July 19, 2025 • 22 mins
Jed Sidwell shares his journey from Colorado cattle country to a Nashville trading internship, bridging traditional agricultural skills with modern financial markets.
• Summer intern at Nesvick Trading from Gill, Colorado
• Background in custom harvesting, raising cattle and sheep for 4-H/FFA projects
• Collegiate livestock judging competitor at Butler Community College
• Currently completing finance degree at Oklahoma State University
• Explained livestock judging competitions and their value in developing decision-making skills
• Discussed trading experience and learning market influences beyond cash fundamentals
• Observed challenges in agriculture including water rights issues and rising interest rates
• Planning to pursue Series 3 license and explore career options in commodities trading
• Continues judging livestock shows while connecting show animals to market reality
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
welcome back to the egg bowl podcast.
I'm your host, tommy grisafi,sitting here with young jed
sidwell.
He's from gill colorado.
He's nesvik trading summerintern and I've gotten to know
jed a little bit this summer andhe's got a different background
.
But I think people inagriculture will enjoy it, jed,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thanks for having me, Tommy.
It's been a fun summer so far.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah well, who wouldn't want to be going back
to their senior year in collegeand live down in Nashville?
But tell people how you endedup with us over at NASVIC.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, I've worked for some people in Colorado at a
feed yard the Gable family atMagnum Feed Yard since high
school.
Good family friends out hereand they had some connections
with NASVICs and Brian Leith andsaid, yeah, this would be a
great place to come and learn,learn some tools of the trade
and just, not to mention, havean interesting experience having
(01:04):
a good time in a great place tocome and learn, uh, learn some
tools of the trade and just, uh,not to mention, have an
interesting experience having agood time, uh, in a fun place
absolutely well, we loved havingyou here.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
You helped me build.
Uh, we took that empty officeand built that podcast studio.
We're actually uh sitting inthere right now.
Now, we didn't turn the camerason today, but, uh, we'll.
We'll have more chances to dothat.
Maybe sometime we can go live.
When are you going to bejudging again?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I got a few County fairs coming up.
I got the Larimer or AlbanyCounty fair in Laramie, wyoming,
and then I got the LarimerCounty or County, which is in
Wyoming but in Cheyenne, wherethat one's at a little bit of a
confusing deal there, uh, buttwo cattle shows, uh steers at
(01:48):
one of them.
Um should be a good time.
Um got some more on the booksfor later in the year, um, but
we'll see how that goes so young.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Jed went to butler community college, but you grew
up in gill colorado.
What's?
What's it like in gill colorado?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
you know it's about an hour north of denver and I
tell everybody I come from theboring part of the state.
But if you're a fan of ag it'skind of a cool little place
there because there's a lot ofcenter pivot irrigation that
goes on and the driving forcebehind all that is the JBS
packing plant and Leprino Foodscheese plant right there in
Greeley.
So there's a lot of feed yardsand a lot of dairies close by.
(02:25):
We're a net import area forcorn.
So the main reason we havethose center pivots to grow
roughage hay and corn silage andthat's what my family does.
We own a custom harvestingoperation where we chop a bunch
of silage in the fall throughthe summer and stuff put up a
bunch of hay as well.
And then, yeah, what I kind ofgrew up doing is we run about 70
(02:49):
head of cows and about 120sheep right now, kind of mostly
for the purpose for youth to usefor 4-H and FFA projects, but
luckily, kind of my parents usedthem to teach my brother and I
kind of how to be stockmen andhow to grow up the right way.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, you're having fun with that too.
And so you went to ButlerCommunity College and you go to
Oklahoma State University.
That's a pretty big ag school.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, you can do livestock judging at the
university level for only twoyears, so the fast 40, 50 years.
What kids have done is go onscholarship at a community
college, compete at the juniorcollege level for two years and
then get recruited to go to oneof those university places.
So out of high school I got myname pushed around a little bit
(03:33):
and I got to go tour a bunch ofplaces for junior college but
went to Butler Community College.
My coach there would have beenTaylor Frank, had a great time.
Small town of Eldorado, kansas,a really cool place to kind of
I don't know for a countrybumpkin like me to be out at
school, but not too, not too bigof a town and not too big of a
(03:55):
class size either.
Was a good way for me to startout.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Now what's with the whole twoyear deal?
Why only two years?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, it's just an associate's degree there, um,
and yeah, the judging scheduleonly happens in a full calendar
year, um, so, yeah, by doing it,the junior college level, you
kind of get a I don't know,almost like, uh, the minor
leagues in baseball.
You get to go play for a fewyears and then, before you go up
to the big leagues, oh, I seewhat's going on here and you and
(04:27):
I were talking off air.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We said livestock judging.
Tell me more about that.
What's that mean, to be alivestock judge?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It happens at the youth level and it happens
collegiately.
All contests mostly look thesame Four species of livestock
cattle, swine, sheep and goats.
