to hand out the milk at the Indianapolis 500 to the winning driver. I don't know where to go from here now. In Indiana, there are robots smoking our cows. Yes, there is. My mind is blown. We're the ones who came up with winners drink milk.
What would you say the biggest misconception about farmers in Indiana is from South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Hey everyone, quick pause in the action to introduce you to Flutterman von Reese, a true hidden gem in Indiana, especially for all you watch afficados out there. Founded by an Indiana State graduate from Batesville, this family-owned brand has deep hooer roots dating back to the 1830s, they are even proud members of the Society of Indiana Pioneers, which I didn't know existed, but is a sweet organization. They are based in India and are redefining luxury watches.
Meticulously crafted in Cooko by a certified watchmaker and his apprentice. The designs blend classic elegance with a modern twist. Don't miss their Chase Brisco race day VIP experience giveaway. An incredible opportunity for race fans. Chase is an awesome NASCAR driver from Mitchell, Indiana. You're going to be learning more about him soon.
Follow Flutterman von Reese to explore their stunning collections and join their journey to greatness. Today I'm joined by Brooke Williams, the director of communications at the American Dairy Association Indiana. A proud Zensville native and mom, Brooke brings over a decade of experience to ADAI, where she bridges the gap between dairy farmers and who's your communities with stories that educate and inspire. I'm also joined by Abby her, this year's veteran milk presenter at the Indianapolis 500 and a full-time dairy farmer at her dairy farm in Noble County. She's a passionate advocate for agriculture and a mom of two future dairy queens. Abby shares her farm's daily life with thousands online and in person.
And today we're going to be talking all things dairy. Ladies, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having us. I am pumped up about this one. We are going to have a spectacular time talking all things Indiana and American dairy from the State Fair to the Indianapolis 500 to small rural farms in northern Indiana. And I'm really really excited about it.
And I think the the question starts the story starts, Brooke, you're a Zansville born and raised native here to central Indiana. And I don't know for any listeners out there, Zensville isn't necessarily chocked full of dairy farms. How did you end up in the milk business? So I actually I moved to Zensville in third grade. Um my dad, he's retired now, but was a research scientist. So we actually moved all around the country staying on different he ran different research stations.
Um so a lot of agriculture growing up um just it was more crops than animals. Um so yeah growing up in Zensel but I actually went to college out of state in Nebraska and Kansas. So I felt like my roots were always kind of for a for a very bad pun but like rooted in dairy or rooted in agriculture in some way. I took this on more of the communication side. Um, I have a master's degree in English and literature. So, there was that communication stuff.
Um, and growing up in Indiana, always knew, you know, more than corn, right? Like that's what we say. Um, there's so much more than corn. We've got milk. Yeah. So, I felt like it was kind of this mix of growing up with my dad as an influence and egg and then the communication stuff and um yeah, so I've now been working for Indiana's dairy farm families for 11 years.
Have learned a lot about dairy that I I didn't know ahead of time. I didn't know that so many farms were in the state. Now I do. And it's it's a really cool way that I can talk about dairy, talk about dairy farmers like Abby and help tell their stories and get them to talk more about what they're doing on the farm. Um it's been a really great great run. Oh, I love it.
Okay. Uh we're going to we're going to jump. I feel like no one just like wakes up like I don't wake up today and say, you know what, I'm going to go start a dairy farm. So I'm assuming Abby that there is maybe some family history around dairy cows. Can we can we hear about it? I grew up on a dairy farm myself and myself in South Whitley, Indiana.
Uh so my husband and I were the fourth generation raising the fifth generation on his family's dairy farm in Kendallville. So I always say milk is in my blood because it truly is like I am so passionate about the dairy community. I love it so much. I love the cows. That's one of my favorite things. And now I get to watch my daughters, you know, love the cows.
We all fight over them. I feel like we're like those birds off of Finding Nemo where we're like mine, mine, wanting to name all of them. So, we're having so much fun doing that. Well, that's an interesting piece that uh with with dairy cows, like how long does a dairy cow stay on uh like a farm? Honestly, it really depends healthwise. I mean, we do our best to take as much care of the cows as we can.
I mean, we want them to live as long as they can. I have some that have been 12 years old, 15 years old. I mean, it really just depends on the health of the animal. All right. And that's like an interesting piece to dairy farming versus like traditional, you know, beef farm. It's like the cows that are here on a beef farm.
Yeah. I would say if you're growing beef, I don't if you're growing cattle to feed people, like they're not going to be around for 12 years. Yeah. So, when you have a cow for 12 years, you do get to build like a relationship. Not really, but like it's it's borderline to the point of pet, you know, where it's like you have they probably have names. Do they have names?
Yes. Yes, I have some that have names. Actually, on my shirt here, this was Leona. She's no longer with us, but I have her daughters. I have Loretta. I have Grace.
I can go down the whole family line. I keep track of the generations. Oh, amazing. I love that. Well, through growing up, was there ever a point where you were like, I don't I don't want to like I don't want to do this. Like, or did you know from the beginning like dairy farming was your thing?
At one point, I think I wanted to be like an a teacher because I was involved in FFA. I loved FFA. Any part of the agriculture industry I probably would have wanted to stay a part of, but the cows just kept pulling me back. I couldn't get away from the cows. I love them so much. Uh I love that.
Okay, so for those that don't know about the American Dairy Association Indiana, AD AI for sure or we're going to call it Indiana Dairy. For those that don't know about Indiana Dairy, uh explain what it is and what brought you two together. Basically, we're the marketing and promotions agency for all Indiana dairy farm families. So the technical side of it, we're a check off organization. Uh so it means that um for every 100 pounds of milk that a farmer sells, um we get a portion of that for our marketing budget. Um so through that we get to do the awesome events like the dairy bar at the Indiana State Fair.
We get to keep up with the milk tradition at the Indie 500. We get to be in schools talking about the importance of of dairy nutrition and why it's so vital to a child's health. With that, we know at the end of the day, our jobs are based upon, you know, telling the stories of the dairy farmers and really we want the community to get to know the people behind the amazing dairy products that are being made on their farm, right? So, uh, very fortunate when we have a farmer like Abby who is as passionate as she is, it makes our jobs even easier because like she said, born and raised to be a dairy farmer, has great stories to tell about her life as a dairy farmer, but also alongside with her husband Steve and their two girls doing great things on their farm, incorporating technology. It's all just, you know, brings together a really a great story of course, but also these are the things people want to know about dairy farms, right?
