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

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

We all love chicken.

I know I love chicken.

They're my favorite yard bird.

But how are they raised?

Does it matter how they're raised?

We're gonna talk with chicken farmers, Justin and Bobby Allaman.

I say chicken farmers, but you guys are farmer farmers.

- Yeah, we do have a little bit of row crop ourselves.

- Yeah.

And so it's kind of a situation where, how can we add value to the farm?

And saw an opportunity to pasture poultry.

- Yeah, so if you just said "chickens," would you guys actually be ranchers?

- Chicken tenders, I think would be the term that-- (Richard laughing) Right?

- Yeah.

- Chicken, chicken tenders.

I gotcha.

- So I would be the chief chicken tender and you'd be the first mate chicken tender?

I don't know.

- That's why they call it dad humor because the moms don't care.

- Right, yeah.

She's like, "Why are you wasting time thinking about things like this?"

But-- (Bobby laughing) - You guys are, you live outside of Monmouth, is that right?

- That's right.

About 11 miles west of Monmouth, yep.

- [Richard] On a, you're a sixth generation farmer?

- Yep, so the Allamans moved to the area in the 1850s and then fortunate to still be farming some of that original ground then in that same area.

- [Richard] That's cool.

- Yeah.

- When you grew up on a farm, what all were you growing?

- So my dad actually had hogs up until the late '90s, you know, and so got to kinda see that operation.

And I remember being in first grade, he would bring in the little piglets to show my classmates.

And then corn and soybeans.

- [Richard] Okay.

- My uncles had cattle as well, but we aren't too involved in that side of things.

But now it's just row crop.

- Who's all involved in the farm today?

- Yep, so my grandpa farmed up until he was well in his 90s.

He passed away recently, but he's kind of, you know, was the patriarch up until recently.

And then there's my dad and then he has two brothers that farmed with him, and growing up he always said, "You know, if Justin, if you want to farm, we can find a way to make that happen."

So.

- Well that's, I mean that does not always happen.

- Right.

It also takes the acres or the creativity to figure out how to make that happen.

- [Richard] Yeah.

- Right?

We were fortunate to have the opportunity to get beginning farmer loans through the FSA office, so we're able to add some acreage of our own, and that wouldn't have been able to happen without, obviously, support of family.

Kind of like an arrangement where we exchange labor for machinery - [Richard] Sure.

- and that type of thing.

- [Richard] Yeah.

- Takes the infrastructure to make it happen.

But yeah, we've had a lot of opportunities that we're very grateful for.

- Now Bobby, did you grow up on a farm?

- I grew up more on like a hobby farm.

We did a lot with 4-H, and as the projects came, the animals came.

So we had horses, and turkeys, geese, rabbits, recently goats.

We did a lot with goats, my sister did.

And then recently we've gotten our girls involved in sheep.

So we've kind of become a little bit of a pre-4-H hobby farm ourselves.

- Sheep are, they're a dumb animal, aren't they?

- Either they're dumb or they're too smart for their own good.

I can't decide which one.

But we only do a couple at a time, so it's not too bad.

- Did you actually show rabbits?

- Yes.

- Okay.

There's nothing to it, right?

You literally, you pick up the rabbit, and you put it on a table, that's it.

- There's actually a lot more to it and a lot more effort than I ever put into it.

My sister took, and my brother, took those things a lot more seriously than I did, but there's a lot to a rabbit, like the hindquarters and how thick they are, and you know, they stretch 'em out and check 'em out and so yeah, it's pretty neat.

- You stretch rabbits.

- Yeah, you stretch 'em out kind of and feel down their back and their hindquarters and how rounded, and you scrunch 'em up and it's really neat to watch.

- That's what I wanna do some day is be a rabbit judge.

(laughing) Yeah.

They scratch, don't they?

Little buggers?

- They do.

A little bit.

You really have to handle rabbits a lot to get 'em kinda tamed down.

My brother's a whiz at it and he currently-- - [Richard] Can you just hold 'em by their ears?

- No, you more want 'em by the scruff, and he can flip 'em over and actually put 'em to sleep on their backs.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

But he currently raises rabbits for meat.

