Embracing the Highs and Lows of Returning to Family Operations and Hometowns

Shaye Koester  00:05

Hey, hey, it's Shaye Koester and I'm your host and the founder of Casual Cattle Conversations. A global rancher education company that strives to bring honest thoughts and conversations from ranchers and leaders to other ranchers. Be sure to follow @cattleconvos on social media to have more in depth conversations around the ranching business and lifestyle brought to you. If you are ready to take your operation to the next level and improve your lifestyle to send me a message about my RancherMind group. RancherMinds, are monthly roundtable discussions for ranchers to learn from peers and experts and leave a call with actionable advice to make changes on their own operations. With that, let's see who our guest is today, and what experience and advice they have to offer you to improve your own operation.  Alrighty, folks, thanks for joining me again today. Today we have a special guest. Now if you've been following for a while, you know that Hannah Borg has been on the show before. She was in episode three and she had just returned to her family's operation straight out of college. So two years later, we decided that it would be time for her to come back and share how things have changed. And you know, looking back now what maybe she would have done differently and really just advice for anyone transitioning back onto that family operation and facing those first two years of working with family again and entering a small community. Hannah share's very honest, vulnerable advice that is great for anyone to listen to. So with that, let's get on with the episode.  Alright. Well, thank you for joining me, Hannah. It's great to have you back on the show for anyone who's been following along for a while knows that you were on episode three, I believe is what it was. So you know, over two years later, it's great to have you on here today.

Hannah Borg  02:03

Thank you so much. It's fun to reflect over what's happened in the last few years.

Shaye Koester  02:09

Yeah, so I know. So a lot of those loyal listeners who have been along for a while know your background if they listen to that episode three. But would you just give a brief overview of you know what your operation looks like today?

Hannah Borg  02:22

Yeah, I'm the sixth generation on Borg farms. We're up here in Northeast Nebraska around the Wakefield Allen area. My family raises crops, cattle, and most recently chickens, although it's not as recent as a lot of it has been. We've raised chickens for Lincoln Premium Poultry or Costco for two years now and going on three. So we have a feedlot, where we background cattle, we have cow calf operation, we just got done calving. And then my dad farms with his three brothers on the corn and soybean side. We have some hay and then pullets for Costco. So we tend to stay busy. And we're pretty diversified, which keeps things fun, for sure.

Shaye Koester  03:12

Well, that's exciting. So I know it was, I mean, right away when you would kind of moved back that we last spoke and you really shared your story. So do you want to kind of talk about what your role was right away when you moved back, because you moved back right out of college?

Hannah Borg  03:28

Yes, we got chickens Tuesday, my senior year finals week. So I was home when we got chickens. Then I had to go back to Lincoln for a final on Wednesday, which I ended up getting really sick for because I think there was so much lead up to placement day on Tuesday, that after placement, my body just crashed. So I got I got really sick. So then I ended up taking my finals. I took two finals on Thursday, and I've been home on the farm ever since. So basically my main role that first year was to survive. Turns out starting a business with no prior knowledge, especially with livestock is really really hard. So we were in pure survival mode there for a long time and we're out of it now. So it's fun to have clarity to how we think about things and things that we do. But yeah, that first year was tough and I knew it was tough when I was living it but I don't think I realized how tough it was because you know you always try to put on your your everything's okay face and then you look back and you're like everything was not okay. But now things for sure have settled down. So when you talk about that, were you primarily just on the chicken side. I mean, I know you kind of bounced around a little bit, but when you came back I mean was your designated role to take care of the poultry side of the operation? Yeah, so at the beginning, my responsibilities were to survive with my mom. So we get 60,000 chickens twice a year. They come in as baby chicks and we have them for five months. So two rotations a year and that first year, I guess, labor-wise, I was mostly in the chicken barns, because chores took all day, whereas now they just take a couple hours. But any chance I had to be in the feedlot or to be in the field, I took it. But also, I realized pretty quickly that some normal things that I should know how to do on the farm, I didn't know how to do. So I had to like relearn how to do a lot of things because I was always involved growing up, but I didn't drive a lot of equipment per se. Because there was no need for me to do some of the stuff that now I need to do. So that first year was just a whole lot of learning and just kind of figuring out the flow of things and figuring out, you know, what my responsibilities might be outside of the chicken barns. But yeah, mostly chicken barns. Then I was happy that whenever I got an opportunity to do a job outside of the chicken barns.