The goats have obviously kindof been a recent addition, but
it's four animals in a pen andyour goal is just to rank them
and then go throughout the dayby yourself, going class from
(04:54):
class, ranking all theselivestock and then those get
scored based off in a group ofindustry professionals that are
the officials for the day.
But the cool part about it isthat at the end of the day,
still without talking to anybody, you have to go and give a set
of reasonings, oral reasons, onwhy you did what you did and
(05:15):
defend your thinking and logicfor why you placed the class.
I think that's really thevaluable part of it is defending
what you think.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
And how big a business is this livestock
judging?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You know, it's just a really cool tool.
There's not really like careerstied to it, but a lot of
successful business people havecome through this program.
There's a lot of agriculturalbusinesses that have come and
spoke to us at Oklahoma Stateand say they're looking for
livestock, judging kids a lot ofthe time just because their
(05:49):
ability to make decisions.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So it's a valuable thing, I think, for kids and
young people to grow up doing,absolutely.
We have our program Fair goingon right now in Valparaiso,
indiana, the Porter County Fair,and that should be exciting.
We they have a big animal showthere.
I you said your yourgirlfriend's involved in this
also, right?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, she would have gone to Joliet Junior College,
which is just south of Chicago,and then for senior college she
went to Kansas State and she wasactually a member of the
national champion team there, sothat was kind of cool for her.
But yeah, she got hired back toJoliet and she's going to start
this fall as their livestockjudging coach there.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well, that's pretty exciting.
And so you go from living outin Colorado, out in the country,
to living in Nashville.
How'd that all come about?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Oh, uh, just uh, like I talked about the connections
I had, uh, with the Magnum feedyard and the Gable family.
Uh, yeah, they just sent myresume over, um, talked to Brian
a little bit and said he'd loveto have me out, uh, out.
Luckily I have some family outhere that I'm living with this
summer, so that's been a lot offun as well.
(07:06):
But yeah, I've learned a lotthis summer, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What have you learned on the trading floor?
I know you're watching allthese guys trade and broker and
everything else.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I think the key part is just always be in tune, have
the best research by your side,talk to other people, see what
they're thinking.
The power of communication isreally, really important.
I know I've learned more atsome of the dinners and the
evenings, a lot of the time justfrom guys bouncing around ideas
, past experiences that they'vehad.
(07:39):
It's really the stories I thinkI learned from the most.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
uh, you've spent some days in memphis also yep, um,
what hung out with the crew outthere for a week?
Um, yeah, I got to talk to someof those people as well.
Ashley, who you had on just theother day uh, hung out with her
.
She's really really sharp andcool to talk to as well what
about this?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
uh, I hear you guys joking around the office.
You got some simulated tradingcontest.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, we just wrapped up our trading simulation that
we had going on.
The CME group has that tradingsimulator, so me and a couple of
the guys in the office, justfor fun on the side, had a
little bet going on and theloser had to buy bourbon steak,
which is one of the fanciersteak houses here and nashville,
(08:26):
the finest wine and dine of allthe wines and dines around here
.
Um, so that kind of kept mereally locked in this summer.
I didn't want to lose that and,yeah, spend all my intern
dollars away who, uh, who won itactually?
uh, jerry actually ended upwinning it.
Uh, if you count my coppertrade, I won it, but I didn't
count that well, that coppertrade.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, that was a big moving copper, moved up like 14
in just a few minutes.
That was uh a little much.
Well, yeah, there's some uhcrazy things going on.
The uh.
We blew up the interwebyesterday with the uh.
Uh, the couple of the cold play, that Coldplay.
They made X great again.
It's good to see social mediarolling.
Coldplay's coming down toNashville.
(09:09):
It's got all types of peoplegiggling.
What else did you learn herearound the office besides what's
blown up on X and what's goingon in markets?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I've really learned the power of social media that
it has in the market.
Obviously, we had that scarewith Screwworm there for a while
.
Fake news that came out andimmediately got turned down but
I mean had drastic, drasticeffects on the market.
Same thing with the southernborder down there.
Big changes there.
(09:39):
Anytime Trump tweets something,really having your ear to the
ground is super important there.
Anytime Trump tweets something,really having your ear to the
ground is super important there.
You know, I always told myselfit's just going to follow cash
always.
But that's not the case A lotof the time.
A lot of the time it's allthese external indicators coming
in.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, the futures market doesn't necessarily go
tick for tick with the cashmarket.
They can definitely vary.
There's never been more of anexciting time in cattle, correct
?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, the broad new frontier that we have here.
It's fun times.
It's cool to be in Nashvillewhen all this is going on.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, there's an annual cattle show, what's it
called Cattle Con?
Yep, that's going to be inNashville this year and next
year, so hopefully you can comeback for that.
I know we have a booth there.
If anyone intends on coming tothat, look us up.
We'll have to get those datesfor when.
That is what else?
You helped me a lot with mediathis summer.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, I didn't think I'd beJamie from Joe Rogan this summer
, but that's what I've ended upbeing for Tommy a lot of time.
