In episode 19 of This is Ag Podcast, I had the honor of speaking with Jeff Lundberg, the face of Babe Farms, a family-owned and operated company that has been working with UnitedAg for over 25 years. It is truly remarkable to see how Jeff has taken over the business from his mother, Judy, and maintained its amazing culture for over 40 years. Babe Farms is a leader in the gourmet produce industry, prioritizing superior quality, innovation, and genuine customer relationships. Tune in to hear stories about Star Wars, Coca-Cola, and beyond! During our conversation, we delved into various aspects of Babe Farms. It all began with their inspiration from the beautifully crafted produce found in Europe, which led them to grow into the outstanding company they are today. From vibrant carrots to golden beets and purple kohlrabi, Babe Farms produces eye-catching and stunning gourmet quality foods that go from farm to table. Their commitment to innovation has resulted in the success of their organic farm, conventional farm, and the specialty farm known as Babe Farms. (see https://www.babefarms.com/) One thing that sets Babe Farms' apart is their focus on their employees. They truly prioritize their team members, fostering a strong sense of loyalty and commitment. Respect is at the core of their values, and every individual is treated with respect from day one. Babe Farms has cultivated a culture of appreciation and recognition, treating their employees as an extended family. They celebrate milestones together, provide benefits like 401k and health insurance, and organize events to express their gratitude. Through my conversation with Jeff, I gained valuable insights into the workings of the farming industry. His passion for the business is evident, especially when he talks about the rewarding experience of witnessing the entire process from seed to harvest. Jeff embodies the values of a true farmer, being a steward of the land and a community-oriented business owner. I commend Babe Farms for their remarkable accomplishments, growth, and commitment to their employees and customers. It was an absolute pleasure to have Jeff on the podcast and learn more about the extraordinary journey of Babe Farms.
In episode 19 of This is Ag Podcast, I had the honor of speaking with Jeff Lundberg, the face of Babe Farms, a family-owned and operated company that has been working with UnitedAg for over 25 years. It is truly remarkable to see how Jeff has taken over the business from his mother, Judy, and maintained its amazing culture for over 40 years. Babe Farms is a leader in the gourmet produce industry, prioritizing superior quality, innovation, and genuine customer relationships. Tune in to hear stories from the worlds of Star Wars, Coca-Cola, and beyond!
During our conversation, we delved into various aspects of Babe Farms. It all began with their inspiration from the beautifully crafted produce found in Europe, which led them to grow into the outstanding company they are today. From vibrant carrots to golden beets and purple kohlrabi, Babe Farms produces eye-catching and stunning gourmet quality foods that go from farm to table. Their commitment to innovation has resulted in the success of their organic farm, conventional farm, and the specialty farm known as Babe Farms. (see https://www.babefarms.com/)
One thing that sets Babe Farms' apart is their focus on their employees. They truly prioritize their team members, fostering a strong sense of loyalty and commitment. Respect is at the core of their values, and every individual is treated with respect from day one. Babe Farms has cultivated a culture of appreciation and recognition, treating their employees as an extended family. They celebrate milestones together, provide benefits like 401k and health insurance, and organize events to express their gratitude.
Through my conversation with Jeff, I gained valuable insights into the workings of the farming industry. His passion for the business is evident, especially when he talks about the rewarding experience of witnessing the entire process from seed to harvest. Jeff embodies the values of a true farmer, being a steward of the land and a community-oriented business owner. I commended Babe Farms for their remarkable accomplishments, growth, and commitment to their employees and customers. It was an absolute pleasure to have Jeff on the podcast and learn more about the extraordinary journey of Babe Farms.
Babe Farms website - https://www.babefarms.com/
This episode is sponsored by UnitedAg, one of the largest association health plans to offer healthcare to the agriculture industry of California and Arizona.
Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg.