And so it would have been the ADA and I don't know if it was a specific state, but somewhere within that organization were the people that came up with Got Milk. So we're the local um organization, but so you have a milk processor like a Prairie Farms or a a Dean Foods. They also are paying for a marketing promotions agency. So that is who came up with the Got Milk campaign. So So was there was an agency someone cuz someone had to sit in a meeting somewhere and be like you know what we need we need Got Milk like and then it was everywhere. It was in every school like talk about a home run you know like man.
Okay. The So like that's but to put it in context for the listeners of like what to think about like I just like initially go to like they're the people that started the got milk thing, right? Like marketing like the consumption of dairy products. Yeah. And here locally we're we're the ones who came up with winners drink milk. So it's kind of that same.
Yeah. Oh, we're going to get into that then. Okay. When you think of Indiana dairy, like is it something that every dairy farmer in Indiana is 100% like has to be a part of? Do you choose to be a part of it? How does that work?
I think it I mean you can be a part of it if you want to. I mean what dairy farmer doesn't want to be a part of it? The chance to get you know the milk and stuff out there or any dairy product out there. I mean I'm grateful that we're involved in it because that gets our product and it kind of got you a pretty cool opportunity. As I say we got a cool opportunity. I mean obviously to hand out the milk at the Indianapolis 500 to the winning driver like that.
Did you I don't know where to go from here now. What are my next goals? I mean, yeah, obviously the Get In podcast. Well, that's true. That's that's awesome. And I did see one I had Bob.
He's the president of the 500 festival and they put on the 500 festival. I think the 500 princess and the princess is also up there and one of the princesses got like milk spilled on her in the previous and it's like it was so funny. like it's like the winner circle is just a cool place and it's going to be an incredible experience. So cool. We do have to go into where Winners Drink Milk and that whole campaign came from. Yeah.
So there have been kind of a few rebrandings of our organization over the years. Um and so the Winners Drink Milk obviously at the end of the Indy500 that's where the milk is is really praised as a as a trophy as a tradition. And so it was probably 20 years ago, maybe not even that far back, but um our CEO now at the time uh they were doing a rebranding and just threw it out there of what about winners drink milk? And so now our website is winnersdrinkmilk. com. Um I mean that's the hashtag especially this the month of May in Indie.
Um, you know, now we have branded everything with winners drink milk on it and it's it's really been fun, of course, to see it locally, but really nationally and on race day, uh, the winners drink milk message gets out there. But was it always something that happened? Like when did the winner of the Indianapolis 500 start drinking the milk actually? Yeah. 1936 is when the tradition began. Uh Louis Meyer who then was the first three Peter at the Indy500 requested buttermilk.
Uh he was that's what he drank back on the farm. Buttermilk back then different than what buttermilk is today. It used to be a very sweet, you know, like the cultured cream um making butter. So yeah, all thanks to Louis Meyer. Uh, and very fortunate then that it just kind of became a a natural tradition at the Indianapolis 500 and one that, you know, then the community embraces and our dairy farmers embrace. Um, and we've been very fortunate now for the past 20 years to have our dairy farmers there, uh, and victory circle, victory podium now, uh, presenting that milk to the wind.
That's so how do you, how does the selection process work for the dairy farmer? Uh, so it used to be board members and now there's an application process that they have to go through, fill out an application, we have a selection committee. You would think that there would be just a line out the door, right, of people that want to hand out the milk. Um, obviously have to be an Indiana dairy farmer, but they also, Abby can attest to this, you have to open your farm up to a lot of media, especially going leading up to the race. Um, and there are some farmers that, you know, their livelihood is their cows, their cow comfort, but being in front of media and talking about the cows, not for everyone, right? Like, so, um, it's a big commitment.
It's a big deal. And thankfully, we have, you know, farmers like Abby that make it very easy, very natural. That is like the most, I would say, like stereotypical when you think of farmers. It's like they don't a lot of them don't want the limelight, right? Yeah. Yeah.
What? And and you're right. I mean, telling somebody from a small community, even like Kendallville, our our rookie farmer this year is from, you know, Hudson, Indiana. What does what does rookie farmer mean? So, Abby is the veteran. So, this is technically her third year doing this.
It's a three-year commitment, but you got to work up the ladder. So, you start as the rookie elect you're kind of shadowing, and then the rookie milk presenter hands their bottles of milk to the winning uh chief mechanic and team owner. And then that next final year is the veteran. You're the veteran milk presenter and that's when you get to give your milk to the last year. Last year you gave it to the chief mechanic and the team owner. Yes.
I was the rookie last year and it was crazy. Oh my gosh. You're standing behind Victory Circle and all of a sudden you hear milk, milk, milk and you have to go out on Victory Circle after everybody has been uh siphoning up there to go celebrate. And then I'm looking for the chief mechanic. That was the hardest person to find was the chief mechanic. So, I'm back behind going, "Chief mechanic, chief mechanic."
And they finally filter him over to me and then I went over to Roger Penske that was the uh I mean the team owner last year and offered him. Especially after like a crazy finish like last year's was wild. Yeah. you know, I mean, came down to like the last two laps or whatever and they're like psyched up and there and I think there's like a timing. I remember we were just talking about Bob like I think there was one where they they cuz it's like kiss on the cheek from the the princess and then the milk but I think a couple years back they did milk first and it actually got so funny. Um that would be stressful and but also cool like it's a it's a really interesting tradition.
So they also like submit their milk requests ahead of time. Yes. So you guys have like unlimited milk lined up back there like oh this this person wants 2% or whole milk fat-ree ski like you had all the milk. What's the most odd milk request you've seen or heard of? Um so yeah we we keep it it's always well yeah it's always white milk is what we have to stick with tradition. Yeah we have to stick with tradition but we do allow now writeins.
So there are special requests. So you know people write in chocolate milk. Ed Carpenter almost every year writes in that he wants buttermilk and we always have to say it's not butter I mean I would love and we've offered this please let me see you drink buttermilk and if you look like you love it we will give you buttermilk have you have you drank buttermilk I mean on accident like you know but not by choice okay it's not it's for baking it's not for drinking yeah I mean I always have gravitated towards like the pancake mix that says buttermilk on but I don't know why I have no idea why but it just see it's like a marketing It's it seems appealing and that 1936 that was like the original like old school but a different kind of buttermilk than today. Nutrition is coming up on 100 years. Yeah. Because I mean the race started in 1911 I believe.
