killing them kitties. So I guess I've always had a little spot for, for animals, I guess. So I guess kinda makes sense. This is I what I chose to do.

Tim Strathman (11:45):
It fits all. I'd love to, to dive into just some, some numbers. I think people would love to understand how much milk is produced Yeah. And what, what all that is. So I'm gonna fire away a few things and Yep. And give me as close as answer as you can. There

Thomas Enneking (12:00):
You go. It's always, it's always plus or minus 10. Yeah.

Tim Strathman (12:02):
Yeah. So how many times a day do you milk?

Thomas Enneking (12:04):
Uh, two and a half times a day. Which is actually pretty unique. I don't think there's too many dairymen that do that.

Tim Strathman (12:09):
Explain that. Yeah. Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (12:10):
Uh, so most dairyman milk two times a day or three times a day. Correct. You know, that's, that's what it is. Yep. Um, and we were looking at maybe capitalizing a little more milk or, or just sometimes I think cleaning the alleyways and getting your cows up and going sometimes is a good thing. And when I came back, we were actually very interested in robotic milkers. We went on a couple tours, checked out robotic milkers a lot. And one thing I noticed is almost every robotic milking herd averages 2.6 to 2.8 milkings a day. They never hit three and they never go around two. So we kind of looked into it and ran the numbers. Uh, we, we do it on a 50 hour window every two days. So there are two shifts that are nine hours apart, but predominantly it's a 10 hour shift at scene.

Thomas Enneking (12:53):
So like today we milked at 9:00 AM 7:00 PM tomorrow will be 4:30 AM 2:30 PM and 11:30 PM and then it just rolls back into the 9:00 AM 7:00 PM Interesting. So my milkers, they kinda like it because there, there can be a gripe sometimes on who's on the morning shift and who's on the night shift. Sure. Which, which I, I understand. And then, then you're playing the game of juggling 'em back and forth. And it seems to not, the sleep schedule's wonky and just, there can't be any routine established. So they just flow, they do every other shift. They just kinda keep rolling with it. So you got a good nice 9:00 AM shift and you, you got the crappy 11:30 PM shift. But it, it's fair. It's fair. And no one can complain and say, Hey, you're, you're playing favorites over on this side of the spectrum. Right. When in four days that person's gonna be covering that shift anyway. So yeah. I think it's worked out well for, for the employees. And also we we're not, you know, we're saving a shift every two days. So, you know, you got your, your runtime of the milk barn, you got labor savings. So Yeah, robots told me that and we kind of ran with it and

Tim Strathman (13:52):
Amazing. And

Thomas Enneking (13:54):
I think it's working. We've been in it for four years now. I think we've been on, actually oof, probably six to eight years now. 'cause that was when we had just the south farm. That's when we started it. And when I bought the north area, I, I kept the north area at two x for about two years, year and a half to kind of just get a, a grip on things I, I didn't want to. And then we rolled right into two and a half X and haven't stopped. So there you go.

Tim Strathman (14:18):
So what is, what is production like in a day? What, what is a good production per cow? Per day? Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (14:28):
Uh, well, a good one's a hundred pounds, but we, we don't hit that. I'm a predominant J jersey herd. I probably a hundred, maybe a hundred hol straight Holsteins now. Uh, this, my family farm used to be all Holsteins. Yep. Uh, then me and my brother actually kind of started tinkering into Jersey genetics and kind of brought a few, as they call 'em, barn rats in, uh, and they were just a couple of them. And then kind of liked it. And I liked the cross. I started breeding jersey a little bit here and kind of started increasing that. And then when we bought the north dairy, it was a straight jersey herd. Right. And the, the freestyle built for Jersey, the milking parlor is built for Jersey. Um, so I haven't bred Holstein semen in probably five years now. So we, we, we run about, uh, 64 pound tank average. All both farms seen together. Uh, my North dairy, I think we're running 59 to 61 pounds kind of variance. You know, sometimes you get 95 degrees in wind blowing, you're gonna drop about 1500 pounds a day. Yep. And then, you know, my Holstein herd or predominant Holstein herd slash fresh cows, which are here, uh, I think we're around 78 to 82. So,

Tim Strathman (15:28):
So, so when you said it was set up for jerseys e explain the difference between setup for that as compared to setup for

Thomas Enneking (15:33):
Holsteins? Um, so anyways, where the cow lays, I'm not sure if people aren't familiar with the free stall barn, but it's, it's either a looped metal stall or we, we've actually gone to a lot of PVC green stalls. Great philosophy. I'm not sure if they're there on infrastructure. They break very easily. I bet that's, I bet that's one of the things. But, so the, the stall width for a Holstein is recommended around 48 to 51 inches. So that's the kind of the space the cow needs in Widthwise in a jersey, they sit around 38 to 41 inches. So the stalls themselves are much more narrow. Sure. 'cause I mean, a big Jersey's gonna be 1100 pounds. Big Holstein's gonna be 1800 to a ton. So just the vast size and the, the lunge room and, and the width of the stalls is what it all comes down to

