January 29, 2025 • 57 mins
Jasen Urena, Executive Vice President of Nest Fresh Farms, takes us on a captivating journey from his beginnings in Southern California to becoming a trailblazer in the egg industry. Tune in to hear how Jasen's Hispanic heritage and bilingual skills became instrumental in forging strong relationships within the company and beyond. His story is not just one of personal growth, but also a testament to the power of community and family, both in life and in business. Jasen's narrative offers invaluable lessons on building trust and navigating the complexities of leading a major enterprise.
Discover the inner workings of Nest Fresh Farms as we examine the operational intricacies of managing over 200 small family farms. Our exploration delves into the challenges of ensuring quality and compliance, maintaining consumer trust, and staying ahead of the competition. Join us as we discuss the innovative strides Nest Fresh is making through partnerships and cutting-edge technologies like in-ovo sexing. This episode sheds light on how the company is setting new standards in the industry with their commitment to transparency and sustainability.
Technology is transforming agriculture, and Nest Fresh is at the forefront of this evolution. From AI to advanced processing operations, we explore the future of farming and its impact on productivity and creativity. Jasen shares insightful perspectives on how embracing these advancements can drive growth, efficiency, and problem-solving. As we navigate the challenges and opportunities of leadership in an ever-evolving landscape, we emphasize the importance of adaptability and a forward-thinking mindset. Prepare to be inspired and informed about the future of agriculture and the role of technology in shaping it.
More on In Ova Sexing - Episode 18 - https://www.buzzsprout.com/2275790/episodes/15447681
https://nestfresh.com/
Jasen Urena - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasen-urena-27179013/
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
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Munlix (00:27):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix,and today we are going to learn
about Nest Fresh Farms.
This is really, really excitingbecause I have Jasen Urena on
the line today and I'm learningso much about them just in the
pre-interview that I can't waitto share him with all of you.
So let's get started, Jasen,welcome to the show.
Jasen Urena (00:51):
Hey, thanks, Brandon.
Thanks for having me.
It's going to be fun having aconversation like this with
somebody from the industry, so Ifeel like we're going to have a
good time doing it.
Brandon Munlix (01:00):
Yeah, it's exciting because you said you've
know, you've been on a coupleother shows and you know you had
to answer basically the basicsabout eggs.
But our listeners are prettysmart about eggs and I think
we're going to be able to skipover the basics on that and get
to something a little bit deeper.
So, Jasen, can you tell thelisteners who you are?
Jasen Urena (01:19):
Well, I guess, starting professionally, I'm
Jasen Urena.
I'm the executive vicepresident of Nest Fresh.
I've been it's hard to believe,but I've been in the egg
business now for 19 years.
I started straight out ofcollege and I'm a Southern
California kid, so for allintents and purposes I'm a city
(01:43):
guy.
I had never been on an egg farmbefore.
I knew nothing about where eggscame from until I started
working here with Nest Fresh andthe egg industry and it's been
an amazing ride.
For 19 years I've enjoyed somuch of it.
I've gone from not knowinganything about an egg to kind of
(02:05):
being responsible for marketing, being responsible for sales,
then getting into liveoperations, getting to know a
lot of the great people withinthis industry, and I thought
that this was going to be just ashort term, like I'm going to
get some experience and move on.
But I really fell in love withthis industry, not only the, not
(02:25):
only the company itself, whichhas been an amazing place to
work for and obviously grow overthese 19 years, but just the
people.
The friendships, therelationships, as you well know,
in this industry have beenamazing.
It's really hard to get awayfrom.
Brandon Munlix (02:41):
Yeah, that's you know.
As we, as we talk about yourjourney a little bit you know,
share with me a little bit aboutyour family.
Where'd you get started?
Jasen Urena (02:55):
Yeah, so I was born , uh, born and raised in
Southern California, I mentioned, in a city called, uh, buena
Park, not too, not too far fromDisneyland.
Um, I'm, I'm still based herein Southern California and the
corporate office being inFullerton, so never gotten too
far away from home.
But, like I mentioned, I'velived here my whole life.
I come from a family, actuallya family that immigrated here to
(03:16):
the United States and nobodywould be able to tell, but I am
100% Hispanic, my mother's Cuban, my father's Costa Rican.
Spanish was actually my firstlanguage.
They both worked really hard.
My father was a bus driver, mymom worked in sales
administration almost her wholecareer.
She moved her way up and theydid a lot to give me and my
(03:41):
sister I have one younger sisterOpportunities that they didn't
have, you know, coming fromtheir countries, opportunities
that you know our amazingcountry had given them, and they
kind of wanted to give us aspringboard to jump off, you
know, even higher than they have.
And now you know I'm here,we're here because of them, of
(04:01):
them, so, luckily, I've beenable to, you know, accomplish
what I have because of, becauseof those roots, and we're still
like an amazingly close family,uh, all you know, my wife now
met my wife going to to calstate, fullerton, which I got my
degree from in in marketing,business administration and
marketing, uh, and her familylives five minutes away from us
(04:26):
her parents and her sister.
Then my parents live about 10minutes away from us and my
sister lives nearby too.
So we've always kept like areally close family dynamic.
Brandon Munlix (04:37):
It's been great.
That's awesome.
It's great.
I mean, this is a familybusiness, a family you know,
very family friendly industry,and I'm assuming that really
empowered you being bilingual toreally you know relate to your,
relate to the, to your, to youremployees, just as much as you
know relate to CEOs and business, because you can communicate,
(05:00):
which is very empowering.
That's awesome.
Jasen Urena (05:03):
Yeah, with being able to speak Spanish fluently.
It always helped, especiallyworking in the plants, getting
to know all of our people, fromthe people packing on the end of
the machines to the peopleworking in the barns, to the
supervisors and managers at thelocations.
(05:23):
That always helped.
It always helped create thatrelationship too, because it's
nice for people that maybe youknow English was not their first
language, to be able to relateto upper management.
So, yeah, that's always beenextremely helpful for me.
I mean, if you don't know, andin this industry and you have
(05:45):
the opportunity to go out andlearn, I definitely recommend it
because it's a bridge builder,for sure.
Brandon Munlix (05:51):
That's, that's cool.
So you've been with Nest Freshfor 19 years, which is just.
I mean that's, that's a career.
That's as long as my firstcareer was outside the industry.
So can you?
I mean I'm curious, and I knowour listeners are curious who's
Nest Fresh?
Can you tell us about NestFresh and its origins?
Jasen Urena (06:12):
Yeah, nest Fresh started in the early nineties
and actually I mean becausethere's a lot of industry people
listening to this and NestFresh is part of Hidden Villa
ranch as the bigger, as thebigger company a lot of people
know hidden villa ranch.
Nest fresh is the specialty agdivision of you know of hidden
(06:35):
villa ranch, which startedaround the in in the early 90s
and really um brought to life byMike Sensor.
He has been my mentor for allof these 19 years.
Here at Nest Fresh we reallywant.
When specialty eggs firststarted to become a thing,
(06:56):
before cage-free was popular,before pasture-raised was
growing all over the place, mikehad this vision that this was
going to be the future and thatwe wanted to get in on the
ground floor.
So he started this division,which now I'm proud to be able
to take over for him and lead.
(07:17):
But he started this division onthe idea that we need to keep
up with all of our customersthat are asking for the next
level of whatever it is animalwelfare, environmental
sustainability, packaging,innovation.
We weren't going to sit aroundand wait until the potential
(07:40):
slice of the pie got big enoughto get interested in it.
We always wanted to be on theforefront and kind of pushing
that in that innovation from youknow, the 90s to the early
2000s.
You know we were one of thefirst brands to really get into
cage free in a big way.
Uh, we were one of the firstbrands to really get into
organic in in a big.
(08:01):
Then, as time has gone on, wewere the first to do non-GMO
project verified eggs anywherein the industry.
We were the first to be able tosecure that verification.
We also, a couple of years ago,launched the first regenerative
organic certified egg in thecountry.
(08:23):
So we'd like to keep pushingkind of that level of innovation
, and not because we just wantto do it too, because we feel
like it is the right thing to do.
And three, that we haveconsumers asking us for these
types of things every day.
And you know we're not a big,massive brand that's backed by
(08:45):
Wall Street money or venturecapital money.
We're a family-owned business.
Our owner owns 100% of it andwe have to go out and kind of
prove ourselves to our customersevery day and we have to
continue to innovate and bringin new customers.
So we continue to innovate andbring in new customers.
(09:06):
So you know, we continue to wintheir trust.
You know what we do in anutshell and why we do it.
Brandon Munlix (09:12):
Well, you know, and I think of pasture raising,
I think of you know, birds wereraised originally in a pasture,
originally outdoors.
You know, you go down toGuatemala or places like that
and you see chickens runningeverywhere.
I mean that's birds where theycame from.
And then humans startedgathering them up, put them in
cages, and now you guys startedearly in saying, hey, let's get
(09:33):
these birds back out in the wilda little bit.
I mean it's controlled, but ata different scale, so then we
can produce enough product formarkets in those specialty
markets, for markets in thosespecialty markets.
And I think of all the labelingthings that evolved just in
those years of you know, youkept mentioning organic and
environmentally friendly.
I mean, all of these thingshave labels now.
(09:53):
And it's like man, you guys hadto be helping customers
understand that long time agoand now it's probably coming
more.
You know, your work's probablystarting to come to fruition, as
people are starting tounderstand those labels
Absolutely.
Jasen Urena (10:09):
And it's about the customers, like I mentioned.
Like we're very customerfocused, very consumer focused,
right, but we're also a big partof what we do and how it's all
possible.
Are the small farmers that wedeal with like the family
farmers that we deal with?
We, a family-owned company, uh,but you know, we don't produce
(10:30):
all of our eggs ourselves.
We.
We produce some of the eggsourselves, but we also go out
and we contract with a lot ofsmall farmers across the, across
the country, and part of thethe brand is really to kind of
keep, and part of the brand isreally to kind of keep that
small farmer way of life goingas an Indian industry.
(10:51):
As it grows.
There's consolidation In orderto get efficiencies, you got to
get bigger, which is allunderstandable, but at the same
time you go all throughout thecountry the Midwest, the
Southeast, the Northeast.
There's a lot of farmers outthere that want to be able to
(11:11):
make a living off their land.
They want to be able to keeptheir family at home.
They don't want to have to gomove in closer to the cities to
find a nine five job.
So we try to identify farmerslike that that are willing to
produce for us, and not onlywilling to produce for us, but
excited to be able to producefor us and our brand because
(11:34):
we're doing some of theseexciting and innovative things.
These farmers see their birds,their hands, as like an
extension of their own family,like they want them to have the
best environment possible, likethey're taking care of them
every day.
They treat them as well as theypossibly can.
It's dealing with those typesof people.
(11:57):
It's being able to kind ofcreate a niche and create a
market for them to be able to dowhat they do on the farm level.
That's like really exciting tome and kind of and it gives us
here, you know, on the brandlevel, the motivation to go out
and keep growing so that we cankeep adding more and more of
these types of farmers from allover.
Brandon Munlix (12:18):
That is interesting, as you you know, as
a lot of my experiences in thecommercial egg production with
farms that are 50, 100, 3.5million, you know size farms.
How do you I mean, how doesthat work?
Let's say you're in Californiabut you have your growers are in
(12:38):
Iowa, indiana, michigan,wherever how do they get their
eggs to?
You know how do they get theireggs processed and labeled in
the Nest Fresh brand.
Jasen Urena (12:50):
So we have processing plants scattered
throughout the country.
We have plants in SouthernCalifornia, in Texas, in
Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania and acouple of others.
So we go and we consolidate allthe eggs from these farmers and
(13:12):
you're right, they're scatteredall over the place, from the
upper Midwest to the south ofthe country, the central part of
the country.
So we'll go and pick up all theeggs, we'll bring them into our
processing plants where then weprocess and pack and then
distribute to all of our, to allof our customers.
