February 26, 2025 • 38 mins
Legendary poultry industry pioneer Jim Dean shares his remarkable journey, from a challenging childhood to a thriving career in the egg industry. With grit and determination, Jim made the tough choice to leave school early, supporting his family and ultimately building a successful career. His candid reflections on his experiences, including his time in Vietnam, reveal invaluable lessons on resilience and the power of learning through lived experiences.
Discover the entrepreneurial spirit that sparked the creation of Fremont Farms and so many more. Our discussion highlights the innovative strategies an entrepreneur used to tackle industry challenges, such as market volatility and cultural shifts after the loss of a mentor at the Boomsma Company. By aligning shared values with strategic partnerships and adapting to market demands, he navigated acquisitions and expansions with finesse, ensuring stability and continued success in the egg industry.
Explore the dynamics of leadership and growth in a family-run business through insights from a unique perspective—a non-family board member. We delve into overcoming procrastination, learning from mistakes, and addressing unforeseen challenges like avian influenza. The conversation offers a glimpse into the Versova Group's philanthropic efforts, emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community. Jim Dean's passion for leadership, hard work, and education shines through as he underscores the crucial role of preparing the next generation for the demands of animal agriculture.
https://www.versova.com/our-foundation/
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Mulnix (00:26):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, brandon Mullnix.
I am glad that you're here withus today, and when I say us, I
have one of the industry legends.
Today's guest is Jim Dean.
Jim has done amazing things,he's won amazing awards
recognized in the industry, andhe agreed to share some of the
(00:50):
wisdom that he's gained over theyears in his story, and so I'm
not going to probably be talkingtoo much in this one.
We've got a lot of wisdomthat's going to be shared with
us today.
So, jim, welcome to the show.
Jim Dean (01:02):
Well, thank you.
At first I was a littlehesitant, because I don't like
coming off boastful, or becausethat's just not who I am.
My story, I think, is unique,and so I was willing to share it
with the industry and peoplelistening to this podcast.
So thanks for the opportunity.
Brandon Mulnix (01:21):
Well, jim, I'm going to admit you were on my
short list of people when Idecided to start this podcast of
people that if I could justcapture a moment of what you've
been able to do and what you'vebeen able to learn with the
future leaders, I think we'reall going to grow because of
your willingness to share thestory.
So, jim, tell me about Jim Dean.
(01:43):
Where did you start with thestory?
Jim Dean (01:44):
Well, I didn't have your typical childhood that
probably most people wentthrough.
My father was a constructionworker, construction supervisor,
and so for the first six yearsof my life we have every three
months or four months.
The job was completed.
We lived in a little traveltrailer, pulled behind a sedan,
(02:06):
and we went to job site to jobsite.
For example, my dad built thewater cooling tower on the
United Nation building in 1953.
So I would have been in NewYork in 1953 living in a little
travel trailer.
One of the jobs was in NewOrleans when I was and I started
(02:26):
kindergarten in New Orleans,but then the job was done, so I
actually was a kindergartendropout.
Jim couldn't continue on thisgypsy life and so we settled in
my father's hometown in Texas.
Then, when I was 13, my parentsdecided to divorce.
My mother and I moved to Iowafrom where her family was from.
(02:51):
My dad was ultimately killed ina car accident when I was 15
years old, so I never got achance to reacquaint with my
father when we moved back toIowa.
Of course my mother wasn'tworking.
She had to find a job in DesMoines, iowa.
To Iowa Of course my motherwasn't working.
She had to find a job in DesMoines, iowa.
I lived with an aunt and uncleand went to school in Pella,
iowa Friday afternoons afterschool.
I'd hitchhike to Des Moines ineighth grade to be with my
(03:17):
mother on the weekends and thenshe'd take me back to Pella.
We were having difficulty,struggling financially and so at
16, I decided to leave highschool and go to work.
I had an option to go to workat Pella Windows, the window
factory in Pella, iowa, at $1.40an hour at that time this is
1966.
(03:37):
Or I could go work for an eggcompany at $1.15 an hour and I
could work as many hours as Iwanted at time and a half.
And you can do the math.
And I thought the only way I'mgoing to get myself out of
poverty was to work.
So I started working for NeilBumsma when I was 16.
We wound up growing the company.
I was the only non-familymember ever allowed to buy into
(04:00):
that business.
When I started with the companyback in 1966, we had a 35 case
agomatic.
We grew the company, boughtplants and businesses and we had
three operations in Missouri,three in Iowa, one in Minnesota
distribution center in Dallas,and those, ultimately, were
under my management.
(04:20):
So I spent a lot of time on theroad.
Marilyn fortunately my wifefortunately could stay at home
and she raised the boys.
Marilyn and I were married.
She was three months out ofhigh school, I was 19 years old,
and eight months later I was inVietnam and it wasn't on a
luxury cruise to Vietnam either.
So I've learned a lot in thebusiness.
(04:40):
I was in management.
I was in.
My first job when I startedwith Bumsma's when I was 16
years old, was cleanup and I'dpack eggs, you know,
individually, pick up the eggsand put them in egg cartons.
I worked in accounting, Iworked in sales management.
So I spent 27 years with theBumsma company.
That's really was my education.
(05:02):
I've got a PhD in the School ofHard Knocks because of that
education.
That gets at least started frommy youth to later on into the
probably into the 90s.
Brandon Mulnix (05:13):
So, jim, I remember you sharing a story
about coming home from themilitary and having to make a
choice of either going to schoolor working in the farm.
Can you elaborate on that one?
Jim Dean (05:24):
either going to school or working in the farm.
Can you elaborate on that one?
Yeah well, I was in Vietnam.
Of course, school really wasnever my thing, I'd rather work.
Marilyn, she worked two jobs.
She worked at Pella Windows atthe time and then she worked at
a drugstore at night.
And her goal was the year I wasin Vietnam, that she was going
to put me through college.
And I came back.
(05:45):
I really didn't like school, itwasn't my thing, and I told her
that I was just going to goback, talk to my boss for a
little bit, catch up on thingsfrom being gone, and so forth.
Neil and I agreed that it wasprobably the best thing for
myself and for the business forme to go back to work.
So I came back to my wife.
(06:05):
I said we really don't haveenough money for me to go to
school and not work.
So I'm going to work for alittle while so we can
accumulate enough money for meto go to school, with no
intention of ever going back toschool.
And I thought it was almost thewould be the end of our marriage
, because she'd worked so hardthe time I was in Vietnam.
(06:26):
We've been married 56 years, soit's been quite a trek for us.
It's been quite an amazingjourney.
Our love for each other hasbeen amazing and I always think
back how life would be sodifferent if I had decided to go
to school and go back and get adegree.
Sometimes I feel a littleremiss that I didn't, but I
(06:48):
think for the most part I thinkeverything turned out all right.
Brandon Mulnix (06:51):
Yeah, it seems like you've made a few good
choices along the way, and shedid stick with you all these 56
years and you've got threeamazing sons.
Tell us a little bit about yourfamily.
Jim Dean (07:01):
Well, back then, when the boys were in high school, I
said you know your mother and Iare going to pay for your
college education.
Go get a real job.
Don't follow me in the business.
It's too difficult, it's toohard, Disease pricing,
government regulations andeverything.
Matt went into banking was verysuccessful in mergers and
acquisitions.
(07:22):
Ross ultimately decided to comeinto the business after another
career.
Jt, the oldest son, has beenwith me 25 years, so it's kind
of a quasi family business, butreally our business is built
with partners.
Brandon Mulnix (07:35):
As I've learned more and more about.
It's not the Jim Dean farm, agroup of farms.
Tell us your journey into thebusiness of farming.
I mean you talked about buyinginto early farms.
Just kind of share that journey.
Jim Dean (07:47):
With the Booms of my company.
I was there 27 years.
I really thought that my careerwas going to be ultimately with
the Bumsma Company for the restof my career in the business.
Ultimately there was an eventthat happened.
Neil Bumsma, in 1989, died of aheart attack at 51 years old.
I was 40 at the time.
So in essence I'd lost twofathers in my lifetime.
(08:10):
I started for Neil when I was 16, worked until I was 40 with
Neal.
That happened in 89.
And then the other partners inthe business was extremely
successful.
But it just wasn't the cultureI wanted to be involved with.
So in 1993, I decided to sellmy interest in the business.
(08:31):
So in 1993, I didn't own achicken, I wasn't involved in
business or anything.