Shaye Koester  06:16

Well, awesome. So how has your role changed? I mean, it's been two years. So how have your responsibilities kind of changed as you've adjusted to being back home? What does that look like?

Hannah Borg  06:27

Yeah, every day is waking up doing chores, just like, I'm sure any other livestock producer that's listening. The first job every day is to get the livestock fed. I do a majority of chicken chores, myself, I kind of had to tell my mom, you know, we were we working together a lot. And it was kind of like mom, we don't both need to be doing this. Because I feel like I'm kind of wasting my time because there's more I could be doing. And my mom, I felt like she was getting in my way a little bit. I was like Mom, you don't, need to be getting up every morning. The ironic thing is she's still up doing housework stuff, but I'm up in a chicken barns. So I'm doing majority of the chores myself. Then it's kind of fun, we kind of have a good routine where I'm done in the chicken barns. But a little earlier than my dad and brother are done in the feedlot. I start a little bit earlier, they wait till daybreak, I go in and have breakfast. And by the time I come out, we kind of regroup and if we have to treat cattle or we have to work cattle, you know, we just kind of have little powwow about what we're going to be doing. It might be shop work, whatever the seasonal task is. Honestly, I spent a couple hours, not even a couple hours, like when the birds get older, it's like an hour in the morning, another half an hour in the afternoon. So we have to go through all the barns between noon and three o'clock. Just a quick walkthrough to make sure everything's okay. And then the lights go off at three o'clock because we only have eight hours of light. So now basically I'm you know, after I get done with chores, I'm there for my dad and brother for whatever they're doing or if I have to go back and fix things. I will say though, when we do have baby birds, that first month, is for sure more time, just like calving season right now. We're just kind of coming out of calving season, a lot of other people are still in it. So a lot of work to have baby animals and it's the same way for chickens. That doesn't change.

Shaye Koester  08:48

So you brought up a really interesting point that I think we could dive deeper into and maybe add a lot of value to other listeners who are maybe the older generation, maybe they are the new generation. But you talked about how you had to have that conversation with your mom about how you could handle the responsibility of those chores. You didn't need two of you. S change could be made there. So how have you gone about having those conversations? Because I'm sure there have been other similar conversations that you've probably had to have with your dad and brother as well. And really, your whole family trying to understand the different responsibilities. So how do you ensure that you can effectively have those conversations and communicate that to your other family members as you're working?