So 25 years after that like this has been a big thing but but then to get the it like officialized did you have to get permission? I don't know when the rebrand for Indiana Dairy came like to be we want to be winners drink milk like how did that whole hap that whole thing it just kind of evolved I think for us like we really started to embrace it um the track really started to embrace the tradition of milk where it was like this is going to be a thing every single year since then I think in 19 1956 and then Tony Holman George in 1975 I believe like he he was very like this is going to happen this is going to be something and that's when our organization got to be involved where it used to just be like the CEO of our organization and then it was the board president for a couple years and then you know we made it more official where it's like let's have it be a veteran and a rookie where they really I mean we put them through media training it's really more of a program and so yeah like looking through like previous milk men I mean you've got Robert down there in the tie-dyed shirt like it's just um yeah So, like I said, we've we've kind of classed it up a bit, I feel like, over the years.
Classed it up. That's hilarious. And do you like do you take take in mind what geographical part of the state you pull? Like it's like, oh, if our Cuz I think Hudson is northeast Indiana as well. It's like 20 minutes away from me. Yeah.
So then it's like, okay, well, we've had a little bit of Northeast Ind. Now we got to go down to Evansville for a future milk kind of man or woman. Yeah. our our rookie elect um is from like the Evansville area. It just it really depends. So rookie elect is like Yeah.
So we are going like from top to bottom here, but majority of Indiana dairy farms are in like the central to northern part of the state. So I will say there's been a a good handful from from that area. How many dairy farms are there in Indiana? Uh just under 700. Okay. What's been the historical trend of that number?
Uh when I started 11 years ago, there were 1,200 dairy farms in the state. However, you look at me like that. Um I don't like it. The number of cows has stayed the same. So you think about, you know, the generations of dairy farmers. When a farmer has decided they don't want to do it anymore, if they don't have a son or a daughter who's interested, most of the time they're selling their cows just to another farmer down the street.
Um so we have about 175,000 cows in the state of Indiana. And that number has that number has basically remained the same. The big dairy is not coming in here and the modern farmer like the American family like small American family farm has been like I mean going down like decreasing like the number of you know I my dad farm my grandpa farm maybe you have another full-time job but you run the family farm like that's changing and evolving and bigger farms are taking over like is it still predominantly familyowned in the state of Indiana or is there like a big private equity company that just owns all the Indiana dairy cows? 94% of dairy farms are familyowned. Oh, so that's really good. Yeah.
Okay, that's exciting. I That gives me optimism and hope. Yeah. Uh Okay, so 94% of of farms in Indiana are familyowned. Um like what's the average like how many cows are on the average size dairy farm? 150.
In Indiana 150. So like how much milk does one cow produce in a year per day? Average is what? Six to 6 to nine gallons of milk per cow. Mhm. Wait, one cow produces 6 to9 gallons of milk a day.
So, this is why you have to be up early in the morning. Yes. And then we get lucky cuz we have We're a robotic dairy. So, we have robots that milk our cows. No way. Yeah.
So, our cows are ladies of leisure. They can go in and milk when they want. They can go out and eat. How does that work? So they have this like little RFID tag that reads. So every time that cow goes into the robot, it knows, okay, it's if it was Leona, if this is Leona, and it knows like we mapped her udder and it goes in and it cleans, takes a little strip of milk and then it starts milking them and they get a nice little treat when they come in there.
Like it's Yeah, it's crazy how much agriculture has evolved. You're telling me that in Indiana there are robots milking our cows? Yes, there is. Mhm. My mind is blown. My grand my grandfather started um he had a dairy farm in Breamman, Indiana.
And this would have been like the oh my gosh like 40s or 60s some I don't know a long time ago. He like it built up like 80 cows or whatever. And he was like the more we he had I mean big small town Indiana Catholic family. So like five boys that had to be out at like 4:30 in the morning like milking the cows and then home and milking them in the afternoon. And now there's robots that milk cows. Yes.
But like put yourself on like the spectrum of Indiana. Like how many farms in Indiana would have this level of innovation in technology. It's not a lot. No. That's really cool though. I mean that makes your guys's life.
It's no surprise that you are also the like the veteran milk woman. Like it's like oh they're innovative. They're doing things which I I think people are just curious about what happens on farms. Like it's like I did a video. Oh my gosh. I was still like just getting going.
And my buddy, he owns a farm. Um they're just like a crop far. Just a crop. I don't say just a crop, but they don't have any animals. So I don't What do you call those? Just a crop farmer.
A crop farmer. He's a crop farmer. He's a row a row crop farmer. There you go. Uh and I convinced him to let me drive his combine. And I did a video and like people were astonished like cuz they had never been up close to it and seen this thing.
Granted, I was like in the middle of a field where I could not like wreck it or get close to anything, but it was a cool experience. Like people are very curious and like is that what led you to start posting about uh your guys' farm? Yeah, I feel like I mean we all have a different story to tell, especially I mean obviously sustainability. We want to let everybody know that we take good care of our land. There's a reason we're the fourth generation on this farm. I mean, and then we're hoping to pass it on to the fifth generation and keep it going.
And then also animal care. I want people to know we love our cows. I mean, we name them. I name them. Not necessarily my husband, but my uh daughters and I, we have so much name fun naming them. And it's I just want them to know like we do love our cows.
They have such a wonderful life. They can go in and milk when they want. They can go lay down. I mean, did you know a cow only milks about 16 minutes a day? Like that's all a cow is in a robot. That's 16 minutes.
That's it out of 24 hours. 16 minutes. That's all it takes out of her day. And then she's out resting, eating, drinking water, enjoying the fans, enjoying the nice cool sand or the sprinklers. So, it's it's I mean, that's pretty 16 minutes to work for 23 hours, 50 what? You know, like that of leisure.
Not a bad not a bad life. What's interesting and like I'd like to talk into is just the general decline in American milk consumption. In 1980, Americans drank close to 30 gallons of milk a year. And then in 2021 that number is now like 16 gallons. So what does that mean for the Indiana dairy farmer? Uh and then also like the marketing arm of that that's like hey like milk is still good.
Like we should drink milk. It's sick. Sure. Like there are numbers that show a decline but I think the last statistic that I saw it's like 90 94% of American households still have milk in their fridge. Um and so you know it is out there but I think where it comes down to just like innovation on a dairy farm innovation in dairy products right so um you know you look at the number of households now where cottage cheese is becoming so popular you have ice cream you have cheese you have yogurt you have smoothies and you know you have so many different ways that people may not be grabbing a glass of milk with every meal but they're using milk in some some capacity you know in their in their diet. Yeah.