Reach me at kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkar
UnitedAg website - www.unitedag.org
Episode Contributors - Jeff Lundberg, Kirti Mutatkar, Paul Lecrone, Melanie Larsen
The episode is also sponsored by Brent Eastman Insurance Services Inc. - https://brenteastman.com/Blue
Shield of California - https://www.blueshieldca.com/Elite
Medical - https://www.elitecorpmed.com/Gallagher
Medical https://sainmedical.com/
Kirti : [00:00:00] I'm Kirti Mutatkar, CEO and president at UnitedAg, and Jeff Lundberg, CEO, owner of Babe Family Farms here in Santa Maria. Really
[00:00:10] excited, Jeff, to be having this conversation with you. I think I was telling you yesterday that I've been meaning to do this for quite some time because I was here. This [00:00:20] is, I think, 2 or 3 times you've given me a tour of Babe Farms. And every time I come and take a tour, the fascination, the why I'm fascinated with it is the chefs,
[00:00:30] the specialty foods, all the colorful products that you have. That's a very in thing today, right? That's very sexy today. But in 1986,
[00:00:40] that was very innovative. So, what, I mean, tell us the story.
Jeff: [00:00:44] So Babe Farms was initially the brainchild of my father,
[00:00:50] Frank and Judy Lundberg's partner, Wilbur Souza, and also Greg and Sherry Pedigo were partners as well. Big Farms was started in 1986, and Wilbur was a traveler. Wilbur Souza.
[00:01:00] He would travel all over Europe and he came back with the idea. He saw mesclun mix for the first time when he was on one of his travels, and he brought it back and we said,
[00:01:10] We need to do that. He saw colored carrots and some colored vegetables on plates and in fine dining restaurants. And he said, we need to start doing something different.
[00:01:20] So that's where the idea came from. And started very small and grew into what it is today.
Kirti : [00:01:25] So was it always that popular here? Did you guys know when you first started?
[00:01:30] Was that seen as something very different?
Jeff: [00:01:31] Luckily, we had two operations running on the same piece of property, so the original property, the business was Susan and Foster Farms, which is a normal [00:01:40] truck farm, meaning broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, very much conventional farming today and it was very much the same, but it was
[00:01:50] very market driven and very volatile, just like it can be today. Right. And the specialty market was something that was different,
[00:02:00] usually a higher margin, especially back then. Mesclun mix was a much has become such a commodity now today, spring mix, we call it. At that time
[00:02:10] it was much more profitable and much more different for the US. So that's kind of where it where it started, but it was not nearly as popular it is today.
[00:02:20] The food shows and the channels the people watch. And it's amaz- who ever thought you could have a food show and watch people cook food or compete to cook food? That was not a thing back then.
Kirti : [00:02:30] Every time I come here, that's why I'm blown away by the color. Right. And you add color to the lives and color to the food. So, I'm sure all chefs love that.
Jeff: [00:02:39] Yeah, color is definitely one thing that's in our favor. We have a lot of colorful items, a lot of gold beets and purple kohlrabi and cauliflower.
[00:02:50] We've done a lot of different colors that just bring just people. It excites people. They like colors. It's different and attracts people. Yeah.
Kirti : [00:03:00] Yeah. Agreed. And when you really look at it, when I look at agriculture and I've been doing this podcast, we add color to the lives of people, right, don't you? Sure. I [00:03:10] mean, I feel I felt that during, especially during Covid, I had come here, and I take the you get excited when you see that it just brings joy.
Jeff: [00:03:18] I agree. I agree it was chefs especially.
[00:03:20] It's amazing when I go to restaurants, fine dining restaurants that use our products. It's amazing what they can do with our products. And they do it.
[00:03:30] I'm always amazed with what a good chef can do with good product. With good vegetables.
Kirti : [00:03:35] Yeah. So what? So how do you keep so this was innovative, right?
[00:03:40] A really innovative idea when it started in 1986. So, what do you do from, having maintaining that culture?
[00:03:50] I'm usually curious about that because just relating it back to UnitedAg, how do you keep the culture of innovation alive?
Jeff: [00:03:53] So it's grown into this process. Babe Farms Specialties has become this thing.
[00:04:00] It started out as one company and now it's kind of evolved into a couple companies, one being an organic arm, Coastal Valley Farms. But Bay Farms is the specialty arm it and
[00:04:10] we do it, to be honest with you, who we are really comes from our employees. We have approximately 225 employees and at one time we've had as many as 300.