So it kind of takes the, ittakes the stress out of the farm
(13:32):
, off the farmer as to likewhere their eggs need to go, how
they're going to get sold.
They just they can focus onwhat they do best and that's,
you know, raising a flock, getit in the best possible way and
then getting the best qualityeggs out of those birds.
Brandon Munlix (13:47):
To give the listeners an idea, tell me about
the size of these farms.
I mean, I mean, what's thesmallest grower you you work
with and then the biggest?
Jasen Urena (13:57):
I guess the smallest grower we work with is
probably going to be about 7,000, 7, 8, 7, 8,000.
Average we're probably closerto 20,000.
On the size of these individualflocks, these are all
free-range pasture-raised flocks, are non-GMO products, those
(14:20):
types of things.
They're somewhere around there.
Maybe some are a little bitbigger, but they're somewhere
between 10,000 and 30,000, Iwould say, on average.
Brandon Munlix (14:32):
Okay, and so they gather their eggs,
hand-pack them, because there'snot a lot of automation in that
size of operation from myunderstanding and then you have
trucks that run around pickingthem up, or do they end up
hiring somebody to run them tothe nearest processing?
Jasen Urena (14:50):
So there's a lot of .
With so many farmers I mean, weprobably have upwards of 200
individual farmers scatteredacross the country that produce
for us so there's a lot ofdifferent ways that that happens
.
Like we really try to focus onthe individual farms, what they
(15:12):
can do, what they can't do, whatwe need to jump in and help
them with to make it work, andthen we just come up with a
program for them that makes itas easy as we can on the farmer
and also make sure that it worksoperationally for us and how do
you verify quality in all thespecifications that you have for
(15:37):
that grower?
Brandon Munlix (15:38):
Because, in order to meet GMO standards, in
order to meet all the differentstandards, how do you verify
that?
Jasen Urena (15:44):
Yeah, that's what we do as a brand team.
We have a live production team,we have a compliance team and we
have a group of field servicepeople that will go out to these
farms and some of the biggergroupings of farms will
(16:08):
sometimes have some of their ownservices, but we also provide
all of that for our individualfarms that don't have that.
We have our live production team, based in Texas, will go around
to a lot of these farms whenthey need to to make sure that
everything is being produced upto our spec.
(16:29):
We have our compliance teamthat touches base with all of
these farms on a consistentbasis to make sure that
everything is again being donethe way that we would want
everything to be done, wouldwant everything to be done, uh,
but you know, to be honest, whenyou're dealing with these types
of farmers that are so investedin it, you realize like they're
(16:50):
, while you have to obviouslyhave, have oversight and have,
like, those constant openchannels of communication, we
don't have to constantly be ontop of them to do the right
thing or to do what we're whatwe want them to do.
There may be help at thebeginning to get them going, but
really they're all about it.
They want to do these things.
So it's really been a joygetting to know all these people
(17:14):
and working with all these guys.
Brandon Munlix (17:16):
Yeah, sounds amazing.
I mean, it really does soundlike a family farm orientated,
because you're just dealing witha lot of families.
They're just needing a marketfor their product.
They want to grow it, you know,produce their product to a
certain level and they have anoutlet for it.
So they don't have to go andcreate that relationship with
the local supermarkets and andthen when something happens to
(17:39):
them, you know there's, you knowwhere do I find information
sounds like you guys supportthem a lot.
Jasen Urena (17:43):
Well, it gives it gives these smaller farmers, uh
across the country, uh anability to to compete right,
because, as our industry goesthrough consolidation and our
industry continue, some of thebigger farms continue to grow.
It's harder and harder to, youknow, to compete on on big
scales.
A 20 000 bird farm can'tcompete against a significantly
(18:06):
bigger farm.
So that's where being part of abrand like ours and creating
this egg pool of producersthroughout the entire country,
it gives them that ability tohave a continuous market and not
have to worry about going outafter individual POs after
individual POs and seeing wherethey're going to sell their eggs
on a week to week basis.
Brandon Munlix (18:27):
So with it, I mean, it sounds like when you
have that many farms spread outthrough the country and there's,
if I understand right, there'sa competition for specialty
farms, that is different than,let's say, the big commercial
farms where it's a really,really huge investment to let's
consolidate at that level, youguys, I mean, do you have
competition with other I'm notgoing to name them here, but
(18:50):
other companies that do similarthings for growers?
Meaning you got to, you know,entice that grower to work with
you.
Jasen Urena (18:57):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, we're not the onlybrand out in the market right
now that has this, you know,this type of model and we have
to compete out there at retailevery day.
But that's where really thecompetition comes in.
And it's not necessarily allabout costs right, I guess there
(19:22):
are cost factors to this butbecause we treat our farmers in
a certain way and we have alongstanding relationship with
them, we have a track recordwithin the industry and we're
bringing them new opportunitiesall the time.
We have a great base of loyalfarmers.
And it's the same thing on thecustomer side or on the consumer
(19:44):
side, where we're competing.
We don't want to stay stagnant,as, like, nest Fresh is a free
range brand and that's it right.
Or Nest Fresh is a pastureraised brand and that's it.
Like some of our othercompetitors are like that, they
do one thing and that's whatthey do.
Like I mentioned earlier, wehave a very strong like ideology
(20:08):
that we have to go out and winour consumers every day.
Like we have to go and continueto gain their trust with
transparency.
We have to go and continue togain their trust with
transparency.
We have to go and continue togain their trust with innovation
.
We have to continue to gaintheir trust by listening to the
feedback that we get from themand making changes.
So Nesfresh right now is a freerange pasture raised brand and
(20:31):
above we're introducing otherinnovations and we're going to
continue.
We're going to continue to toevolve.
Our consumers are evolving andwe got to continue to evolve and
that's how we're going to winthat, that competition.
Brandon Munlix (20:44):
Yeah, one of the new things that I, you know,
recently learned about you guysand is you know your
relationship with Innova Sexy.
And I want to talk about thisbecause last year I really I had
an episode on inovasexing whichI learned so much about.
If you want to go back, look Itell you that episode, I'll put
it in the show notes down belowof which episode you go back to
(21:06):
learn about the science behindit and kind of the start of it.
So tell me what's yourrelationship with inovasexing?
What can you guys claim aroundthat?
Jasen Urena (21:15):
So we're really excited about our Innova Sexing
project.
I mean it's been in the newsthe last couple of weeks.
Last week we officially becamethe first company in the United
States, the first brand in theUnited States, to be able to say
that we have a flock on theground today of chicks that have
(21:37):
gone through the Inovo sexingproject Inovo sexing process.
This has been a long timecoming and we have been working
on this for over two yearsBefore all everybody started
making announcements.
So we'll commit to it when it'spossible.
You know we'll look at it whenit's commercially available.
(21:57):
We had been going back and forthto Europe for more than two
years looking at all of thedifferent in-ovo sexing
technologies out there, talkingto some of our customers about
it, talking to hatcheries aboutit, talking to our farmers about
it and saying that we thinkthis is the right next step to
(22:18):
take for nest fresh.
This is something that's alreadyhappening in Europe.
There's countries in Europethat have legislation in place
mandating that all eggs gothrough the inovosexing process.
So again, we saw kind of thewriting on the wall.
This is going to happen hereeventually one way or another,
(22:39):
and we have consumers that havebeen asking us those questions
for years and we've been tryingto figure out what's the best
solution to this issue.
After a few years of working onthe project, we were able to
partner with AAT, which producesthe technology called Cheggie,
(23:01):
and Highline North America thatput the Cheggie machine into two
hatcheries for us and we wereactually back at the hatcheries
last week to witness the firstactual hatch of an inovo sexed
flock uh, in the united states,and and mass rush is gonna is
the first one to be able to say,like, we actually have a flock
(23:23):
today that's on the ground,that's growing on our on our
pullet farms in in texas, uh,and we'll have eggs to be able
to bring to the market by may orj of 2025.
Brandon Munlix (23:36):
That is exciting to see technology and how fast
things advance and to see a farmthat's at the cutting edge of
technology.
Farmers get a bad rap, that youknow.
Oh, I just want my 30 year oldtractor and I want it to work
and I don't want change.
And here's Nest Fresh, who'snimble, who's like agile all the
(23:56):
terms you want to say thatthey're on the cutting edge and
that is.
It's just great to see.
It's great to see and itprobably you know you don't have
to worry about filling housesof 200,000 birds tomorrow.
You get to raise pasture birdsand smaller flocks.
That does that equate to.
Jasen Urena (24:15):
You know, help you be, why you guys are able to do
something like this and be sonimble yeah, everything goes
back to our network of farmersand that's why, like, I always
try to give them as much creditas possible.
I mean, no matter who I talk to, whether it's a retail customer
, somebody in my personal lifefarmers really make it all
possible and if we were amillion bird complex, this
(24:38):
probably wouldn't be very easyto do.
But because we have thisnetwork of small farms, we can
take smaller flocks and put themin and try different things,
even though on the Inovo, on theInovo sexing side, we're kind
of really going all in as abrand.
(24:59):
We're committing totransitioning the entire
Nesfresh brand to the Inovo sexproject and I mean, obviously
that's going to take time.
We all know that it takes along time to go rotate through a
flock, hatch a new flock, getnew replacement flocks in.
So it's probably going to be atwo year process until we get
(25:22):
all the way through it.
But that's a commitment thatwe're making, starting with the
flock that we just received onour farms last week.
Yeah, the flexibility to beable to do something like this
comes from having our network ofsmall farms and it was
throughout this journey.
It was really cool to see like agroup of people from within the
(25:46):
industry and outside of theindustry kind of come together
and make this possible, becauseit's not just us.
You know we can't take all thecredit we're we're the, we're
the brand, we're the, we're theproducers quote, unquote behind
it.
But you know it.
It took a lot of work from fromatt, aat and and cheggy.
It took work with, you know,highline and us, and then also
(26:07):
our, our partnerships with uh,aspca and humane, uh, humane
farm animal care, which is our,which is going to be our
certifier.
They're the first third-partycertification that already wrote
Inovo sexing standards and waswith us last week and actually
did the first audit.
So now we are HFAC certified asan Inovo sexed layer operation,
(26:32):
which is all of these peoplethat have come together to make
this work.
This has been an amazingprocess to work with this group
of people and this team, becauseyou know you take out any one
of those pieces and it doesn'tcome to fruition.
Brandon Munlix (26:46):
Well, as I've watched this continual grow and
I've watched the companies comeon board talking about it, it
takes the collaboration of theindustry to educate the
customers American Egg Board andmarketing and all of these
things that help.
You can throw another label onyour carton, but if people don't
(27:08):
know what it means, they don'tsee the value in it.
The story just doesn't get outthere, and so that's the work
that is.
It's incredible to see, I meanto see, how fast you guys have
been able to come together andwork.
You know you said a coupleyears.
You know how.
How long has it taken, you know, the industry to move on other
things throughout history?
It just takes, you know,farmers to collaborate.
(27:29):
I mean heck, a lot of farmers,you know, struggled
collaborating to begin with.
Then they keep and they see thevalue of it and the value of it
and pretty soon you know it'samazing how the industry has
just grown into one bigcollaboration.
You know, using that word again.
Jasen Urena (27:44):
And in reality it has been over two years where
we're like searching and tryingto figure out how to make this
possible and like who are goingto be the partners that we get
together to actually execute it.
And it was March of this yearwhere we still didn't know
(28:06):
whether it was going to bepossible, and then it all
started clicking together andthen, okay, we got the first yes
we needed.
And then we got the second yeswe needed.
And then from there we got, wegot the first yes, we need it.
And then we got the second yes,we need it.
And then from there it actuallyhappened really fast, from, I
would say, maybe late March,April, where we said everybody
came together and said, okay, Ithink we could do this, Like we
(28:27):
can figure, we can figure out away to make it work to then
having a flock actually hatchedsitting here in December.