Then it was a point that I hadto pick up the pieces, figure
out what I was going to do withthe rest of my life.
Blair Vincetin called me and hewanted to know he was having
trouble with his company and hewanted to know whether I would
be willing to partner with him.
I agreed to partner with Blair.
(08:53):
Finsettan was a good friend upuntil his passing.
We wound up building FremontFarms.
Also we built Fremont Farms ofIowa with other partners Because
at the time when I sold myinterest in the business and the
Boomsman Company, I had abuyout but it wasn't substantial
enough that I was going to goout and build large farms and so
forth.
So I had to find partners thatwere like-minded, understood
(09:17):
animal agriculture and had thesame value system, for the most
part, that I did, and that wasextremely important to find
partners that had that samevalue system that Neil Boomsma
had instilled in me many, manyyears ago.
I'm just one of theseentrepreneurial spirits that if
I think I can make somethingwork, I'll try and do it.
(09:38):
A long relationship with a lotof the leaders in the industry
and we continue to build andgrow the business.
Brandon Mulnix (09:46):
So when you find these opportunities around the
industry, what risk do you takewhen you go and you look and you
say, hey, that farm over there.
I think we want to bring thatone into the fold.
How do you make those decisions?
Jim Dean (09:58):
I'd spent my career in a boomsman company where it
seemed like we'd make 10 cents adozen one year and we'd lose 12
cents a dozen the next year.
So I wanted to find a differenttype of marketing arrangement
and a different type of system.
So a lot of what we've done inthe industry is on a grain-based
(10:20):
contract.
If you're a good egg producer,a top egg producer, you could
wind up making money and youweren't at risk with the egg
market money and you weren't atrisk with the egg market.
So I've got 20 years with thesame, or 30 years actually, with
the same banking firm, becausethat's been extremely successful
for us to be in that type ofbusiness where you're not
(10:41):
downturns of market.
Of course, now a lot of ourbusiness is still on a
grain-based model.
Now we're not makingnecessarily the kind of money
that some of the other eggproducers that are making, but
when the downturn comes and thedownturn will come again and the
industry will be profitable andso forth.
So it was a model that workedwell for the egg products
business, because in the eggproducts industry you're just an
(11:04):
ingredient in somebody else'sprocess, whether that's a jar of
mayonnaise, whether that's abreakfast sandwich or whether
that's ice cream, you're just aningredient.
The industry was really lookingat more of a stable type
pricing mechanism rather thanthe volatile fluctuation of the
market.
It was something that we wereable to grow our business on and
(11:24):
be very successful.
We still use that model todayon a large portion of what we do
.
We found that even some of thelarge retailers now are starting
to use that type of model.
You know I'm not going to startnaming retailers, you know as
far as that goes, but they foundthat they like that stable
pricing on the shelf rather thanthe volatility as far as
(11:47):
offering their customerseveryday low prices.
Brandon Mulnix (11:50):
You've been through a lot in the industry, a
lot of ups and downs.
You talk about the pricing andhow you stabilized it.
What were some of the biggerchallenges that you faced over
your career?
Jim Dean (12:03):
Other than being with a company for 27 years, and a
death of a mentor and leader wasextremely critical to where I
was going to go in life and whatI was going to do in life.
I've had to kind of reinventmyself several times over the
years.
You know you go throughdownturns in the market.
You know we had the opportunityand I think most of the
(12:25):
industry thought that I finallyhad gone off the deep end when
we had the opportunity topurchase assets from DeCoster on
a lease arrangement and in 2011, we tripled the size of our
business in about a six-monthtime from what we were doing.
Our partners all went alongwith us and at that time, steve
(12:47):
Boomsma, neil Boomsma's son,brian Boomsma, who would have
been a nephew of Neil.
I called those guys up and Isaid, hey, you want to get back
in a business, you want to getback into this.
And both of them said we're inand, along with some of the
other partners that I'd beeninvolved with for many years,
also said we're in.
And so you know we're lookingat really an extremely difficult
(13:09):
time when you take over abusiness like that and triple
the size of your business One ofthe big mistakes I made on a
lease purchase arrangement was Ithought it would be easier to
change the culture.
We almost had to go through theentire organization and change
everybody because it was sodifficult to change the culture.
It was a difficult time.
(13:30):
We made it through it.
A large retailer came to us andwanted to look at grain-based
pricing.
They knew that I'd probably andour company knew more about
grain-based pricing than mostpeople in the industry, and so
they were willing to go out on alimb and actually start buying
the eggs from some of thefacilities that had the largest
recall in the history of theindustry, and that was one of
(13:52):
the things that put us on themap.
They sought us out as that wewere honest, we would do what we
say we were going to do andwe'd get it accomplished and
we'd get the farms cleaned up,we'd get them back in production
, and the large retailer wentalong with us and continued to
start buying the eggs from us.
Brandon Mulnix (14:07):
The challenge of a recall, that's one of those
things that just can crush abusiness, crush an industry.
Avian influenza, employment,all of these challenges, trying
to figure it out what's onethat's harder than the other.
I mean, I guess, because you'vegone through so many different
challenges.
Jim Dean (14:28):
You know, I guess I'm probably the eternal optimist.
One of the things that Neiltaught me early on in my career
I was probably a procrastinatorbecause in a business
organization I was in betweengenerations, from the brothers
to the cousins and nephews andso forth.
So I was in between.
So it was really difficult.
When you're the only non-familymember that's sitting in a
(14:50):
board of directors with the restof the family, it's really
difficult to make a decision.
And Neil instilled in me that,jim, you're going to have to
change what you're doing, you'regoing to have to make decisions
.
And he said if it's the wrongdecision, we'll go back, we'll
figure out how to fix it andthen we'll take care of it.
And that's kind of my processall the way through that don't
(15:14):
procrastinate.
The people that look at thingsand say, well, I wish I would
have done that are the ones thatprobably aren't successful.
Well, I'm one of these that Ialways figure that I'll figure
out how to get it accomplishedand how to get it done, and
that's been a big part of usgrowing the business.
The first contract, seven-yearlong-term contract that was
signed on a grain-based.
I'm thinking I've got thecontract in front of me, ready
(15:37):
to sign my name on my thinkingDo I have everything covered
here?
Do I have everything?
That all the costs are included?
One thing that wasn't includedin the early contracts was avian
influenza.
Nobody anticipated that thatwould ever be an issue, that
we'd lose entire complexes.
That's been corrected now youknow subsequently.
Brandon Mulnix (15:58):
Well, lessons learned for sure.
You at least lived past thefirst time it happened and were
able to correct it for the nextone.
If you can go back, you saidyou made all these decisions and
you threw it out there.
Is there a decision you wishyou would have made differently?
Jim Dean (16:11):
Boy, that's really a hard decision because for me, I
generally don't look back ondecisions, good or bad.
I just keep moving forward ondecisions.
So I'm not sure that I'vereally put in my brain what is
the bad decision that I wish Ididn't do, because all of those
(16:32):
are part of the process ofbuilding a company.
You're always going to makemistakes.
We're human beings.
We make mistakes.
Nobody's perfect and all youhave to do is keep moving
forward and learn.
And, like I tell our managementteam, I understand people are
going to make mistakesEverybody's human but let's
learn from that mistake, let'smove on, fix the issue and not
(16:55):
keep making the same mistakeover and over.
Brandon Mulnix (16:58):
Jim, that's one thing that I recognize is your
internal optimism and movingforward, just meeting you and
watching your companies grow.
Which companies are you part ofin terms of either?
The Versova group.
Jim Dean (17:09):
Versova.
The name.
Ross came up with that name, Ithink through some advisors.
A lot of our partners are Dutchand my grandfather came from
the Netherlands in 1907 on mymother's side of the family.
That's why the Dean nameobviously comes from my father.
Ross came up with that name.
Vers is Dutch for new or fresh.
(17:31):
If you look for a translation,it's new or fresh.
Ova is Latin for egg, henceVersova.
That's where the name came from.
Because we were growing thebusiness and growing the
companies and so forth, we hadto form a management company and
Versova wound up being themanagement company.
As we've grown the business, wehave various partners in
(17:51):
different companies.
You know some partners decidethat lifestyle changes or the
risk tolerance might bedifferent.
Some of the companies are lessrisk adverse, Some are more
risky being on the open marketand so forth.
So we had to structure ourbusiness around the Iowa
corporate farming law.