[00:04:20] But with innovation and mechanization, we have we have we've that number is kind of landed. And we used to do strawberries
[00:04:30] and some different things that had more labor intensity. But we still are very hand labor harvest intense operation that makes it
[00:04:40] and because quality you know right after the safety of the employee is number one food quality is right there. After that it needs to, we have [00:04:50] experienced employees. I asked my HR manager the other day, Carrie Jordan, you know, what is our percentage of employees that have been with us for more than five years? Because turnover is terrible
[00:05:00] and very expensive hiring and trying to train. And I think we're right around 50 to 60%, which is a big number in Ag because
[00:05:10] there really is no loyalty when it comes to the cost of living in California and people need money in their paychecks. And if there's somebody paying a quarter or $0.50 more,
[00:05:20] they're going to go there just because they got to take care of them.
Jeff: [00:05:23] But we we've really built a culture and a following and really have a family, to be honest with you. For our employees, we
[00:05:30] have employees that have that have kids that have come to work for them after they are still here. We have a mother and son still working here. After they graduated college and came back.
[00:05:40] We have more use of our 401ks, health insurance usage, mostly because people stick around. And that's true. And they're not you
[00:05:50] know, they're not starting over and re qualifying. We have a lot of employees that have been here a long time and we're proud of that. We like that. We have a Christmas party every year for our managers and
[00:06:00] all our employees every year. And we give out gifts and we all get together and have a barbecue and we do all the cooking; all the managers cook for the employees and they appreciate it. They come through there and they
[00:06:10] and, and it's just it's just a good feeling. And then we do another get together, either a taco party or some kind of a barbecue in the summertime. And it really, it's not
[00:06:20] anything but just to say thank you and without the employees, this this operation does not exist.
Kirti : [00:06:25] I think you were telling a story. I just listened to that, where one of your employees, I think,
[00:06:30] Carrie and others are more from the office standpoint. Right. And so, they're the loyal employees. But even your hands on the people working on the fields. And
[00:06:40] isn't there a story that you just told about the person working bagging or was she doing something.
Jeff: [00:06:48] I believe you're talking about our wash line supervisor, Bertha.
Kirti : [00:06:51] Yes, exactly.
Jeff: [00:06:52] And she was interviewed and her just candid answers were very, I don't know, just very honest.
[00:07:00] And she said thank you. And she appreciated she's thankful for working in having the capacity to work in this company. And it was just humbling because she's a super nice lady and she's been with us for a
[00:07:10] long time. And she was she was very emotional. I'm not sure if she was in tears, but she was definitely emotional. She was very sincere. She was very sincere.
Kirti : [00:07:16] I was actually as I was doing this podcast,
[00:07:20] one of the ladies at work was telling me, “Wouldn't it be nice to listen to people on the fields and tell their stories?” So, she said, “I heard your podcast, I hear all these stories, but maybe. We
[00:07:30] should reach out to them and have them tell the story.” So maybe I might do that.
Jeff: [00:07:34] Know that's a good idea. And I've having we've had a couple of our, you know, our company employees interviewed that way. And
[00:07:40] it's always interesting to hear what they have to say or their perception of the company. And it really makes you feel good, usually.
Kirti : [00:07:45] If you think of what you do at Babe Farms, what is the most fulfilling
[00:07:50] thing for you as a person?
Jeff: [00:07:52] You know, it always gives you a sense of pride to be able to create and grow a product
[00:08:00] from start to finish, put it on a plate and feed people. You know, feeding people is kind of not what everybody does anymore. And there's not, farming
[00:08:10] is kind of a lost art. The percentage of people actually touching the agriculture and farming, there's a lot of people that are connected to the to the industry, but the actual farmer, there's very few of us around
[00:08:20] and left. So it's very fulfilling. It's kind of an old school.
[00:08:30] or I guess farming is the last of the, the old school way to make a living. You know, everybody else is either a professional
[00:08:40] not that not that farming isn't a professional because we have, we have really fine-tuned our operation. But it's still planting a seed or transplanting a small plant and
[00:08:50] seeing that to the end and harvest a quality of product for the end user customer.
Kirti : [00:08:56] That's true. Actually. When you really think of not a lot of professions can
[00:09:00] say that, right? Not a lot of careers can say that.