We're not talking about a lotof months.
That happened very, veryquickly.
That's cool.
Brandon Munlix (28:38):
I mean, it takes a lot.
It takes a supply chain, thecompanies that are building the
machines, the technology, themake sure it works.
You know, after it's shippedacross the globe you know most
of these companies I'm assumingit's coming out of Europe is
where the equipment's built,since that's where most of most
of the poultry equipment is isdeveloped.
I mean, I can see the smile onyour face and just how excited
and proud you are for your farmof doing this and that's way to
(29:02):
way to be, way to be innovators,way to be, you know, cutting
edge and in our mind it justgoes back to kind of like, you
know, our our history of wantingto continue to to progressively
make things a little bit betterfor the hens that produce our
products.
Jasen Urena (29:20):
And you know, this is just one of those things
where it's like it's just takinganother step in the right
direction.
You know, I've been in theindustry for 19 years, obviously
, and it's not really about whatanybody else is doing wrong,
because I've gotten a lot ofthose questions.
You know, if you're doing this,then you know what other
(29:43):
questions are going to startsurfacing.
And it really isn't about that.
It's not about you know whatwe're doing right now or if
anybody else is doing anythingwrong.
It's just about continuing tobring options to not only egg
producers and consumers.
It's about continuing to lookfor what is the next iteration
(30:08):
of an egg.
How do we stay relevant withthose consumers, how do we
continue to win those consumers'trusts?
At the end of the day, theconsumers are going to make the
decisions right.
If the consumers don't want it,then they don't want it.
But at least we're bringing upthe solutions, we're bringing up
(30:28):
the options and putting it outthere for everybody.
Brandon Munlix (30:33):
I do have to go back and ask one question of you
, Jasen.
Can you describe Inovasexing tothe listeners, Because they
might be confused at this point.
They might have not gone backand listened to the other
episode and maybe they've signedoff by now.
But can you describe justsimple words what is Inovasexing
?
Jasen Urena (30:50):
So Inovasexing is a process of identifying the
gender of the chicken while it'sstill in the egg.
So early on in incubation wetake those hatching eggs and put
them through the chaggingmachine which measures it with
light basically with differentlight computer programming to
(31:14):
identify what the sex of thathen is.
And then, as it comes throughthe other side, the females,
female eggs go to one side, themale eggs go to the other and
the female eggs go back intoincubation.
The male eggs then get used forother purposes, whether it's
fertilizers, pet foods, alldifferent kinds of usages.
(31:36):
But those chicks aren't hatchedwhen in the current process
those chicks are hatched andthen they have to be euthanized
on day one.
So we're eliminating the needto hatch and euthanize male baby
chicks.
Brandon Munlix (31:50):
Which sounds like using technology for a
different option.
I don't want to use the wordhumane versus not.
I don't.
I'm not judging any of thatstuff.
I'm just saying it's definitelya different option.
That's awesome, that's great.
I'm loving seeing thisevolution of technology move so
fast.
And you know let's changesubjects here for just a second
what I mean?
You've been in this 19 years.
(32:11):
What other areas of technologyhave you seen evolve and what
areas you wish technology wouldhelp?
Jasen Urena (32:20):
I mean, over the 19 years I've seen a lot of
different technologies, mostlyon the operations side, right on
the farms different process,all the different processing
(32:41):
equipment that we have today inour plants that we didn't have
20 years ago.
I mean, you think about, youknow, going back processing
machine might've ran at 200cases an hour.
Now we're pushing seven, eight,seven, 800 cases an hour with a
lot of of, with a lot ofrobotics and automation.
Uh, that wasn't, that wasn'tpossible 20, 20 years ago.
So we've invested as anindustry a ton of money and you
(33:04):
know a lot of differentcompanies have in the operations
of the plants and and thechicken houses.
So it's it's nice to be able toactually bring in a technology
that's actually a step in theright direction for the animal
welfare of the chicken.
(33:25):
And then, looking forward, Ithink technology is only gonna
advance quicker and quicker.
One thing that I'm excited aboutand I'm trying to learn as much
about right now as I can is theuse of AI and how we use that.
Not avian flu for our industry,but HPAI, ai, artificial
(33:47):
intelligence.
How do we incorporate that intoour businesses?
That's not going away, aibecoming more and more prevalent
, I think, like, the life cycleof technology is going to just
start turning quicker andquicker and quicker, and and
we're going to have to be kindof open arm to that and really
look at like, all right, how dowe keep up with this?
(34:08):
Uh, how do we best leverage it,um so so that's something that
I'm excited to see, how thataffects our industry overall,
and who's going to be creativeenough to figure out how to best
utilize something likeartificial intelligence?
Brandon Munlix (34:25):
Well, and Jasen, I'm going to speak from my
experience on the technologycompany side.
It is interesting because AIcan scare people.
It's either, you know, used forgood or bad, and I'm sorry,
farmers are good.
We're going to use it for good,but the idea is, what can we be
using it for every day?
That helps us in our everydayjobs, because that's what's
(34:46):
going to help us adapt to it andstart to appreciate the value
of it.
You know, for, as a leader, youknow trying to one, empower
your people to use it and not bescared of it.
I mean, it does come, you know,at a cost sometimes.
You know licenses for differentusers.
You got to get that explorationgoing because that's, you know,
the people on your farm orfarms using it are probably
(35:08):
going to be the ones that aregoing to come up with the next
major revelation in the industry, because they're like,
someone's going to have thecrazy idea to come up with
something, and it's going tocome from farmers that are using
it, not necessarily always thetech companies.
I mean, we're constantlylistening to our customers and
saying, hey, how can we makebetter products?
But it takes us a little bitlonger to move and pivot as it
(35:33):
does, someone that's using itevery day, especially in the
processing place, processingside, where you're, you know
you're trying to improve qualityof your product and timeliness
and efficiencies.
But then you start looking backinto some of the other areas
where data is so important datafrom your farms.
You can see trends, you can seemaking business decisions to
adapt, and we were talking aboutbefore we got on today about
(35:56):
some of the things you have todo every day just because of the
effects of AI in the industry,hp AI in the industry.
We're going to use theseinterchangeable here.
But the idea is you know onehow can you craft your messaging
so it's consistent?
There's tools for that.
How can you analyze when two orthree of your growers out in
(36:18):
the field or there's a heat mapof your areas, to say, wow, we
got to change some, we got toupdate some biosecurity things
over here, because now I mean,what are we doing?
All these things can be madewith the power of business
intelligence, because it's notartificial intelligence.
Everybody keeps saying it'sartificial intelligence.
No, it's augmented intelligence.
It's going to help you, thehuman, make better decisions.
(36:40):
It's not going to take over.
It can't just make up stuffbased on data.
It's literally got to usehumans to say I got a problem.
How do I look at that data andprocess it at a much granular
and faster ways than you or Icould ever do?
I mean, I sit and look atspreadsheets all day long and
it's like how can I getsomething to give me a summary
(37:02):
of this, instead of having toactually go in and figure it out
and have it be an accuratesummary of it too?
That's.
The other thing is I've hadsome challenges with AI at times
, but again it's early.
I mean, we're in Gen 4 of ChatG, gpt, and it's only getting
more powerful every single day.
Jasen Urena (37:19):
You're right.
You're right about that.
I mean, it's it's trying tofigure out how to like really
harness everything that we gotfrom a people standpoint,
because we have so much.
We have so much talent in thisindustry.
I've gotten to meet so manydifferent people from so many
different companies across thecountry and there's just a ton
(37:39):
of talent there.
How much of that talents time isgetting tied up in remedial
tasks, and how do you usecertain technology to allow that
talent to kind of open up theirmind and come be able to give
you more solutions, give youmore solutions, give you more
ideas, instead of filling outthat spreadsheet that you were
(37:59):
just talking about?
That took them two hours to do?
How do we?
We've done really good atautomating some of these tasks
within the processing plantswith equipment.
Now, how can we do that, youknow, not only in the process
and plants, but in our overallbusiness using some of these new
technologies that are comingout Like I would love to be able
(38:20):
to utilize more of my people'stime in critical thinking and
problem solving rather thanfilling out forms.
There's a lot of talent therethat can be utilized in
different ways and we figure outhow to use this AI technology.
Brandon Munlix (38:39):
Yeah, it's exciting.
I mean we just had aconversation with a customer
today and he was asking about,well, what's the life of a
computer?
I said it's not the life of thecomputer that matters anymore.
Those can be replaced.
It's the life of the technologythat's on there and the data
that's on there.
That stuff's evolving so fastand it's so powerful.
I mean, what we've seen in thelast five years, we're going to
(39:01):
see double in the next three tothree years and and I think you
know customers, you knowcompanies like yours that are on
that cutting edge, that can benimble and can try new things
You're you're going to change,you're going to, you're going to
lead the way and I am glad thatwe were able to connect just
because of that, just to seewhere you guys grow and go with
(39:22):
it.
It's so powerful and the peoplewe're going to be hiring in the
next five years are going to bedifferent than the people we're
hiring today.
Jasen Urena (39:29):
I agree with that.
Yeah, there's the more in andI've told this to you know,
people within our own company,um, that that work for the work
for my division of the of thecompany learn more about these
technologies like and if youwant the opportunity to learn
more, let us know and we'll andwe'll try to help out with with
(39:51):
that learning because, um, it is, it is the future and the more
we'll try to help out with thatlearning because it is the
future, and the more we getexposed to it, the better off
we're going to be yeah, for usit's completely.
Brandon Munlix (40:03):
When I hear people, well, we're going to
integrate that technology in thenext 10 years, it's like 10
years.
That's how long it takes.
No, I can't wait that long.
It's got to be like five years,and so we're constantly moving.
I mean, I'm constantly waitthat long.
It's got to be like five years,and so we're constantly moving.
I mean, I'm constantly usingthe tools myself rewriting
emails, simple thing.
Can you make this email sound alittle less like me, because it
(40:24):
didn't work the last threetimes I said it.
Jasen Urena (40:26):
Can you make?
Brandon Munlix (40:27):
it sound a little more or less like me or
create slide decks, createimages.
I love making AI create imagesfor me, putting all these weird
things, and it comes out withsome pretty cool stuff.
In fact, my logo for thepodcast came out from AI.
Tell me how chickens talking ina microphone.
Add more chickens, adddifferent barn and it does it.
(40:52):
It's just so powerful.
Jasen Urena (40:53):
It's really cool to see what these things can do
nowadays.
Just to sit and play with it,and sometimes just the
entertainment of it, is worth it.
Brandon Munlix (41:02):
Yeah and I'm going to reiterate what one of
my other guests said is if youwant to know how to do this, go
hire a high school kid, and ifthey're not available because
they're already busy, go hire amiddle schooler, because they're
going to.
They're already leap yearsahead of what what you and I are
, because you know they'refiguring out how to use this
stuff to cheat and it's notcheating anymore.
Jasen Urena (41:21):
I mean they said it's.
Brandon Munlix (41:24):
You know, it's part of how to.
How do I write a book report?
Well, tell you how to write abook report is different,
because what prompts do I putinto chat GPT to get the book
report?
That's going to get me an A.
Jasen Urena (41:36):
Yeah like you know, when I remember growing up, my
parents purchased, uh, anencyclopedia like a physical
book, encyclopedia, a to youknow, a to Z.
That doesn't happen anymore,like those things are
prehistoric.
And then you know, internetcan't Google.
You know, google was searching.
So when I was in college,everything was everything was
(41:57):
online.
Nobody, we didn't open books inthe encyclopedia anymore.
It's going to be the same thing.
This is just the next iterationof it.
Brandon Munlix (42:05):
Well, I think what's interesting?
You mentioned Google search.
Because Google search Now, ifyou start to look, there's some
AI in Google search, becauseGoogle search used to give you
all of the resources how do I dothis?
And it gives you 20 pages ondifferent people doing that and
giving you instructions.