Tim Strathman (16:17):
For someone that doesn't know the difference. And I, I guess I would be interested to know the answer to this question as well. So, with jerseys you lose production. Is that safe to say? Yes. Total production? Yes. So what would be the reasoning to go with them? Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (16:30):
Well, uh, jerseys consume less feed. We feed about 30 less pounds of dry matter a day for a Jersey cow. So, so feed costs are suppressed and components are elevated. So Jersey, I think we're running like a five one fat and a three nine protein right now. But like a, a typical, this is gonna be slightly wrong 'cause the Holstein breeds just gotten amazing on, on the genetics that they've pushed has just, just been unreal. Genomic testing stuff has just made the Holstein breed take off quite literally. Um, so I'm actually second guessing myself now, but typical Holstein used to be a three five fat 3.0 protein was, was what, what you assumed you got Typical Jersey was a five eight fat, three eight protein. So you get a little more of a premium. You know, our, our milk has always got about a $4 per hundred weight premium on it, just based off fat component and protein component.

Tim Strathman (17:19):
So do you have to split those systems entirely?

Thomas Enneking (17:23):
Nope. We, we milk 'em all together. Okay. Probably in the same tank. Uh, goes to the same style silo at DFA at the end of the day. They, and I always kind of wondered, I, I'm a predominant fluid milk market where my milk goes, I'm kind of like, I'm not sure why I'm collecting this premium, to be quite honest. 'cause you're actually skimming it right off. But I, I always make this small quip that I, I'm, I'm paid to ship milk, not water. So that's why I like the jerseys. Sorry.

Tim Strathman (17:44):
I fair. Yeah. So, so say jerseys are roughly 60 pounds, the other ones are 75 to 80. What does that convert to in, in gallons per day?

Thomas Enneking (17:54):
What's the eight pounds is a gallon. Okay. So yeah, 10 gallons for a Holstein and eight eight for a jersey. Yeah.

Tim Strathman (18:00):
Seven or eight. That's a lot of milk. That's a lot of milk seven days a week. Yep.

Thomas Enneking (18:06):
So do the math. We, we ship roughly, uh, some 24,000, 22, around 48,000 to 50,000 pounds a day. So you can do that math, divide that by eight. I'm not sure what that number's gonna be, but, but that's

Tim Strathman (18:21):
A heck of a number.

Thomas Enneking (18:21):
That's a heck of a number. Do they,

Tim Strathman (18:22):
Do they pick up every day?

Thomas Enneking (18:24):
Yeah. Yep. Actually my, my south farm we picked up every other day. Uh, we, we have a 6,000 gallon, uh, bulk tank, so we're able to get every other day pick up there. And my north area picked up every day.

Tim Strathman (18:35):
Do you know where your milk goes predominantly? Obviously I know where you know it goes, but from that distribution, do you know where it goes? Highland?

Thomas Enneking (18:42):
So Highland products Cool. Or Hill Hillend. Yep. I'm not sure how you wanna pronounce it, but either way. Yep. So it goes, it goes predominantly to Kansas City. Sometimes it'll go to Omaha, but they're both Highland owned processing facilities. And I think it's, it is fluid milk. That is what I'm pretty sure most of it goes to. We might have some butter and stuff in there. I'm on the DFA board. I should know exactly how that product is made. You got a lot

Tim Strathman (19:02):
Going on, man. But there

Thomas Enneking (19:02):
You go. I guess I, one day I'll know exactly where, what it's made into.

Tim Strathman (19:05):
So what's it like knowing that you have thousands and thousands and thousands of gallons leaving here and going to grocery stores and going to people's tables?

Thomas Enneking (19:14):
I, I don't think I've ever like thought of it to be honest. Like, like it's something when you grow up doing it your whole life, you really don't put no, which is, which is terrible. But you put no, like, gratitude into that almost. It, it sat on my part and, and I've almost grown mute to the point of, you know, you walk by that and you never like, take satisfaction from it almost. It, it, it is a bad thing. I should step back and be like,

Tim Strathman (19:36):
That's, that's incredible. That's

Thomas Enneking (19:37):
Super cool. This it's, but we were doing, we were, we were feeding the world quite literally. And, and then I, and I, I kind of just almost, almost have grown null to it. But, but at the end of the day, it is cool when you realize, you know, especially when you see the products that you know that your milk directly goes to. Yeah. You kind of like, and I've been to some of them plants and stuff before, and it is kind of just cool to see that entire thing going, seeing the innovation that the dairy industry's trying to do now. And, and hopefully it keeps growing with it because, uh, supply and demand's a heck of a deal. And so hopefully we can keep creating demand with, with different products and pushing certain products. And, you know, I think butter's a new Taj Mahal, so hopefully, hopefully butter keeps rocking and margin just, just off a cliff. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah. But yeah, no, it's cool. It, it is. But I don't think I've ever, like, really,

Tim Strathman (20:23):
You've done it your whole life, so it's probably just

Thomas Enneking (20:25):
Something that's, it's always something you've always just, heck, I thought everybody milked cows there for a while. You know? I thought everybody kind of did that. I guess I drink the raw milk, so I do appreciate that side of the thing, go right to the tank. It's something I've always done. So I'm not sure if I, not to, not to bash store milk, but not a big fan

Tim Strathman (20:41):
<laugh>. I can, I can just about imagine, I saw a statistic when I was doing some research, but I can't remember where it came from, so don't quote me on it as you would say. But in 2002, the average size of a dairy in the US was 139. Yep. 2022 was like 3 35. Uh, you keep that path in 2040. It's gonna be about the size. You are a little, a little smaller. Um, do you see, uh, you would obviously be around it, obviously on the, on the board of DFA. Do you see the smaller family owned farms that are say a hundred to 300 shutting down? What, what, what do you see in the industry, I guess in terms of the family, family farm?