He's getting back into it.

- [Richard] Gotcha.

- So-- - Where'd you two meet?

- Okay, there's a bit of a story.

(Bobby laughing) I'll tell my version and then she'll tell you the truth.

(Bobby laughing) Grew up, you know, probably 10 to 15 miles from each other.

Knew a lot of the same people, but we never met up until, you know, well when in 2014-- - It was 2014.

- At the time I was the youth group leader at our church and her younger brother was one of, you know, one of the youth group students.

And Bobby, at the time, was living in Colorado.

So every day he's on the phone with her, "Bobby, there's this youth group leader, you have to move home back to Illinois to come meet.

You just gotta meet this guy."

Of course, so she did.

And then one Sunday at church, you know, everybody has their own pew, their same seat they sit in every week-- - [Richard] Uh huh.

- You know.

- [Richard] Yeah.

- Always the same.

And this new girl shows up and she's on the far side, you know, back in the corner.

And everyone's like, "Oh, who's this new girl?"

'Cause we're a small country church of, you know, maybe 80 people, so-- - And literally everybody knew she was there.

- Yeah, everybody.

- Yeah.

- And then, and almost immediately I'm getting elbows like, "Hey Justin," you know, "There's this cute girl, you oughta go talk to her."

Or, "Who's that, have you had a chance to meet?"

You know, the little old church ladies egging us on.

- [Richard] That's what they do.

- Yep.

- [Richard] Yeah.

- Yep, and it's their entertainment, right?

So then the next Sunday though, she wasn't in the far corner anymore, she's halfway across the sanctuary between me and where she was.

And then the third Sunday, she's in the seat right behind me.

- [Richard] Oh!

- So at that point, kind of like a circling vulture, I knew what was happening.

It kind of felt like I had a target on my back.

- And-- - You might wanna come up with a different comparison for that.

Just saying.

(Bobby laughing) - Oh, this is not the first time I've told this story.

And of course, (Richard and Bobby laughing) the whole time everyone saying, "Hey Justin, have you, you know, you guys."

And wasn't interested.

We didn't know each other really that well at all, but just weren't interested.

And, "Oh, someday you two will get married and have 10 kids together.

Just wait, just wait and see."

You know how they do, the the little old ladies that are telling you to get together.

- They don't have anything else to do.

- That's their entertainment, right?

- Yeah.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- So we knew each other for about a year and then started dating and then got married in 2017.

So now we've got three young young girls.

And just this time, I'm okay being wrong.

You know, when I told all those ladies that I wasn't interested in Bobby Dean and getting to know her.

- Have you apologized to the old ladies or are they, you know, gone?

(Bobby laughing) - I probably should apologize to 'em, but they know they're right, you know, now that they've seen how the story ended.

- [Richard] Uh huh.

- We all know them.

It worked out all right.

- Bobby, how how'd he do on that story?

- I was, we didn't like each other for the first year.

(laughing) - [Richard] Oh really?

- No, we tolerated each other, 'cause he needed help at youth group and I enjoyed being with the kids.

And so we worked together for a while.

I tend to move around the sanctuary until I find my zone, my spot.

- So you weren't chasing him.

- Heaven's no.

- Like a vulture.

(Bobby laughing) - It kind of felt like it.

When you're the prey and they're the predator, it sure felt like I had a target on my back.

- Yeah.

- You get vultures, eat dead things.

(all laughing) Okay.

What's the ages of the girls?

- So our oldest, Sophia, she just turned six.

Our middle daughter, Adelina, just turned five yesterday.

And then Emmaline will be three the first week of January.

- Those are great names.

- Thank you.

- Who picked em?

- It was a team effort.

(all laughing) - We couldn't agree on any boy names.

So it's good that we've only had girls because we-- - Yep.

- We could agree on girl names, but if we had a boy, yeah, good luck.

- [Richard] So-- - we would Still be at the hospital.

(all laughing) - Justin, you went to college?

- Yep, I went to Western Illinois University in Macomb for Ag business.

- [Richard] Okay, and Bobby, did you go to school?