Now you type into a chat GPThow do I do this?
It takes from all 20 and writesit out in front of you and then
(42:30):
sort and then, if you get theright version, it'll actually
give you the sources back.
But now I don't have to thinkand read 20 different things.
It actually summarizes.
It gives it to me.
Man, it's been pretty darnaccurate for most everything,
but that's so much faster thanme having to go through 20
different pages.
But that changes business.
Jasen Urena (42:50):
Time and human resources are the most valuable
things we have at our disposal.
Time and human resources arethe most valuable things we have
at our disposal, and that'swhat utilizing this technology
is going to give us back More ofour time and more capacity from
our people.
I just don't see why wewouldn't want to take advantage
of it.
Brandon Munlix (43:09):
Yeah, I mean we collect all of our information
so differently.
I remember going throughcollege and someone's like
you're kind of cheating by doingaudio books.
I'm like I want the informationfrom the book my way.
I don't have time to sit downand read and I don't learn as
well when I sit down and read.
For me, I learn more when I'mout running and I have it in my
ears because I have no moredistractions.
Why am I cheating?
I can write the same reportthat you can.
(43:30):
I just have to go find thecitations in the book.
That's where technology ischanging so fast.
For the generations below thatare the gen z's and stuff like
that.
Because they don't.
They didn't get stuck with anencyclopedia like you and I did.
Yeah, they're not stuck in thatmindset that I gotta go and
find that resource becausethey've grown up with google.
Jasen Urena (43:49):
Yeah, and and, and that's a great word.
That's just it's mindset itreally is.
Can we expand our mindset to beable to absorb what the world
is now giving us?
Because the world is changingall the time.
It doesn't matter what industryyou're in I mean, we're talking
about the egg industryspecifically here but everything
(44:10):
is changing all around us andif we keep blinders on all the
time and say like, this is theway we've done things, this is
the right, this is the best wayto do it, well, I'm sorry, I'm
going to disagree with you.
There's always a way to getbetter.
You know, every day there's away to get better.
New information comes out, newtechnology comes out.
Yeah, new tools are at yourdisposal.
(44:32):
Just because you know, becauseyou felt really right about what
you were doing a year ago,doesn't mean that it's still the
right thing to do or the bestway to do it.
You always have to be lookingto evolve and I think that,
regardless of what industryyou're in, those are the
companies that are going to winlong term.
Brandon Munlix (44:53):
Yeah, I'll put technology advances.
I'm going to put the tractor orthe mule with the plow next to
the newest, latest, greatestJohn Deere tractor with a plow.
There's a perfect example ofhow technology continues to
evolve.
And there are people that stillthink, nope, I'm going to use
the hand plow, okay.
(45:13):
Think, nope, I'm going to usethe hand plow.
Okay, that's they value.
They value that the their feetin the ground or are doing that
Great.
That's their value system.
And I'm not going to condemnthem.
I'm just going to say that ifmy responsibility is to produce
more, because I'm going to feedmore, I better be looking at the
John Deere tractor with the youknow, the newest, latest,
greatest plows, because because,one, I can't drive in a
(45:34):
straight line, so I need the gpstracking to help me out.
And two, I can't remember whatI just plowed two minutes ago,
so I better have it, you know,show me exactly where I plowed
and at which field.
And, by the way, I want my airconditioning because I'm I'm a
wuss and I want it.
I want it nice and cool inthere, nice and warm, with the
latest and greatest tractors outthere.
Jasen Urena (45:52):
So it's not about anybody doing it wrong.
I'm yeah, I'm pretty big onlike there's no absolutes in
life, like there's very fewthings that there's like an
absolute right way or anabsolute wrong way, and whoever
wants to run their business withyou know whether it's
technology or whether it's anytypes of processes they want to
(46:14):
then have at it and, at the endof the day, I wish everybody
success in what they're doing,and if they can accomplish it in
a different way, then great.
Then maybe we have something tolearn from each other.
But the most important thing isthat we're constantly learning.
And how do we use what'ssuccessful here and what's
successful over there and bringit together and keep moving this
(46:35):
industry forward?
Brandon Munlix (46:36):
Yeah, and I can guarantee you the listeners on
this podcast, or listeners topodcasts, are way higher
advanced than most of the otherfolks out there, because, I'm
sorry, they're already utilizingtechnology to advance their
careers, advance their knowledgeof industry.
So great that you're here.
I got to ask another question,though.
(46:56):
You're a leader, you run intochallenges, probably on a
regular basis.
What's one of the challengesthat you see for leaders in
today's world?
What are the challenges facingleaders today?
Jasen Urena (47:22):
Yeah, there's a few .
We're dealing with a lot ofdifferent challenges every day
and I think, partially that'sthe biggest challenge that
things are evolving so fast thatwe're getting new challenges
thrown at us faster and faster.
Just know, just before wefinally think that, okay, we got
this challenge under controland we figured this out, here
comes something new, and now wegot to pivot and figure that out
(47:43):
.
What I tell, like my group andthe people that you know, the
people that work closely with me, is that there's always going
to be a new challenge coming atyou and we don't know what
tomorrow's challenges are goingto bring, and it could be very
different than the challengesthat we're dealing with today.
So we have to be able to beopen-minded and be flexible,
(48:08):
because we're going to need toadapt quickly to the next
challenges that come at us.
You know there's certain thingsthat we're going to continue to
do because those are our, youknow those are our values and
you know those might be the youknow those might be the
absolutes at the very core ofwhy we're doing what we're doing
.
But we have to be able to beflexible and pivot, constantly
(48:31):
pivoting all the time.
If we're not in the mentalityof that we have to change.
If we have to pivot, then we'regoing to have issues solving
the problems that are coming atus, because just the way that
the egg industry operated fiveyears ago is very different from
(48:52):
the way we've been operatingthe last couple of years and
we've had to be flexible anddeal with all those challenges
as they've come along andthere's been some new things
that have come from that thathave helped us all be successful
.
So for any leader really comingup and that's having to deal
with these challenges is takethe time, take a step back, take
(49:17):
a deep breath.
Whatever the challenge isthat's in front of you, it's not
going to end the world tomorrow.
Let's keep an open mind andfigure out all right, how do we
get around it?
How do we make our business,our operation, flexible enough
to not only deal with thechallenge but maybe even
(49:39):
identify the opportunities thatcome within those challenges,
because every challenge comeswith some other opportunity.
If you can figure it out,there's no challenges.
It's just all 100% negative Ifyou can find a way to turn that
challenge into an opportunity.
Those are the leaders that Iwant to keep coming up within my
(49:59):
team and I would tell anybodythat's coming up within the
industry, or whatever industrythey want to get into stay
open-minded, stay flexible andbe willing to deal with any
challenge that gets thrown infront of you.
Brandon Munlix (50:14):
Wow, I hear a common theme.
I've recorded a few podcasts inthe last couple of weeks and I
hear this in every challengethere's an opportunity.
Be the one to find theopportunity, be disruptive, but
it's the same thing.
Leaders don't talk aboutproblems, they talk about
opportunities.
Jasen Urena (50:32):
That's true, I mean and really that's where we need
to be focusing on is where arethe opportunities?
And in that you're going todeal with.
You're going to deal with allof the all of the challenges.
But you have to keep thatpositive, that positive mindset,
because once you get throughthe challenge, you do got to
identify the opportunity.
Otherwise it's just a lot ofwasted, a lot of wasted effort.
(50:53):
You're dealing with all thesechallenges to stay in the same
place.
If you stay put in the samespot, I don't know of many
businesses that have beensuccessful with that strategy.
Brandon Munlix (51:02):
All right, I want to lean into your
experience in life.
Not every challenge feels likean opportunity when we first
experience it.
What's one of those challengesin your life that looking back
was a great opportunity, but youmay not have seen it while you
were going through it.
And how did you make it through?
Jasen Urena (51:22):
Yeah, well, throughout this 19 years, I mean
, I've screwed a lot of thingsup, so I've had plenty of
experience and try to go backand fix and fix my mistakes.
And in talking to a lot ofpeople over those years and and
having a lot of people come upwith me over over those years,
(51:46):
it's really kind of about notworrying about the mistakes that
you, that you made and beingtoo hard on yourself about
making a bunch of mistakesbecause it nobody's perfect.
Yeah, there's, there's, no,there's no leader out there that
has gotten everything right thefirst time around.
And we're talking about thebiggest ceos in the world that
(52:06):
have made plenty of mistakes.
Like, don't be afraid to go outand make and make the mistakes.
If you, you know, if you workfor a good company, if you have
a good boss, they're going togive you the ability to make you
know, to make those mistakes,learn from them and then come
back with how could you havedone it better, where's the next
you know, where's the next setof solutions and where should we
(52:28):
go from here.
So don't beat yourself up abouttoo many mistakes.
And that's something that I hadto.
You know, I had to learn thehard way, kind of early on,
there was times where you know,especially in this industry and
in this business, the businessis very cyclical, right, you can
be riding high one day and thenthe next year everything seems
(52:53):
like know it's, it's burningdown.
And we've had, we've had a fewof those years where, from a you
know, from a brandedperspective, we were doing,
doing really well and then camethe the years where everything
was a struggle.
It seemed like everything wasgoing against us, from grain,
grain costs, um, whatever, youknow, whatever it was oversupply
(53:15):
.
And you can't just focus on thenegative, because then it's too
easy to get stuck down thereand if you're only focused on
what's going on here and now,you're not going to come out the
other side.
Like the only way that you'regoing to, that you're going to
(53:36):
get through it, is to keep ongoing and it's just per and it's
just perseverance, um, andpushing through those those
tough times, uh.
So sometimes it is harder to.
It's easier said than done.
It's hard to you know, bemotivated when when things seem
to be going bad.
But that's why you know youwant to have a good support
system around you, not only athome but within your, within
(53:57):
your company, people that aregoing to have, people that are
going to have your back, peoplethat believe in you, people that
you know will keep a mentor,somebody that can kind of help
you go through those types ofthings.
I was incredibly lucky to havea great mentor, like like Mike
Sensor, all these years.
That guided me through a lot.
I owe a lot to him, but all ofthose things will help you get
(54:20):
through those tough timesbecause I guarantee you they're
going to come.
There's no business, there's nocareer path where everything is
going to be roses and rainbowsthe whole time.
You're going to get knockeddown again and again and again.
The people that are going tomake it to the top are the
people that just keep gettingback up.
That's all it is.
Brandon Munlix (54:40):
Just keep getting back up, Jasen is there
anything that you want to sharewith the listeners that we
haven't already covered?
But you'd be disappointed ifyou didn't get a chance to share
.
Jasen Urena (54:50):
I think we've covered a lot so far.
We've gone through more thingsthat I originally thought that
we would, but no, this has beena great experience.
I'm really happy that we got tohave this conversation and
share everything that we'veshared so far, so I really
appreciate the opportunity to beon with you to be on with you.
Brandon Munlix (55:11):
Well, Jasen, I really appreciate you spending
this time with us.
It's exciting to see apassionate person like yourself
a smile on your face the entiretime you're talking because you
realize that this industry isjust so amazing.
And, listeners, if you haven'thad a chance, look up Nest Fresh
Eggs, look up their business,look up their model.
(55:33):
I mean, they're doing somethingright, they're doing something
amazing and there's a lot thatyou can learn, and I'm so glad
you know the Nest Fresh storywas shared today.
A little bit more about Innovasexing that it's moving.
Ai is moving.
Listeners, if you haven't doneso, please subscribe to this
podcast.
In every player there's amethod of subscribing little
(55:55):
plus in the corner or follow, or.
That just helps you get to hearnew episodes as they get
launched as well as there'sanother thing you can do is you
can probably go into a verysimilar setting and share this
with your friends.
There are so many industryprofessionals that need or would
benefit from this podcast.
I just want you to share this.