Hannah Borg  09:34

Yeah, it's wild working with your parents. It's the best thing it's the most beautiful thing. It's also the hardest thing it also sucks and I say that like in the most loving way. You know in working with them for two years, almost three years it's come a long ways. You know, I went in with a mindset that I'm not going to have an opinion for at least a year, in terms of you know, what they're doing, what decisions they're making just day to day decisions. I was very intentional about keeping my mouth shut for a year, I think I kept my mouth shut for even longer than that. It's not that they didn't value my opinion. Although it was my parents operation, and I grew up on it the day to day operations I'd never been a part of, so I really had to take it all in, especially with, you know, figuring out the chicken barns. And then as time went on, I've kind of navigated language with my parents, you know, what are? What are words that I don't say? Or, what are things and topics that I approach with more caution? You know, if I do have a strong opinion, how do I relay that in the most effective way? You know, with my dad, Hi, Dad, probably not listening. But in case you are Hi, Dad, you know, asking him, well, why are you doing that is not the most effective communication, you know, helped me understand your thought process through that. It sounds silly to think about the language, but it's like, just something that that's worked for us. I think they approach me different, or I know they approach talking to me better or differently than my brother. So it's just kind of a balance of when do you want to have a strong opinion? When do you fight the battles that you know, you are right on? Or you want to do things a certain way? When do you just learn to humble yourself, and say that's not what I'm willing to get upset over. It takes time. It's not like, okay, let's sit down and have a conversation. It's just little sentences or little quick conversations that happen over time. And then, as time goes on, you're like, remember, we talked about this, like, I wanted to follow up. Also, knowing my parents as well as I do, like, I know, good times, when to talk to them about deeper topics and when not too. I think that's the same with any employer, you know when to approach them and when not to, and you know, the difference of when working with your parents. It's like, I'm coming to you as an employee, not as a daughter and I need you to listen to me as an employer, not as my father or mother. And so figuring out those boundaries is really, really tough. And those boundaries are crossed more often than they're not. But as time goes on, I think it's gotten easier. And we can have some harder conversations. And then other days, any of the good strategic way about going about anything is just thrown out the window, and you're just trying to figure out how to get the job done. So there's no perfect way, some days it works and some days it doesn't, and you figure out how to work through those days that don't work out.

Shaye Koester  13:11

Well, thank you for really sharing that. I appreciate it. So, did you have like an initial support group or network? Because there are a lot of challenges with that. I mean, you had integrated a whole new species onto your operation plus went through a huge change of college to being an adult and back on your family operation. So there was just a lot of change happening there. So did you have like, a support group or network to go to to help talk about and find solutions for some of these challenges that you faced?

Hannah Borg  13:45

Easy answer, no. And that's why I love talking about this, or this topic. So, you know, when you transition into college there is a transition. You spend your senior year in high school preparing and thinking and picking out the perfect college and as a girl, you spend that summer shopping for the best bedding and all the dorm stuff. You go to orientation, and there's all this support for people transitioning into college, but turns out, there's a transition outside out of college and there's no support around and that. I'm talking that's even for when you get done with senior year and you're like, holy moly, like what do I do now? It's really a wild ride. You know, personally, to go from college where you're with your friends every day, you're living in a community of college students and there's always things going on. And then in my case, I had to move home. Turns out, living in a rural community it is hard to find a house to live in at a decent price. So I was living back with my parents. I was trying to run a business with them. All my closest friends I've been with for last four years, they're all hours away. I didn't really have any close friends at home. It's so lonely and then you go to town and you kind of got to reduce reintroduce yourself of who you are after four years in college. You are trying to make yourself known in a way that you want to be known. It's just a weird identity thing. And it's like, you know, my parents are very involved in the community. And it's like, I want to be, but I want to be on my own terms and not always what they do. So I literally could talk forever and ever about, you know, how wild that time is personally, and then professionally when you're trying to navigate the new job as well. So did I have a support group? No. And what would I have done different? I'm not sure, because I felt like I was doing the best I could at the time. But that's why I tell people like give yourself grace, that first year out of college is absolutely a wild emotional ride. You know, if you're moving back home, it's probably going to be lonely as you try to navigate those new friendships or reconnecting with local friends. It's not easy. But eventually, the cloud disintegrates and you look up and you're like, Hmm, I kind of like where I'm at. So just, just give yourself grace, give yourself time, and hopefully it works out. So that's where I'm at now. I'm in a good place now but it definitely took a long time to get here.  I really appreciate how you said that, you know, you went back to the same community, but you had to reintroduce yourself for who you want to be known as within the community again and I think that's something that, you know, I've heard other people talk about is like, saying, Yes, I came back, but you know, I'm not in high school anymore. I am an adult now. I'm in a different stage. So thank you for, you know, kind of talking about that. And expanding on that a little more. So, Wakefield, my hometown, we have Michael foods, which is a large, commercial, egg laying farm. They have their huge, huge chicken layers. So there's definitely randomly in my community a culture around chicken production. But, I go to town and people call me the chicken girl. I was known as a chicken girl and people still reference me as that and I am like I am more than just the chickens. So even having to embrace that new identity that oh, yeah, I do raise chickens and people do know me for that and I should be proud of that because we were an early adopter in that industry here in Nebraska. But yeah, to just redefine yourself. Maybe not everyone goes through that. Maybe in a new community you're going through it in a different way. I wouldn't trade my little community for anything and, you know, credit to a lot of people in town they have seen I'm serious about staying on the farm and they take me serious in what I do. So that's been a big blessing.