And like the amount of dairy products Yes. has I don't know. I I can't speculate, but I have to assume like ice cream and cottage like you eat like one of those health influencers talking about like how good cottage cheese is for you and they're like, "Oh my gosh, everyone in the world has it." Versus I I would say Yeah. And I don't know how many like I used to when I was a kid, we would have like a glass of milk for dinner. Oh yeah.
And I was eight with that. Wow. I've never I sound dated right there. Uh, but 20 years ago, we would have like a glass of milk for dinner. And now I'm like, I don't know how many, again, I don't have kids, so like maybe there are still kids that sit down with a glass of milk for dinner, but it's like this ice cream or this product or cheese or this, that, and the other thing. So, okay, that makes sense.
So, we're consuming milk or consuming dairy just in different aspects. Yeah. Uh, or like this. Have you guys seen this stuff about like the mo like the bodybuilders that want like raw milk? So, raw milk in Indiana is illegal. Um, I was say we cannot sell raw milk.
So, we were down in Salem, Indiana. Um, and we were doing a video at the Salem Speedway and obviously we wanted to do like winners drink milk and so I was like, "Oh, could we find like a milk bottle?" And like we did not prepare this ahead of time, but I thought of the idea and so I'm like, "We got to chase it down." We were around talking to people and they were like, "Oh no, like we're not allowed like some I just wanted like a bottle of milk, but that wasn't like Nesquick or whatever." Like I wanted like, you know, an old school milk bottle. And somehow it within a conversation within a diner in this place and that we like got this person who had a milk guy like an Amish farmer.
It's like oh we have some people that ask for raw milk if you talk but like don't tell him I sent you. And I was like I'm not trying to buy milk on the black like I just want to have something. So we went to the gas station and bought Nesquick. I did not go down. But this how I then I did the research into like oh you can't just like go to a farm store and sell like raw milk because it has to be like pasteurized and all this stuff. Yeah.
So the the the life cycle of milk when one of your cows when Leona Leona that was her name. Yeah. So back in the day when Leona would go and get into the robot Yes. milk comes gets milked. What happens to that before it hits it gets picked up? So 48 hours it's in the store after it leaves our farm and it never touches a human hand.
Hands off on everything. Yeah. It goes right from from the robots into a milk tank. Milk tank to get it start cooling it off immediately and then a milk truck comes to their farm, picks it up, takes it to a processing plant and then they process the milk. Pasteurization. Great things.
doesn't do anything to the milk as far as the the local the local milk dealers are. Yeah, they're like, it's it's crazy. I did not know there was a market for this, but there's a thing. Um, okay. So, yeah, it gets pasteurized, but then like like who are the leading producers of milk to the store? Like, you're not selling milk in a way like that ends up in Kroger, but like it does end up in Kroger, but it goes to someone else who buys it from you and they sell it to Kroger.
Yes. Yes. So like we're through our co-op DFA, Dairy Farmers of America is who our milk is through and they have places so different milk plants. So our milk goes to Huntington, Indiana, where Shingles, I don't think it's Shinkles anymore, but it goes there and it gets processed there and then from there I think it's Country Fresh. Um and then it gets shipped out to the stores and like that's where like Dean's milk or whatever. Yeah.
So, like what geographic area like how far away from home do you feel like your milk could make it? I mean, it's usually within It usually stays within 150 miles of a dairy farm just because you think about, you know, milk traveling in a milk hauler truck. There are enough processing plants kind of all over the state. Um, that would be a hard business from like a logistics perspective cuz you don't have that long. It's not like soda where you probably have months or whatever it is. Y I never thought I kind of thought like you know you get the little like bunny bottle of Nesquick or whatever and it's like probably a pretty quick timeline even for like that.
Mhm. Wow. That's fascinating. I want to take a minute to tell you about my friends at JC Hart and the opportunity that they are giving to get in listeners. They are offering summer savings and up to 2 months off of rent at these brand new communities. East Bank and Noblesville, The Edge on the north side of Indie, and Wheelhouse in Westfield.
If you're looking for an awesome place to live, you need to hit up my friends at JC Hart. Go to homeisjeart. com/nate and check out all their cool properties. Or if you know someone that's looking for an apartment here in central Indiana, send that link to them and Jart can take them on a personalized tour. You know me, I'm all about Indiana and JC Hart is as hoosier as it gets and they do some amazing things in our community. They also wanted me to let you know that they are always looking for awesome people to join their team.
They just made the list of best places to work in Indiana for the 13th time. Check out their open positions at homejart. com. Now, let's get back into the episode. Uh, you talk about co-ops or like small dairy farms. Like, what's been the evolution for you all that like is keeping you going?
And tell me the stories of like working with Indiana dairy that like helps out small farmers across the state of Indiana. Well, like I stated before, every dairy farm has a different story to tell. I mean, obviously, you know, there are so many different ways to milk a cow. Some people, you know, have different parlors. We chose to go. Wait, there's there's Yeah, there's still parlors and stuff like that.
There's different ways like there's different I mean, you still milk a cow the same way? It's just in a different facility. So, yeah, we started using the Swiss technique over here. We started using the Okay, you can milk a cow the same way. It's just in a different facility. So, robots, I mean, that we just wanted to evolve.
At the time when we started that process, we had two young girls and we wanted to be able to spend time with them. You're the fourth generation. Yes. Raising the fifth generation. Yes. What did the third generation say about robot milkers?
They were a little apprehensive at first, but uh my husband I mean when it got down to numbers it came to what we would pay an employee would be what we would spend on a robot payment. So that's kind of how it was. some point at some point you'll own the robot or like the payment won't and then it's like now we have more because that's the biggest thing with farms that I've seen again I don't know I say that's the biggest thing like I'm some agricultural expert over here but I've been like learning about it a lot and there's the animal science of it of a dairy farm or the horniculture of like a rowcrop farm but then there's also like the real estate aspect you have to be like an expert in real estate to get more acreage to be also buying and selling cow like there's just So many things you have to know a little bit about. Yeah. Like now you have to know about robotics. Yeah.
Actually, my husband does a lot of that. I do little things. I know how to do some things. Yeah. Social media. What does the third generation say about social media?