Thomas Enneking (21:21):
No, unfortunately, I think it's that trajectory's not gonna stop. Uh, it, it really stinks. But it's just, it's just the way, the way the nature of the agriculture business in general is there, there aren't too many mom and pop swine operations, poultry operations, farming operations, you know, cow calf bears almost have kind of gone by the wayside themselves too, these confinement barns and stuff. So I, I really don't think the small mom and pop farms are really even gonna be around in 20 years, to be honest. Just kind of looking at nemaha itself. There, there's a lot of farms that don't have Yep. The, the generation, my generation just isn't coming back. They don't want to do it. And it's kind of what it all boils down to, which is why when I got this opportunity for the North dairy, uh, I, I kind of seen that we had to grow or get out as sad as it sounds.

Thomas Enneking (22:04):
So I thought it was a great opportunity to grow to a number that I, I thought was sustainable. Uh, you know, eventually one day I wanna milk 1200 cows on one dairy because having two farms isn't that sustainable, to be honest. We're, we're kind of doubling labor and doubling equipment, doubling mixers, you know, things that we do not be doubling Yep. Uh, that we are currently doubling. Uh, but it takes a lot of money to buy things and, uh, build a new parlor and stuff like that. So I guess baby steps. Yeah. I, I think we're gonna keep going that way. I think these larger dairies will keep adding another farm, another farm here and there. And, uh, the farmer, the smaller farms, you know, we used to have the old tombstone sitting up the upright silos. Um, they're gonna still be tombstones. I, I, i robotics has made it easier and I kind of wish the robotic would've hit 10 years sooner than it did in America. I think we would've had a lot more of these farms stay on, and some of them kids could've seen the technology and the advancements that were there without milking the cow every day, twice a day.

Tim Strathman (23:00):
It's, it's amazing to see it's what that's done. Like we were talking before, you know, we travel and we, we work for quite a few ag tech companies and to see the technologies that's coming back to the farm on the, on the crop side of things is where most of our stuff is. Yeah. But it, it definitely is more intriguing to the next generation. Yeah. If, if they can have an iPad and control something as compared to manually have to do it. And so I I would say that's probably pretty accurate. Yeah. If it was, yeah, no,

Thomas Enneking (23:25):
If they were just here to tick sooner, uh, there's, there's a lot of people I think would've put 'em in and their kid would've would've seen that, that cool side of things. You know, technology sells, uh, the AI boom is a complete suggestive property of that. But yeah, no, so I think if robots came sooner, the conversation probably would've been similar, but it might not have been as, as steep and drastic as you said. Uh, but Mike Brook, uh, one of my professors at K State told me, he goes, the average farm has to double two times in his life in that generation's lifespan for it to be sustainable. You know, so we've already done that, which sad to see. So I guess maybe I'm good, but I have a hard time thinking that, to be quite honest. You know, it, it just, you kinda just gotta keep growing to keep, keep cash flowing is what it comes down to. So

Tim Strathman (24:05):
What's the future look like for Annie King?

Thomas Enneking (24:07):
I changed my mind about once a week. So, so you count me on a week where I think actually I, I just said to you that I wanted to milk 1200 cows in one dairy. Um, but this week I think I wanna run two farms yet and milk around 1200 cows on each dairy. So that's kind of the number we're at. 'cause right now, currently we are at one of these statistics that I'm gonna misquote completely, but the 300 to 600 cow dairy is the least efficient size farm you can be.

Tim Strathman (24:30):
Why is that?

Thomas Enneking (24:31):
'cause when you, when you're under that, you're doing it all yourself. There's no outside labor. The labor is you, you know, you're paying yourself a wage for that. And then when you get above that, you kind of start to have different level levels of management, you know, where like, kind of me being the herdsman, I have to do that right now in this operation. And that kind of makes me lose other things that I could be focusing on and doing better on, rather than running around and, you know, breeding the cows and, and treating the fresh cows and getting the cows in and stuff. So once you get big enough, you kinda hire a guy that can do that and you kind of overwatch it at our level, you know, we're double seven herringbone and taking six and a half hours to milk our cows. You know, we're compared to some of these large farms. I kind of made a joke, like, you know, far is down in, uh, Texas, they can milk my herd in 15 minutes. You know, so you kind of get it kind of grain to think about