Shaye Koester  18:42

Awesome, and I'm excited for you for that. Now, in there, you said, you know, no, I'm more than just the chicken girl. So how have you integrated, you know, being maybe multi passionate? Or, you know, have you thought about starting other businesses, aside from what you're doing on the livestock side of things? So I guess, you know, kind of what else are you involved in to ensure that you're filling your bucket in all other areas of your life?

Hannah Borg  19:11

Yes, I also I love this topic. Because you know, in college, I'm sure you're like me, where you just are over involved and you just burn yourself out. So I approach my community involvement very intentionally. I don't want to be the token young person on every board, I really want to do things that I want to do and not just because my parents have done them or my family has done them. There are some things I do that my family does, but there are other things that I do because I want to do. For example, so I said, I'm going to be on three boards at a time and I've stuck strong to that. My main one that I'm involved in is the Dickson County Fair, we are just a teeny tiny family friendly fair, and I get to do all the communications work. That's how I get to use my my communications degree. My love for communications, in a full branding aspect gets used for our Dickson county fair. So that takes a lot of time and I love that. I'm on a church board because it is important for my family to be involved in church. I made that decision too because it's important for me. I'm very involved in my church. And then I'm also involved in the Wakefield Heritage Organization. So I love history. Wakefield has two really cool museums, so if you're ever in Wakefield, Nebraska, please reach out. I would love to give you tours of our museums. So those are kind of the three main things that I'm involved in. I do some photography work and that's kind of a side hustle. It's not even a side hustle because I don't do it for money. It's like a passion. I love doing agricultural lifestyle, photos for families. I shoot weddings, if friends need them. It's just kind of my way that I can use creativity and that's just how I can serve my friends and family. Eventually, I would like to maybe figure out how to help other families, you know, organize their family history and scan all those old photos, because I think that's really important. I've done a lot of that for my family. I'd really love to help families tell their story through video and get some of those older generational stories on video or a podcast or just recording, kind of figure out how to do that. We're not there yet. But the cool thing about working on a farm is that there is a lot of freedom and flexibility until there's not. So right now we don't have chickens. So I have slower mornings. My days aren't as busy and it's just in the time that we are right now. It will pick up and become busier. But even in the winter, like this winter, I found myself with a little bit more time than I knew what to do with one because it was an intense winter in terms of in terms of snow and weather. And so I got to, you know, scan a lot of old family photos, and I was like, how can I figure out how to get paid for this for other families. So those are kind of the lanes that I like to say. So if you're listening and you maybe have an interest to figure out how to organize and categorize all your old family photos or even want just like modern day, ag lifestyle, family photos of your family working on the farm. You know, I recently went to branding, and I shot that and that was really cool. But honestly like, to me when I think of my family, I see my dad and brother in the tractor every single day feeding cattle, you know, I'm walking chicken barns every day, I'm feeding my horse. There's just some things that we do every single day and I think of those, you know, images when I think of my dad and brother and we don't have a lot of those images because you know, we're working. So I think it'd be really cool just to document families doing chores and everyday things like that. So that was a long winded answer, because I'm multi-passionate. I do have some freedom and flexibility during different times of the year that I get to do and pursue.