That's why you probably havenever seen CalMain as a
corporation come into Iowabecause of the Iowa corporate
(18:11):
farming law.
That's why you probably havenever seen CalMain as a
corporation come into Iowabecause of the Iowa corporate
farming law.
It's not allowed.
You can try and structurearound.
So I've structured all of ourbusinesses as LLPs, yeah,
limited partnerships, and soforth.
As we've acquired companies, wedidn't change the name.
We kept virtually all of thecompany names that we've
(18:31):
acquired over the years, whetherthat's Morning Fresh or Oakdale
or Willamette, Of course,Center Fresh Group, Hawkeye
Pride.
When we decided to build Hawkeye, which is a large six million
bird complex, conventional andcage free, on a cost plus
contract, you know, we came upwith a name and some of that
Hawkeye Pride came from whatWall Bombs did with Husker Pride
(18:55):
and I thought, well, if theycan do that, I can do this.
And that as we acquirecompanies and I've found that my
sons are probably moreaggressive and moving forward
than maybe what I was it's justa mindset that we have that we
want to continue to grow thebusiness.
I've always said if we can'tmanage it properly, I don't want
to be involved in it, becausemanagement is so important and
(19:17):
what I drive home is it's socritical.
Early on, JT will tell thestory about how I drove into
them that you always had to bein the top third of the Chilson
management reports, which are nolonger in existence.
But I kept telling him that ifwe're not in the top third.
We're not going to make it inthe business, and so production
performance is really key to oursuccess.
Brandon Mulnix (19:39):
As someone new to the egg industry about five
years ago trying to figure outall the different companies, and
thank you for explaining it tome.
I think that will help othersunderstand kind of how that all
works, because that commercialfarming law I'm from Michigan, I
didn't know anything about itover there, so thank you for
explaining that.
You've seen government change.
You've seen good, bad ugly whenit comes to regulations.
(20:03):
What are some of the morechallenging regulations that
you've had to deal with overyour career?
Jim Dean (20:14):
Regulations come and go as administration changes, so
it's probably difficult to tryand pinpoint any particular
regulation that comes to mind.
That is an issue.
You just have to deal with itas they come at you and trying
to figure out what you do there.
For a long time, OSHA was a bigproblem.
It still is a big problem.
That's why I preached to ourmanagement team that safety is
extremely important.
(20:35):
I take it personally Ifsomebody loses an eye or a limb
or a finger or a life.
I take it personally because Idon't ever want to be involved
in that.
So we are very critical to makesure that we're OSHA compliant.
We make sure that we e-verifyeverybody because I want to make
(20:56):
sure that we have a stableworkforce or as stable as
possible.
We e-verify everybody in ourcompanies.
Brandon Mulnix (21:03):
I mean you hit on a couple of them.
You know OSHA and theimmigration stuff and giving
back.
I've got to witness that theVersova family of farms and the
way that they do their givingback.
Where does that come from?
Jim Dean (21:19):
For me, I go back to my history.
I go back to what are my rootswith the Boomsma Company.
When I was a partner in theBoomsma Company it was a
requirement that of the earningsthat were earmarked for your
percentage of ownership, you hadto give 5% to charity.
It was a requirement.
You can name any charity,whether it's a church, whether
(21:41):
it's a heart association orwhatever it may be, but you had
to give 5% of those profits back.
Now I couldn't bring thatphilosophy necessarily to a
group of partners that weren'tnecessarily like-minded on how
they wanted to, because whetherthey wanted to do personally or
whatever, but we just feel thatit's important to give back to
(22:01):
the communities and we try anddo it.
We have formed VersovaFoundation, community Foundation
.
We're involved in some work inMozambique on school systems and
vocational schools, where wewere involved with taking young
adults out of the villages,teaching them business
management and agriculture.
They get a little plot of land,they can sell their vegetables
(22:23):
in the local villages and so wehope that we're actually
educating the next leaders inthat organization, that country,
because Africa is obviouslyextremely unique.
A lot of people put a lot ofcapital and investments and
contributions into Africa, butit winds up going into graft,
(22:44):
corruption, and doesn't get downto where it's actually helping
people, and there needs to bemore work by people that are
willing to put boots on theground and actually do things
and educate people and so forth.
So that's why we're involved inthose things.
Our foundation has four pillarsand that's youth, education,
(23:04):
agriculture and first respondersand so forth and others.
So it's just our way of tryingto give back and prove the
communities that we haveoperations in.
Brandon Mulnix (23:15):
No, and you guys , I think, give back in other
ways through.
I know a number of yourpartners support Iowa State
University, and I mean yourgroup.
You've given a lot when itcomes to things that you're most
proud of.
What is one moment you're justreally proud of?
Jim Dean (23:32):
It's our team, it's our people.
They all work together and theydon't point fingers at each
other, they don't blame eachother.
I tell management check yourego at the door, because we
don't have a place for it inthis organization.
I've seen companies that willhire some of the top people in
the industry, but they're alltype A people that have their
(23:52):
own way of doing things and theycould never get everybody
cooperating, moving the wagon inthe same direction.
The people are in.
Our team is what I'm most proudof, especially for our industry
dealing with high path.
Yeah, it's a financial toll,there's no doubt about it, but
it's a human toll that I don'tknow that there's any way to
(24:12):
calculate the toll that thattakes on the humans, that people
that actually have to do thatwork on a farm that spend their
careers making sure the birdsare healthy and then get hit by
this hideous disease and theyhave to put all the birds down.
It's really heart-wrenching tohave your team have to go
(24:33):
through that Financial side ofit.
Yeah, most people will figureit out and survive through it,
but it's the toll on people thatreally bothers me.
Brandon Mulnix (24:40):
Yeah, it's a hard one Just watching people
move out of the industry becauseof it, putting their keys to
the farm and saying I'm done.
It's hard to see over a diseasethat we just don't seem to be
able to get our hands wrappedaround.
So, jim, if I'm starting out asa leader in this industry or an
employee in this industry and Iget to get interviewed by Jim
(25:02):
Dean and get to say, hey, thisis my advice for someone, get
coached by Jim Dean, tell me howI can be successful.
Jim Dean (25:12):
Well, it's unfortunate , I think a lot of people of
course I don't get involved inthe interview process, but too
many of the younger people inthe younger generation.
There's really a lot of greatpeople in the younger generation
.
There's a lot of them thatdon't have the background and
don't have the understanding.
They want to know how quicklythey can have my job.
(25:33):
You know, how quickly are theygoing to move up the ladder?
I moved up the ladder byproving myself.
Obviously.
Neil Williams saw something inme to allow me to be the only
non-family member ever allowedto buy in a business, and that
was because of hard work anddedication and doing what it
took that the company needed todo to get the job done.
You know, the advice to youngerpeople are make sure you
(25:56):
understand that animalagriculture is extremely
difficult.
It's not pretty.
You're going to be in it 365days a year.
That plant doesn't shut downfor Christmas.
You get the phone calls in themiddle of the night that the
building's on fire and you haveto get up and take care of
emergencies that happen.
(26:17):
Or tornado hits, you know, oreven influenza hits.
Make sure you're mentallyprepared for those kind of
challenges, and a lot of peoplearen't.
You know a lot of young peoplewant that nine to five job and
they don't understand it.
That's why one of our pillarsis to educate and support young
people that want to go intoanimal agriculture, because we
(26:40):
don't have that talent to drawon that maybe we did years ago.
I mean, as we get farther andfarther away from our ancestors
or my ancestors, that taught mehard work was extremely
important.
We're getting farther andfarther away from that.
I mean it used to be that Icould hire plants.
(27:02):
I could hire high school kidsthat wanted to work after school
or wanted to work on Saturdays.
One of my first jobs, besidescleanup, was going with a rock
truck driver and picking up twoto five cases of eggs from every
farm and we'd spend the entiredays picking up 200 cases of
cases of eggs from every farmand we'd spend the entire day
picking up 200 cases of eggs toprocess the next day and so
forth.
(27:22):
So you know it's going to beextremely difficult more
difficult to get started in thebusiness.
I wouldn't recommend anybody totake my career path that I
started in the industry becauseI'm not sure it would work in
this day and age.
I just coach somebody to makesure that they're mentally
prepared for that.
You can think you are, butuntil you go through it, are you
(27:46):
really prepared for thechallenges that will come at you
?