- I did, yeah.

I moved home from Colorado to finish out my degree at Western.

That's where my dad worked.

And I was, my goal was to get through college with as little debt as possible.

I majored in recreation, parks, and tourism administration with a minor in non-profit management.

- Oh, wow!

So then after graduating, did you go right back to the farm?

- Yep.

I helped out on the farm as much as I could.

In fact, that's why I went to Western is so I could schedule my classes so I could stay on the farm and help out.

- [Richard] Okay.

- Stayed on the farm, worked as that youth leader position at the church.

That was a part-time position.

And just kind of stitch things together the best I could.

Of course I could live cheaply 'cause it was just me, you know?

- [Richard] Yeah.

- Low rent.

And then on down the line I sold seed for a little bit and then now I'm a grain merchandiser at a local grain elevator.

- [Richard] Okay.

- Yep.

- When should I sell my corn?

- Eight months ago.

Yeah.

It's, yeah.

(tapping card on table) - That's what they do.

I know he's a grain merchandiser 'cause that's what you all do.

- Well, unfortunately, you don't know it's the high until it's in the rear view mirror, right?

And farmers always wanna sell the high.

- [Richard] Well, yeah.

- And they're either mad because they sold too early or they sold too late, right.

- [Richard] Yeah.

- It's never enough.

- That's why we depend on people like you to figure this stuff out.

- Okay, well I, you know, I could give you my office line.

I'd be happy to work with you and we could-- - So you could tell me-- - Take a look at marketing.

- When in the past I should have sold.

(all laughing) Okay, let's jump way ahead.

Chickens.

- Sure.

- How'd that start?

- Well, I mentioned earlier how, you know, kind of right after school I was able to live cheaply 'cause it was just me in the house and cheap rent.

And I made, she makes fun of me saying that I lived off of like pot pies, and frozen TV dinners, and chicken nuggets, corn dogs.

- [Richard] Uh huh.

- All that stuff.

And then apparently those things aren't always what's the most nutritious or best for you.

I'll kinda let you go from there.

- So I was raised, we butchered our own chickens, and we hunted our, you know, the deer.

That's what we ate.

So I have always leaned more towards the idea of let's put meat in our freezer.

Let's do this ourselves.

I'm still trying to talk him into butchering our own hog, but I don't know how far we'll get with that.

So when we were looking for ways to kind of raise our income so that I could be home with the girls, one of the avenues we went down was pastured poultry.

Chickens are seemingly easy to raise, at least in a small batch, and a healthier, leaner meat.

So we just kind of thought, "Oh, let's try it."

And this was our first year doing a large batch.

We did around 500 chickens and 30 turkeys.

- [Richard] Oh wow.

- The main goal behind it not only was to like raise some more income for our farm, but also the importance of having farm-to-table food for the community.

Like a community-based food source.

Knowing where your food's coming from is very important.

- So these are, this is right from-- (product dropping) The GMOs have not been sprinkled on this chicken?

- Not really, no.

- No?

- I mean, they do eat-- corn.

- Joke.

- But-- - It's supposed to be a joke.

- That is-- (laughing) - But this was your chicken.

So did you butcher these?

- No, - No.

We take them to an Amish processor and so they, we take them live and then we pick them up the next day.

They've been harvested, processed.

- Oh.

- Something like that.

- Killed.

Yeah.

- Slaughtered.

- Yeah.

- If we wanna use that word.

And then they're frozen as well.

And they are certified USDA inspected.

- [Richard] Yeah.

- So then we're able to sell 'em in stores and yeah.

- I'm currently holding 1.05 pounds of chicken fryer feet.

Use those in like rituals and stuff?

(Bobby laughing) - Yeah, there's blood, and-- - What do you do with fryer feet?

- So feet are actually a delicacy in a lotta countries and they're really high in collagen.

So whenever the kids are sick or getting sick, or we just need a super nutritious broth or bone broth, I use the feet, the necks, and the fryer backs.

And you just-- - To make broth.

- To make broth.

Yeah.

Then you have a really thick collagen rich broth.

- Is it good?