Shaye Koester  23:44

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Shaye Koester  24:54

Thank you to our friends at Performance Beef for help bringing this episode to you. And with that, let's continue visiting with Hannah about her journey and really implementing all of her passions and living out her life as she moved back to her own hometown to continue her family's legacy.  Well, I think it's really inspiring how, you know, you still live out your passions, while you know going home to the family operation, I think it's really neat how you're filling your bucket and making all parts of your soul feel alive in some form or fashion. So that's awesome.

Hannah Borg  25:29

It doesn't have to be one or another. It is isolating working on the farm, I to say there's a splendid isolation to the farm. Because you know, a lot of things that we do, we're doing alone. We could be working cattle, but I'm in the tub, pushing cattle through up the chute, or I can be in the field with my family chopping hay. So there'll be, you know, five of us in the field, but you're sitting in truck all day by yourself. So you do a lot of things by yourself and it is isolating. And so recognizing that and knowing that knowing what, you know, I like the term filling your bucket, what fills my bucket and having a handle on that has been really important to me, because I see, not everyone gets to do that or has opportunity. So now the thing that I've tried to be intentional about because I could get lost in the isolation and just kind of forget what I love outside of the farm. But the cool thing is I get to combine what I love outside of the farm on the farm. You want cattle pictures, I've got more cattle pictures than I know what to do with. I love taking my camera out during Golden Hour, and just taking images all over the farm throughout all the seasons.

Shaye Koester  26:59

Well, that's exciting. So kind of shifting gears a little bit. Looking back now, you know, is there anything that you would have done differently? That first year you came back to the operation?

Hannah Borg  27:14

I've tried to do things intentionally over time. I've used that word intentionally, a couple of times. And I think I you never want to live in regret of anything. I don't think I would have done anything different, because I was doing the best that I could at the time. I wish that I wasn't so hard on myself. But at the time I was like this is really hard. So I don't think I could have done anything differently, because I was really trying to do the best I could to understand that what we are doing is hard. Understanding that living with your parents and working for your parents at the same time is hard. So I'm glad that I was intentional about not joining any boards or community staff for a year. I'm not really going to have an opinion. I'm just going to survive the first year. And that was my word of the year going into that first year on the farm was survive. And so knowing that my second year on the farm, the word was thrive, because I figured out how to survive. And I really wanted to grow on my role and not just be on a day to day like, Okay, what do we have to get done? Like bare minimum? Like what? What, you know, second year thrive? How can we make the place look even better? How can we kind of clean up from last year, things like that. Then this year, my word of the year is strive. So I've survived, I've thrived, but now I want to push myself. I want to figure out what more can I do? And so that's kind of where I'm at now. But in terms of doing things differently, I don't think I could have other than just, you know, being a little easier on myself, but I didn't. I didn't know if I could do that at the time. Well, thank you for being really vulnerable and sharing that. I think you know, the whole, grant yourself some grace is important for everyone to remember no matter what stage they're at in being on their family operation or business or really stage of life. It's always important to grant ourselves some grace and understand that. It's easy, okay, okay, I'm going to grant myself grace or I'm going to give myself grace, but you know, if you're in the thick of something hard, what does that look like? And it's like, you know, really stripping your life down to bare minimum of like, I'm not getting myself involved. I'm really going to just focus on the task at hand. I really had to learn how to like calm my emotions. I used to be a pretty emotional person when something went wrong. But I learned over time like, Okay, if something goes wrong this is, you know, I might not know how to fix it, but I can figure out what is wrong. So I could, you know, tell our service tech, you know, this is wrong instead of having to figure it out, like just really doing things in a methodical way and turning that methodical way of broken things in the chicken barn to like, in my own life, okay, I'm feeling lonely today, what can we do to problem solve it and really like, slowing down and thinking things through was something that really helped me give myself grace, because it's like, okay, this is hard. You know, this is not fun but I have all these other good things going. And so let's embrace the suck. And just know that this season will pass. And sure enough, it did.

Shaye Koester  30:52

Embrace the suck. I like it.