Because whether it's themanagement team that deal with
high path, or the first personor the last person that was
hired, they're all gonna dealwith it.
We make a policy in our company.
We don't lay people off when welose a farm, because we want to
keep everybody employed when werepopulate.
We've got a fully trained andvery loyal crew, so we keep
(28:08):
everybody employed through thatdownturn.
Brandon Mulnix (28:11):
So the third generation of deans are coming
up through the farm.
I got to meet your grandsonthis last summer.
Does he get any specialtreatment or does he get
actually a harder job becausehe's a dean coming up through
one of the farms?
Jim Dean (28:28):
Yeah, I'll answer you this way and JT's probably not
going to be happy with me.
But I'll tell the story on JT.
When I hooked up with BlairVincetin at Oskaloosa Food
Products, he worked at Oskaloosafor the summer when he was in
college and he was given some ofthe most difficult,
back-breaking, hardest jobs thatwere there.
(28:50):
And he came home one night,came back to the house and he'd
been busting up concrete in acooler, on a floor that had to
be repaired.
He goes to his mother and sayslook at me, I've got dust all
over me.
I've been, you know, breakingup concrete.
I could be working at TacoJohn's.
That was kind of one of thosefather-son training moments.
(29:15):
Do you have the wherewithal todo that?
I think I'm pretty confidentthat James, my grandson, is not
given any preferential treatment.
What they're doing is they'vegot him working, whether it's in
a manure line, whether that'sin cleanup, whatever.
He's learning the entirebusiness.
He's learning all theoperations.
(29:35):
But I'm pretty sure that hisfather's told the leaders out at
the farms you don't give himany preferential treatment
because he won't learn what thebusiness is all about and
whether he's got the stayingpower to stay with the business.
Brandon Mulnix (29:50):
Well, I've seen your managers at the golf outing
not give him any preferentialtreatment whatsoever.
The boss.
You know it's the boss's son,but it's good to see him coming
up through the farm.
Jim Dean (30:01):
And I think it's important for the new people to
come into the business and Isaid this at the UEP meeting in
Colorado whether it's a male orfemale, you have to learn the
business from the ground up.
Even though your mother andfather maybe started the
business and grew the businessand so forth.
You can't come in and come inas an executive because you
(30:21):
won't relate to the rest of thepeople.
You won't relate to the rest ofthe team members unless you
learn the business.
And that's what James is doingnow.
Now, whether he decides to comeback in the business or not, or
whether we as partners decidefor him to come back in the
business or not, or whether weas partners decide for him to
come back in the business andwhether he can add value to the
business, that's a decision thatwe'll have to make.
(30:43):
But people that come in,especially with the owners,
family members, they have tomake sure that they learn the
business.
They can't just come in as anexecutive because they won't
relate to the team.
It'll be really difficult tolead a team that you can't
relate to.
Brandon Mulnix (31:02):
Yeah, there's a lot of truth in that.
It's just that generation, youknow, it's good for them to
learn.
So, Jim, as we've looked back,let's look forward.
What's next for Jim Dean?
Jim Dean (31:15):
Next for me personally , or next for me as a business?
Brandon Mulnix (31:18):
let's cover both .
Jim Dean (31:20):
I'm 75 years old.
I've been doing this since Iwas 16.
I love the business, I lovebeing involved and as long as I
can contribute and whether amentor or an advisor I'm going
to continue on.
I have no plans of justretiring.
I see my friends retire andwatch TV or they don't have
(31:44):
hobbies or they don't docharitable work, charitable
activities and so forth.
So as long as I can contribute,I'll be involved and stay
involved in the business.
My wife and I love to travel.
Even though I stated I didn'tlike school, I still want to see
the pyramids.
I've seen the pyramids.
I've seen the Great Wall ofChina.
We travel the world.
(32:04):
We're fortunate to be able todo those type of things.
My hobbies are car collectingand so forth.
I enjoy golf, getting out thebusiness.
As far as that goes, Ianticipate that we'll continue
to grow the business because ourpartners have the same value
(32:25):
system that I have and have thatsame concept of passing this
business on to the nextgeneration, whether they're
actively involved or whetherthey're financially involved.
We look at passing thisbusiness on.
So we want to continue to growthe business the right way If we
find things that fit into ourwheelhouse and what we're good
(32:50):
at.
We'll continue to grow thebusiness.
Brandon Mulnix (32:54):
Is there anything that you can share with
the industry that they mightnot already know about you, a
hobby or something that you'rejust like?
I bet you, the industry doesn'tknow this about me.
Jim Dean (33:06):
Most of the industry you know, I think, knows that
I'm an avid card collector.
I'm an avid coin collector.
Coins are one of my big hobbies.
My father years ago, when hewas traveling a lot he would
bring coins from various, so hegot me started at a very young
age into coin collecting.
We like to do charitablefunctions.
(33:29):
I'm a partner in OdysseyAquarium down in Arizona, which
is a little unique to be anOdyssey Aquarium but when we
built that it's built on anIndian reservation and I'm
thinking I got to deal withanimal activists in the industry
.
I'm not sure I want to dealwith animal activists because of
an aquarium.
(33:49):
Well, come to find out if youlease land from the and I think
this is.
I think we've got somebody inthe industry that happens to
have a farm on the Indianreservation in Arizona.
You can't demonstrate on Indianreservation.
It's a federal law againstdemonstrating, so they don't
have to deal with any animalactivists.
(34:11):
Also, my wife has an art galleryin Scottsdale, in Old Town, and
so she's extremely interested,involved in that art gallery and
she's got me chasing around tothis art exhibit in San Diego
and she was in Florida.
So we were up in Montreal toone of the artists up in
Montreal that has a studio and agallery up there.
(34:34):
That keeps us involved, youknow, in different things.
So I've done somediversification rather than the
egg industry, to keep me activeand keep me interested and so
forth.
Brandon Mulnix (34:47):
Well, I've had the pleasure of touring your art
gallery there in Scottsdale andthere's great pieces of art
there and I think of Jim Deanthe chicken farmer, great pieces
of art there, and I think ofJim Dean the chicken farmer, jim
Dean the art collector.
They don't typically go hand inhand, but when I see you light
up as you talk about your carsand your car collection and I'm
so glad that JT shared that withme a couple of years ago let me
(35:09):
see under the hood, so to speak, and what a beautiful car
collection you have.
Is there any last minute wordsof wisdom that you want to share
with the industry?
Jim Dean (35:20):
The industry has to me has really great people in it.
They are all hardworkingindividuals and it's just.
It's almost to me a brotherhoodor a sisterhood.
Will we fight each other in theretail side of the business or
the wholesale side of thebusiness, but will we come
(35:41):
together in AEB or UEP and worktogether for a common goal?
Certainly, and that takespeople that are willing to do
that type of work.
You know, I said early on in mycareer if I'm going to be
involved in the business, I wantto be involved helping making
the rules and regulations,whether that's dealing with
(36:04):
government, elected officials.
Governor Kim Reynolds has beento my car collection.
We've done a lot of variousfundraisers for her, for Randy
Feenstra, so I can get to know.
We've had Mike Pence here,we've had Nikki Haley here, I've
had Tim Scott here at the carcollection where we talk about
life and we talk about rules andregulations and so forth.
(36:27):
I've always wanted to beinvolved in the rulemaking,
whether it's at the legislativeside of it or whether it's at
the industry side of it, and Ithink UEP is a tremendous
organization, aeb is atremendous organization to
promote the industry and I justhope people stay involved, stay
(36:47):
engaged in that process andit'll be for the betterment of
the industry.
Brandon Mulnix (36:53):
Well, Jim, thank you for allowing me this time
to interview you.
Jim Dean (36:58):
Well, you're certainly welcome.
I mean, you know, I've told mystory many, many times over the
years and people look at me like, really, you know I'll do that.
When we go to employeeappreciation I'll speak to our
team members and they'll look atme like you started at 16 on
cleanup.
That's just my history.
I was just fortunate andblessed.
(37:19):
I've told a lot of people thatI've got guardian angels sitting
on both sides of my shouldershelping me along the way, and I
think it's my faith that haspulled me through some of the
crisis and dealing with this,treating people properly and
fairly, and I think that'sextremely important to do that
and give back.
Brandon Mulnix (37:40):
Well, podcast listeners, I know how much I was
blessed to be able to have thisinterview and I'm sure you're
blessed as well.
Thank you for listening to thispodcast.