But it's been a lot of funlearning about lighting and
effects and stuff like that andjust learning how the sausage is
made, what goes into production.
I joked around with some peopleback home.
Man, I almost kind of wished Ihad like a communications
background at times, but it'sbeen fun to learn, definitely
(11:10):
something I wasn't expecting.
But I'm not complaining at all.
It's been a blast.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, and we went over to RFD TV yesterday and I
had to sub in for my friendScott the Cow Guy.
That was fun.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, yeah, I got to watch Tommy over there on live
television.
That was super cool to see.
That's a big outfit they havethere different energy, like
recording this right now.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It's recorded, we'll box it up and publish it here.
It's saturday afternoon.
We'll have this out here justin a little bit, but just having
a conversation day with uh jedsidwell.
He's a young man from gill,colorado.
He's attending oklah StateUniversity, loves to judge
cattle, summer intern here atNESVIC and we're wrapping down
the summer.
I always feel maybe I'm gettingold, but after July 4th things
(11:53):
start to go on the down low andit's time to gear up.
Have a few more fun weekendsand then the college kids go
back to school, usually aroundAugust 15th, right?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
That's not that far away.
Not that far away.
We attended some good concertsthis summer.
We went to some fun places.
Of course you know Broadway.
It's just right down the streetand that's always going.
Did you make it to the BreitmanTheater at all?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I did not.
I walked past it all the time.
I did go to the Country MusicHall of Fame, though.
Man that blew my socks off.
I thought that was super coolto see.
I mean, you could spend days inthere and not fully see every
little thing that they have.
That was awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, a lot of people come down here, stay at the
Grand Ole Opry, don't even cometo Broadway.
I kind of tend to stay downtownand never go out that way or go
out to the suburbs, but there'ssomething for everyone down
here.
Definitely, if you like music,this is the place to be the uh,
I was very interested and, ofcourse, if you're out there
listening and you're in thetrading community, we'd love for
you to come visit us over hereat nesvik trading.
(12:58):
But there's quite a group of uhunique traders from all over,
but this group was startedprimarily from Memphis.
Did they explain to you the thehistory of Nesvik?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
no, they didn't really.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Tom Nesvik, I believe .
His father was up in Chicago atthe Board of Trade and Tom was
up there and then he had startedwith a company and then
eventually had his own IB andfrom that a group.
It grew, but very muchMemphis-based and now Nashville
and just expanding.
They're meeting people.
The industry is changing a lotand so they're meeting a lot of
people all over the country andthey provide a good opportunity,
(13:36):
right.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
What are you going to do after college?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I don't know, I have one more semester left at
Oklahoma State.
Or college, I don't know, Ihave one more semester left at
Oklahoma State.
I made sure that I wanted tomake myself as valuable as
possible.
I thought, kind of going intocollege I might get like an ag
degree, maybe ag business, but Iswapped halfway through and I'm
getting a finance degree now.
So not all of my previous agcredits directly applied credits
(14:02):
, uh, directly applied to thatdegree degree.
So I have to spend an extrasemester here, uh, finishing up.
Um, at first I was kind ofbummed out about it, but now the
longer I realize it.
Uh, having another semester tobe a college kid, uh, and kind
of figure out what I want to dowith life, uh, it's definitely
going to be fun and it's just toenjoy another season.
The football games should,should be a blast.
(14:26):
Uh, I don't know.
I really enjoy the commoditytrading side.
I'm gonna try and get my seriesthree here shortly, um, but the
cattle feeding and agricultureand production, that's where my
heart is.
I want to, whatever I do, uh,to be tied back to that at the
end of the day, and trading doesthat for me for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And, uh, the having cattle in Colorado.
That's just an ideal place,right.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, um yeah, mild winters, mild summers, really
dry ground, great grazingopportunities with the packing
plant right there as well.
Cattle feeding is definitely anoption.
I really really do love thatarea.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And the opportunities .
They're not making a bunch morecowboys, I mean, it's going to
be harder to stay in this game.
Wouldn't you agree with howmuch everything costs now?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah.
Yeah, it seems like there'sless and less of us every day,
but I think that's just achallenge we have to accept and
step up the plate and kind ofpull ourselves up by our
bootstraps a little bit.
It's the world we're given andwe have to make the most of it.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, and some of the tools you've learned.
You learned a little bit morethis summer about LRP insurance
right.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
What did you learn about that?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I think it's certainly valuable for the
cattle side.
I think it's something that alot of people aren't even aware
of anymore.
It's been out for a long timenow.
It's been out for a long timenow, but I think we still have
to spread a little bit moreawareness for our cattle, cow,
calf guys and cattle feeder guysout there what a valuable tool
(16:03):
it is in terms of hedging andrisk mitigation.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Of course, we're doing the futures and options
side over here, but we haveassociations with LRP agents.
Yeah, it's interesting becausethese cattle touched all-time
record highs this week again.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's cool to see it go up like this, but
we don't know for how long.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, grain markets had a little bounce this week
too.
Maybe commodities are comingback, I noticed.