Tim Strathman (25:22):
Do that

Thomas Enneking (25:23):
Crazy about. So, so you either have to become slightly more efficient and and optimize your labor, which we currently don't do. Uh, so we're, we're, we're the worst size least profitable size of farm. And I decide I'm at a second one, so now I have two of them. So I think you have to, you have to either grow at least a little bit or dial it all the way back, put in robots or, or, or milk the cows yourself are, are kind of the two caveats that are the most profitable. Granted, anybody can run a pencil and probably make anything look as, as they wish. I'd agree with that. Nu numbers can be fudged any direction you wish and they, they can make things look however you want. So, but I do agree with it. Like I said, it, it's a, I like what I do. I, I, I, I hope I never sit in an office and run my farms. Uh, that that would be a bad day. Which maybe getting 1200, 2400 cows might cause that to happen. Maybe when I'm 40, uh, 55 years old, my knees and back hurt. I might wanna sit in a chair and do that might be the perfect

Tim Strathman (26:13):
Opportunity at

Thomas Enneking (26:14):
That point. But currently I, I, I, I gotta be out doing it. I'll go crazy if I don't. Uh, so I do enjoy that, but I think that we're missing out on a lot of efficiencies and dollars by, by being what we are.

Tim Strathman (26:24):
Yeah. No, and it's neat. You can step back and look at that and then try to plan for the future and try to figure out how to get outta that and, and move on to the next level. Uh, tell me a little bit about your involvement in DFA. What, how long have you been doing that? What's that look like? Yeah, do you travel for it?

Thomas Enneking (26:40):
Okay. Yeah, no, I, I've, I always, which was dairymen are extremely small minority. Like if you find a dairy, Nemo's got a small pocket of dairies, which is extremely unique, but dairymen for the most part are hard to find. Um, so I've always enjoyed when I was, you know, kind of younger, I went on quite a bit of dairy tours and World Dairy Expo and I just enjoyed talking to Dairymen. 'cause we're kind of got, yeah, we're a different breed or something. Like, like there dairymen are just weird. I don't know what, how to put it, but, but there's not many people we can relate to. You know, you like a dairy farmer and a grain farmer. We we're both an ag but at the end of the day it's, it's, it's a wildly different world. So it is nice to especially just getting ideas, just talking with other dairymen and, Hey, how you doing this protocol?

Thomas Enneking (27:19):
What are you doing here? So I always enjoyed going on tours and going to meetings and stuff just in general. That's pre DFA, but like Alta genetics, <inaudible>, you know, would, would have tours vi plus. And I'd go on 'em and I was like, this is awesome. Like, it's, it is two days, but it's just a bunch of guys that do the same thing as me. Um, so I can't 'em on about not having money 'cause they, they're in the same boat. So at the end the day we're gonna try to solve problems. So I always enjoyed just talking to 'em and kind of the networking possibilities of it. Uh, and then I kind of got, they said, Hey, Thomas, come to the D-F-A-Y-C Young Cooperative, uh, which is now 45 years or younger, which we keep bumping it up though 'cause the median age of the farmer keeps going up every year.

Thomas Enneking (27:59):
Definitely. So, so I, I started gonna the YC meetings and they just do two a year. Um, they do the central district and then they do the national d uh, yc. Um, I, I always to go to the district one, which is either noal, Kansas City or, uh, Dubuque, Iowa. And I just right up to that. And then I was, I don't know who, I can't remember who told me, but they're like, Hey, you should apply for the D-F-A-Y-C board. So I went ahead and applied and I didn't get accepted the first year. And I was like, well that's, that's a real, real kick in the groin. Anybody, you know, you know, trial by error. Uh, so then in the next year I went ahead and applied again and, and I got on it, it's the DFA young cooperative. So I'm not officially on the D FFA board, but I go to the meetings, you know, I'm kind of a sit in. They're like, like this is, you know, it it's, it, it was mind

Tim Strathman (28:42):
Blowing. Prepping you for the future though. Yeah,

Thomas Enneking (28:44):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Brian ha Camp Kel Hills is currently the, actually our, our area's representative. Trying to think how big of it, it's probably like a 200 mile, 150 mile radius, you know. So DFA central district I think has 12 to 16 board members, you know, that covers from Wisconsin down to Oklahoma. Um,

Tim Strathman (29:02):
So That's neat to be a part of though. Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (29:04):
Yeah.

Tim Strathman (29:05):
So, and I think you're, you can tell you're passionate about the industry and so being involved in that probably just helps again, talk about the industry and, and meet with the people to make, make sure that, you know, we can keep family farms operating realistically.

Thomas Enneking (29:18):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. The ycs been awesome. Like I said. So I, I'm on my last term this year. Then I can go for the DFA YC open board position, which actually would be a voting member of the board. Uh, I think I'll try that then once I finish my YC run. Uh, but yeah, I've had an opportunity, I'm going to DC again this year or next year. I went to DC two years ago. I was able to talk to some politicians and kind of talk about, you know, the farm bill and stuff like that. So that was real cool to go to dc They flew me in there. They would go to Florida for, uh, some milk thing. Uh, you know, they showed you some farms and, you know, so I went to that. I think Vegas might be on the books this year, but, so I'll, I'll go to 2D FA central district board meetings. I'll go to the DFA national meeting, and then they'll kind of put me off to some of these, uh, subsidies that are sub, sub sub. Some, some kind of a subs involved in that word subsid, sub sub subject subsidiary sub. There you go. That's impossible to say. It's like six or seven.