Jeff: [00:09:02] It gives you a lot of pride. It for sure does. It does. It's different every day to Ag is as you and I were talking before this, it's never
[00:09:10] boring, that's for sure. It's different all the time.
Kirti : [00:09:12] Agreed. Every day is different. You know, earlier you were talking about conventional and organic farming. And what I find
[00:09:20] when I talk to people in Orange County or my friends or family or others, right. There is a lot of confusion around conventional and organic
[00:09:30] farming or maybe I don't know if it's a status thing or a sexy thing to say that I eat only organic. So, from your perspective, you grow both conventional and
[00:09:40] organic. So, what is for somebody like me, I'm like, should I be eating organic because then it impacts my health care cost or something.
Jeff: [00:09:49] It's really a personal
[00:09:50] preference, but I believe there's a place in this world for both. I don't believe that organic farming, or at least at this point in time, can feed the world. There's a reason why
[00:10:00] organic farming gets a premium for their price, and there's and there's some marketing to do with getting that out there. Organic farming is
[00:10:10] definitely something that is a very big part of what we do, but it's a very small percentage of the total
[00:10:20] farming acreage in the in the country or the world. Not everybody can do it. But I do believe that there's a place for both.
Kirti : [00:10:29] And is
[00:10:30] it safer? I mean, if you eat the conventional.
Jeff: [00:10:32] Safer I with the fact that we grow in California, especially in California, all the growing that happens in California, California is not going to let us, or anybody put anything
[00:10:40] on a product that isn't safe. Yeah. At the right limitations and parameters. I always say that I would never put anything
[00:10:50] in a field that I wouldn't feed my family conventionally. Or organic. Right. There are there are pros and cons to both for sure. I don't I don't bad mouth either one. Those that do really are just using
[00:11:00] it as a marketing tool. If you're badmouthing conventional to be a better organic farmer, you're really using it as a marketing tool. There's really there's your eyes.
Kirti : [00:11:07] It's exactly what it's, they're
[00:11:10] both there is a different way of growing it right. I mean that's it's just different Yeah.
Jeff: [00:11:14] Synthetic fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides are necessary
[00:11:20] sometimes but here at bay farms we do not, we use things as needed. We're not going to put anything on a crop that isn't needed. We don't do things just because it's on
[00:11:30] a schedule. If we have a pest pressure, you know, this winter was an exceptionally wet winter. There's a lot of growth in the hills. There's extra pressure of pests or
[00:11:40] weed pressure. Then there are there are things that are needed. Organic farming just means that you don't may not have as well as good of a tool, but you'll just have more cultivation
[00:11:50] passes or you'll have more applications because your pest pressure is the same as conventional farming, but your tools or your residual doesn't last as long. So there's
[00:12:00] a place in this world for both.
Kirti : [00:12:02] A lot of people think there's a lot of use of pesticides and chemicals and all that, but the cost of that is so
[00:12:10] from a business standpoint, even when you think business.
Jeff: [00:12:13] It’s exorbitant.
Kirti : [00:12:13] Right?
Jeff: [00:12:14] Nobody's going to apply anything, any kind of an input that you do not have to do. Nobody would do that. Right?
[00:12:20] Just because they feel like they're helping. It's got to be cost effective, meaning it's going to save the crop or help the crop in some way.
[00:12:30] We're not going to add fertilizer or for just.
Kirti : [00:12:32] The sake of adding.
Jeff: [00:12:32] For the sake. Yeah, there's no way.
Kirti : [00:12:34] Because even when you think of it from a sustainability standpoint, from being stewards of earth and land, yes, you
[00:12:40] do that. But even from a business standpoint, it doesn't make sense to why. Yeah. Dollars and sense. No way. Yeah.
Jeff: [00:12:45] No, exactly. No, I agree. And farmers are stewards of the land. There's nobody that wants the land to be more
[00:12:50] productive and, well, more well taken care of than the farmer because he has to use it again. Next crop, next crop. It's not it's not like it's something that he it's not disposable.
[00:13:00] The soil health is very important to the farmer. It's as important to it's his livelihood for the next crop. He's not going to take advantage of that or abuse it.
Kirti : [00:13:09] Yeah.