Quoting up all those quotes onthe cow guy, you'll see that
commodities had a good day.
Can you, even though you'reyounger?
Can you sense that agricultureis under pressure, with interest
rates higher and commoditieslower?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, I heard the other day that in 2025, there
were more foreclosures onagricultural operations than
there had in the past threeyears before that combined.
It's not an easy business toget into right now, so interest
rates certainly don't make thatany easier.
Water usage is a big problemthat we have in Colorado right
(17:05):
now for sure.
We're fighting with cities overwater rights and, flat out
where we're at, we can't growcorn unless we irrigate, so it's
a big problem for us we're at,we can't grow corn unless we
irrigate, so it's a big problemfor us.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, you were showing me the google map and
google earth.
There was, uh, you could seethe irrigators and stuff, the
circles yeah, yeah, whiskeys fordrinking and waters for
fighting yeah, well, it's, it'sbig business.
Um, what's the uh?
When you leave colorado, what'sthe closest big city?
You said Denver, just south ofyou an hour.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, Denver's south of us about an hour.
Uh, to the west is Fort Collins, about 30 to 45 minutes.
And then we're about 45 minutesfrom Cheyenne to the north as
well.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Well, it sounds like a just a beautiful area.
Okay, so when you get out ofcollege, what do you think your
choices are?
What can you do?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay.
So when you get out of college,what do you think your choices
are?
What can you do?
I definitely want to trade.
I think having my Series 3 inmy back pocket will be valuable,
I think.
Long-term I would like to beout in Colorado, but in the
short-term I think I'd like tomaybe go out and explore the
world and cut my teeth a littlebit and learn some things I
wouldn't have otherwise.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, and hats off to you moving down here.
You didn't know, uh, anyone.
That first day you walked inyou had to introduce yourself to
all of us and then weimmediately went out, went to a
concert and away you are.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
You know, yeah, you're yeah I walked into the
restaurant, I didn't even knowwhat brian looked like, so I had
to ask the hostess if she knewwho brian leith was.
And yeah, I walked over andshook his hand and yeah, went
from there oh lord, that was afun night.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
A lot of fun nights here in nashville.
A lot of fun nights and markets, talking cattle.
Uh, let's dive in a little bitmore before we finish.
Good, and I think people inagriculture are listening to
this show, this livestockjudging, what uh, you know what
goes into it when you go to yournext gig.
How did you become a livestockjudge?
What do you have to do at thegig?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
um, I think the key thing is just always being
professional and making it aboutthe kids.
Uh, there are open shows andlivestock shows like that that
we judge, but most of the time,uh, it's 4-h and ffa kids from 8
to 18 showing their livestockto us that they've worked on for
the whole past year and reallytrying to show us their hard
(19:22):
work.
I think that's the thing thatgets forgotten.
At times.
It's a competition, but at theend of the day, it's about
raising good kids and being thejudges to give those kids a fair
opinion and do the best to yourabilities.
Kind of tying it back to cattleright now, I think the
important thing to maybe discusson the mic while you're judging
these shows, or to try and makesome real-world connections to
(19:45):
these kids about, maybepredictions you have in terms of
the cattle market, in terms ofhow cattle finish and the way
you handle them Maybe this one'snot far along, needs to have a
little bit more cover so thatmaybe they can push higher into
the upper choice or low primesand maybe kind of teach some of
those lessons when you have thegeneral public there right in
(20:07):
front of you.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
And silly question.
Now you know I don't know whatI'm talking about, but how much
money do people spend on gettingthese animals, you know, raised
and ready for judging?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
You know, it's kind of like any other sport.
You can participate at yourlocal level and just kind of do
the the small little local showslike you would in sports, just
be on the local rec team, or youcan be on the travel team and
go to big national shows andobviously when you do that you
(20:42):
can get up there into some kindof expensive livestock.
Uh, that's yeah not out to beunheard of of selling uh
breeding heifers from uh 50 000or more, um just to be shown for
a little while.
But obviously there's somebreeding opportunities that come
there as well.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, it's big business, big money.
I know people are into it, arereally into it, like the.
You know they call some of thehorse people the crazy horse
people.
Do they call the cattle peoplethe crazy cattle?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
people.
Oh yeah, great Everything hasits fair share of crazies, but I
feel, like the livestock world,we definitely get a couple more
of them every now and then.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, it's a niche market.
All right, everyone.
Well, I just wanted tointroduce you to this summer Jed
Sidwell.
He's a summer intern here atNASVIC.
He's got an interestingbackground in livestock judging,
real passionate about cattle,got involved in markets and I'm
just looking real forward toseeing what, uh, his career
looks like.
Moves like do you have socialmedias where people can get a
(21:41):
hold of you, jed?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
yeah, um, just jed sidwell on facebook.
Uh, my last name is spelleds-i-d-w-e-l-l, uh.
And then I'm on uh snapchat andinstagram as well.
Uh, same thing there.
Uh, yeah, if you're looking foryouth livestock, we raise sheep
and cattle.