I'm here because of you, thelisteners, and I just want to
(56:18):
make sure that we can get heardby as many people in the
industry.
We had a great first season.
I'm super excited that we'rerunning strong in season two and
we want to just continue thison.
So please like, share.
And also I have to remember,otherwise I couldn't keep doing
this.
This podcast would not bepossible without prism controls.
As a technology leader in theindustry, you know they see this
(56:40):
podcast, they see you aslisteners, as the future of this
industry.
Without them, the technologyjust doesn't seem to keep moving
forward.
So we're very thankful thatthey sponsor this podcast.
So if you go toprismcontrolscom, we're at the
trade shows IPPE, peak, we're atall those.
Come visit us, say hi, saythank you for the podcast, Thank
(57:01):
them for their sponsorship ofthis.
But listeners, have a greatweek, look forward to seeing you
on future episodes.
Have a great day.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix,and today we are going to learn
about Nest Fresh Farms.
This is really, really excitingbecause I have Jasen Urena on
the line today and I'm learningso much about them just in the
pre-interview that I can't waitto share him with all of you.
So let's get started, Jasen,welcome to the show.
Jasen Urena (00:51):
Hey, thanks, Brandon.
Thanks for having me.
It's going to be fun having aconversation like this with
somebody from the industry, so Ifeel like we're going to have a
good time doing it.
Brandon Munlix (01:00):
Yeah, it's exciting because you said you've
know, you've been on a coupleother shows and you know you had
to answer basically the basicsabout eggs.
But our listeners are prettysmart about eggs and I think
we're going to be able to skipover the basics on that and get
to something a little bit deeper.
So, Jasen, can you tell thelisteners who you are?
Jasen Urena (01:19):
Well, I guess, starting professionally, I'm
Jasen Urena.
I'm the executive vicepresident of Nest Fresh.
I've been it's hard to believe,but I've been in the egg
business now for 19 years.
I started straight out ofcollege and I'm a Southern
California kid, so for allintents and purposes I'm a city
(01:43):
guy.
I had never been on an egg farmbefore.
I knew nothing about where eggscame from until I started
working here with Nest Fresh andthe egg industry and it's been
an amazing ride.
For 19 years I've enjoyed somuch of it.
I've gone from not knowinganything about an egg to kind of
(02:05):
being responsible for marketing, being responsible for sales,
then getting into liveoperations, getting to know a
lot of the great people withinthis industry, and I thought
that this was going to be just ashort term, like I'm going to
get some experience and move on.
But I really fell in love withthis industry, not only the, not
(02:25):
only the company itself, whichhas been an amazing place to
work for and obviously grow overthese 19 years, but just the
people.
The friendships, therelationships, as you well know,
in this industry have beenamazing.
It's really hard to get awayfrom.
Brandon Munlix (02:41):
Yeah, that's you know.
As we, as we talk about yourjourney a little bit you know,
share with me a little bit aboutyour family.
Where'd you get started?
Jasen Urena (02:55):
Yeah, so I was born , uh, born and raised in
Southern California, I mentioned, in a city called, uh, buena
Park, not too, not too far fromDisneyland.
Um, I'm, I'm still based herein Southern California and the
corporate office being inFullerton, so never gotten too
far away from home.
But, like I mentioned, I'velived here my whole life.
I come from a family, actuallya family that immigrated here to
(03:16):
the United States and nobodywould be able to tell, but I am
100% Hispanic, my mother's Cuban, my father's Costa Rican.
Spanish was actually my firstlanguage.
They both worked really hard.
My father was a bus driver, mymom worked in sales
administration almost her wholecareer.
She moved her way up and theydid a lot to give me and my
(03:41):
sister I have one younger sisterOpportunities that they didn't
have, you know, coming fromtheir countries, opportunities
that you know our amazingcountry had given them, and they
kind of wanted to give us aspringboard to jump off, you
know, even higher than they have.
And now you know I'm here,we're here because of them, of
(04:01):
them, so, luckily, I've beenable to, you know, accomplish
what I have because of, becauseof those roots, and we're still
like an amazingly close family,uh, all you know, my wife now
met my wife going to to calstate, fullerton, which I got my
degree from in in marketing,business administration and
marketing, uh, and her familylives five minutes away from us
(04:26):
her parents and her sister.
Then my parents live about 10minutes away from us and my
sister lives nearby too.
So we've always kept like areally close family dynamic.
Brandon Munlix (04:37):
It's been great.
That's awesome.
It's great.
I mean, this is a familybusiness, a family you know,
very family friendly industry,and I'm assuming that really
empowered you being bilingual toreally you know relate to your,
relate to the, to your, to youremployees, just as much as you
know relate to CEOs and business, because you can communicate,
(05:00):
which is very empowering.
That's awesome.
Jasen Urena (05:03):
Yeah, with being able to speak Spanish fluently.
It always helped, especiallyworking in the plants, getting
to know all of our people, fromthe people packing on the end of
the machines to the peopleworking in the barns, to the
supervisors and managers at thelocations.
(05:23):
That always helped.
It always helped create thatrelationship too, because it's
nice for people that maybe youknow English was not their first
language, to be able to relateto upper management.
So, yeah, that's always beenextremely helpful for me.
I mean, if you don't know, andin this industry and you have
(05:45):
the opportunity to go out andlearn, I definitely recommend it
because it's a bridge builder,for sure.
Brandon Munlix (05:51):
That's, that's cool.
So you've been with Nest Freshfor 19 years, which is just.
I mean that's, that's a career.
That's as long as my firstcareer was outside the industry.
So can you?
I mean I'm curious, and I knowour listeners are curious who's
Nest Fresh?
Can you tell us about NestFresh and its origins?
Jasen Urena (06:12):
Yeah, nest Fresh started in the early nineties
and actually I mean becausethere's a lot of industry people
listening to this and NestFresh is part of Hidden Villa
ranch as the bigger, as thebigger company a lot of people
know hidden villa ranch.
Nest fresh is the specialty agdivision of you know of hidden
(06:35):
villa ranch, which startedaround the in in the early 90s
and really um brought to life byMike Sensor.
He has been my mentor for allof these 19 years.
Here at Nest Fresh we reallywant.
When specialty eggs firststarted to become a thing,
(06:56):
before cage-free was popular,before pasture-raised was
growing all over the place, mikehad this vision that this was
going to be the future and thatwe wanted to get in on the
ground floor.
So he started this division,which now I'm proud to be able
to take over for him and lead.
(07:17):
But he started this division onthe idea that we need to keep
up with all of our customersthat are asking for the next
level of whatever it is animalwelfare, environmental
sustainability, packaging,innovation.
We weren't going to sit aroundand wait until the potential
(07:40):
slice of the pie got big enoughto get interested in it.
We always wanted to be on theforefront and kind of pushing
that in that innovation from youknow, the 90s to the early
2000s.
You know we were one of thefirst brands to really get into
cage free in a big way.
Uh, we were one of the firstbrands to really get into
organic in in a big.
(08:01):
Then, as time has gone on, wewere the first to do non-GMO
project verified eggs anywherein the industry.
We were the first to be able tosecure that verification.
We also, a couple of years ago,launched the first regenerative
organic certified egg in thecountry.
(08:23):
So we'd like to keep pushingkind of that level of innovation
, and not because we just wantto do it too, because we feel
like it is the right thing to do.
And three, that we haveconsumers asking us for these
types of things every day.
And you know we're not a big,massive brand that's backed by
(08:45):
Wall Street money or venturecapital money.
We're a family-owned business.
Our owner owns 100% of it andwe have to go out and kind of
prove ourselves to our customersevery day and we have to
continue to innovate and bringin new customers.
So we continue to innovate andbring in new customers.
(09:06):
So you know, we continue to wintheir trust.
You know what we do in anutshell and why we do it.
Brandon Munlix (09:12):
Well, you know, and I think of pasture raising,
I think of you know, birds wereraised originally in a pasture,
originally outdoors.
You know, you go down toGuatemala or places like that
and you see chickens runningeverywhere.
I mean that's birds where theycame from.
And then humans startedgathering them up, put them in
cages, and now you guys startedearly in saying, hey, let's get
(09:33):
these birds back out in the wilda little bit.
I mean it's controlled, but ata different scale, so then we
can produce enough product formarkets in those specialty
markets, for markets in thosespecialty markets.
And I think of all the labelingthings that evolved just in
those years of you know, youkept mentioning organic and
environmentally friendly.
I mean, all of these thingshave labels now.
(09:53):
And it's like man, you guys hadto be helping customers
understand that long time agoand now it's probably coming
more.
You know, your work's probablystarting to come to fruition, as
people are starting tounderstand those labels
Absolutely.
Jasen Urena (10:09):
And it's about the customers, like I mentioned.
Like we're very customerfocused, very consumer focused,
right, but we're also a big partof what we do and how it's all
possible.
Are the small farmers that wedeal with like the family
farmers that we deal with?
We, a family-owned company, uh,but you know, we don't produce
(10:30):
all of our eggs ourselves.
We.
We produce some of the eggsourselves, but we also go out
and we contract with a lot ofsmall farmers across the, across
the country, and part of thethe brand is really to kind of
keep, and part of the brand isreally to kind of keep that
small farmer way of life goingas an Indian industry.
(10:51):
As it grows.
There's consolidation In orderto get efficiencies, you got to
get bigger, which is allunderstandable, but at the same
time you go all throughout thecountry the Midwest, the
Southeast, the Northeast.
There's a lot of farmers outthere that want to be able to
(11:11):
make a living off their land.
They want to be able to keeptheir family at home.
They don't want to have to gomove in closer to the cities to
find a nine five job.
So we try to identify farmerslike that that are willing to
produce for us, and not onlywilling to produce for us, but
excited to be able to producefor us and our brand because
(11:34):
we're doing some of theseexciting and innovative things.
These farmers see their birds,their hands, as like an
extension of their own family,like they want them to have the
best environment possible, likethey're taking care of them
every day.
They treat them as well as theypossibly can.
It's dealing with those typesof people.
(11:57):
It's being able to kind ofcreate a niche and create a
market for them to be able to dowhat they do on the farm level.
That's like really exciting tome and kind of and it gives us
here, you know, on the brandlevel, the motivation to go out
and keep growing so that we cankeep adding more and more of
these types of farmers from allover.
Brandon Munlix (12:18):
That is interesting, as you you know, as
a lot of my experiences in thecommercial egg production with
farms that are 50, 100, 3.5million, you know size farms.
How do you I mean, how doesthat work?
Let's say you're in Californiabut you have your growers are in
(12:38):
Iowa, indiana, michigan,wherever how do they get their
eggs to?
You know how do they get theireggs processed and labeled in
the Nest Fresh brand.
Jasen Urena (12:50):
So we have processing plants scattered
throughout the country.
We have plants in SouthernCalifornia, in Texas, in
Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania and acouple of others.
So we go and we consolidate allthe eggs from these farmers and
(13:12):
you're right, they're scatteredall over the place, from the
upper Midwest to the south ofthe country, the central part of
the country.
So we'll go and pick up all theeggs, we'll bring them into our
processing plants where then weprocess and pack and then
distribute to all of our, to allof our customers.
So it kind of takes the, ittakes the stress out of the farm
(13:32):
, off the farmer as to likewhere their eggs need to go, how
they're going to get sold.
They just they can focus onwhat they do best and that's,
you know, raising a flock, getit in the best possible way and
then getting the best qualityeggs out of those birds.
Brandon Munlix (13:47):
To give the listeners an idea, tell me about
the size of these farms.
I mean, I mean, what's thesmallest grower you you work
with and then the biggest?
Jasen Urena (13:57):
I guess the smallest grower we work with is
probably going to be about 7,000, 7, 8, 7, 8,000.
Average we're probably closerto 20,000.
On the size of these individualflocks, these are all
free-range pasture-raised flocks, are non-GMO products, those
(14:20):
types of things.
They're somewhere around there.