Tim Strathman (30:14):
I've got 70% of it, man,

Thomas Enneking (30:15):
<laugh>. But, so they'll get it. Like, it's not, it's not through DFA, it's through like milk one or something like that. But D FFA sends representatives and I was able to do that. So that was cool. Uh, the DC one was real sweet. You kind of get to walk around and talk to politicians and they said, I did real well, but they, they threw me in front of people that are in favor of the dairy industry. I said, they put me with like book or something. Some of that really hates the cows and let's see what I can do here. So it was cool to do that and actually see the inner workings of how everything goes. Like I said, being on the DFA boards made me appreciate how vast and wild, you know, I'm, I'm just a producer of raw milk. I, I don't get it to the table.

Thomas Enneking (30:51):
I, I, I make the milk, the processors, and the, the, the logistics behind that is, is incredible. Very, very incredible. It, it's mind boggling. What, what they, how they handle all that. And I, I kinda like me seeing milking stores, I took it for granted, you know, I was like, oh yeah, they, they got, it's pud what are they doing? They're getting this great product and they're just selling it. There's a lot that goes into, that's a lot that goes into it. Yeah. And I was able to go to Springfield, Missouri, uh, they had their DFA innovations plant there. So they, they, they are constantly trying and making new products. Uh, so they'll have a company, which I think it's all NDAs, so I can't say anyone's name, but they, they'll company, they'll call and say, Hey, I want you to find a way to get this cheddar cheese on this popcorn, and I want it to stay.

Thomas Enneking (31:33):
You know, or, or we were, wow. Or the new one is the, they're trying to make cereal milk, I think's what they call that. So like, you know, the milk at the bottom of your cereal bowl, you know, you always drink it up. Yeah. Tastes great. I think. I'm not, I ain't taste good. I don't know. But so like, they're gonna try to make like free loop flavored milk really? Or, or Honey Nut Cheerios. Kids will love that. Yeah. Yeah. So, so that, that's one thing they were trying when I was there, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Um, maybe that's a wild idea. Maybe it won't. But yeah, they've had things like that, you know, just ways that, you know, the extended li shelf life, the EE ESL's a big thing right now. Um, so it was really cool to go there.

Thomas Enneking (32:09):
They had about 25 projects going on and just kinda seeing how, you know, there are things happening. You know, we always like to complain about the industry of, oh, they're just, you know, selling milk, but they're actually trying to push the envelope in, in a few ways. And, and I can appreciate that. So that was really cool to go, something I didn't even know was real, so I didn't even know was happening. But being on the DFA board, we got the opportunity to go down there and check the plant out for a day, try all kinds of food. I will say one thing they did very silly, uh, they fed us right before we walked into the building. And then while we were checking out all the food stations, they let us try all the food. So we had a full stomach, and you're sitting there trying to eat some ice cream or, or eat some mac and cheese. And you're like, man, why, why, why why'd we do this? But other than that, it was awesome. I always told DFA, they need to like put a website up of that. 'cause that was,

Tim Strathman (32:51):
That sounds incredible. Yeah, it was really

Thomas Enneking (32:53):
Sweet. And I know they can't give tours all day. 'cause they had to shut the place down. You had to wear your hair nuts. It's like, you can't, you can't walk in, have people just, you know, it can't be an assembly line checking the place out. Um,

Tim Strathman (33:02):
But I, but I think that that goes into the next point. I've got a couple more questions and, and wanna be respectful of your time. People I don't think have a, a clue what is in the dairy industry, right? So the dairy industry, I feel like the only time it makes the news is for reasons that it shouldn't make the news. Yeah. If that's the, the, the best way to put that. So if they could give tours or even people could come see how well they're treated Yeah. And what goes into it, rather than a news station saying they they treat, they treat 'em like crap, or they shouldn't be milking 'em twice a day or three times a day. Yeah. Or I guess the biggest question I had was probably last year, I wanna say you saw all over the news that dairies were dumping milk out just onto the ground. You remember that? Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (33:43):
Partially. But I know what you're talking about.

Tim Strathman (33:44):
Yeah. Do you, do you know why that was?

Thomas Enneking (33:47):
See, is this, uh, is this international or is this here in America? Because I know New Zealand was doing it. They were on strike. They were just dumping it on the highway.

Tim Strathman (33:53):
They were just, they were just for strike

Thomas Enneking (33:54):
That, that, yeah, that was that. Yeah.

Tim Strathman (33:55):
But, you know, but, but that's the only thing that makes the news though. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's not a like, Hey, look at this operation in northeast Kansas that puts out thousands and thousands and thousands of gallon of milk that goes to the stores and makes it to the home. And they don't cover that. Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (34:10):
No, no. It, uh, I guess, uh, how am I gonna word that bad cells, you know, you know, bad news cells. I mean, and

Tim Strathman (34:20):
It travels fast too.