Sidwell shows sheep and Sidwellshows steers.
Yeah, it's been a blast, tommy.
(22:02):
Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Thanks, chad, we'll do this again, hopefully come
back here after graduation andstart working with us again.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, that'd be great .
Speaker 1 (22:10):
See you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
See you down.
welcome back to the egg bowl podcast.
I'm your host, tommy grisafi,sitting here with young jed
sidwell.
He's from gill colorado.
He's nesvik trading summerintern and I've gotten to know
jed a little bit this summer andhe's got a different background
.
But I think people inagriculture will enjoy it, jed,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thanks for having me, Tommy.
It's been a fun summer so far.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah well, who wouldn't want to be going back
to their senior year in collegeand live down in Nashville?
But tell people how you endedup with us over at NASVIC.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, I've worked for some people in Colorado at a
feed yard the Gable family atMagnum Feed Yard since high
school.
Good family friends out hereand they had some connections
with NASVICs and Brian Leith andsaid, yeah, this would be a
great place to come and learn,learn some tools of the trade
and just, not to mention, havean interesting experience having
(01:04):
a good time in a great place tocome and learn, uh, learn some
tools of the trade and just, uh,not to mention, have an
interesting experience having agood time, uh, in a fun place
absolutely well, we loved havingyou here.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
You helped me build.
Uh, we took that empty officeand built that podcast studio.
We're actually uh sitting inthere right now.
Now, we didn't turn the camerason today, but, uh, we'll.
We'll have more chances to dothat.
Maybe sometime we can go live.
When are you going to bejudging again?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I got a few County fairs coming up.
I got the Larimer or AlbanyCounty fair in Laramie, wyoming,
and then I got the LarimerCounty or County, which is in
Wyoming but in Cheyenne, wherethat one's at a little bit of a
confusing deal there, uh, buttwo cattle shows, uh steers at
(01:48):
one of them.
Um should be a good time.
Um got some more on the booksfor later in the year, um, but
we'll see how that goes so young.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Jed went to butler community college, but you grew
up in gill colorado.
What's?
What's it like in gill colorado?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
you know it's about an hour north of denver and I
tell everybody I come from theboring part of the state.
But if you're a fan of ag it'skind of a cool little place
there because there's a lot ofcenter pivot irrigation that
goes on and the driving forcebehind all that is the JBS
packing plant and Leprino Foodscheese plant right there in
Greeley.
So there's a lot of feed yardsand a lot of dairies close by.
(02:25):
We're a net import area forcorn.
So the main reason we havethose center pivots to grow
roughage hay and corn silage andthat's what my family does.
We own a custom harvestingoperation where we chop a bunch
of silage in the fall throughthe summer and stuff put up a
bunch of hay as well.
And then, yeah, what I kind ofgrew up doing is we run about 70
(02:49):
head of cows and about 120sheep right now, kind of mostly
for the purpose for youth to usefor 4-H and FFA projects, but
luckily, kind of my parents usedthem to teach my brother and I
kind of how to be stockmen andhow to grow up the right way.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, you're having fun with that too.
And so you went to ButlerCommunity College and you go to
Oklahoma State University.
That's a pretty big ag school.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, you can do livestock judging at the
university level for only twoyears, so the fast 40, 50 years.
What kids have done is go onscholarship at a community
college, compete at the juniorcollege level for two years and
then get recruited to go to oneof those university places.
So out of high school I got myname pushed around a little bit
(03:33):
and I got to go tour a bunch ofplaces for junior college but
went to Butler Community College.
My coach there would have beenTaylor Frank, had a great time.
Small town of Eldorado, kansas,a really cool place to kind of
I don't know for a countrybumpkin like me to be out at
school, but not too, not too bigof a town and not too big of a
(03:55):
class size either.
Was a good way for me to startout.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Now what's with the whole twoyear deal?
Why only two years?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Well, it's just an associate's degree there, um,
and yeah, the judging scheduleonly happens in a full calendar
year, um, so, yeah, by doing it,the junior college level, you
kind of get a I don't know,almost like, uh, the minor
leagues in baseball.
You get to go play for a fewyears and then, before you go up
to the big leagues, oh, I seewhat's going on here and you and
(04:27):
I were talking off air.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We said livestock judging.
Tell me more about that.
What's that mean, to be alivestock judge?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It happens at the youth level and it happens
collegiately.
All contests mostly look thesame Four species of livestock
cattle, swine, sheep and goats.
The goats have obviously kindof been a recent addition, but
it's four animals in a pen andyour goal is just to rank them
and then go throughout the dayby yourself, going class from
(04:54):
class, ranking all theselivestock and then those get
scored based off in a group ofindustry professionals that are
the officials for the day.
But the cool part about it isthat at the end of the day,
still without talking to anybody, you have to go and give a set
of reasonings, oral reasons, onwhy you did what you did and
(05:15):
defend your thinking and logicfor why you placed the class.