Please, as we go out throughoutthe day, share this podcast
with the industry.
Help share the stories thatmake this industry so great.
People like Jim and Jim'spartners and we're just talking,
(38:02):
that's just the Versova groupof families, and there's so many
more throughout this greatUnited States that work every
day to feed the world and ifyou're listening to this, more
than likely you're part of thatfamily.
I just can't go out withoutsaying thanks to Prism Controls
for allowing me this opportunityto come out and sit down with
Jim and just hear his story.
(38:23):
So please check out PrismControls online prismcontrolscom
.
Say thank you to theirleadership so that way they know
that you want this to continue.
Have a great day.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, brandon Mullnix.
I am glad that you're here withus today, and when I say us, I
have one of the industry legends.
Today's guest is Jim Dean.
Jim has done amazing things,he's won amazing awards
recognized in the industry, andhe agreed to share some of the
(00:50):
wisdom that he's gained over theyears in his story, and so I'm
not going to probably be talkingtoo much in this one.
We've got a lot of wisdomthat's going to be shared with
us today.
So, jim, welcome to the show.
Jim Dean (01:02):
Well, thank you.
At first I was a littlehesitant, because I don't like
coming off boastful, or becausethat's just not who I am.
My story, I think, is unique,and so I was willing to share it
with the industry and peoplelistening to this podcast.
So thanks for the opportunity.
Brandon Mulnix (01:21):
Well, jim, I'm going to admit you were on my
short list of people when Idecided to start this podcast of
people that if I could justcapture a moment of what you've
been able to do and what you'vebeen able to learn with the
future leaders, I think we'reall going to grow because of
your willingness to share thestory.
So, jim, tell me about Jim Dean.
(01:43):
Where did you start with thestory?
Jim Dean (01:44):
Well, I didn't have your typical childhood that
probably most people wentthrough.
My father was a constructionworker, construction supervisor,
and so for the first six yearsof my life we have every three
months or four months.
The job was completed.
We lived in a little traveltrailer, pulled behind a sedan,
(02:06):
and we went to job site to jobsite.
For example, my dad built thewater cooling tower on the
United Nation building in 1953.
So I would have been in NewYork in 1953 living in a little
travel trailer.
One of the jobs was in NewOrleans when I was and I started
(02:26):
kindergarten in New Orleans,but then the job was done, so I
actually was a kindergartendropout.
Jim couldn't continue on thisgypsy life and so we settled in
my father's hometown in Texas.
Then, when I was 13, my parentsdecided to divorce.
My mother and I moved to Iowafrom where her family was from.
(02:51):
My dad was ultimately killed ina car accident when I was 15
years old, so I never got achance to reacquaint with my
father when we moved back toIowa.
Of course my mother wasn'tworking.
She had to find a job in DesMoines, iowa.
To Iowa Of course my motherwasn't working.
She had to find a job in DesMoines, iowa.
I lived with an aunt and uncleand went to school in Pella,
iowa Friday afternoons afterschool.
I'd hitchhike to Des Moines ineighth grade to be with my
(03:17):
mother on the weekends and thenshe'd take me back to Pella.
We were having difficulty,struggling financially and so at
16, I decided to leave highschool and go to work.
I had an option to go to workat Pella Windows, the window
factory in Pella, iowa, at $1.40an hour at that time this is
1966.
(03:37):
Or I could go work for an eggcompany at $1.15 an hour and I
could work as many hours as Iwanted at time and a half.
And you can do the math.
And I thought the only way I'mgoing to get myself out of
poverty was to work.
So I started working for NeilBumsma when I was 16.
We wound up growing the company.
I was the only non-familymember ever allowed to buy into
(04:00):
that business.
When I started with the companyback in 1966, we had a 35 case
agomatic.
We grew the company, boughtplants and businesses and we had
three operations in Missouri,three in Iowa, one in Minnesota
distribution center in Dallas,and those, ultimately, were
under my management.
(04:20):
So I spent a lot of time on theroad.
Marilyn fortunately my wifefortunately could stay at home
and she raised the boys.
Marilyn and I were married.
She was three months out ofhigh school, I was 19 years old,
and eight months later I was inVietnam and it wasn't on a
luxury cruise to Vietnam either.
So I've learned a lot in thebusiness.
(04:40):
I was in management.
I was in.
My first job when I startedwith Bumsma's when I was 16
years old, was cleanup and I'dpack eggs, you know,
individually, pick up the eggsand put them in egg cartons.
I worked in accounting, Iworked in sales management.
So I spent 27 years with theBumsma company.
That's really was my education.
(05:02):
I've got a PhD in the School ofHard Knocks because of that
education.
That gets at least started frommy youth to later on into the
probably into the 90s.
Brandon Mulnix (05:13):
So, jim, I remember you sharing a story
about coming home from themilitary and having to make a
choice of either going to schoolor working in the farm.
Can you elaborate on that one?
Jim Dean (05:24):
either going to school or working in the farm.
Can you elaborate on that one?
Yeah well, I was in Vietnam.
Of course, school really wasnever my thing, I'd rather work.
Marilyn, she worked two jobs.
She worked at Pella Windows atthe time and then she worked at
a drugstore at night.
And her goal was the year I wasin Vietnam, that she was going
to put me through college.
And I came back.
(05:45):
I really didn't like school, itwasn't my thing, and I told her
that I was just going to goback, talk to my boss for a
little bit, catch up on thingsfrom being gone, and so forth.
Neil and I agreed that it wasprobably the best thing for
myself and for the business forme to go back to work.
So I came back to my wife.
(06:05):
I said we really don't haveenough money for me to go to
school and not work.
So I'm going to work for alittle while so we can
accumulate enough money for meto go to school, with no
intention of ever going back toschool.
And I thought it was almost thewould be the end of our marriage
, because she'd worked so hardthe time I was in Vietnam.
(06:26):
We've been married 56 years, soit's been quite a trek for us.
It's been quite an amazingjourney.
Our love for each other hasbeen amazing and I always think
back how life would be sodifferent if I had decided to go
to school and go back and get adegree.
Sometimes I feel a littleremiss that I didn't, but I
(06:48):
think for the most part I thinkeverything turned out all right.
Brandon Mulnix (06:51):
Yeah, it seems like you've made a few good
choices along the way, and shedid stick with you all these 56
years and you've got threeamazing sons.
Tell us a little bit about yourfamily.
Jim Dean (07:01):
Well, back then, when the boys were in high school, I
said you know your mother and Iare going to pay for your
college education.
Go get a real job.
Don't follow me in the business.
It's too difficult, it's toohard, Disease pricing,
government regulations andeverything.
Matt went into banking was verysuccessful in mergers and
acquisitions.
(07:22):
Ross ultimately decided to comeinto the business after another
career.
Jt, the oldest son, has beenwith me 25 years, so it's kind
of a quasi family business, butreally our business is built
with partners.
Brandon Mulnix (07:35):
As I've learned more and more about.
It's not the Jim Dean farm, agroup of farms.
Tell us your journey into thebusiness of farming.
I mean you talked about buyinginto early farms.
Just kind of share that journey.
Jim Dean (07:47):
With the Booms of my company.
I was there 27 years.
I really thought that my careerwas going to be ultimately with
the Bumsma Company for the restof my career in the business.
Ultimately there was an eventthat happened.
Neil Bumsma, in 1989, died of aheart attack at 51 years old.
I was 40 at the time.
So in essence I'd lost twofathers in my lifetime.
(08:10):
I started for Neil when I was 16, worked until I was 40 with
Neal.
That happened in 89.
And then the other partners inthe business was extremely
successful.
But it just wasn't the cultureI wanted to be involved with.
So in 1993, I decided to sellmy interest in the business.
(08:31):
So in 1993, I didn't own achicken, I wasn't involved in
business or anything.
Then it was a point that I hadto pick up the pieces, figure
out what I was going to do withthe rest of my life.
Blair Vincetin called me and hewanted to know he was having
trouble with his company and hewanted to know whether I would
be willing to partner with him.
I agreed to partner with Blair.
(08:53):
Finsettan was a good friend upuntil his passing.
We wound up building FremontFarms.
Also we built Fremont Farms ofIowa with other partners Because
at the time when I sold myinterest in the business and the
Boomsman Company, I had abuyout but it wasn't substantial
enough that I was going to goout and build large farms and so
forth.