Maybe some are a little bitbigger, but they're somewhere
between 10,000 and 30,000, Iwould say, on average.
Brandon Munlix (14:32):
Okay, and so they gather their eggs,
hand-pack them, because there'snot a lot of automation in that
size of operation from myunderstanding and then you have
trucks that run around pickingthem up, or do they end up
hiring somebody to run them tothe nearest processing?
Jasen Urena (14:50):
So there's a lot of .
With so many farmers I mean, weprobably have upwards of 200
individual farmers scatteredacross the country that produce
for us so there's a lot ofdifferent ways that that happens
.
Like we really try to focus onthe individual farms, what they
(15:12):
can do, what they can't do, whatwe need to jump in and help
them with to make it work, andthen we just come up with a
program for them that makes itas easy as we can on the farmer
and also make sure that it worksoperationally for us and how do
you verify quality in all thespecifications that you have for
(15:37):
that grower?
Brandon Munlix (15:38):
Because, in order to meet GMO standards, in
order to meet all the differentstandards, how do you verify
that?
Jasen Urena (15:44):
Yeah, that's what we do as a brand team.
We have a live production team,we have a compliance team and we
have a group of field servicepeople that will go out to these
farms and some of the biggergroupings of farms will
(16:08):
sometimes have some of their ownservices, but we also provide
all of that for our individualfarms that don't have that.
We have our live production team, based in Texas, will go around
to a lot of these farms whenthey need to to make sure that
everything is being produced upto our spec.
(16:29):
We have our compliance teamthat touches base with all of
these farms on a consistentbasis to make sure that
everything is again being donethe way that we would want
everything to be done, wouldwant everything to be done, uh,
but you know, to be honest, whenyou're dealing with these types
of farmers that are so investedin it, you realize like they're
(16:50):
, while you have to obviouslyhave, have oversight and have,
like, those constant openchannels of communication, we
don't have to constantly be ontop of them to do the right
thing or to do what we're whatwe want them to do.
There may be help at thebeginning to get them going, but
really they're all about it.
They want to do these things.
So it's really been a joygetting to know all these people
(17:14):
and working with all these guys.
Brandon Munlix (17:16):
Yeah, sounds amazing.
I mean, it really does soundlike a family farm orientated,
because you're just dealing witha lot of families.
They're just needing a marketfor their product.
They want to grow it, you know,produce their product to a
certain level and they have anoutlet for it.
So they don't have to go andcreate that relationship with
the local supermarkets and andthen when something happens to
(17:39):
them, you know there's, you knowwhere do I find information
sounds like you guys supportthem a lot.
Jasen Urena (17:43):
Well, it gives it gives these smaller farmers, uh
across the country, uh anability to to compete right,
because, as our industry goesthrough consolidation and our
industry continue, some of thebigger farms continue to grow.
It's harder and harder to, youknow, to compete on on big
scales.
A 20 000 bird farm can'tcompete against a significantly
(18:06):
bigger farm.
So that's where being part of abrand like ours and creating
this egg pool of producersthroughout the entire country,
it gives them that ability tohave a continuous market and not
have to worry about going outafter individual POs after
individual POs and seeing wherethey're going to sell their eggs
on a week to week basis.
Brandon Munlix (18:27):
So with it, I mean, it sounds like when you
have that many farms spread outthrough the country and there's,
if I understand right, there'sa competition for specialty
farms, that is different than,let's say, the big commercial
farms where it's a really,really huge investment to let's
consolidate at that level, youguys, I mean, do you have
competition with other I'm notgoing to name them here, but
(18:50):
other companies that do similarthings for growers?
Meaning you got to, you know,entice that grower to work with
you.
Jasen Urena (18:57):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, we're not the onlybrand out in the market right
now that has this, you know,this type of model and we have
to compete out there at retailevery day.
But that's where really thecompetition comes in.
And it's not necessarily allabout costs right, I guess there
(19:22):
are cost factors to this butbecause we treat our farmers in
a certain way and we have alongstanding relationship with
them, we have a track recordwithin the industry and we're
bringing them new opportunitiesall the time.
We have a great base of loyalfarmers.
And it's the same thing on thecustomer side or on the consumer
(19:44):
side, where we're competing.
We don't want to stay stagnant,as, like, nest Fresh is a free
range brand and that's it right.
Or Nest Fresh is a pastureraised brand and that's it.
Like some of our othercompetitors are like that, they
do one thing and that's whatthey do.
Like I mentioned earlier, wehave a very strong like ideology
(20:08):
that we have to go out and winour consumers every day.
Like we have to go and continueto gain their trust with
transparency.
We have to go and continue togain their trust with
transparency.
We have to go and continue togain their trust with innovation
.
We have to continue to gaintheir trust by listening to the
feedback that we get from themand making changes.
So Nesfresh right now is a freerange pasture raised brand and
(20:31):
above we're introducing otherinnovations and we're going to
continue.
We're going to continue to toevolve.
Our consumers are evolving andwe got to continue to evolve and
that's how we're going to winthat, that competition.
Brandon Munlix (20:44):
Yeah, one of the new things that I, you know,
recently learned about you guysand is you know your
relationship with Innova Sexy.
And I want to talk about thisbecause last year I really I had
an episode on inovasexing whichI learned so much about.
If you want to go back, look Itell you that episode, I'll put
it in the show notes down belowof which episode you go back to
(21:06):
learn about the science behindit and kind of the start of it.
So tell me what's yourrelationship with inovasexing?
What can you guys claim aroundthat?
Jasen Urena (21:15):
So we're really excited about our Innova Sexing
project.
I mean it's been in the newsthe last couple of weeks.
Last week we officially becamethe first company in the United
States, the first brand in theUnited States, to be able to say
that we have a flock on theground today of chicks that have
(21:37):
gone through the Inovo sexingproject Inovo sexing process.
This has been a long timecoming and we have been working
on this for over two yearsBefore all everybody started
making announcements.
So we'll commit to it when it'spossible.
You know we'll look at it whenit's commercially available.
(21:57):
We had been going back and forthto Europe for more than two
years looking at all of thedifferent in-ovo sexing
technologies out there, talkingto some of our customers about
it, talking to hatcheries aboutit, talking to our farmers about
it and saying that we thinkthis is the right next step to
(22:18):
take for nest fresh.
This is something that's alreadyhappening in Europe.
There's countries in Europethat have legislation in place
mandating that all eggs gothrough the inovosexing process.
So again, we saw kind of thewriting on the wall.
This is going to happen hereeventually one way or another,
(22:39):
and we have consumers that havebeen asking us those questions
for years and we've been tryingto figure out what's the best
solution to this issue.
After a few years of working onthe project, we were able to
partner with AAT, which producesthe technology called Cheggie,
(23:01):
and Highline North America thatput the Cheggie machine into two
hatcheries for us and we wereactually back at the hatcheries
last week to witness the firstactual hatch of an inovo sexed
flock uh, in the united states,and and mass rush is gonna is
the first one to be able to say,like, we actually have a flock
(23:23):
today that's on the ground,that's growing on our on our
pullet farms in in texas, uh,and we'll have eggs to be able
to bring to the market by may orj of 2025.
Brandon Munlix (23:36):
That is exciting to see technology and how fast
things advance and to see a farmthat's at the cutting edge of
technology.
Farmers get a bad rap, that youknow.
Oh, I just want my 30 year oldtractor and I want it to work
and I don't want change.
And here's Nest Fresh, who'snimble, who's like agile all the
(23:56):
terms you want to say thatthey're on the cutting edge and
that is.
It's just great to see.
It's great to see and itprobably you know you don't have
to worry about filling housesof 200,000 birds tomorrow.
You get to raise pasture birdsand smaller flocks.
That does that equate to.
Jasen Urena (24:15):
You know, help you be, why you guys are able to do
something like this and be sonimble yeah, everything goes
back to our network of farmersand that's why, like, I always
try to give them as much creditas possible.
I mean, no matter who I talk to, whether it's a retail customer
, somebody in my personal lifefarmers really make it all
possible and if we were amillion bird complex, this
(24:38):
probably wouldn't be very easyto do.
But because we have thisnetwork of small farms, we can
take smaller flocks and put themin and try different things,
even though on the Inovo, on theInovo sexing side, we're kind
of really going all in as abrand.
(24:59):
We're committing totransitioning the entire
Nesfresh brand to the Inovo sexproject and I mean, obviously
that's going to take time.
We all know that it takes along time to go rotate through a
flock, hatch a new flock, getnew replacement flocks in.
So it's probably going to be atwo year process until we get
(25:22):
all the way through it.
But that's a commitment thatwe're making, starting with the
flock that we just received onour farms last week.
Yeah, the flexibility to beable to do something like this
comes from having our network ofsmall farms and it was
throughout this journey.
It was really cool to see like agroup of people from within the
(25:46):
industry and outside of theindustry kind of come together
and make this possible, becauseit's not just us.
You know we can't take all thecredit we're we're the, we're
the brand, we're the, we're theproducers quote, unquote behind
it.
But you know it.
It took a lot of work from fromatt, aat and and cheggy.
It took work with, you know,highline and us, and then also
(26:07):
our, our partnerships with uh,aspca and humane, uh, humane
farm animal care, which is our,which is going to be our
certifier.
They're the first third-partycertification that already wrote
Inovo sexing standards and waswith us last week and actually
did the first audit.
So now we are HFAC certified asan Inovo sexed layer operation,
(26:32):
which is all of these peoplethat have come together to make
this work.
This has been an amazingprocess to work with this group
of people and this team, becauseyou know you take out any one
of those pieces and it doesn'tcome to fruition.
Brandon Munlix (26:46):
Well, as I've watched this continual grow and
I've watched the companies comeon board talking about it, it
takes the collaboration of theindustry to educate the
customers American Egg Board andmarketing and all of these
things that help.
You can throw another label onyour carton, but if people don't
(27:08):
know what it means, they don'tsee the value in it.
The story just doesn't get outthere, and so that's the work
that is.
It's incredible to see, I meanto see, how fast you guys have
been able to come together andwork.
You know you said a coupleyears.
You know how.
How long has it taken, you know, the industry to move on other
things throughout history?
It just takes, you know,farmers to collaborate.
(27:29):
I mean heck, a lot of farmers,you know, struggled
collaborating to begin with.
Then they keep and they see thevalue of it and the value of it
and pretty soon you know it'samazing how the industry has
just grown into one bigcollaboration.
You know, using that word again.
Jasen Urena (27:44):
And in reality it has been over two years where
we're like searching and tryingto figure out how to make this
possible and like who are goingto be the partners that we get
together to actually execute it.
And it was March of this yearwhere we still didn't know
(28:06):
whether it was going to bepossible, and then it all
started clicking together andthen, okay, we got the first yes
we needed.
And then we got the second yeswe needed.
And then from there we got, wegot the first yes, we need it.
And then we got the second yes,we need it.
And then from there it actuallyhappened really fast, from, I
would say, maybe late March,April, where we said everybody
came together and said, okay, Ithink we could do this, Like we
(28:27):
can figure, we can figure out away to make it work to then
having a flock actually hatchedsitting here in December.
We're not talking about a lotof months.
That happened very, veryquickly.
That's cool.
Brandon Munlix (28:38):
I mean, it takes a lot.
It takes a supply chain, thecompanies that are building the
machines, the technology, themake sure it works.
You know, after it's shippedacross the globe you know most
of these companies I'm assumingit's coming out of Europe is
where the equipment's built,since that's where most of most
of the poultry equipment is isdeveloped.
I mean, I can see the smile onyour face and just how excited
and proud you are for your farmof doing this and that's way to
(29:02):
way to be, way to be innovators,way to be, you know, cutting
edge and in our mind it justgoes back to kind of like, you
know, our our history of wantingto continue to to progressively
make things a little bit betterfor the hens that produce our
products.
Jasen Urena (29:20):
And you know, this is just one of those things
where it's like it's just takinganother step in the right
direction.