I think that's really thevaluable part of it is defending
what you think.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
And how big a business is this livestock
judging?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You know, it's just a really cool tool.
There's not really like careerstied to it, but a lot of
successful business people havecome through this program.
There's a lot of agriculturalbusinesses that have come and
spoke to us at Oklahoma Stateand say they're looking for
livestock, judging kids a lot ofthe time just because their
(05:49):
ability to make decisions.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
So it's a valuable thing, I think, for kids and
young people to grow up doing,absolutely.
We have our program Fair goingon right now in Valparaiso,
indiana, the Porter County Fair,and that should be exciting.
We they have a big animal showthere.
I you said your yourgirlfriend's involved in this
also, right?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, she would have gone to Joliet Junior College,
which is just south of Chicago,and then for senior college she
went to Kansas State and she wasactually a member of the
national champion team there, sothat was kind of cool for her.
But yeah, she got hired back toJoliet and she's going to start
this fall as their livestockjudging coach there.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well, that's pretty exciting.
And so you go from living outin Colorado, out in the country,
to living in Nashville.
How'd that all come about?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Oh, uh, just uh, like I talked about the connections
I had, uh, with the Magnum feedyard and the Gable family.
Uh, yeah, they just sent myresume over, um, talked to Brian
a little bit and said he'd loveto have me out, uh, out.
Luckily I have some family outhere that I'm living with this
summer, so that's been a lot offun as well.
(07:06):
But yeah, I've learned a lotthis summer, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
What have you learned on the trading floor?
I know you're watching allthese guys trade and broker and
everything else.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I think the key part is just always be in tune, have
the best research by your side,talk to other people, see what
they're thinking.
The power of communication isreally, really important.
I know I've learned more atsome of the dinners and the
evenings, a lot of the time justfrom guys bouncing around ideas
, past experiences that they'vehad.
(07:39):
It's really the stories I thinkI learned from the most.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
uh, you've spent some days in memphis also yep, um,
what hung out with the crew outthere for a week?
Um, yeah, I got to talk to someof those people as well.
Ashley, who you had on just theother day uh, hung out with her
.
She's really really sharp andcool to talk to as well what
about this?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
uh, I hear you guys joking around the office.
You got some simulated tradingcontest.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, we just wrapped up our trading simulation that
we had going on.
The CME group has that tradingsimulator, so me and a couple of
the guys in the office, justfor fun on the side, had a
little bet going on and theloser had to buy bourbon steak,
which is one of the fanciersteak houses here and nashville,
(08:26):
the finest wine and dine of allthe wines and dines around here
.
Um, so that kind of kept mereally locked in this summer.
I didn't want to lose that and,yeah, spend all my intern
dollars away who, uh, who won itactually?
uh, jerry actually ended upwinning it.
Uh, if you count my coppertrade, I won it, but I didn't
count that well, that coppertrade.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, that was a big moving copper, moved up like 14
in just a few minutes.
That was uh a little much.
Well, yeah, there's some uhcrazy things going on.
The uh.
We blew up the interwebyesterday with the uh.
Uh, the couple of the cold play, that Coldplay.
They made X great again.
It's good to see social mediarolling.
Coldplay's coming down toNashville.
(09:09):
It's got all types of peoplegiggling.
What else did you learn herearound the office besides what's
blown up on X and what's goingon in markets?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I've really learned the power of social media that
it has in the market.
Obviously, we had that scarewith Screwworm there for a while
.
Fake news that came out andimmediately got turned down but
I mean had drastic, drasticeffects on the market.
Same thing with the southernborder down there.
Big changes there.
(09:39):
Anytime Trump tweets something,really having your ear to the
ground is super important there.
Anytime Trump tweets something,really having your ear to the
ground is super important there.
You know, I always told myselfit's just going to follow cash
always.
But that's not the case A lotof the time.
A lot of the time it's allthese external indicators coming
in.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, the futures market doesn't necessarily go
tick for tick with the cashmarket.
They can definitely vary.
There's never been more of anexciting time in cattle, correct
?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, the broad new frontier that we have here.
It's fun times.
It's cool to be in Nashvillewhen all this is going on.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Yeah, there's an annual cattle show, what's it
called Cattle Con?
Yep, that's going to be inNashville this year and next
year, so hopefully you can comeback for that.
I know we have a booth there.
If anyone intends on coming tothat, look us up.
We'll have to get those datesfor when.
That is what else?
You helped me a lot with mediathis summer.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Talk about that a little bit.
Yeah, I didn't think I'd beJamie from Joe Rogan this summer
, but that's what I've ended upbeing for Tommy a lot of time.
But it's been a lot of funlearning about lighting and
effects and stuff like that andjust learning how the sausage is
made, what goes into production.
I joked around with some peopleback home.
Man, I almost kind of wished Ihad like a communications
background at times, but it'sbeen fun to learn, definitely
(11:10):
something I wasn't expecting.
But I'm not complaining at all.
It's been a blast.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, and we went over to RFD TV yesterday and I
had to sub in for my friendScott the Cow Guy.