So I had to find partners thatwere like-minded, understood
(09:17):
animal agriculture and had thesame value system, for the most
part, that I did, and that wasextremely important to find
partners that had that samevalue system that Neil Boomsma
had instilled in me many, manyyears ago.
I'm just one of theseentrepreneurial spirits that if
I think I can make somethingwork, I'll try and do it.
(09:38):
A long relationship with a lotof the leaders in the industry
and we continue to build andgrow the business.
Brandon Mulnix (09:46):
So when you find these opportunities around the
industry, what risk do you takewhen you go and you look and you
say, hey, that farm over there.
I think we want to bring thatone into the fold.
How do you make those decisions?
Jim Dean (09:58):
I'd spent my career in a boomsman company where it
seemed like we'd make 10 cents adozen one year and we'd lose 12
cents a dozen the next year.
So I wanted to find a differenttype of marketing arrangement
and a different type of system.
So a lot of what we've done inthe industry is on a grain-based
(10:20):
contract.
If you're a good egg producer,a top egg producer, you could
wind up making money and youweren't at risk with the egg
market money and you weren't atrisk with the egg market.
So I've got 20 years with thesame, or 30 years actually, with
the same banking firm, becausethat's been extremely successful
for us to be in that type ofbusiness where you're not
(10:41):
downturns of market.
Of course, now a lot of ourbusiness is still on a
grain-based model.
Now we're not makingnecessarily the kind of money
that some of the other eggproducers that are making, but
when the downturn comes and thedownturn will come again and the
industry will be profitable andso forth.
So it was a model that workedwell for the egg products
business, because in the eggproducts industry you're just an
(11:04):
ingredient in somebody else'sprocess, whether that's a jar of
mayonnaise, whether that's abreakfast sandwich or whether
that's ice cream, you're just aningredient.
The industry was really lookingat more of a stable type
pricing mechanism rather thanthe volatile fluctuation of the
market.
It was something that we wereable to grow our business on and
(11:24):
be very successful.
We still use that model todayon a large portion of what we do
.
We found that even some of thelarge retailers now are starting
to use that type of model.
You know I'm not going to startnaming retailers, you know as
far as that goes, but they foundthat they like that stable
pricing on the shelf rather thanthe volatility as far as
(11:47):
offering their customerseveryday low prices.
Brandon Mulnix (11:50):
You've been through a lot in the industry, a
lot of ups and downs.
You talk about the pricing andhow you stabilized it.
What were some of the biggerchallenges that you faced over
your career?
Jim Dean (12:03):
Other than being with a company for 27 years, and a
death of a mentor and leader wasextremely critical to where I
was going to go in life and whatI was going to do in life.
I've had to kind of reinventmyself several times over the
years.
You know you go throughdownturns in the market.
You know we had the opportunityand I think most of the
(12:25):
industry thought that I finallyhad gone off the deep end when
we had the opportunity topurchase assets from DeCoster on
a lease arrangement and in 2011, we tripled the size of our
business in about a six-monthtime from what we were doing.
Our partners all went alongwith us and at that time, steve
(12:47):
Boomsma, neil Boomsma's son,brian Boomsma, who would have
been a nephew of Neil.
I called those guys up and Isaid, hey, you want to get back
in a business, you want to getback into this.
And both of them said we're inand, along with some of the
other partners that I'd beeninvolved with for many years,
also said we're in.
And so you know we're lookingat really an extremely difficult
(13:09):
time when you take over abusiness like that and triple
the size of your business One ofthe big mistakes I made on a
lease purchase arrangement was Ithought it would be easier to
change the culture.
We almost had to go through theentire organization and change
everybody because it was sodifficult to change the culture.
It was a difficult time.
(13:30):
We made it through it.
A large retailer came to us andwanted to look at grain-based
pricing.
They knew that I'd probably andour company knew more about
grain-based pricing than mostpeople in the industry, and so
they were willing to go out on alimb and actually start buying
the eggs from some of thefacilities that had the largest
recall in the history of theindustry, and that was one of
(13:52):
the things that put us on themap.
They sought us out as that wewere honest, we would do what we
say we were going to do andwe'd get it accomplished and
we'd get the farms cleaned up,we'd get them back in production
, and the large retailer wentalong with us and continued to
start buying the eggs from us.
Brandon Mulnix (14:07):
The challenge of a recall, that's one of those
things that just can crush abusiness, crush an industry.
Avian influenza, employment,all of these challenges, trying
to figure it out what's onethat's harder than the other.
I mean, I guess, because you'vegone through so many different
challenges.
Jim Dean (14:28):
You know, I guess I'm probably the eternal optimist.
One of the things that Neiltaught me early on in my career
I was probably a procrastinatorbecause in a business
organization I was in betweengenerations, from the brothers
to the cousins and nephews andso forth.
So I was in between.
So it was really difficult.
When you're the only non-familymember that's sitting in a
(14:50):
board of directors with the restof the family, it's really
difficult to make a decision.
And Neil instilled in me that,jim, you're going to have to
change what you're doing, you'regoing to have to make decisions
.
And he said if it's the wrongdecision, we'll go back, we'll
figure out how to fix it andthen we'll take care of it.
And that's kind of my processall the way through that don't
(15:14):
procrastinate.
The people that look at thingsand say, well, I wish I would
have done that are the ones thatprobably aren't successful.
Well, I'm one of these that Ialways figure that I'll figure
out how to get it accomplishedand how to get it done, and
that's been a big part of usgrowing the business.
The first contract, seven-yearlong-term contract that was
signed on a grain-based.
I'm thinking I've got thecontract in front of me, ready
(15:37):
to sign my name on my thinkingDo I have everything covered
here?
Do I have everything?
That all the costs are included?
One thing that wasn't includedin the early contracts was avian
influenza.
Nobody anticipated that thatwould ever be an issue, that
we'd lose entire complexes.
That's been corrected now youknow subsequently.
Brandon Mulnix (15:58):
Well, lessons learned for sure.
You at least lived past thefirst time it happened and were
able to correct it for the nextone.
If you can go back, you saidyou made all these decisions and
you threw it out there.
Is there a decision you wishyou would have made differently?
Jim Dean (16:11):
Boy, that's really a hard decision because for me, I
generally don't look back ondecisions, good or bad.
I just keep moving forward ondecisions.
So I'm not sure that I'vereally put in my brain what is
the bad decision that I wish Ididn't do, because all of those
(16:32):
are part of the process ofbuilding a company.
You're always going to makemistakes.
We're human beings.
We make mistakes.
Nobody's perfect and all youhave to do is keep moving
forward and learn.
And, like I tell our managementteam, I understand people are
going to make mistakesEverybody's human but let's
learn from that mistake, let'smove on, fix the issue and not
(16:55):
keep making the same mistakeover and over.
Brandon Mulnix (16:58):
Jim, that's one thing that I recognize is your
internal optimism and movingforward, just meeting you and
watching your companies grow.
Which companies are you part ofin terms of either?
The Versova group.
Jim Dean (17:09):
Versova.
The name.
Ross came up with that name, Ithink through some advisors.
A lot of our partners are Dutchand my grandfather came from
the Netherlands in 1907 on mymother's side of the family.
That's why the Dean nameobviously comes from my father.
Ross came up with that name.
Vers is Dutch for new or fresh.
(17:31):
If you look for a translation,it's new or fresh.
Ova is Latin for egg, henceVersova.
That's where the name came from.
Because we were growing thebusiness and growing the
companies and so forth, we hadto form a management company and
Versova wound up being themanagement company.
As we've grown the business, wehave various partners in
(17:51):
different companies.
You know some partners decidethat lifestyle changes or the
risk tolerance might bedifferent.
Some of the companies are lessrisk adverse, Some are more
risky being on the open marketand so forth.
So we had to structure ourbusiness around the Iowa
corporate farming law.
That's why you probably havenever seen CalMain as a
corporation come into Iowabecause of the Iowa corporate
(18:11):
farming law.
That's why you probably havenever seen CalMain as a
corporation come into Iowabecause of the Iowa corporate
farming law.
It's not allowed.
You can try and structurearound.
So I've structured all of ourbusinesses as LLPs, yeah,
limited partnerships, and soforth.
As we've acquired companies, wedidn't change the name.
We kept virtually all of thecompany names that we've
(18:31):
acquired over the years, whetherthat's Morning Fresh or Oakdale
or Willamette, Of course,Center Fresh Group, Hawkeye
Pride.