[00:13:10] One of the eye-opening things for some of the employees at UnitedAg when they heard some of the podcast episodes was the life cycle of the product, right? So, you either
[00:13:20] eat when you eat a lemon in a store, what you have to go through and how many months it takes to bring come.
Jeff: [00:13:27] And how many people have to touch it to get there.
Kirti : [00:13:30] to get it to market.
Jeff: [00:13:30] It's amazing the people you have that.
Kirti : [00:13:32] Do you have anything that somebody can relate back to, like a strawberry or something that you grow? And what does that look like?
Jeff: [00:13:37] What does So give you an example of two very
[00:13:40] different things. So, radish in the summertime is one of the fastest things that grows. It's just it's just days from planting to harvest are quick,
[00:13:50] especially in the longer sun and also and warmer. So, it's almost 21
[00:14:00] days, just over 21 days from seed to harvest on certain radishes. We grow baby vegetables. They're smaller in size so they're quicker anyway. But they are fast, They grow.
[00:14:10] You can just see them growing. Um, carrots are probably 40 to 45 days in the summertime. That's fast for them. They slow down to 120,
[00:14:20] 135 days in the winter. That change in timing is difficult to get right as far as going into winter or coming
[00:14:30] out of winter into spring, because Mother Nature's helping you. Coming out of winter days are getting longer and heat units are getting better, things are growing faster.
[00:14:40] You have to be careful not to over supply because sales wants or the customer wants the same amount, more or less. You know, we have an idea of what how our sales demand is and it's
[00:14:50] if it was consistent all year round, it's not exactly. But your job as a farmer is to try and be as consistent supply wise so that to coordinate with that demand
[00:15:00] and that's difficult going into winter. So you're planting closer together instead of you want to harvest every seven days, let's say once a week, twice a week, the same planting, but you're not
[00:15:10] planting every seven days in this fall. You're planting every three days trying because there's a point in time when all that slows down and you want to make sure you have enough in the ground so that it
[00:15:20] you can make it through that that change in days to harvest.
Jeff: [00:15:24] That's a that happens very fast. It seems like it happens in 2 to 3 weeks and you're not exactly sure when it happens, but
[00:15:30] it happens in the Fall. When Covid hit, it was amazing because that happened like a light switch. It was March 10th or 11th, I remember. And March 12th was a different day
[00:15:40] than March 9th for sure. And we couldn't shut everything off. Everything in the field didn't know that Covid was happening. So, we had all this product for this planned demand that just went away.
[00:15:50] That was really tough for us. And the reason we were so affected, too, is we had a lot of food service business. We still do because of nature of our business and the the colorful
[00:16:00] chef's demand. It's a lot of restaurants, a lot of high-end white tablecloth restaurants in bigger cities. So, when the cities closed down, which was very much
[00:16:10] the case, it affected us dramatically. So, I've done a I've done a pretty good job of trying to right that ship. But it took months to change what that was. And everything that was in the pipeline
[00:16:20] was not wasted. We pivoted and tried to move some of it, but the hard part was not only trying to find a home for the vegetables, which was almost impossible, but trying to find a home
[00:16:30] for the work force that we have. We have 225 employees, and they work five, six days a week. So, if that turns off, what do I do with them? So, we had
[00:16:40] relationships with other companies, clientele, transplant companies, and they were looking for labor because transplanting didn't stop. There were still companies out there doing fine. Retail obviously
[00:16:50] didn't stop.
Kirti : [00:16:51] Can you talk about the Coca-Cola?
Jeff: [00:16:54] So we had a customer. No, I was at a trade show, and I had
[00:17:00] a customer come up or a potential customer. And he had he knew who Babe Farms was only because he'd seen the label and been around it a long enough time. And I'd been to enough trade shows
[00:17:10] to know that not everybody knows who we are, but enough people, or most people know at least know who we are. We've been in the industry for almost 40 years now, and
[00:17:20] this individual came up and he didn't mean to give us a compliment, but I took it as a compliment because he said, Oh, Babe Farms. You read it in front of me. And he looked at me and he said, “You're like the Coca-Cola
[00:17:30] of specialty veg.” And I went, I'm going to use that. I'm going to use. That's a good one. Yeah.