That was fun.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, yeah, I got to watch Tommy over there on live
television.
That was super cool to see.
That's a big outfit they havethere different energy, like
recording this right now.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It's recorded, we'll box it up and publish it here.
It's saturday afternoon.
We'll have this out here justin a little bit, but just having
a conversation day with uh jedsidwell.
He's a young man from gill,colorado.
He's attending oklah StateUniversity, loves to judge
cattle, summer intern here atNESVIC and we're wrapping down
the summer.
I always feel maybe I'm gettingold, but after July 4th things
(11:53):
start to go on the down low andit's time to gear up.
Have a few more fun weekendsand then the college kids go
back to school, usually aroundAugust 15th, right?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
That's not that far away.
Not that far away.
We attended some good concertsthis summer.
We went to some fun places.
Of course you know Broadway.
It's just right down the streetand that's always going.
Did you make it to the BreitmanTheater at all?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I did not.
I walked past it all the time.
I did go to the Country MusicHall of Fame, though.
Man that blew my socks off.
I thought that was super coolto see.
I mean, you could spend days inthere and not fully see every
little thing that they have.
That was awesome.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, a lot of people come down here, stay at the
Grand Ole Opry, don't even cometo Broadway.
I kind of tend to stay downtownand never go out that way or go
out to the suburbs, but there'ssomething for everyone down
here.
Definitely, if you like music,this is the place to be the uh,
I was very interested and, ofcourse, if you're out there
listening and you're in thetrading community, we'd love for
you to come visit us over hereat nesvik trading.
(12:58):
But there's quite a group of uhunique traders from all over,
but this group was startedprimarily from Memphis.
Did they explain to you the thehistory of Nesvik?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
no, they didn't really.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Tom Nesvik, I believe .
His father was up in Chicago atthe Board of Trade and Tom was
up there and then he had startedwith a company and then
eventually had his own IB andfrom that a group.
It grew, but very muchMemphis-based and now Nashville
and just expanding.
They're meeting people.
The industry is changing a lotand so they're meeting a lot of
people all over the country andthey provide a good opportunity,
(13:36):
right.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
What are you going to do after college?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I don't know, I have one more semester left at
Oklahoma State.
Or college, I don't know, Ihave one more semester left at
Oklahoma State.
I made sure that I wanted tomake myself as valuable as
possible.
I thought, kind of going intocollege I might get like an ag
degree, maybe ag business, but Iswapped halfway through and I'm
getting a finance degree now.
So not all of my previous agcredits directly applied credits
(14:02):
, uh, directly applied to thatdegree degree.
So I have to spend an extrasemester here, uh, finishing up.
Um, at first I was kind ofbummed out about it, but now the
longer I realize it.
Uh, having another semester tobe a college kid, uh, and kind
of figure out what I want to dowith life, uh, it's definitely
going to be fun and it's just toenjoy another season.
The football games should,should be a blast.
(14:26):
Uh, I don't know.
I really enjoy the commoditytrading side.
I'm gonna try and get my seriesthree here shortly, um, but the
cattle feeding and agricultureand production, that's where my
heart is.
I want to, whatever I do, uh,to be tied back to that at the
end of the day, and trading doesthat for me for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
And, uh, the having cattle in Colorado.
That's just an ideal place,right.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, um yeah, mild winters, mild summers, really
dry ground, great grazingopportunities with the packing
plant right there as well.
Cattle feeding is definitely anoption.
I really really do love thatarea.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And the opportunities .
They're not making a bunch morecowboys, I mean, it's going to
be harder to stay in this game.
Wouldn't you agree with howmuch everything costs now?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah.
Yeah, it seems like there'sless and less of us every day,
but I think that's just achallenge we have to accept and
step up the plate and kind ofpull ourselves up by our
bootstraps a little bit.
It's the world we're given andwe have to make the most of it.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, and some of the tools you've learned.
You learned a little bit morethis summer about LRP insurance
right.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
What did you learn about that?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I think it's certainly valuable for the
cattle side.
I think it's something that alot of people aren't even aware
of anymore.
It's been out for a long timenow.
It's been out for a long timenow, but I think we still have
to spread a little bit moreawareness for our cattle, cow,
calf guys and cattle feeder guysout there what a valuable tool
(16:03):
it is in terms of hedging andrisk mitigation.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Of course, we're doing the futures and options
side over here, but we haveassociations with LRP agents.
Yeah, it's interesting becausethese cattle touched all-time
record highs this week again.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yeah, yeah, it's cool to see it go up like this, but
we don't know for how long.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yeah, grain markets had a little bounce this week
too.
Maybe commodities are comingback, I noticed.
Quoting up all those quotes onthe cow guy, you'll see that
commodities had a good day.
Can you, even though you'reyounger?
Can you sense that agricultureis under pressure, with interest
rates higher and commoditieslower?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, I heard the other day that in 2025, there
were more foreclosures onagricultural operations than
there had in the past threeyears before that combined.