They like social media. They just don't really want to be involved in classic. It's like they're like, uh, that's okay for you. You just, uh, you just keep doing that. Well, as a farmer, why is it important to you to post on social media and tell your story? Well, because I mean I just want people to know how much we love our cows and like the fact that we get to share.
So we've started now with our 4 organization like giving back to the community. We have kids that may live in town. They come and they can lease a calf off of us and they can show it at the local fair. So like I feel like doing that kind of stuff and just showing how we give back to the community. And then also, you know, with Indiana Dairy, they're helping get our stories out there by doing like the virtual tours and stuff like that because, like I said, every farm has a different story to tell and going into schools and helping promote, you know, dairy products and all that kind of stuff. I mean, it's just such a a nice relationship to have.
If you don't grow up on a dairy farm, it's very hard for to start a dairy farm or even work on a dairy farm or even learn about a dairy farm. like uh it's like oh my grand the fourth generation which is incredible I think like kudos to you all for keeping going raising the fifth generation amazing I do think that like telling those stories and opening up for people like me who did not grow up on a dairy farm I was just lucky enough to have friends that were around 4 and animals like let me pretend to be farmer for one week out of a year and while they have to do it for like 52 are there stories of the impact that exposing non-leacy dairy individuals to farms like stories of what that's meant they gone to become veterinarians like the work that you all are doing. Us being able to host like a virtual farm tour, um we try and do three or four of them a year. The average capacity of these students that are joining in, I mean, it's over 3,000 students that that tune in every time we do one just to see what's going on on a farm.
So, Abby has hosted a virtual farm tour for us. And to have just those curious minds of little kids ask the questions that they're not afraid to ask, right? Um, I mean it's good practice for our dairy farmers to hear those questions, but also because to your point, I think the percentage of of people who have been on a farm, it's like 2% of the American population. Like you're talking about such a slim number where you grow up down the street from a farm, but you've never taken the time to ask if you can go on the farm, right? Um, and so for us to expose these these students K through 12, you know, to why dairy farming is important to the community, what they're doing for the land, what this is doing, you know, overall to the importance of nutrition and health, you know, it's it's such a great opportunity. So you have those kind of touch points along the way.
Um and just the opportunities that we get to talk to go into schools and to really it comes down to the partnerships that we have as an organization who we know in schools um and really finding those dairy advocates that are aside from the farmers that are just really passionate about about telling great stories and kind of being those those key points um across the state. It's who we rely on too. Um, and so it's it's that joint organization and joint partnership to tell the story that I think yeah, the kids you remember who you meet early on in life, right? And when you're filling out the surveys as a third grader of like when I grow up, I want to be the the two most popular answers to that question as a chef and a farmer. Um, which no way. Yeah.
And then you have an athlete after that. But, you know, it's it's just I think it's that curiosity. it's who you see um you know in your community at a farmers market. So we always tell them like you guys are the cool like you guys have the cool jobs and so um being able to find those creative outlets to help tell their stories makes that impact with kids. Well if you ever need a guest virtual host co-host oh I would virtual dairy or uh giving a virtual dairy farm tour that would be so much fun. It's not easy.
No it's not. It's a lot of hard work, a lot of determination, a lot of dedication. Blood, sweat, and tears go into everything. Yeah. If you know a farmer, you know that it's not easy. But it's like one of those definitely under praised career choices.
And so in a world where it would just be easier to go do something else, like it would definitely be easier to, I don't know, go work in an office somewhere, why continue to grow a dairy farm? Because I love what I do. I I mean that's it. I love what I do. I love the satisfaction of working with the animals and getting to watch that generation of like whether it be a line of cows, a cow family or or whatever. And then also the fact that my children get to grow up on the dairy.
I love watching their curiosity and when they complete a task, if they do chores or something like that and the pride they take into it. I love it. But also when we do have like on farm tours, we have one that we've been hosting for it's about three years now. We have a middle school middle schoolers come out. They're sixth graders and after we get thank you cards and uh that is just like so amazing to read through all of them. There's 350 kids that come out, never been on a farm.
They come out and they're like, I can't believe the hard work and our vets there. I mean, they get to hear a whole bunch of different stories. But I just love the satisfaction of, you know, producing this great product and watching my children grow on the farm. I bailed hay for like one like one week a summer I would bail hay with my uncle who like owned a farm and and I played football and all and it's like like it's it's like the hardest work. Not the I mean it's one of the hardest work. It's like right comparable like you like crossfit like go bale hey like you'll do the same workout except for you're wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt or whatever and you got to have your gloves on and do then you're up in the mau and it's like 9 million degrees.
Yeah. It's like yeah it's a lot of hard work but honestly I kind of treat it like a workout anymore like anything I have to do. I mean it's kind of a nice workout. I do think as like you talk about thankless jobs literally everyone in the world consumes an agricultural product. Mhm. Three plus times a day.
If you're like me, maybe four. Who know? Like, come on. Sometimes you need a midnight snack. And so, it's very important. What would you say the biggest misconception about farmers in Indiana is?
Obviously, animal care. Is is this like, and I'm not in the social media, I'm not in dairy Tik Tok, but is that a thing where people are talking about like the treatment that animals get? I feel like sometimes there's some misconception out misconceptions out there on animal care and a dairy farm. And I mean, we love our animals. I mean, they produce the milk. We're obviously I mean, yes, we're a business.
We're going to take care of those animals, but I mean, we just love working with them every day. And then also sustainability. We do everything we can to take care of the land. I mean, we are self-sufficient. And we grow our corn which goes to feed the cows and then we grow hay that also goes to the cows. I mean there's all sorts of different things that we do there.
And then like using our manure to fertilize the the crops and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's just there's so many different misconceptions. I feel like those are two of the biggest ones and that's what I'm passionate about talking about and I feel like a lot of that comes from the videos you end up seeing are like mega farms. Yeah.
where it's like a million. I've driven through talking about Nebraska, dude. I remember coming through Nebraska and just be like I thought Indiana had a ton of cows and like what is I don't know what that road the main highway is. I 80 and it's like literally more cows than I'd ever seen in my entire life. But isn't it the best? It's it's something.
It's the good life. That's what they say. Not Yeah, that's fair. But it's like I think you see like and it's like in a world where one thing can go viral and it's like one dummy's decisions or like mistreatment can like affect a p perspective of an entire organization when it's like I've been on 11 farms in my life probably out of all those 11 like the family farmer like they're not I don't know and I'm not going to speak for everything I don't know everything but it's like I would encourage people who maybe see one side of things and just start to like become keyboard warriors to also like go spend time on farms, especially across the state of Indiana. There's 700 of them. If you started now, you could probably visit Well, you probably wouldn't.