Kirti : [00:17:35] The Coca-Cola specialty.
Jeff: [00:17:36] Because nobody everybody knows who Coca-Cola is. And it's been around.
[00:17:40] It's like it's like the staple. So, I was like, I'll take that. I'll use that.
Kirti : [00:17:44] So I really I like that. Because you know what? When I talk about our members
[00:17:50] and the produce and stuff like that, your name does come up because you're in Costco, right? And then most of the chefs and the shows
[00:18:00] that you're looking people are watching are all using this stuff.
Jeff: [00:18:04] We've seen our boxes every once in a while, on those shows, I'll see the box in the back. And the ironic thing is we are not that big of a company.
[00:18:10] We're growing about 700 to 800 conventional, about 200 to 250 organic. So, we're about a thousand-acre farm and we'll turn that over to two
[00:18:20] and a half turns. So, you're looking at 2,000 acres of planted to 220 200 acres planted per year. That's not a big operation. We have 225
[00:18:30] employees. It sounds big, but comparatively speaking, it's really not a big company. But in the specialty world because we have 65, 70
[00:18:40] different varieties and we market all those commodities into different packs, and it could be 200 different packs and variations of that pack. We do a
[00:18:50] pretty good job of marketing that and our colors.
Kirti : [00:18:55] And it's lately it's been a big thing. I think even after Covid it's like a social media.
Jeff: [00:19:00] is amazing. Yeah, we have a really good social media person, Matt Hiltner and Andy Manos and our marketing and sales department. Our whole sales department
[00:19:10] does a really good job of just getting our word, the word out there, our brand, because it really wasn’t a thing for most farmers. They're not trying to market to the end user,
[00:19:20] but because we're out there and the chefs you know, if the biggest thing for us is quality after field labor safety, you know, after your employee safety,
[00:19:30] it's quality. We don't want the chefs to have to open a box of Bay Farms product to know what it looks like. He should know before he opens that box. He should
[00:19:40] know the quality that that label means it’s the best. I want them to ask for it, just like the Coca Cola. I want them to know what they're getting before they ever open that box.
Kirti : [00:19:48] They all want the Coca Cola. Exactly.
[00:19:50] You know, the one of the other stories that really caught my eye was when I was listening to your stories was the Star Wars story,
[00:20:00] because I'm a big Star Wars fan, too. So I was like, oh, that's was that really true?
Jeff: [00:20:05] So it was. So my kids, I'm a Star Wars guy myself. It kind of came out when I [00:20:10] was a kid, so I got my kids in it. My kids are bigger Star Wars geeks than myself. They it's amazing the stuff that they know on Star Wars. I've seen the trilogies and stuff, but..
Kirti : [00:20:19] My son is actually Anakin. [00:20:20]
Jeff: [00:20:22] Is that right? That's awesome. Yeah, so you understand. But my kid, my daughter, it's amazing the stuff that they rattle off and they memorize
[00:20:30] from those movies. But we were watching, and I can't remember it was, was the prequels when they came in and it was one, two and three. And they were they were having some kind of food or vegetables on
[00:20:40] in a in a bar scene. And there was food behind them. And I happened to be sitting on the couch with my kids and we were watching it at home. It wasn't in the movie theater. And I
[00:20:50] said, “wait, wait, wait. Go back, pause it.” And I backed it up and I stopped and there was a romanesco, which looks a lot like a pinecone almost,
[00:21:00] if you're familiar with what Romanesco looks like. It has a kind of a pyramid shape. And it's round, it's in the cauliflower, it's a brassica in the cauliflower family, but it looks like outer space vegetables.
[00:21:10] And there was another kohlrabi. And kohlrabi has is it’s a European brassica as well. But it has this we have a red color and a green color, and they have these weird just
[00:21:20] out of out of the area or out of outer space. Look, look to it. And I swear I was like, “Hey,” But it was just hilarious to see it on that big screen.
[00:21:30] That big screen. But yeah, my kids were like, oh, only you would notice vegetables on the table behind the actors. But it was pretty funny.
Kirti : [00:21:37] But the Star Wars I when I heard that, I'm like, ooo, that's pretty
[00:21:40] cool. Yeah, it was cool.