It's not an easy business toget into right now, so interest
rates certainly don't make thatany easier.
Water usage is a big problemthat we have in Colorado right
(17:05):
now for sure.
We're fighting with cities overwater rights and, flat out
where we're at, we can't growcorn unless we irrigate, so it's
a big problem for us we're at,we can't grow corn unless we
irrigate, so it's a big problemfor us.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, you were showing me the google map and
google earth.
There was, uh, you could seethe irrigators and stuff, the
circles yeah, yeah, whiskeys fordrinking and waters for
fighting yeah, well, it's, it'sbig business.
Um, what's the uh?
When you leave colorado, what'sthe closest big city?
You said Denver, just south ofyou an hour.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, Denver's south of us about an hour.
Uh, to the west is Fort Collins, about 30 to 45 minutes.
And then we're about 45 minutesfrom Cheyenne to the north as
well.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Well, it sounds like a just a beautiful area.
Okay, so when you get out ofcollege, what do you think your
choices are?
What can you do?
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Okay.
So when you get out of college,what do you think your choices
are?
What can you do?
I definitely want to trade.
I think having my Series 3 inmy back pocket will be valuable,
I think.
Long-term I would like to beout in Colorado, but in the
short-term I think I'd like tomaybe go out and explore the
world and cut my teeth a littlebit and learn some things I
wouldn't have otherwise.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, and hats off to you moving down here.
You didn't know, uh, anyone.
That first day you walked inyou had to introduce yourself to
all of us and then weimmediately went out, went to a
concert and away you are.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
You know, yeah, you're yeah I walked into the
restaurant, I didn't even knowwhat brian looked like, so I had
to ask the hostess if she knewwho brian leith was.
And yeah, I walked over andshook his hand and yeah, went
from there oh lord, that was afun night.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
A lot of fun nights here in nashville.
A lot of fun nights and markets, talking cattle.
Uh, let's dive in a little bitmore before we finish.
Good, and I think people inagriculture are listening to
this show, this livestockjudging, what uh, you know what
goes into it when you go to yournext gig.
How did you become a livestockjudge?
What do you have to do at thegig?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
um, I think the key thing is just always being
professional and making it aboutthe kids.
Uh, there are open shows andlivestock shows like that that
we judge, but most of the time,uh, it's 4-h and ffa kids from 8
to 18 showing their livestockto us that they've worked on for
the whole past year and reallytrying to show us their hard
(19:22):
work.
I think that's the thing thatgets forgotten.
At times.
It's a competition, but at theend of the day, it's about
raising good kids and being thejudges to give those kids a fair
opinion and do the best to yourabilities.
Kind of tying it back to cattleright now, I think the
important thing to maybe discusson the mic while you're judging
these shows, or to try and makesome real-world connections to
(19:45):
these kids about, maybepredictions you have in terms of
the cattle market, in terms ofhow cattle finish and the way
you handle them Maybe this one'snot far along, needs to have a
little bit more cover so thatmaybe they can push higher into
the upper choice or low primesand maybe kind of teach some of
those lessons when you have thegeneral public there right in
(20:07):
front of you.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
And silly question.
Now you know I don't know whatI'm talking about, but how much
money do people spend on gettingthese animals, you know, raised
and ready for judging?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
You know, it's kind of like any other sport.
You can participate at yourlocal level and just kind of do
the the small little local showslike you would in sports, just
be on the local rec team, or youcan be on the travel team and
go to big national shows andobviously when you do that you
(20:42):
can get up there into some kindof expensive livestock.
Uh, that's yeah not out to beunheard of of selling uh
breeding heifers from uh 50 000or more, um just to be shown for
a little while.
But obviously there's somebreeding opportunities that come
there as well.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, it's big business, big money.
I know people are into it, arereally into it, like the.
You know they call some of thehorse people the crazy horse
people.
Do they call the cattle peoplethe crazy cattle?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
people.
Oh yeah, great Everything hasits fair share of crazies, but I
feel, like the livestock world,we definitely get a couple more
of them every now and then.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, it's a niche market.
All right, everyone.
Well, I just wanted tointroduce you to this summer Jed
Sidwell.
He's a summer intern here atNASVIC.
He's got an interestingbackground in livestock judging,
real passionate about cattle,got involved in markets and I'm
just looking real forward toseeing what, uh, his career
looks like.
Moves like do you have socialmedias where people can get a
(21:41):
hold of you, jed?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
yeah, um, just jed sidwell on facebook.
Uh, my last name is spelleds-i-d-w-e-l-l, uh.
And then I'm on uh snapchat andinstagram as well.
Uh, same thing there.
Uh, yeah, if you're looking foryouth livestock, we raise sheep
and cattle.
Sidwell shows sheep and Sidwellshows steers.
Yeah, it's been a blast, tommy.
(22:02):
Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Thanks, chad, we'll do this again, hopefully come
back here after graduation andstart working with us again.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Yeah, that'd be great .
Speaker 1 (22:10):
See you, my friend.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
See you down.
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