Some people, you're a little more private, you know, you go visit some of these farms. Like, I feel like if you talk to farmers or get to know them and like go spend time at the local coffee shop where old man Smith has been for the last 35 years and say, "Hey, I would I would actually agree if someone sees this clip, go there and try to get on a farm and like get a tour from a third generation farmer." That would be pretty interesting because it does seem like one which which is why I love the like rise of farm content. We were talking about uh Jackson. Yeah. A little boy little John Deere guy.
Oh, he's the best. But like people are showing this side of farming and like the positive side of it and all the cool things in the family farm. And I think that's important because again like one bad apple can misconstrue the entire you know industry. When it comes to like your favorite stories to tell, Mhm. like absolute number one, like the coolest dairy stories in Indiana, what's been like the number one? Probably the experiences that people have on farms.
Uh, you know, it's just it's fun for us to see people's reaction when they first step onto a farm, when they see like what's actually happening on a dairy farm, when they talk to the farmer. we've been fortunate enough to have, you know, Doug BS was on the on the farm once and he showed up in his like beautiful blue suit um just as Doug does. And so it was fun to see him like go down in the milking parlor and you know all of us are kind of hesitant of like you don't know what you're going to get on your suit. Um but you know to see if Doug ever wants to get out of the racing business he could be like the president the govern is the best. Yes. But like anytime we would want Doug on a farm, he will be there.
And that that's so cool for us to see that support and for him to, you know, talk about it. He'll pull up in the pace car. He did, right? Of course, he let the farmer's son drive it who didn't have a license at the time. He does now, so I feel like I can tell this story. Yeah, he's got he's got a license.
But that that was really cool for us. That's the thing though, right? If if you're driving for farm purposes, like you could drive. That's a thing. I think there's like a law there like deep in the books. So it was for farm purposes.
It was for farm purposes. Joseph Newarden went to a farm um a few years back and that farmer ended up being the farmer in Victory Circle the first time Joseph Newarden won the Indy500 and Joseph saw him like you know cuz what are the what are the odds right? like you have an Indie car driver on a farm, that farmer ends up handing out the milk when you've just won the Indie 500 and Joseph locked eyes with him and said, "I've been on your farm." Like in this moment of victory, you know, and so those are the really cool stories. That's wild that he remembered that. Yeah.
Um, and then we've had, you know, just the fun things that happen like when Elio won the Indy500 and he pulls out somebody hands him this random Ziploc baggie full of pink powder and he starts pouring that into the milk after he's taken the traditional swig of milk and like our reactions. I'm so glad I wasn't being videotaped in that moment cuz it was like what is he putting in the milk? And then it was fine. He just wanted to turn it pink cuz his driver's suit was pink that year. when you're in this role, you don't know what's going to happen on a farm or when you're promoting milk, but it's all just like fun, educational, brings more eyes on dairy. Um, which at the end of the day is is why we're here.
I I agree totally why we're here. If there is one way that everyone can support dairy farmers and it is at the Indiana State Fair. Yeah. At the dairy bar. That's right. Have you both spent time working the dairy bar?
Absolutely. Uh, okay. for people that may not have been to the state fair or what's the sales pitch to go and support y'all? Uh, if you have not been to the Indiana Farmers Dairy Bar since 1941, you have to come and see. It's almost like you're a trained media communications professional since 1941. I feel like you just go to the state fair for the ice cream, or at least we do.
Most people come uh for the grilled cheese and milkshakes. Yes. Um, every year we sell about This is like not a traditional. It's a milkshake, but it's not a milkshake. Like, you don't drink it with a straw. Way too thick to drink with a straw, for sure.
But it's phenomenal. Yeah. Every year we sell about 70,000 milkshakes during the run of the Indiana State Fair. And we sell about 40,000 grilled cheese sandwiches. But this last year, we sold almost 10,000 glasses of milk at the Indiana Dairy Bar, too. Just straight milk.
Yeah. because we fill so you can fill baby bottles and sippy cups for free. So, um yeah, we always it again it's one of those points where it's like if you want to support local, come to the Indiana State Fair, of course, but come to the dairy bar because all the products are local Indiana products. Yeah. Like who where do you get the milk for the ice cream? Uh so that's a Prairie Farms product.
So again, local coming from a dairy farm within probably 150 miles from the dairy bar. all Prairie Farms and then local cheeses. We usually try and grab, we have an Indiana cheese guide. Um, so there are local processors that are making cheese. Uh, so we try and get cheese from local companies. Um, last year even like the dip was a red gold product.
So we try to keep everything local. Follow the cheddar brick road. That's right. Yes. This is legendary heritage. W This is like incredible.
Yeah, there's like a trail. The cheese trail. Yeah. You're welcome. There's flavors, right? What are what are you guys' favorite flavors at the dairy bar?
Well, so every year we have uh vanilla strawberry chocolate milkshake and then we have a rotating flavor. Um and then we have hand skip hand dipped ice cream as well. Um and the most popular is going to be butter pecan, which seems odd, very popular. Actually, I used to talk smack about butter pecan and then but it's cuz I'd never had it cuz it was like it goes around the table and like at the restaurant grandpa orders like a butter butter pecan and I'm like not doing that and then I finally had it one time. Yeah, it's actually pretty good. But we still Yeah.
Cookie dough moose tracks. That's another one that's really Wait, but like this that's not the milkshake. Is that the hand dipped? That's the hand dipped. What about milkshake? Is there So yeah, we do a different one.
The most popular the last couple years was the thin mint. We partnered with the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana for a thin mint cookie milkshake, but we've done a birthday cakes. More peanut butter, lemon, blueberry was very popular last year. Blueberries. I had blueberry last year, I think. Hear me out.
Yes. So then at the county fairs, are those also like a similar or is it different? It's different. So we're our organization is the only one that runs like we just have the dairy bar at the state fair. Who who would it be like the local organization? Probably.
Mhm. I feel like every county fair has like the same thing. Yeah. I mean, I know they rotate flavors and stuff there. At least at Noble County Fair, they do, but I usually go to Whitley County's fair and they have I like the raspberry lemon twist. Thank you.