You know, I've been in theindustry for 19 years, obviously
, and it's not really about whatanybody else is doing wrong,
because I've gotten a lot ofthose questions.
You know, if you're doing this,then you know what other
(29:43):
questions are going to startsurfacing.
And it really isn't about that.
It's not about you know whatwe're doing right now or if
anybody else is doing anythingwrong.
It's just about continuing tobring options to not only egg
producers and consumers.
It's about continuing to lookfor what is the next iteration
(30:08):
of an egg.
How do we stay relevant withthose consumers, how do we
continue to win those consumers'trusts?
At the end of the day, theconsumers are going to make the
decisions right.
If the consumers don't want it,then they don't want it.
But at least we're bringing upthe solutions, we're bringing up
(30:28):
the options and putting it outthere for everybody.
Brandon Munlix (30:33):
I do have to go back and ask one question of you
, Jasen.
Can you describe Inovasexing tothe listeners, Because they
might be confused at this point.
They might have not gone backand listened to the other
episode and maybe they've signedoff by now.
But can you describe justsimple words what is Inovasexing
?
Jasen Urena (30:50):
So Inovasexing is a process of identifying the
gender of the chicken while it'sstill in the egg.
So early on in incubation wetake those hatching eggs and put
them through the chaggingmachine which measures it with
light basically with differentlight computer programming to
(31:14):
identify what the sex of thathen is.
And then, as it comes throughthe other side, the females,
female eggs go to one side, themale eggs go to the other and
the female eggs go back intoincubation.
The male eggs then get used forother purposes, whether it's
fertilizers, pet foods, alldifferent kinds of usages.
(31:36):
But those chicks aren't hatchedwhen in the current process
those chicks are hatched andthen they have to be euthanized
on day one.
So we're eliminating the needto hatch and euthanize male baby
chicks.
Brandon Munlix (31:50):
Which sounds like using technology for a
different option.
I don't want to use the wordhumane versus not.
I don't.
I'm not judging any of thatstuff.
I'm just saying it's definitelya different option.
That's awesome, that's great.
I'm loving seeing thisevolution of technology move so
fast.
And you know let's changesubjects here for just a second
what I mean?
You've been in this 19 years.
(32:11):
What other areas of technologyhave you seen evolve and what
areas you wish technology wouldhelp?
Jasen Urena (32:20):
I mean, over the 19 years I've seen a lot of
different technologies, mostlyon the operations side, right on
the farms different process,all the different processing
(32:41):
equipment that we have today inour plants that we didn't have
20 years ago.
I mean, you think about, youknow, going back processing
machine might've ran at 200cases an hour.
Now we're pushing seven, eight,seven, 800 cases an hour with a
lot of of, with a lot ofrobotics and automation.
Uh, that wasn't, that wasn'tpossible 20, 20 years ago.
So we've invested as anindustry a ton of money and you
(33:04):
know a lot of differentcompanies have in the operations
of the plants and and thechicken houses.
So it's it's nice to be able toactually bring in a technology
that's actually a step in theright direction for the animal
welfare of the chicken.
(33:25):
And then, looking forward, Ithink technology is only gonna
advance quicker and quicker.
One thing that I'm excited aboutand I'm trying to learn as much
about right now as I can is theuse of AI and how we use that.
Not avian flu for our industry,but HPAI, ai, artificial
(33:47):
intelligence.
How do we incorporate that intoour businesses?
That's not going away, aibecoming more and more prevalent
, I think, like, the life cycleof technology is going to just
start turning quicker andquicker and quicker, and and
we're going to have to be kindof open arm to that and really
look at like, all right, how dowe keep up with this?
(34:08):
Uh, how do we best leverage it,um so so that's something that
I'm excited to see, how thataffects our industry overall,
and who's going to be creativeenough to figure out how to best
utilize something likeartificial intelligence?
Brandon Munlix (34:25):
Well, and Jasen, I'm going to speak from my
experience on the technologycompany side.
It is interesting because AIcan scare people.
It's either, you know, used forgood or bad, and I'm sorry,
farmers are good.
We're going to use it for good,but the idea is, what can we be
using it for every day?
That helps us in our everydayjobs, because that's what's
(34:46):
going to help us adapt to it andstart to appreciate the value
of it.
You know, for, as a leader, youknow trying to one, empower
your people to use it and not bescared of it.
I mean, it does come, you know,at a cost sometimes.
You know licenses for differentusers.
You got to get that explorationgoing because that's, you know,
the people on your farm orfarms using it are probably
(35:08):
going to be the ones that aregoing to come up with the next
major revelation in the industry, because they're like,
someone's going to have thecrazy idea to come up with
something, and it's going tocome from farmers that are using
it, not necessarily always thetech companies.
I mean, we're constantlylistening to our customers and
saying, hey, how can we makebetter products?
But it takes us a little bitlonger to move and pivot as it
(35:33):
does, someone that's using itevery day, especially in the
processing place, processingside, where you're, you know
you're trying to improve qualityof your product and timeliness
and efficiencies.
But then you start looking backinto some of the other areas
where data is so important datafrom your farms.
You can see trends, you can seemaking business decisions to
adapt, and we were talking aboutbefore we got on today about
(35:56):
some of the things you have todo every day just because of the
effects of AI in the industry,hp AI in the industry.
We're going to use theseinterchangeable here.
But the idea is you know onehow can you craft your messaging
so it's consistent?
There's tools for that.
How can you analyze when two orthree of your growers out in
(36:18):
the field or there's a heat mapof your areas, to say, wow, we
got to change some, we got toupdate some biosecurity things
over here, because now I mean,what are we doing?
All these things can be madewith the power of business
intelligence, because it's notartificial intelligence.
Everybody keeps saying it'sartificial intelligence.
No, it's augmented intelligence.
It's going to help you, thehuman, make better decisions.
(36:40):
It's not going to take over.
It can't just make up stuffbased on data.
It's literally got to usehumans to say I got a problem.
How do I look at that data andprocess it at a much granular
and faster ways than you or Icould ever do?
I mean, I sit and look atspreadsheets all day long and
it's like how can I getsomething to give me a summary
(37:02):
of this, instead of having toactually go in and figure it out
and have it be an accuratesummary of it too?
That's.
The other thing is I've hadsome challenges with AI at times
, but again it's early.
I mean, we're in Gen 4 of ChatG, gpt, and it's only getting
more powerful every single day.
Jasen Urena (37:19):
You're right.
You're right about that.
I mean, it's it's trying tofigure out how to like really
harness everything that we gotfrom a people standpoint,
because we have so much.
We have so much talent in thisindustry.
I've gotten to meet so manydifferent people from so many
different companies across thecountry and there's just a ton
(37:39):
of talent there.
How much of that talents time isgetting tied up in remedial
tasks, and how do you usecertain technology to allow that
talent to kind of open up theirmind and come be able to give
you more solutions, give youmore solutions, give you more
ideas, instead of filling outthat spreadsheet that you were
(37:59):
just talking about?
That took them two hours to do?
How do we?
We've done really good atautomating some of these tasks
within the processing plantswith equipment.
Now, how can we do that, youknow, not only in the process
and plants, but in our overallbusiness using some of these new
technologies that are comingout Like I would love to be able
(38:20):
to utilize more of my people'stime in critical thinking and
problem solving rather thanfilling out forms.
There's a lot of talent therethat can be utilized in
different ways and we figure outhow to use this AI technology.
Brandon Munlix (38:39):
Yeah, it's exciting.
I mean we just had aconversation with a customer
today and he was asking about,well, what's the life of a
computer?
I said it's not the life of thecomputer that matters anymore.
Those can be replaced.
It's the life of the technologythat's on there and the data
that's on there.
That stuff's evolving so fastand it's so powerful.
I mean, what we've seen in thelast five years, we're going to
(39:01):
see double in the next three tothree years and and I think you
know customers, you knowcompanies like yours that are on
that cutting edge, that can benimble and can try new things
You're you're going to change,you're going to, you're going to
lead the way and I am glad thatwe were able to connect just
because of that, just to seewhere you guys grow and go with
(39:22):
it.
It's so powerful and the peoplewe're going to be hiring in the
next five years are going to bedifferent than the people we're
hiring today.
Jasen Urena (39:29):
I agree with that.
Yeah, there's the more in andI've told this to you know,
people within our own company,um, that that work for the work
for my division of the of thecompany learn more about these
technologies like and if youwant the opportunity to learn
more, let us know and we'll andwe'll try to help out with with
(39:51):
that learning because, um, it is, it is the future and the more
we'll try to help out with thatlearning because it is the
future, and the more we getexposed to it, the better off
we're going to be yeah, for usit's completely.
Brandon Munlix (40:03):
When I hear people, well, we're going to
integrate that technology in thenext 10 years, it's like 10
years.
That's how long it takes.
No, I can't wait that long.
It's got to be like five years,and so we're constantly moving.
I mean, I'm constantly waitthat long.
It's got to be like five years,and so we're constantly moving.
I mean, I'm constantly usingthe tools myself rewriting
emails, simple thing.
Can you make this email sound alittle less like me, because it
(40:24):
didn't work the last threetimes I said it.
Jasen Urena (40:26):
Can you make?
Brandon Munlix (40:27):
it sound a little more or less like me or
create slide decks, createimages.
I love making AI create imagesfor me, putting all these weird
things, and it comes out withsome pretty cool stuff.
In fact, my logo for thepodcast came out from AI.
Tell me how chickens talking ina microphone.
Add more chickens, adddifferent barn and it does it.
(40:52):
It's just so powerful.
Jasen Urena (40:53):
It's really cool to see what these things can do
nowadays.
Just to sit and play with it,and sometimes just the
entertainment of it, is worth it.
Brandon Munlix (41:02):
Yeah and I'm going to reiterate what one of
my other guests said is if youwant to know how to do this, go
hire a high school kid, and ifthey're not available because
they're already busy, go hire amiddle schooler, because they're
going to.
They're already leap yearsahead of what what you and I are
, because you know they'refiguring out how to use this
stuff to cheat and it's notcheating anymore.
Jasen Urena (41:21):
I mean they said it's.
Brandon Munlix (41:24):
You know, it's part of how to.
How do I write a book report?
Well, tell you how to write abook report is different,
because what prompts do I putinto chat GPT to get the book
report?
That's going to get me an A.
Jasen Urena (41:36):
Yeah like you know, when I remember growing up, my
parents purchased, uh, anencyclopedia like a physical
book, encyclopedia, a to youknow, a to Z.
That doesn't happen anymore,like those things are
prehistoric.
And then you know, internetcan't Google.
You know, google was searching.
So when I was in college,everything was everything was
(41:57):
online.
Nobody, we didn't open books inthe encyclopedia anymore.
It's going to be the same thing.
This is just the next iterationof it.
Brandon Munlix (42:05):
Well, I think what's interesting?
You mentioned Google search.
Because Google search Now, ifyou start to look, there's some
AI in Google search, becauseGoogle search used to give you
all of the resources how do I dothis?
And it gives you 20 pages ondifferent people doing that and
giving you instructions.
Now you type into a chat GPThow do I do this?
It takes from all 20 and writesit out in front of you and then
(42:30):
sort and then, if you get theright version, it'll actually
give you the sources back.
But now I don't have to thinkand read 20 different things.
It actually summarizes.
It gives it to me.
Man, it's been pretty darnaccurate for most everything,
but that's so much faster thanme having to go through 20
different pages.
But that changes business.
Jasen Urena (42:50):
Time and human resources are the most valuable
things we have at our disposal.
Time and human resources arethe most valuable things we have
at our disposal, and that'swhat utilizing this technology
is going to give us back More ofour time and more capacity from
our people.
I just don't see why wewouldn't want to take advantage
of it.
Brandon Munlix (43:09):
Yeah, I mean we collect all of our information
so differently.