- It is.

It is.

- Good night.

- What do we got here?

- Is that a half?

- It's a half.

- Frozen solid.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- Oh look, you got the buffalo wing on it.

- Yeah.

- And everything.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- 2.82 pounds.

- Yeah.

- I mean, this is probably the biggest hangup from people that want to raise their own livestock is the actual processing of it.

- Right.

- Right?

Because you, like you said, you had to take it somewhere that's... People really struggle with finding places like that.

Looks like you guys have figured something out.

- Yeah.

- Well, and it is a full day 'cause you have to catch them after dark for low stress on the chickens.

You get 'em loaded up.

- [Richard] You what?

- So you have to catch the chickens after dark because they nest for the night.

Have you ever like been a part of a chicken scramble or try to catch a chicken during the day?

They'll just run around.

- Well, yeah, but-- - When you've got 500 to catch.

- Don't you like, you know like push 'em all in a corner and-- - Well, it's just easier after dark.

- [Richard] Okay.

- They've roosted for the night.

You can just walk up to 'em, pick 'em up.

You carry three or four or five at a time.

We put 'em in crates and then we take 'em to the processor, and then pick 'em up the next day.

But it is a long drive there and a long drive back and then you pick them up the next day.

But yeah, then we're ready to sell 'em and package 'em, and we don't have to worry about plucking feathers or singing or-- - Yeah.

- Doing it our-- - [Richard] No kidding.

- And it's a lot less stress on the birds.

Like a stress-free chicken is kind of the goal.

- Oh, one happy life.

One bad day.

- Yeah.

- That's kind of the saying for the chickens.

- For the chickens.

- [Richard] Oh.

- So they live a happy life.

They're outside every day.

Fresh grass, fresh bugs, out on the dirt, fresh air.

Only one bad day.

That's the day they go to the processor - Do you have like, they call 'em tractors?

- Yep.

- Or the movable cages.

- Yep.

- Is that how you raise them?

- Yep, so it's like two-foot tall by say 10-by-10 wire mesh.

And then we move it, has wheels that we prop it up on, and then every day move it so they're on fresh grass.

They're protected by, from aerial predators that way.

And then also raccoons or coyotes can't get in.

But then every day they're on fresh grass as well and can take their pick from the forage that's available.

Do they try, like the critters to get in there?

- Yes.

- Raccoons and stuff?

- They will, yeah.

- Yeah.

What about those little ermine?

- We have been fortunate enough not to have an issue with those.

They could probably dig their way in if they wanted to.

We do have a stock dog just in case, you know, to try and keep that down.

But if one were to get in there, like we could lose all the chickens.

- [Justin] Yeah, they could go-- - We had chickens one time, like 20 of 'em.

- Yeah.

- And then one morning it's like a war seed.

- Yes.

- It was horrible.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause all they do is kill 'em for fun.

- Yep.

- That's, oh, anyway.

Who's buying this stuff?

- So our typical customer is people that are health conscious.

They wanna make sure, you know, they care about-- - [Richard] Hippies.

- I have used the term food hippies before.

- Yeah.

- Another word might be crunchy, if you know what that means.

People that-- - [Richard] Like granola.

- What does country crunchy mean?

- Crunchy.

So health conscious.

- Health conscious.

- So mainly you're looking for your food from farm to table.

You're going more natural than processed.

You're focusing more on, I guess, the health aspect of your food rather than-- - [Justin] So-- - Like you're gonna get more health benefits from farm-to-table than you are the beef at the grocery store, usually.

- A good analogy might be a story when we were dating, you know, I would get sick and I would say, "Hey, just gimme a pill, gimme some medicine.

You know, help me get over this."

She said, "Well here's some essential oil," or, "Here's something.

I'm gonna help you sniff," Or, "I'm gonna make some sort of broth."

- [Richard] So you're a hippie?

- Yeah.

- Oh, okay.

- I'm scrunchy.

I'm not quite crunchy, but you know, we still use Tylenol.

(Bobby laughing) - [Richard] I didn't recognize you without the tie-dye.

- We're good.

(Bobby laughing) - Okay.