Jeff: [00:21:41] Very cool because they were just looking for things that were, you know, not normal. You didn't see any broccoli or lettuce on top of that table. You saw all kinds of weird stuff.
Kirti : [00:21:48] So maybe the Mars two will have
[00:21:50] Babe Farms up there. Matt Damon growing, maybe. Maybe. Is there anything else, Jeff, that you would like to get our listeners to
[00:22:00] hear?
Jeff: [00:22:00] You know Babe Farms has been a family business for a long time. It's kind of cool. My mom has kind of stepped away from it now. Um, the people that work with me every day are
[00:22:10] amazing family members. I treat them like family. They treat me like family. And we just have a great time doing it. My kids are starting to show interest in it. I don't know that they will end up in
[00:22:20] the business, but they both feel like they kind of grew up in it and it's pretty interesting to watch that unfold. My daughter, my son graduates Cal
[00:22:30] Poly as a Bray engineer at the end of this year, which is only next week, he graduates, and my daughter graduates a year after him. So
[00:22:40] I'm not sure where they're all going to end up, but they are definitely excited about it. So nice. That's pretty.
Kirti : [00:22:45] Cool. That'll be awesome.
Jeff: [00:22:46] We're looking forward to it. Yeah, it's pretty looking forward to it.
Kirti : [00:22:48] So one of the other things I
[00:22:50] want to ask you, when you think when you're saying you find it fulfilling, that you feed the nation, right, what you put in, I mean, and that goes back to feeding ourselves and looking
[00:23:00] at it from a UnitedAg standpoint. It's health and wellness and everything that we do around that. And so, I feel agriculture and health care is kind
[00:23:10] of connected because if you eat what you are producing our employers, I mean, you, you should be that's what you should be healthy, right? So, anything
[00:23:20] from knowing as united as a health plan what are your thoughts on that, what can we do different. Is there anything what are we doing correct.
[00:23:30] And what are we doing incorrectly?
Jeff: [00:23:31] You're doing more correct than wrong. How's that? I'm not going to be specific because I don't I don't know the specifics of what you're doing wrong, but I do believe you're doing more than more good than bad.
[00:23:40] And that's just a that's kind of a indication of like you and I were talking before we got on the air or we started recording how
[00:23:50] much you've grown, you know, how what a following you guys have. And we've been with you from the beginning. So it's really interesting to see how you guys have grown. You were a small company
[00:24:00] for a long time and I think if you don't lose the customer service, which is hard to do, I'm not saying that you have or we try
[00:24:10] very hard to stay a family business no matter how big we get. Yeah, I think customer service is a lost art and I think that you will be better than your competitor
[00:24:20] if you hold on to it. Just like I will be the same.
Kirti : [00:24:22] Agreed? Agreed. I think as you get bigger and people think of scaling and stuff, that's not a good thing to do. I was in my
[00:24:30] last podcast, I was saying the One Starfish at a Time story. Sometimes people think that's not business sense, but it makes totally business sense. Helps customer service has to be
[00:24:40] the number one thing.
Jeff: [00:24:42] I started in this company as the I think.
Kirti : [00:24:45] You need to be a little.
Jeff: [00:24:46] I started in this company as the food safety or the as
[00:24:50] the employee safety manager. And that's not what I studied. But I did all the safety meetings, and it gave me a sense
[00:25:00] of I got to see every employee every month. We'd have every crew. So, at that time it was between we've always had between 200 and 300 employees. And I got
[00:25:10] an understanding of I was I was more of the face as the new kid in town than the owners above me because they knew me every month they'd see me,
[00:25:20] they would ask me questions and if I didn't know them, I'd go back to the owners and ask, I'm trying to hold me myself. I go to those safety meetings. Still to this day, I don't always give them, but I
[00:25:30] shake hands. I hand out, I hand out papers. I say good morning more than anything else and say, “How are you doing? How's the family?” More than anything else, it's just to get in front of them so
[00:25:40] they know that I can stand there next to them, and they have someone to talk to. It's amazing how much that how far that goes. That's true. And when I talk to my health
[00:25:50] insurance providers or my safety insurance providers, I'll ask that question.