Thomas Enneking (34:20):
Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you wanna get click clickbait, you know, you gotta put up something that's flash. You know, one's gonna be like, which I guess you, I could have a video of me petting my cow and they'd be like, yeah, this is awesome. You know, cow therapy kind of had like a hot minute of run, you know, where people would chin on their cows. Yeah. But yeah, no, I've always say my, my fiance lives in Kansas City. I've had an opportunity to go there, you know, for a long time now. And it, it is amazing how sometimes naive and, and things I took for granted, you know, uh, just her friends and stuff. And, and the, the, I had somebody ask me, like, they're like, so, so you take off on Christmas, don't you? I'm like, no, we got, we gotta do this every day.

Thomas Enneking (34:55):
They like, like, like these cows get milked every day. And then they're like, really? They like, they're like, you gotta really push 'em up to do that. I said, no, if, if, if we have a milk bump go down and I, and I can't do my milk shift on time, go to my front gate, all the cows are sitting right there bawling like crazy. I believe it milk streaming out. And they run right to that barn. You know, we, we don't push nobody. They, they walk up. It, it, it, it's, uh, and, and it takes eight minutes. That's what people don't really, the cow works for 16 minutes a day. The, the other, however long that is, she is chilling in a sand bed, eating food

Tim Strathman (35:28):
With fans. With fans. I, I was gonna say, always got food in front of you. Yeah. It's a pretty good good.

Thomas Enneking (35:32):
Yeah. Right now my mom's feeding the mix off right now, the last mix of the day for him. So it, it's not too bad a lifestyle. And I've actually kind of joked every once in a while I said, my cows have it better than most dogs in cities.

Tim Strathman (35:43):
Oh, sure.

Thomas Enneking (35:44):
You know, the, the, the room to roam. They, they have passion when they go dry, they have a 60 day vacation on that. Don't hit 'em. Don't hit 'em. They, they, they lay where they want. They where they want, they eat where they want. Not sure what else more you could ask for. So I, I've always kind of thought that was funny when you have a person that, you know, talks smack on the dairy industry, but they got a giant St. Bernard in a hundred by hundred apartment room. I'm like, right. Like, come on. Yeah. Like, what are you doing here?

Tim Strathman (36:06):
Yeah. No. You mentioned a little bit of technology earlier with the robotics. So when I was walking through earlier, you had collars on 'em. Yep. What, for people that don't understand what that's for, can you explain what the callers do? What, what the data that you're trying to get from that is? Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (36:20):
The best way to put, it's a giant Fitbit. You know, just, just your Fitbit. I got on my cow's neck. So it, it's amazing what technology can do. It. It tracks rumination, cud chewing. So, so, you know, if the cow's healthy, she's, she's ruminating and rumination is kind of nasty. It's like the regurgitation of their food. Cows just puke all the time. Then reet it, that's how good the food is. You get eat it twice. Um, so they got got really good. So, I mean, come on. So anyway, so, so it levels, uh, where it's located in pick up rumination on the cow, and then it picks up just, just activity steps. When cows are animals of nature or animals of habit, you know, you ruin, they, you ruin their routine, you ruin their day. Um, so a cow creates a, it takes about two weeks and it creates a baseline on that cow.

Thomas Enneking (37:03):
And so any change, you know, when cows are out, the computer system tells me I got a hundred cows to breed. That's 'cause they're not used to the cows running for, you know, a quarter mile down the road. But so, so it tracks rumination. So, so sick. You know, health, health, my cattle, it gives me alerts every, well every minute it up. But I check it every morning and every night. So I'll get, I'll get rumination health alerts. So, you know, hey, actually I have two of 'em right now. 1303 in my fresh pin. Her rumination levels are down. I think she's at a 69.4. The average is like an 80. So it, it barcoded her up. And so I'll, I'll go and I'll, I'll run her in and I'll, I'll ping her and check her for mastitis, check her temperature, things along that nature.

Thomas Enneking (37:42):
And then it also notifies me for cows to breed. So a cow's activity level will spike when she's in heat, she's looking for a mate, virtually what she's doing. So she's running around the place going, Hey, who wants to get it on? And I guess that's me. So <laugh>. So anyways, so that picks up activity level and then it, and it, and it, what I really appreciate about it is, is it, it tracks when they start that heat cycle because I, I can't watch, you know, I wish I could, but I can't watch my cows 24 7, 365. Uh, you know, I pop in the barn in the morning, I pop in the barn in the afternoon, but I never know when that cow truly started her cycle. So I think it's gonna, hopefully I, like I said, I, I've just been running this program for about two months now, but I'm hoping it will really dial in my breeding, because a cow's breeding window is very, very minute.