I remember going throughcollege and someone's like
you're kind of cheating by doingaudio books.
I'm like I want the informationfrom the book my way.
I don't have time to sit downand read and I don't learn as
well when I sit down and read.
For me, I learn more when I'mout running and I have it in my
ears because I have no moredistractions.
Why am I cheating?
I can write the same reportthat you can.
(43:30):
I just have to go find thecitations in the book.
That's where technology ischanging so fast.
For the generations below thatare the gen z's and stuff like
that.
Because they don't.
They didn't get stuck with anencyclopedia like you and I did.
Yeah, they're not stuck in thatmindset that I gotta go and
find that resource becausethey've grown up with google.
Jasen Urena (43:49):
Yeah, and and, and that's a great word.
That's just it's mindset itreally is.
Can we expand our mindset to beable to absorb what the world
is now giving us?
Because the world is changingall the time.
It doesn't matter what industryyou're in I mean, we're talking
about the egg industryspecifically here but everything
(44:10):
is changing all around us andif we keep blinders on all the
time and say like, this is theway we've done things, this is
the right, this is the best wayto do it, well, I'm sorry, I'm
going to disagree with you.
There's always a way to getbetter.
You know, every day there's away to get better.
New information comes out, newtechnology comes out.
Yeah, new tools are at yourdisposal.
(44:32):
Just because you know, becauseyou felt really right about what
you were doing a year ago,doesn't mean that it's still the
right thing to do or the bestway to do it.
You always have to be lookingto evolve and I think that,
regardless of what industryyou're in, those are the
companies that are going to winlong term.
Brandon Munlix (44:53):
Yeah, I'll put technology advances.
I'm going to put the tractor orthe mule with the plow next to
the newest, latest, greatestJohn Deere tractor with a plow.
There's a perfect example ofhow technology continues to
evolve.
And there are people that stillthink, nope, I'm going to use
the hand plow, okay.
(45:13):
Think, nope, I'm going to usethe hand plow.
Okay, that's they value.
They value that the their feetin the ground or are doing that
Great.
That's their value system.
And I'm not going to condemnthem.
I'm just going to say that ifmy responsibility is to produce
more, because I'm going to feedmore, I better be looking at the
John Deere tractor with the youknow, the newest, latest,
greatest plows, because because,one, I can't drive in a
(45:34):
straight line, so I need the gpstracking to help me out.
And two, I can't remember whatI just plowed two minutes ago,
so I better have it, you know,show me exactly where I plowed
and at which field.
And, by the way, I want my airconditioning because I'm I'm a
wuss and I want it.
I want it nice and cool inthere, nice and warm, with the
latest and greatest tractors outthere.
Jasen Urena (45:52):
So it's not about anybody doing it wrong.
I'm yeah, I'm pretty big onlike there's no absolutes in
life, like there's very fewthings that there's like an
absolute right way or anabsolute wrong way, and whoever
wants to run their business withyou know whether it's
technology or whether it's anytypes of processes they want to
(46:14):
then have at it and, at the endof the day, I wish everybody
success in what they're doing,and if they can accomplish it in
a different way, then great.
Then maybe we have something tolearn from each other.
But the most important thing isthat we're constantly learning.
And how do we use what'ssuccessful here and what's
successful over there and bringit together and keep moving this
(46:35):
industry forward?
Brandon Munlix (46:36):
Yeah, and I can guarantee you the listeners on
this podcast, or listeners topodcasts, are way higher
advanced than most of the otherfolks out there, because, I'm
sorry, they're already utilizingtechnology to advance their
careers, advance their knowledgeof industry.
So great that you're here.
I got to ask another question,though.
(46:56):
You're a leader, you run intochallenges, probably on a
regular basis.
What's one of the challengesthat you see for leaders in
today's world?
What are the challenges facingleaders today?
Jasen Urena (47:22):
Yeah, there's a few .
We're dealing with a lot ofdifferent challenges every day
and I think, partially that'sthe biggest challenge that
things are evolving so fast thatwe're getting new challenges
thrown at us faster and faster.
Just know, just before wefinally think that, okay, we got
this challenge under controland we figured this out, here
comes something new, and now wegot to pivot and figure that out
(47:43):
.
What I tell, like my group andthe people that you know, the
people that work closely with me, is that there's always going
to be a new challenge coming atyou and we don't know what
tomorrow's challenges are goingto bring, and it could be very
different than the challengesthat we're dealing with today.
So we have to be able to beopen-minded and be flexible,
(48:08):
because we're going to need toadapt quickly to the next
challenges that come at us.
You know there's certain thingsthat we're going to continue to
do because those are our, youknow those are our values and
you know those might be the youknow those might be the
absolutes at the very core ofwhy we're doing what we're doing
.
But we have to be able to beflexible and pivot, constantly
(48:31):
pivoting all the time.
If we're not in the mentalityof that we have to change.
If we have to pivot, then we'regoing to have issues solving
the problems that are coming atus, because just the way that
the egg industry operated fiveyears ago is very different from
(48:52):
the way we've been operatingthe last couple of years and
we've had to be flexible anddeal with all those challenges
as they've come along andthere's been some new things
that have come from that thathave helped us all be successful
.
So for any leader really comingup and that's having to deal
with these challenges is takethe time, take a step back, take
(49:17):
a deep breath.
Whatever the challenge isthat's in front of you, it's not
going to end the world tomorrow.
Let's keep an open mind andfigure out all right, how do we
get around it?
How do we make our business,our operation, flexible enough
to not only deal with thechallenge but maybe even
(49:39):
identify the opportunities thatcome within those challenges,
because every challenge comeswith some other opportunity.
If you can figure it out,there's no challenges.
It's just all 100% negative Ifyou can find a way to turn that
challenge into an opportunity.
Those are the leaders that Iwant to keep coming up within my
(49:59):
team and I would tell anybodythat's coming up within the
industry, or whatever industrythey want to get into stay
open-minded, stay flexible andbe willing to deal with any
challenge that gets thrown infront of you.
Brandon Munlix (50:14):
Wow, I hear a common theme.
I've recorded a few podcasts inthe last couple of weeks and I
hear this in every challengethere's an opportunity.
Be the one to find theopportunity, be disruptive, but
it's the same thing.
Leaders don't talk aboutproblems, they talk about
opportunities.
Jasen Urena (50:32):
That's true, I mean and really that's where we need
to be focusing on is where arethe opportunities?
And in that you're going todeal with.
You're going to deal with allof the all of the challenges.
But you have to keep thatpositive, that positive mindset,
because once you get throughthe challenge, you do got to
identify the opportunity.
Otherwise it's just a lot ofwasted, a lot of wasted effort.
(50:53):
You're dealing with all thesechallenges to stay in the same
place.
If you stay put in the samespot, I don't know of many
businesses that have beensuccessful with that strategy.
Brandon Munlix (51:02):
All right, I want to lean into your
experience in life.
Not every challenge feels likean opportunity when we first
experience it.
What's one of those challengesin your life that looking back
was a great opportunity, but youmay not have seen it while you
were going through it.
And how did you make it through?
Jasen Urena (51:22):
Yeah, well, throughout this 19 years, I mean
, I've screwed a lot of thingsup, so I've had plenty of
experience and try to go backand fix and fix my mistakes.
And in talking to a lot ofpeople over those years and and
having a lot of people come upwith me over over those years,
(51:46):
it's really kind of about notworrying about the mistakes that
you, that you made and beingtoo hard on yourself about
making a bunch of mistakesbecause it nobody's perfect.
Yeah, there's, there's, no,there's no leader out there that
has gotten everything right thefirst time around.
And we're talking about thebiggest ceos in the world that
(52:06):
have made plenty of mistakes.
Like, don't be afraid to go outand make and make the mistakes.
If you, you know, if you workfor a good company, if you have
a good boss, they're going togive you the ability to make you
know, to make those mistakes,learn from them and then come
back with how could you havedone it better, where's the next
you know, where's the next setof solutions and where should we
(52:28):
go from here.
So don't beat yourself up abouttoo many mistakes.
And that's something that I hadto.
You know, I had to learn thehard way, kind of early on,
there was times where you know,especially in this industry and
in this business, the businessis very cyclical, right, you can
be riding high one day and thenthe next year everything seems
(52:53):
like know it's, it's burningdown.
And we've had, we've had a fewof those years where, from a you
know, from a brandedperspective, we were doing,
doing really well and then camethe the years where everything
was a struggle.
It seemed like everything wasgoing against us, from grain,
grain costs, um, whatever, youknow, whatever it was oversupply
(53:15):
.
And you can't just focus on thenegative, because then it's too
easy to get stuck down thereand if you're only focused on
what's going on here and now,you're not going to come out the
other side.
Like the only way that you'regoing to, that you're going to
(53:36):
get through it, is to keep ongoing and it's just per and it's
just perseverance, um, andpushing through those those
tough times, uh.
So sometimes it is harder to.
It's easier said than done.
It's hard to you know, bemotivated when when things seem
to be going bad.
But that's why you know youwant to have a good support
system around you, not only athome but within your, within
(53:57):
your company, people that aregoing to have, people that are
going to have your back, peoplethat believe in you, people that
you know will keep a mentor,somebody that can kind of help
you go through those types ofthings.
I was incredibly lucky to havea great mentor, like like Mike
Sensor, all these years.
That guided me through a lot.
I owe a lot to him, but all ofthose things will help you get
(54:20):
through those tough timesbecause I guarantee you they're
going to come.
There's no business, there's nocareer path where everything is
going to be roses and rainbowsthe whole time.
You're going to get knockeddown again and again and again.
The people that are going tomake it to the top are the
people that just keep gettingback up.
That's all it is.
Brandon Munlix (54:40):
Just keep getting back up, Jasen is there
anything that you want to sharewith the listeners that we
haven't already covered?
But you'd be disappointed ifyou didn't get a chance to share
.
Jasen Urena (54:50):
I think we've covered a lot so far.
We've gone through more thingsthat I originally thought that
we would, but no, this has beena great experience.
I'm really happy that we got tohave this conversation and
share everything that we'veshared so far, so I really
appreciate the opportunity to beon with you to be on with you.
Brandon Munlix (55:11):
Well, Jasen, I really appreciate you spending
this time with us.
It's exciting to see apassionate person like yourself
a smile on your face the entiretime you're talking because you
realize that this industry isjust so amazing.
And, listeners, if you haven'thad a chance, look up Nest Fresh
Eggs, look up their business,look up their model.
(55:33):
I mean, they're doing somethingright, they're doing something
amazing and there's a lot thatyou can learn, and I'm so glad
you know the Nest Fresh storywas shared today.
A little bit more about Innovasexing that it's moving.
Ai is moving.
Listeners, if you haven't doneso, please subscribe to this
podcast.
In every player there's amethod of subscribing little
(55:55):
plus in the corner or follow, or.
That just helps you get to hearnew episodes as they get
launched as well as there'sanother thing you can do is you
can probably go into a verysimilar setting and share this
with your friends.
There are so many industryprofessionals that need or would
benefit from this podcast.
I just want you to share this.
I'm here because of you, thelisteners, and I just want to
(56:18):
make sure that we can get heardby as many people in the
industry.
We had a great first season.
I'm super excited that we'rerunning strong in season two and
we want to just continue thison.
So please like, share.
And also I have to remember,otherwise I couldn't keep doing
this.
This podcast would not bepossible without prism controls.
As a technology leader in theindustry, you know they see this
(56:40):
podcast, they see you aslisteners, as the future of this
industry.
Without them, the technologyjust doesn't seem to keep moving
forward.
So we're very thankful thatthey sponsor this podcast.
So if you go toprismcontrolscom, we're at the
trade shows IPPE, peak, we're atall those.
Come visit us, say hi, saythank you for the podcast, Thank
(57:01):
them for their sponsorship ofthis.
But listeners, have a greatweek, look forward to seeing you
on future episodes.
Have a great day.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.