Is that a milkshake? Is that what you It's the raspberry cheesecake. So, for me, it's the raspberry cheesecake as a milkshake. Is that what it is? I think that sometimes at the smaller county fairs, they get a little more adventurous with the flavors. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, obviously the partnership with Girl Scouts is amazing. And I don't think I don't think Thin Mint was there the day I was there because it's a rotating flavor. So, we have whatever the flavor is, it's there for the duration of that fair. Oh. So, what's the one for this year?
I can't tell you yet. What? We can't break news on this. No. No. Is it raspberry cheesecake?
Is can there be like a special like Nate will come in and buy 10 gallons of But I will take that into consideration because I may or may not be on the committee that decides what the milkshake flavor is. So, let's let's talk here. This committee, are they predominately made up of central Indiana individuals? It's predominantly just our office. Okay. So, I Yeah.
And to come test it, I think one, if you need a member there, uh I think that we might need to take the office to like some of the extensive like the reaches in those counties. I love the idea. And you could taste some different and like and then maybe it'd be a contest. Yeah. of like, hey, Marshall County, hey, Noble County, hey, Whitley County, submit your flavor if we choose your This is going to be the rotating flavor of the Indiana State Fair. It's a great idea.
Yeah, I'm an idea guy. I'm not not necessarily execution when it comes to this one, but but the raspberry cheesecake. We haven't done a cheesecake flavored milkshake. So, I mean, I already go to the fair. I'm like, I love it, but I would like go cons like multiple multiple times because I love love love the raspberry cheesecake. Amazing.
Okay, sorry, that's my tangent. Oh, the other thing. If someone wanted to procure one to 200 cartons of milk, where would you do that at? I mean, you would contact us and I would find those cartons for you. Okay. So, let me let me just Are you going to build something?
Let me just put out a live idea here. This is this is a live pitch on the podcast. So, for the Indy500 this year, yes. Uh we're doing something super special. We're hosting uh an all Indiana tailgate. Okay.
And I'm giving away $2,000 in cash in the Indy5 in the infield of the Indy500. Okay. So, last year I was the first truck in. I got there at like 10:30 p. m. the night before.
Like it was like we had Indiana breweries and we had coffee from Indiana. Like all this well, not actually like a local coffee shop. I like how do we do it even bigger this year? You know what? People love cash. So, we're doing a giant wheel, okay?
Like a prize wheel and one little sliver of it is like you win $2,000 and like we'll have like the whole like thing. It's going to be awesome. We're going to make a video. It's going to be fun. Like if you look through a lot of videos of the IN500, it's like too far like crazy, you know, like you know, people getting wasted all like we want people to have fun, do all that stuff, but like we're a professional podcast here. Yeah.
So, I was like, what's even like worse than having to like chug a beer in the middle of the Indy500 would be winners drink milk. Mhm. So around the wheel there's going to be different like prizes and one of them is winners drink milk and I need to get my hands on cartons of milk. Okay. For people that don't win the $2,000. So it's like there's an off chance it's like 95°.
We have our cooler full of milk and people have to drink milk. I like it. You know, this year is going to be the first year that you can actually buy milk at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Well, that was my idea. But I can probably I can probably make a connection there. Can we make a Can I I need a milk guy.
And you know what I'm also I'm looking for is like one of those old school like milk coolers cuz I'm like I got to keep I don't want to give people like 90° milk. Like I got to have a I got to have chilled milk. You know what? I could probably even get you some winners drink milk. I have cooler lunch boxes. Now we're talking.
I can just see the video in my head. Everyone like come like we're also going to have like spend five minutes in the hot dog suit. like drink a cold brew of like like we have legitimate cold not like a cold brew, but like a cold brew coffee. So, it's just like a fun thing, but everyone's gonna come because they want to win two grand, but they're gonna end up enjoying some milk. Yeah. All right, there was my live pitch for the prime of the show.
All right, we're coming to the end of the show. I have a couple fun segments for you as we wrap up here. First one, Abby, what's your favorite piece of machinery to use around the farm? I would say the skid loader. And I have to kind of use it. I have to bed the cows and bed the calves.
So, for those that don't know, it's like a zeroturn lawn mower on steroids. Yes. Right. Yes. Uh-huh. There we go.
Brooke, what's your favorite dairy product? Like, I'm in my cottage cheese era. You could like out of everything, we were like raspberry cheesecake milkshake. You know what? I love cottage cheese. Do you like cottage cheese?
I I enjoy. It's having its moment. Yeah. But I I don't know if I love it more than I love like Briar's ice cream or whatever. Like like Dairy Queen. Yeah.
I feel like there should be different categories for like your favorite dairy product. Like my favorite sweet dairy product, mint chip ice cream. Like that's my go-to. But like favorite healthy dairy product, cottage cheese. But then I'm also like I love uh like a core power milk. Strawberry banana core power milk.
Delicious. Okay. 26 g of protein. Look at that. Core Power is like going the opposite way. Like they're getting more popular, lots of marketing, all the fun stuff, but they're like real milk.
Yeah. Where it's like the best marketed milks are like like how do you get a Mac like how does a macadamia produce milk? How does like I I'd still like to know how my almonds are producing milk. Like I am not quite sure, but I mean it's not bad, but it just does make me wonder about science sometimes. As we keep going, Brooke. Yeah.
What would you name your cow? Trying to pull from inspiration from like my six-year-old daughter. It would probably be like sparkle or glitter or something, you know. Heck yeah. I was going to say I named my first cow when I was four. It was Poppy Seed.
That's cute. That's a really big name. I know. For a four-year-old. I know. My mom wrote it down.
I'm like, man, that does seem better at this. I have chickens that all have good names, but I'm used to naming chickens. Offline. Ask Brooke about the pecking order with the chickens. Abby, if you could have anyone show up at your farm for a day, who would you bring to your farm? Oh, Kevin Cosner.
Oh, good one. That's really good. That would be fire. I'll be there. That's it. I feel like my husband's over here rolling his eyes cuz he would know.
He would know. I I need to visit the farm that day. I know. I feel like he would be really good. He does the cowboy movies and I like his movies. Have you seen Yellowstone?
I have watched some of it. I haven't watched all of it, but I just like him. That would have been a good one to ask like it what the farm community's uh perspective of Yellowstone is cuz from the non-farm community. I love it. I think it's so cool. I'm like they make farming sexy like you know what I'm saying?
Like not actually like but it's like it makes it seem like so glamorous and but obviously like they're fighting bad guys and like doing all this stuff but it it's definitely that's why I thought you were going with Kevin Cer. He also does a bunch of good cowboy movies too. That's a good one. Um okay we've come to the younger years segment. This is brought to you by our friends at OR Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state.