Thomas Enneking (38:28):
So like, I think there's a lot of cows I'd see in heat, then I'd breed 'em, I'd do the A MPM rule and I'd breed 'em in the afternoon and they could have been out of it. And there, there was no way I was gonna get 'em conceived regardless of how well of a breeder I was. Yeah. So, so it gives me a breeding window. Um, and I, I try to hit 13 to 17 hours, uh, post, I guess post giant heat. There's probably a word I should know that I should use there. Post big asterisk,

Tim Strathman (38:52):
Somebody will comment for sure. Somebody

Thomas Enneking (38:53):
Will be like, this guy, this guy has no idea what he's doing. Um, but Well, it's funny. I appreciate it though, dude. You're probably probably

Tim Strathman (38:59):
Shooting the truth. Hey, and if you are commenting, make sure you comment what it's supposed to be. Yeah, yeah.

Thomas Enneking (39:03):
So we need, we need some word choice here, but I say a lot of words most are wrong. I do agree with that.

Tim Strathman (39:07):
No, the technology, like you said, is, is incredible. Yeah, no, I

Thomas Enneking (39:11):
Mean, we've been genomic and cattles. I mean, you pull a piece of their, you pull 20 hair roots, you send it off and they, they give you a projected how good of a cow is she gonna be? And, and you can make breeding decisions like, well if she's gonna be a rock star, I'm gonna bring her sex semen and I'm gonna try to get a heifer calf off her. She's not gonna be that good of a girl. Guess what? I'll breed you beef. We'll have the beef on dairy cross going. That has a valuable, valuable asset. You know, rather than let's keep that crabby. Right. You know, nothing against, uh, families, but sometimes there's really good families and really bad families and we're trying to weed that out.

Tim Strathman (39:44):
That's, that's life. That's life.

Thomas Enneking (39:45):
So, and we will beef 'em up and then we'll raise them calves about eight weights and then sell 'em through the local auction. Um, so it kind of helps with, you know, it's amazing. You take hair roots and it tells you this G's gonna be a plus 2300 milk. She's gonna be plus 1.1 DPR. And you know, her feet and legs are gonna be sucky though. So you're like, go, well I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna either breed a bull that's gonna try to improve that, right. Or I'm gonna just try to cut that.

Tim Strathman (40:07):
But, but it allows you to make those decisions. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. You know, it's using data to make the decisions. Yeah.

Thomas Enneking (40:12):
Which is, which is incredible. Which is good. 'cause clearly I don't even know what EST extra is. And I, I should not be making the decisions off my own eye. I should have somebody tell me how to do this. Oh. But yeah, no, that the, the, which my parlors are old, but the amount, the, the collar one day, which when I put into parlor, it'll gimme daily milk wakes, it'll gimme like milk conductivity, which it measures the heat of the milk, which tells you cows developing Matt pathogens before she even shows any signs from the eye. And then, you know, they have ca cameras on top that ran, read body condition scores, you know, cows are getting too fleshy, cows are getting too skinny, uh, locomotion scoring. I mean, the, the dairy industry does a very good job of using the technology given to us, you know, smart sprinklers, they, they only spray water when a cow is in front of it, eating feed, um, you know, variable speed fans that ramp up as the day goes, you know, things along that nature. I think that's awesome. I think we're doing a good job of, you know, it's a big, hot word sustainability, and I think we've done a great job in this area industry trying to limit water usage and trying, trying to reduce less of an electrical grid pool. Um, so there you

Tim Strathman (41:14):
Go. That's awesome. Two more questions and, and, and we will get outta here. Do you raise your own replacements or somebody else do the replacements?

Thomas Enneking (41:21):
Yes. We, we raise all of our own replacements on which I've kind of grabbed that in a bit. When I first bought that North dairy and, you know, it was just a dairy, it had, it had no, you know, know, he, he rented his lots out and he brought 'em to some other guys locally, then brought him to place in Missouri. Um, so it was just a dairy. So all of a sudden I had a thousand milk cows, about 300 replacements, but enough room for only 300 replacements. Um, so we've been trying to grow and expand the replacement side of things and we, we kind of sold some calves, bull calves younger. Um, but yeah, we've rai we raised all the replacements there for a while. When I first bought the north area, I had

Thomas Enneking (42:04):
Nine different locations where I had calves. Um, so, so holy. Yeah, no, if I can find a place to put 'em or gotta do it, I, I was plugging 'em and playing 'em everywhere I could. And that in itself was a headache because I would bet so some of 'em were just places we rented and we, we had to feed 'em and take care 'em ourselves, you know, and a few of the guys did that themself as well. So not only was I driving to the north and south there every day I was driving to the, the, the Halfer yards to check out 'cause ammonia is a heck of a thing and it's quick. Um, so we, we were, you know, kind of running around with their chicken head cut off, you know, just trying to find any and everything going everywhere. But we've kind of dialed that in a bit. We, we've added a few pins, so we've kind of been able to keep it. We've got four places now only, so we, we've been able to dial that back drastically.

Tim Strathman (42:44):
Hey, efficiencies, man. There you go.