When we decided to build Hawkeye, which is a large six million
bird complex, conventional andcage free, on a cost plus
contract, you know, we came upwith a name and some of that
Hawkeye Pride came from whatWall Bombs did with Husker Pride
(18:55):
and I thought, well, if theycan do that, I can do this.
And that as we acquirecompanies and I've found that my
sons are probably moreaggressive and moving forward
than maybe what I was it's justa mindset that we have that we
want to continue to grow thebusiness.
I've always said if we can'tmanage it properly, I don't want
to be involved in it, becausemanagement is so important and
(19:17):
what I drive home is it's socritical.
Early on, JT will tell thestory about how I drove into
them that you always had to bein the top third of the Chilson
management reports, which are nolonger in existence.
But I kept telling him that ifwe're not in the top third.
We're not going to make it inthe business, and so production
performance is really key to oursuccess.
Brandon Mulnix (19:39):
As someone new to the egg industry about five
years ago trying to figure outall the different companies, and
thank you for explaining it tome.
I think that will help othersunderstand kind of how that all
works, because that commercialfarming law I'm from Michigan, I
didn't know anything about itover there, so thank you for
explaining that.
You've seen government change.
You've seen good, bad ugly whenit comes to regulations.
(20:03):
What are some of the morechallenging regulations that
you've had to deal with overyour career?
Jim Dean (20:14):
Regulations come and go as administration changes, so
it's probably difficult to tryand pinpoint any particular
regulation that comes to mind.
That is an issue.
You just have to deal with itas they come at you and trying
to figure out what you do there.
For a long time, OSHA was a bigproblem.
It still is a big problem.
That's why I preached to ourmanagement team that safety is
extremely important.
(20:35):
I take it personally Ifsomebody loses an eye or a limb
or a finger or a life.
I take it personally because Idon't ever want to be involved
in that.
So we are very critical to makesure that we're OSHA compliant.
We make sure that we e-verifyeverybody because I want to make
(20:56):
sure that we have a stableworkforce or as stable as
possible.
We e-verify everybody in ourcompanies.
Brandon Mulnix (21:03):
I mean you hit on a couple of them.
You know OSHA and theimmigration stuff and giving
back.
I've got to witness that theVersova family of farms and the
way that they do their givingback.
Where does that come from?
Jim Dean (21:19):
For me, I go back to my history.
I go back to what are my rootswith the Boomsma Company.
When I was a partner in theBoomsma Company it was a
requirement that of the earningsthat were earmarked for your
percentage of ownership, you hadto give 5% to charity.
It was a requirement.
You can name any charity,whether it's a church, whether
(21:41):
it's a heart association orwhatever it may be, but you had
to give 5% of those profits back.
Now I couldn't bring thatphilosophy necessarily to a
group of partners that weren'tnecessarily like-minded on how
they wanted to, because whetherthey wanted to do personally or
whatever, but we just feel thatit's important to give back to
(22:01):
the communities and we try anddo it.
We have formed VersovaFoundation, community Foundation
.
We're involved in some work inMozambique on school systems and
vocational schools, where wewere involved with taking young
adults out of the villages,teaching them business
management and agriculture.
They get a little plot of land,they can sell their vegetables
(22:23):
in the local villages and so wehope that we're actually
educating the next leaders inthat organization, that country,
because Africa is obviouslyextremely unique.
A lot of people put a lot ofcapital and investments and
contributions into Africa, butit winds up going into graft,
(22:44):
corruption, and doesn't get downto where it's actually helping
people, and there needs to bemore work by people that are
willing to put boots on theground and actually do things
and educate people and so forth.
So that's why we're involved inthose things.
Our foundation has four pillarsand that's youth, education,
(23:04):
agriculture and first respondersand so forth and others.
So it's just our way of tryingto give back and prove the
communities that we haveoperations in.
Brandon Mulnix (23:15):
No, and you guys , I think, give back in other
ways through.
I know a number of yourpartners support Iowa State
University, and I mean yourgroup.
You've given a lot when itcomes to things that you're most
proud of.
What is one moment you're justreally proud of?
Jim Dean (23:32):
It's our team, it's our people.
They all work together and theydon't point fingers at each
other, they don't blame eachother.
I tell management check yourego at the door, because we
don't have a place for it inthis organization.
I've seen companies that willhire some of the top people in
the industry, but they're alltype A people that have their
(23:52):
own way of doing things and theycould never get everybody
cooperating, moving the wagon inthe same direction.
The people are in.
Our team is what I'm most proudof, especially for our industry
dealing with high path.
Yeah, it's a financial toll,there's no doubt about it, but
it's a human toll that I don'tknow that there's any way to
(24:12):
calculate the toll that thattakes on the humans, that people
that actually have to do thatwork on a farm that spend their
careers making sure the birdsare healthy and then get hit by
this hideous disease and theyhave to put all the birds down.
It's really heart-wrenching tohave your team have to go
(24:33):
through that Financial side ofit.
Yeah, most people will figureit out and survive through it,
but it's the toll on people thatreally bothers me.
Brandon Mulnix (24:40):
Yeah, it's a hard one Just watching people
move out of the industry becauseof it, putting their keys to
the farm and saying I'm done.
It's hard to see over a diseasethat we just don't seem to be
able to get our hands wrappedaround.
So, jim, if I'm starting out asa leader in this industry or an
employee in this industry and Iget to get interviewed by Jim
(25:02):
Dean and get to say, hey, thisis my advice for someone, get
coached by Jim Dean, tell me howI can be successful.
Jim Dean (25:12):
Well, it's unfortunate , I think a lot of people of
course I don't get involved inthe interview process, but too
many of the younger people inthe younger generation.
There's really a lot of greatpeople in the younger generation
.
There's a lot of them thatdon't have the background and
don't have the understanding.
They want to know how quicklythey can have my job.
(25:33):
You know, how quickly are theygoing to move up the ladder?
I moved up the ladder byproving myself.
Obviously.
Neil Williams saw something inme to allow me to be the only
non-family member ever allowedto buy in a business, and that
was because of hard work anddedication and doing what it
took that the company needed todo to get the job done.
You know, the advice to youngerpeople are make sure you
(25:56):
understand that animalagriculture is extremely
difficult.
It's not pretty.
You're going to be in it 365days a year.
That plant doesn't shut downfor Christmas.
You get the phone calls in themiddle of the night that the
building's on fire and you haveto get up and take care of
emergencies that happen.
(26:17):
Or tornado hits, you know, oreven influenza hits.
Make sure you're mentallyprepared for those kind of
challenges, and a lot of peoplearen't.
You know a lot of young peoplewant that nine to five job and
they don't understand it.
That's why one of our pillarsis to educate and support young
people that want to go intoanimal agriculture, because we
(26:40):
don't have that talent to drawon that maybe we did years ago.
I mean, as we get farther andfarther away from our ancestors
or my ancestors, that taught mehard work was extremely
important.
We're getting farther andfarther away from that.
I mean it used to be that Icould hire plants.
(27:02):
I could hire high school kidsthat wanted to work after school
or wanted to work on Saturdays.
One of my first jobs, besidescleanup, was going with a rock
truck driver and picking up twoto five cases of eggs from every
farm and we'd spend the entiredays picking up 200 cases of
cases of eggs from every farmand we'd spend the entire day
picking up 200 cases of eggs toprocess the next day and so
forth.
(27:22):
So you know it's going to beextremely difficult more
difficult to get started in thebusiness.
I wouldn't recommend anybody totake my career path that I
started in the industry becauseI'm not sure it would work in
this day and age.
I just coach somebody to makesure that they're mentally
prepared for that.
You can think you are, butuntil you go through it, are you
(27:46):
really prepared for thechallenges that will come at you
?
Because whether it's themanagement team that deal with
high path, or the first personor the last person that was
hired, they're all gonna dealwith it.
We make a policy in our company.
We don't lay people off when welose a farm, because we want to
keep everybody employed when werepopulate.
We've got a fully trained andvery loyal crew, so we keep
(28:08):
everybody employed through thatdownturn.
Brandon Mulnix (28:11):
So the third generation of deans are coming
up through the farm.
I got to meet your grandsonthis last summer.
Does he get any specialtreatment or does he get
actually a harder job becausehe's a dean coming up through
one of the farms?
Jim Dean (28:28):
Yeah, I'll answer you this way and JT's probably not
going to be happy with me.