- But we also farm and have row crop and we understand, you know, the way things work.

So whenever possible, we're an advocate of whole food as close to the source as possible.

But we understand that doesn't work for everybody.

- [Bobby and Justin] Yeah.

- Well, I mean, if this is what people want, why not produce it for 'em?

- Right, there is a market out there for that.

Now it does, you know, factory raised, you know, chicken that would be in a barn, that's a lot cheaper product that you can buy at the store than compared to what we're raising.

But when you look at the fat content, and the health benefits, omega threes, I don't really know a lot about that, but the health benefits of eating whole food that's raised in this way compared to the processed food.

- Well, and Bobby, you've had a health scare there.

Tell me about what happened in 2023.

- So I went in for a routine eye exam and I ended up being sent to Iowa City for an emergency MRI because of swelling in my optic nerve.

- [Justin] (indistinct) - You went in for an eye, like sit down and tell me.

- Yeah.

- Right side or left side.

- Read the letters - Left side, right side.

- Yeah take some pictures.

- And then also sudden you're getting an, did they take you in an ambulance?

- No, no.

She just, I was actually at a work conference when they called and they're like, we really don't like the look of your optic nerve.

It's extremely swollen.

We would like you to go up to Iowa City today.

And I was like, I can't do that today.

I'll be home, I'll be home tomorrow.

(laughing) So I got home and we went up to Iowa City and we were all kind of like in shock about like, why is this a big deal?

But their concern was if there's swelling in the optic nerve, usually there's something causing that.

So they didn't know if it could be a brain tumor.

They didn't know if it could be cancerous.

They didn't know what it was.

They didn't know what they were looking at.

So we ended up spending the day there just kinda wondering what was going on.

And it turns out that I had some fluid around my brain and they thought maybe that could be what was causing the optic nerve swelling.

They were telling me that sometimes that's common in women my age.

Sometimes they don't see it.

But that they did have a medication.

But once I started it-- - Thanks.

- Yeah, right.

(all laughing) I was like, "Oh, this is great."

But once I would start the medication they were offering, then I would have to be on it for the rest of my life.

- [Richard] Oh?

- And I was like, well, I need other options.

Like I'm not willing to do that at, you know, at the time, 31 years old.

- That's a lot of life to be taking medicine.

- That's a lot of-- - Yeah, it is.

And not knowing the side effects that that medicine could cause.

So we did a diet change.

And originally I was gluten-free, dairy-free, but when I moved back to the Midwest to finish college, that really wasn't a thing here.

Midwestern food being comfort food.

- [Richard] Damn right.

- Yeah.

- [Richard] Yeah.

- Rightfully so, but gluten-free wasn't an option.

So I went back to eating both gluten and dairy, and it just, the inflammation that, not necessarily the gluten, but the overly processed gluten caused in my body, eventually caused the repercussions in my health.

So once I cut that out and we went completely raw dairy, the inflammation has gone away.

My optic nerve is almost back to normal.

- Did you guys, you drink raw milk?

- I do, yes.

- Do you really?

We do.

- She drinks from the cow.

- That's very controversial.

- It is, and there are a lot of places I would not purchase raw milk from.

We're extremely careful.

We trust the person who we get our milk from 100%.

So I feel safe doing that.

- That's what dairy people say a lot.

It's like, "Hey, you know, raw milk.

The reason this was because the conditions then and the conditions now are night and day.

- Yes, and the tests that are available.

- Most diary people, if you ask them off air, they'll say absolutely fine to drink raw milk.

But they won't say it on air.

- I guess we just did.

(Bobby laughing) So maybe we're on the black list by somebody.

She said it, not me.

- I said it.

I'll say it.

Yeah, there are some cases where I would not drink raw milk, but-- - [Richard] Yeah.

- Like I said, we trust our person.

- All right, I want to get to this before we run out of time.

You guys do an inflatable rental business, Fields of Fun.

- See that's an agricultural tie-in.

- It's clever.

- How much fun?

- It's clever.

- Fields of fun.

- Yeah, you had an incident where you had a bouncy house and a bunch of kids flew away never to be seen again.