Jeff: [00:25:55] “When was the last time you saw ownership at one of these meetings?” And they just say, “no, we don't.”
[00:26:00] And I'm not saying that I go to every meeting because I can't because I have my own set of meetings and schedules. But when I can, it's kind of fulfilling to go around and do that. And it's once a month. So, I just kind of plan
[00:26:10] my Friday. It's about a half a day and I go from meeting to meeting my food safety manager, Ronnie kind of helps, keeps it on track so that we don't miss a beat. And I may hit half of them sometimes and
[00:26:20] sometimes I hit them all or I'll hit the early ones sometimes and then I'll hit the late ones. But it's interesting to see all the people. It just keeps you connected. And I always tell I tell my kids that all the time. I
[00:26:30] said, “It means so much to them, to everybody, that you just look someone in the eye, give them some respect. You say good morning, you say hello.” And that's that goes a long ways
[00:26:40] with anything.
Kirti : [00:26:40] That is so, so true. And you have 240 employees right around that. Yeah, that's so true. Even as UnitedAg is getting bigger, one of the things that I felt I lost during
[00:26:50] the Covid time was I used to say that I know every employee at UnitedAg, and I can do their performance reviews better than even sometimes the supervisors can do. Right? Right. So
[00:27:00] you don't want to lose that. And I'm always fearful of losing that. So I, I take I make it it's a conscious thing that I pick up the phone too, like just talking to people and connecting with people.
Jeff: [00:27:09] I think it's important make your employees want to work for you because I have people that have been here for over 30 years. Some have been here longer than myself, which is saying something because I got
[00:27:20] here in 1994, 1995. So, I worked in the fields driving tractor and hoeing and weeds and moving pipe all through my younger
[00:27:30] college and high school days. So I worked alongside a lot of them. Some of these guys are now supervisors, but they remember me as the young kid coming up through it. But I was willing to do
[00:27:40] that stuff and that goes a long ways too. It’s just a little bit of respect that goes a long ways rather than some young kid that walks in and has never been in the field. And now he's going to tell me what to
[00:27:50] do. That doesn't work out very well.
Kirti : [00:27:52] When I see sometimes when employers or members come in who have a very different attitude that that's not a good fit for
[00:28:00] United AG, It's like because you can see that, you can see that in renewals. You can see that in rates because it just doesn't fit with United AG. So, I'm so proud to have likeminded
[00:28:10] people as part of United AG.
Jeff: [00:28:12] And I'm proud of like our Ex-mod and our or those kind of things, our health insurance. We try to get people out there moving because it's really
[00:28:20] it's in their best interest to be as healthy as possible and it's in our best, best interest for them to be healthy. So, it works both ways. There's really no reason not to do that. I mean,
[00:28:30] that's really what you want. You want everybody as healthy as possible. So, it works for everybody.
Kirti : [00:28:34] Treat everybody as human beings.
Jeff: [00:28:35] Exactly. Right. In the in the end, we're all just human beings trying to make it out here.
Kirti : [00:28:39] Yeah,
[00:28:40] exactly. I totally, totally agree. Thank you for being part of UnitedAg. Thank you for being. But more than 20, 25 years, I think you've been with UnitedAg.
Jeff: [00:28:50] UnitedAg
Kirti : [00:28:50] started 80s, 40 years, 40 years.
Jeff: [00:28:54] So, we were right behind you. Right there with you. Yeah.
Kirti : [00:28:56] So. Wow. It's amazing. It's great to see when you
[00:29:00] see employees who have been there longer, right? I mean, that speaks for itself. It's the same thing with members and just being together and being partners together. So it doesn't actually I don't think
[00:29:10] there's a feeling of a customer and a that feeling at all. Right. It's a family feeling. No.
Jeff: [00:29:15] And loyalty is just a lost art. It's hard in the society today.
[00:29:20] So the fact that we have such loyal employees, and you have such loyal customers and friends, it really makes a difference. I think Makes all the difference. Yeah, for sure. So yeah.
Kirti : [00:29:29] So
[00:29:30] I guess. Thank you for being a friend, Jeff!
Jeff: [00:29:31] Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you for all your support, for sure. Thank you.