But I'll tell the story on JT.
When I hooked up with BlairVincetin at Oskaloosa Food
Products, he worked at Oskaloosafor the summer when he was in
college and he was given some ofthe most difficult,
back-breaking, hardest jobs thatwere there.
(28:50):
And he came home one night,came back to the house and he'd
been busting up concrete in acooler, on a floor that had to
be repaired.
He goes to his mother and sayslook at me, I've got dust all
over me.
I've been, you know, breakingup concrete.
I could be working at TacoJohn's.
That was kind of one of thosefather-son training moments.
(29:15):
Do you have the wherewithal todo that?
I think I'm pretty confidentthat James, my grandson, is not
given any preferential treatment.
What they're doing is they'vegot him working, whether it's in
a manure line, whether that'sin cleanup, whatever.
He's learning the entirebusiness.
He's learning all theoperations.
(29:35):
But I'm pretty sure that hisfather's told the leaders out at
the farms you don't give himany preferential treatment
because he won't learn what thebusiness is all about and
whether he's got the stayingpower to stay with the business.
Brandon Mulnix (29:50):
Well, I've seen your managers at the golf outing
not give him any preferentialtreatment whatsoever.
The boss.
You know it's the boss's son,but it's good to see him coming
up through the farm.
Jim Dean (30:01):
And I think it's important for the new people to
come into the business and Isaid this at the UEP meeting in
Colorado whether it's a male orfemale, you have to learn the
business from the ground up.
Even though your mother andfather maybe started the
business and grew the businessand so forth.
You can't come in and come inas an executive because you
(30:21):
won't relate to the rest of thepeople.
You won't relate to the rest ofthe team members unless you
learn the business.
And that's what James is doingnow.
Now, whether he decides to comeback in the business or not, or
whether we as partners decidefor him to come back in the
business or not, or whether weas partners decide for him to
come back in the business andwhether he can add value to the
business, that's a decision thatwe'll have to make.
(30:43):
But people that come in,especially with the owners,
family members, they have tomake sure that they learn the
business.
They can't just come in as anexecutive because they won't
relate to the team.
It'll be really difficult tolead a team that you can't
relate to.
Brandon Mulnix (31:02):
Yeah, there's a lot of truth in that.
It's just that generation, youknow, it's good for them to
learn.
So, Jim, as we've looked back,let's look forward.
What's next for Jim Dean?
Jim Dean (31:15):
Next for me personally , or next for me as a business?
Brandon Mulnix (31:18):
let's cover both .
Jim Dean (31:20):
I'm 75 years old.
I've been doing this since Iwas 16.
I love the business, I lovebeing involved and as long as I
can contribute and whether amentor or an advisor I'm going
to continue on.
I have no plans of justretiring.
I see my friends retire andwatch TV or they don't have
(31:44):
hobbies or they don't docharitable work, charitable
activities and so forth.
So as long as I can contribute,I'll be involved and stay
involved in the business.
My wife and I love to travel.
Even though I stated I didn'tlike school, I still want to see
the pyramids.
I've seen the pyramids.
I've seen the Great Wall ofChina.
We travel the world.
(32:04):
We're fortunate to be able todo those type of things.
My hobbies are car collectingand so forth.
I enjoy golf, getting out thebusiness.
As far as that goes, Ianticipate that we'll continue
to grow the business because ourpartners have the same value
(32:25):
system that I have and have thatsame concept of passing this
business on to the nextgeneration, whether they're
actively involved or whetherthey're financially involved.
We look at passing thisbusiness on.
So we want to continue to growthe business the right way If we
find things that fit into ourwheelhouse and what we're good
(32:50):
at.
We'll continue to grow thebusiness.
Brandon Mulnix (32:54):
Is there anything that you can share with
the industry that they mightnot already know about you, a
hobby or something that you'rejust like?
I bet you, the industry doesn'tknow this about me.
Jim Dean (33:06):
Most of the industry you know, I think, knows that
I'm an avid card collector.
I'm an avid coin collector.
Coins are one of my big hobbies.
My father years ago, when hewas traveling a lot he would
bring coins from various, so hegot me started at a very young
age into coin collecting.
We like to do charitablefunctions.
(33:29):
I'm a partner in OdysseyAquarium down in Arizona, which
is a little unique to be anOdyssey Aquarium but when we
built that it's built on anIndian reservation and I'm
thinking I got to deal withanimal activists in the industry
.
I'm not sure I want to dealwith animal activists because of
an aquarium.
(33:49):
Well, come to find out if youlease land from the and I think
this is.
I think we've got somebody inthe industry that happens to
have a farm on the Indianreservation in Arizona.
You can't demonstrate on Indianreservation.
It's a federal law againstdemonstrating, so they don't
have to deal with any animalactivists.
(34:11):
Also, my wife has an art galleryin Scottsdale, in Old Town, and
so she's extremely interested,involved in that art gallery and
she's got me chasing around tothis art exhibit in San Diego
and she was in Florida.
So we were up in Montreal toone of the artists up in
Montreal that has a studio and agallery up there.
(34:34):
That keeps us involved, youknow, in different things.
So I've done somediversification rather than the
egg industry, to keep me activeand keep me interested and so
forth.
Brandon Mulnix (34:47):
Well, I've had the pleasure of touring your art
gallery there in Scottsdale andthere's great pieces of art
there and I think of Jim Deanthe chicken farmer, great pieces
of art there, and I think ofJim Dean the chicken farmer, jim
Dean the art collector.
They don't typically go hand inhand, but when I see you light
up as you talk about your carsand your car collection and I'm
so glad that JT shared that withme a couple of years ago let me
(35:09):
see under the hood, so to speak, and what a beautiful car
collection you have.
Is there any last minute wordsof wisdom that you want to share
with the industry?
Jim Dean (35:20):
The industry has to me has really great people in it.
They are all hardworkingindividuals and it's just.
It's almost to me a brotherhoodor a sisterhood.
Will we fight each other in theretail side of the business or
the wholesale side of thebusiness, but will we come
(35:41):
together in AEB or UEP and worktogether for a common goal?
Certainly, and that takespeople that are willing to do
that type of work.
You know, I said early on in mycareer if I'm going to be
involved in the business, I wantto be involved helping making
the rules and regulations,whether that's dealing with
(36:04):
government, elected officials.
Governor Kim Reynolds has beento my car collection.
We've done a lot of variousfundraisers for her, for Randy
Feenstra, so I can get to know.
We've had Mike Pence here,we've had Nikki Haley here, I've
had Tim Scott here at the carcollection where we talk about
life and we talk about rules andregulations and so forth.
(36:27):
I've always wanted to beinvolved in the rulemaking,
whether it's at the legislativeside of it or whether it's at
the industry side of it, and Ithink UEP is a tremendous
organization, aeb is atremendous organization to
promote the industry and I justhope people stay involved, stay
(36:47):
engaged in that process andit'll be for the betterment of
the industry.
Brandon Mulnix (36:53):
Well, Jim, thank you for allowing me this time
to interview you.
Jim Dean (36:58):
Well, you're certainly welcome.
I mean, you know, I've told mystory many, many times over the
years and people look at me like, really, you know I'll do that.
When we go to employeeappreciation I'll speak to our
team members and they'll look atme like you started at 16 on
cleanup.
That's just my history.
I was just fortunate andblessed.
(37:19):
I've told a lot of people thatI've got guardian angels sitting
on both sides of my shouldershelping me along the way, and I
think it's my faith that haspulled me through some of the
crisis and dealing with this,treating people properly and
fairly, and I think that'sextremely important to do that
and give back.
Brandon Mulnix (37:40):
Well, podcast listeners, I know how much I was
blessed to be able to have thisinterview and I'm sure you're
blessed as well.
Thank you for listening to thispodcast.
Please, as we go out throughoutthe day, share this podcast
with the industry.
Help share the stories thatmake this industry so great.
People like Jim and Jim'spartners and we're just talking,
(38:02):
that's just the Versova groupof families, and there's so many
more throughout this greatUnited States that work every
day to feed the world and ifyou're listening to this, more
than likely you're part of thatfamily.
I just can't go out withoutsaying thanks to Prism Controls
for allowing me this opportunityto come out and sit down with
Jim and just hear his story.
(38:23):
So please check out PrismControls online prismcontrolscom
.
Say thank you to theirleadership so that way they know
that you want this to continue.
Have a great day.
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