- Yeah, that's our claim to fame.

No, actually no.

(Bobby laughing) - We, very careful.

- No.

- Put down tarps, put down stakes, weight bags.

But yeah, no, it's a good opportunity.

We're able to get involved in local community events, maybe town festivals.

Every town has like a Strawberry Fest, or a Rhubarb Fest, or a Sweet Corn Festival.

Every town's got a food.

So a lot of times we get invited, Bacon Fest.

We get invited to those parties and set up our bounce houses.

Hey, it's a thing.

- [Richard] Yeah.

Do you deal with the big boxing gloves?

- We did have that piece, yeah.

- Yeah.

- And then a jousting pedestal with a big thing.

Works really well for like marriage counseling.

If you just need to work something out, either boxing or the jousting.

Yeah.

- [Richard] Oh.

- Not that you would have problems in your marriage or anything, but just-- - [Richard] Not that you'd wanna do that to your spouse.

- If you just need to settle a disagreement, that's one way of doing it.

- That's one way.

- I haven't seen the jousting one.

So is this mainly for kids?

- Yes.

- Oh, mainly.

We do have a couple pieces that like adults could, we have like a 20-foot slide adults can slide down.

- [Richard] Oh yeah.

- Or an obstacle course that's popular with junior high and high schoolers where a rock wall, and then you slide down at the end.

- Usually parents when they come outta that one, they say, "We're not doing that again."

(all laughing) - And this become a business for you?

- Yeah, so we had an opportunity.

There was a couple that had this business and built this network.

They were in Burlington, Iowa.

They were looking to just kind of slow down as they approached retirement and their kids were out of the house now.

And so we, along with her brother and his wife bought that business.

And if you're ever going to start an inflatable bounce house business, always keep in mind the possibility of a pandemic that will cancel every food, small town festival for the year.

So we had, 2019 is when we had bought the business and then essentially 2020 was wiped out because of COVID.

So '21 was our first year of doing that quite a bit.

And then it's been going strong ever since.

- Do you have to patch those things a lot?

- Sometimes.

- We haven't patched very many.

Mainly our older pieces we do like to keep in nice shape.

We do a lot more maintenance on that.

But generally they hold together very well as long as you care for them.

- Okay.

That would be frustrating to me because you get like, I don't know, some drunk dude in there that just...

He's got like pliers or something and he is jumping on your thing and you wanna smack him.

- Yep, we haven't done any weddings yet for that kind of reason.

You don't know if you are set up at a wedding reception, people have had a little too much to drink, kind of what you run into with adults.

But most of the people that enjoy our bounce houses would be kids.

We have the occasional adult, but by and large it's like a kid's activity corner where we set up.

- Gotcha.

Is there a place online where people can find any or all of your stuff?

- Yeah, so I mean we have Facebook page, Allaman Family Poultry, and then also for the bounce houses, Fields of Fun.

We also have website, allamanfamilypoultry.com.

Or sorry, that's hickorygrovepoultry.com.

Hickory Grove was already taken.

I told you the Allamans had lived in our area for a long time.

Hickory Grove is kind of the name of our homestead where we lived.

But hickorygrovefarms.com or Hickory Grove was already taken.

So hickorygrovepoultry.com is where you can look at pictures of our farm.

- Awesome.

Well, I love how you guys have created markets and not farmed in maybe the most traditional ways, and then also included inflatable bouncy stuff.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

You guys seem like you are figuring out a lot because that's what we have to do in agriculture today.

We can't just do the, you know, traditional corn and soybeans and that because everybody else is.

So, I think this is genius because I mean, somebody's gonna want these chicken, these fryer feet.

- Yeah.

- These chicken fryer feet.

So, yeah, I think it's, I think it's fantastic what you all have done, so you ought to be commended for it.

- Well we appreciate the opportunity to be here and kinda share our story as well.

- Yeah, and again, Allaman, what was the Facebook one?

- Allaman Family Poultry - Allaman Family Poultry.

All right.

Well guys, thank you so very much.

Really, really appreciate it.

And everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

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