Hannah Borg  31:00

Yeah, yeah. Because when I say that first year is hard, it's like, what I do now in an hour now used to take us like, a half a day, some days, because, you know, we have 100 motors that run every time we feed chickens. We went in with the assumption that brand new equipment would run. Now I know that I never want to have brand new equipment again, because it takes a lot to get things dialed in. Some things come broken or not working. It just takes a long time to get everything working. So that's what's making it hard is every single thing that we're doing is brand new. Whereas now, I can tell something's wrong by just the way that it sounds. I couldn't do that before. That's what I mean, it was a fight every single day. It was like, Okay, you have to think through everything you don't know and it is just a lot of calls with the service techs. So now I'm proud because I know how to fix things and that saves a lot of time and headache. Because if you have something broken, and you're waiting for the service tech to come the next day that can cause other issues, and then you putting out those fires, and it's just an ongoing battle. Our battles now are just a lot shorter, if something breaks. There's some things that happen now, that would cause a big ordeal in terms of like, Hey, we gotta call someone to get it fixed. We have to do this and this. Well now when something breaks, if it doesn't work, I can solve it and it's a non issue now. But that took a lot of time to get to that place. I can take that attitude to the rest of the farm to like, if something's not working on the rest of the farm, I can be like. Okay, I know, I'm working with some sort of background on how to figure this out. And even in my own life, like, Okay, this isn't going right, this friendships aren't going right. Like, how can we fix it, you know, things like that. I'm a fix it person. I love to fix things, because I used to not be able to do any of that. So it's just fun to see myself transform with the just simple things in the chicken barns and how it's helped me grow as a person, even as cliche as that sounds.

Shaye Koester  33:35

That's exciting. So as we like to wrap up today, is there any last bit of advice that you'd like to offer anyone returning home to their family operation? Or I guess you could reverse it in any advice for, you know, maybe the older generation that's having someone come back, but what advice would you like to offer?

Hannah Borg  33:52

Oh, I love this. Advice for going back home, do it. In my opinion, based off of what I know, and have learned it's not worth going to work for someone else first. You know, I could have gone to work for someone else but there would have been so much that I missed out on in the beginning years of our chicken business. So if you're debating on going home to the family farm, do it. You know, figure out financially like how to make it work. Have those conversations with your parents. Figure out if you can have a side hustle to support some of your hobbies and things like that. And to follow up, kind of like what I've said, like really give yourself grace, know that it's going to be really hard, but know that it's going to be really worth it. For the older generation. You have to approach things differently when your son or daughter comes home, teach them things that you just know. There's so many things that I've watched my dad do and like I wish I knew how to do that. And it's like well, he's been farming for 40 years, of course, he's going to know how to do some of these things. So invite your son and daughter, to be learners to teach them things that you don't even have to think about doing. Listen to them. Be willing and open to listen to them becasue you know last fall, we got Performance Beef, which is a platform that we use to feed our feedlot cattle every day to help keep track of everything, basically. And I after two years, finally brought it up to my dad and was like, Dad, we need Performance Beef. It was really, really tough for him when we first got it. I think that first day after trying, he's like, I'm never gonna feed cattle again in my life. The next week, he's like, I'm never not going to feed cattle without Performance Beef. So if you're the primary operators with a son and daughter coming back, just be willing to listen to them, but be a good teacher as well.

Shaye Koester  36:04

Well, awesome. Well, thank you very much for taking time out of your morning to visit with me and offer me advice too. I appreciate it. But I know your story will impact so many other audience members who are listening to the show. So thank you very much, Hannah.

Hannah Borg  36:19

Yeah, I appreciate it. My DMs are open on on Instagram. I love having conversations with people about these kinds of topics. So yeah, feel free to reach out and follow me on all the social platforms.

Shaye Koester  36:35

And that's a wrap on that one. Be sure to let me know your thoughts on the episode and if you have any further questions around the topic, take care and have a great day.