Thomas Enneking (42:45):
We're at least trying a little bit. So yeah, we've raised our replacements. Raise all of our cals on site right here, like my south dairy. I still, it's a weird cycle. Didn't even talk about it, but some, all cows have babies at my south farm, so like I'll dry 'em off at North Dairy. They'll, they'll hang out in the far off dry cow pen for 30 days and they move 'em to move them to south dairy. All cows in fresh cows are here at the south dairy, which has made it a lot easier because I have one pen where the cows sit for 21 days. I know I have to check that pen every day because not, this is a completely false number, but 94% of cow cow issues result in the fresh cow pen. So if you can get them off to that good start, you really shouldn't have to touch 'em again until they go dry. And then that, that's the key. You don't wanna be messing with the girls. You want their habit and their routine to stay as calm and chill as possible. Um, so all babies are born at South. My guy Mateo feeds 'em all in the hutch here, does an awesome job, and then they kind of just move along. They go to my parents' house next and they go to the North Dairy for a hot minute and they go to the Rutley farm and then they end up here when they're having their baby again.

Tim Strathman (43:45):
Just ride the party bus all over the, there you

Thomas Enneking (43:47):
Go. Yeah, it's, yeah, free of charge too. Free party bus. It ain't too bad of a deal.

Tim Strathman (43:50):
That's awesome. Well, also, I gotta, I got a shout out. This will actually come out Thursday and you get married what? Next Saturday

Thomas Enneking (43:57):
The 19th. October 19th. Holy,

Tim Strathman (43:59):
So

Thomas Enneking (43:59):
There you go.

Tim Strathman (44:00):
He, he's getting tied down and she's, she's uh, gonna experience dairy life in Omaha County, Kansas should

Thomas Enneking (44:05):
Be milking the cows before I know it. No, her job's gonna keep her on, but I think she's gonna wanna milk cows and she'll be in that barn before she

Tim Strathman (44:11):
Goes. Yeah. Lucky, lucky lady. Well, congratulations. Appreciate it. Last thing, what advice do you have to somebody that maybe is a high schooler, works on the family farm, whether that be a dairy, whether that be grow crops, whether that be whatever it is, and is thinking about moving back. Obviously you moved back and you just took the reins and ran and, and it's been incredible to see. Uh, what advice would you have for somebody thinking about it?

Thomas Enneking (44:36):
Uh, I would say do it, but that, that's, that's, that's very, very pathetic advice. But I would say if it's truly what you like, you know, I've got a fair amount of people that, that work, an eight to five, that that make good money, make a lot more money than me. I guarantee you that their bank accounts not doing a bunch of negatives everywhere, but man, do they complain about what they do, you know? And, and sometimes I wake up at 3:00 AM 'cause the milk pumps out and it really stinks. Or sometimes it's January 3rd and the wind is blowing 75 miles an hour and it's negative 40 like it was this last year. Uh, and you kinda like look in the mirror and you're like, kind of crazy. But 353 days a year, really, I really love what I do and, and, and, uh, it's all because I think of agriculture, you know, it gave me an opportunity to be my own boss.

Thomas Enneking (45:24):
Um, not really set my own hours because you know, the hours get set for you, but then also at the end of the day, uh, don't burn yourself out. I kind of did that when I first came back. I, I didn't take a day off. I, I, I was here every day all day and, and you can't do that, you know, and you gotta make time for either family or friends or significant, whatever it is. Make sure when you choose this path, you're not gonna just wear yourself completely to the bone. I think you have to find a good opportunity to come in, um, on, I I think if it's a dead horse, may maybe don't jump on that wagon. May maybe go, go work for a guy for a while and, and maybe, maybe he'll prop you up into something good because I, I think mentors are extremely important.

Thomas Enneking (46:05):
Um, whether that's through family or, or through a random guy you found on Craigslist looking for an employee or I think there's a song about that somewhere. But I, I think if you actually truly love what it is, find a way to do it. Um, whether that's working for somebody else at the start, whether that's somehow getting a first year farmer's loan and just sending it and, and, but like I said, you, you can't just put it all into work whether you think it is work or not. And if you, I, I guess if you truly love it and you, you're like, this is what I want to do and this is my thing, go right ahead. But I, I think find the right opportunity, but find the opportunity, somehow create it. Whether that's working through family, working through a good friend or, or just finding a job online. But eventually if you talk to enough people and do it the right way, it it, it'll all square itself out in the end.

Tim Strathman (46:51):
I think that's perfect advice, man. I, I appreciate you coming on. I'm sure we'll talk again. Thanks so much. Congratulations. Ahead of time. Hey, great.

Thomas Enneking (46:59):
Right on. It's not, it's not, we actually got the marriage license the other day. I should've just had some people sign it so like she couldn't back out. You know, you get that thing signed. We're at least halfway home, but

Tim Strathman (47:07):
Geez, no, we'll be, we'll be talking again. Like I said, appreciate you jumping on the train early. Okay. Appreciate it. The dairy industry's a huge industry and I think a lot of people don't know much about it. And so hopefully this helps a little bit and, and we'll talk some more in the future. There

Thomas Enneking (47:19):
You go. Right on. Hey, appreciate you having me.

Tim Strathman (47:21):
You bet. Hey, thanks everybody. Make sure to like, subscribe, do whatever it is. Uh, it helps us out. Make sure to check out every dairy you can locally. If you got the opportunity to buy milk or yogurt or ice cream or butter or whatever it is off the farm, make sure to support local farms and we'll see you next time.