Want to start with Brooke. What advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? I feel like it was advice that I was probably following at 22 and that was just to trust my gut. I never I mean I went from going to school in Nebraska, coming back to Indianapolis, going back to Kansas to go to grad school and then coming back to Indiana. And it was just kind of that feeling of like trusting your intuition that you're doing the right thing. And now I feel like I've been at this role for 11 years and it's all just because it was like, "Oh, that job looks interesting, you know, and trusting your gut that that's the right one."
So, heck yeah, that's really good advice and kudos to your 22-year-old self for following it because not I don't know if every 22year-old is doing what they're saying. It wasn't all I mean, there was a little mess in there. You're 22, right? Of course. Uh, Abby, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? I would have to say the same thing.
I mean, I was married by that time at 22. So, uh, trust your gut. I did trust my gut. And I was married. You were committed at 22. You were committed to being a generational dairy farmer.
Yes, I was. Look at that. Yes. That's like I mean, good for you guys. That's awesome. And I feel like never give up.
I mean, strive for your dreams. Obviously, I get to hand the milk out, so I feel like that is one of my dreams. So, never give up. And I mean that is as far as Indiana dairy farmers like that is a really cool experience that you know in 11 like 11 11 farmers have gotten to do that. Has anyone ever got to do it twice? Uh yeah.
Uh co kind of threw a wrench into things. So there was one farmer Jill Huyian from up at Homestead Dairy in Plymouth. She got to do it two consecutive years. My grandma was a Hooyan from Plymouth, Indiana. Oh my god. I think I know that farm.
Yeah. So because she did it and she 2020 and like nobody was there so we she did it again in 2021 for her actual year. We'll count that. That's that's fair. All right. These are the same three questions I ask everyone who sits on the chair.
First question, Abby, we'll go over there. What's something the world needs to know about Indiana? That it is a fantastic state to be a part of. I love being a Hoosier. I love the traditions that Indiana has and I just love everything about being a Hoosier. Amazing.
Brooke, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? Uh, I think that there's there's a lot more here than maybe people realize that it's no longer the flyover state. I just saw the campaign that Indiana Fever's doing at the airport that it's like we're no longer a flyover state. You know, now you know. And I It's so true. It's just Yeah, there's so much more I think in Indiana growing up here and coming back and raising a family.
A lot of possibilities. There's more than corn in Indiana. There's dairy, too. Come on. That should be like I should put that on a t-shirt. Um, okay.
We're gonna go back here. Brooke, you get to shed the light on something that more Hoosiers need to know about across the state. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? Oh gosh. Any dairy farm, right? You need to make that step.
Just imagine running into a dairy farmer like Abby at the grocery store, right? You've never been to a dairy farm. She's going to welcome you onto her farm without open arms. And I would say majority of the Indiana dairy farm families would. And they're doing great things. Like now we're seeing more farmers that are even bringing their own processing onto their farm, opening up farm stores where you can buy their milk, buy their ice cream, cheese, cheese curds.
Seeing more of that and just I think you're going to walk away from every farm that you step on to with an appreciation for what these farmers are doing. Well spoken. I say I can't say if you ask me I'm going to say the same thing. Get out to a dairy farm. I love that. This is your call.
Go out visit a dairy farm. Finally, you guys get to share the love with another Hoosier. Someone who's doing big things that we need to know about. This is where we find potential new guests or just someone in a local community that's doing something awesome. Uh, let's go. Abby.
Who is a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Have you heard of the Mapes family? No. Arthur Mapes. Indiana has a state poem and that was written by Arthur Mapes.
Mhm. and his family's from Kendallville and they are trying to get his poetry and stuff out there more and he wrote some great poetry. I would look into that family. I feel like they're doing a lot. I think he's just getting Highway or something like that named off of him here lately. But the Mapes family, they would be good to look into.
I feel like they're doing good things. They're really they like the historical stuff of Indiana. I'm into that kind of thing. So, I think that would be something interesting. The state poem of Indiana. Wow.
Arthur Mapes. Yeah. And that poem was written on our farm. No way. Yeah. Wow.
In 1963. Yeah. Or no. Well, it was adopted as the official state poem by the Indiana gender. Yes. March 11th of ' 63.
Wow. Indiana is a garden where the seeds of peace have grown. Where each tree and vine and flower has a beauty all its own. It's beautiful. Put that in the Lou. And I feel like obviously Indiana Dairy, they're doing good things.
I should probably say them, too. I mean, yeah. Sorry, Brooke. Uh, Brooke, your turn. You get to share the love. Who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar is someone who's doing big things.
I mean, I selfishly want to say like my six-year-old daughter who just presented at Young Author's Night last night. Young Author, what was the story? Um, the party turtle and chicken. Sign me up. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty amazing.
Um, I will say I just I don't like one specific hoosier. I don't know. But I will say like to see just the youth in the state of Indiana and the the kids that we get to talk to about dairy farming and just to see how impactful communities are in students lives. And there's a lot of hope. There's a lot of inspiration, I think, when we get to, you know, do these virtual farm tours and make school visits and bring crazy mascots into to schools and to just see the curiosity and um so I would say who's your students? Who's your kids?
The Young Bucks, that one's for you ladies. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your dairy stories and all the insights into dairy farms across Indiana, the history of Winners's Drink Milk, the history of of just milk at the Indianapolis 500 within the state of Indiana, the innovation and technological advances that dairy farmers across the state are having. Like, I'm fired up. Like, this is really, really cool. The work done. Oh my gosh.
I could keep going through. I like to like repeat some of the stuff that we learned about and it's like the dairy bar and how that works at the state fair. Oh my gosh. Buttermilk 1936. Yeah. Like I love having like random facts and now I'm going to pull that.
Did you know that milk was first drank at the Indianapolis 500 1936 and it was buttermilk? Yeah. And it was that guy's third victory. Yeah. Mhm. What was his name?
Louis. Louisie Meyer. Shout out to you, buddy. Uh I appreciate you all. Keep up the great work. Continue to be an advocate for dairy farmers across the state of Indiana.
continue to be an amazing fourth generation raising their fifth generation dairy farm up in Noble County. Heck yeah. I appreciate y'all. Hey, don't forget Winners Drink Milk. That's right. Winners drink milk.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all of my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @ Nate Spangle.
Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Who's Your State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
