Grower Spotlight: Charles Robinett & Scott Vetterkind

Hey everyone back with you again doing some interviews and I I met Charles and Scott it's been a little while but I thinking about doing an interview I said you know what these guys are former military Marines with all the junk that's going on these days with defund the police and need them for the flag I said hey let's do an interview with some guys who we we need to thank for their service and I know some of you did some military time too so that's why we're here with Charles and Scott and just gonna ask few questions and find out what made them get into here and so we're which one of you from Wisconsin okay Scott you're from Wisconsin you're from Virginia so yeah so tell me about a little bit about the process what right at a high school went to the military what about a year after high school I joined the Marine Corps yeah and went to boot camp Paris Island and decided to stay in there the rest of my half of my life I guess both of you retired right so how many years were you in Scott I was in 23 years three weeks after I graduated high school I wanted to the Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego California and 23 years later retired Wow and you were 20 years almost 26 almost 26 okay I was thinking 23 as long as 26 years thank you I mean as I'm sure everybody despite what you're seeing on TV and all this junk I mean I am seriously so many of us are thankful for that 26 and that 23 years of doing that so I think you all tell me a little bit how y'all matter when y'all are in service maybe a little bit about what tours that you did or something okay me and Scott we got stationed in New River North Carolina it's the helicopter base for the Marines on the East Coast and we both got stationed there he was actually already there and about 2010 you know I came on board and we just we just kind of clicked yeah we had the same likes and dislikes and we did a we worked up for about a year and did a deployment Afghanistan together for six months and then we came back we're in the same unit for a little while longer I ended up moving up to Cherry Point and Scott ended up moving to another unit in Campo June but we kind of built the friendship for the couple years we were there so we didn't live too far apart so we just you know we fished on the weekends you know helped each other work on vehicles and you know just hung out until until we decided to retire crazy so what tell me Scott what made y'all decide to go into chicken farming what was some of that process I mean you retiring and what was the conversation like hey we're tired of what we go and do well in Charles both at interest in working on or operating heavy equipment like that we thought we were going to go into something that nature maybe our own little company some small equipment yeah go from there we ended up going to a retirement seminar hosted by the Marines and one of the presentations he talked about there was opportunities out there to grow chickens so we started going to research and both of us being Marines we're like probably this yeah and start looking at dug into it and here we are here we are so what was what was some of the probably the most difficult or how did you decide into Georgia well it's it was a little bit of a journey before we made it down here really do your own Georgia the opportunity that was talked about in the seminar was with Sanderson Farms in North Carolina okay and we started making some phone after we researched in the side of day we can do this and you know we both decided we I'd love to just farm and live our own property and do our own thing I mean after 20 some years in the Marine Corps and the latter half of that being senior enlisted and you know being the bosses the last thing we wanted to do is go for some work for somebody just out of yeah college and oh yeah so we Sanderson was willing to take us on and we just had to find the property in their little area sure their new facility was and we couldn't find it you know everything was either swamp land or out of their focus so we were working with a bank to get the loan at the time and they had they gave us some you know leads one in South Carolina and one down here we tried South Carolina first and it didn't work out and and we ended up here and and the integrator you know said you know we'll take you and they gave us plenty of time and we we used to come down here for a day day trips two day trips and we would research online for properties that we thought would fit our needs and we came down here probably a dozen times looking at property and you know we found this and and and had some had some people from from the integrator look at and they think they thought it would be good to put chicken houses on so that's how we ended up in Dewey Rose we just follow the chickens follow the chickens and where the opportunity was and you've got a beautiful place I mean the gun range the pond everything man it's it's pretty cool we're pretty happy here that's pretty awesome and we and we love growing chickens and we love farm and we and I mean I we love our life here so what is probably been I guess I want to ask that each of you what has been your favorite thing so far I mean I know that it's not without problems and issues but what is probably your favorite thing about this venture you thought you'd never entertain I've always been a routine person so I kind of set my own routine I can get up every day I start you know before seven o'clock and I know it's got to be done and if I'm done by three o'clock a good to go give me go so it's just having that routine and long as we're growing good chickens you know nobody's giving us trouble yeah so it's just just easy life yeah just get in do it do it man get it done what's your favorite part I guess my favorite part Allen of this whole deal is probably number one is the freedom and I think that's what Scott's alluding to I mean spending all that time in the Marine Corps you know we you know people are telling us it's going to be hard you guys don't even know what you're getting into but for me it's I think it's been the opposite really based on you know what we did and especially toward the end of our careers growing chickens is easy I mean good for us I mean it's a lot of work and yeah having this farm is worth but and that's I think what made me and Scott you know click and while we work so good together is we like to be busy yeah I don't like to set around he hates to set around yeah so yeah be moved my favorite part is you got your routine you've got the work that you know needs to get done with the chicken houses and with everything else around here but but then we I mean with all the stuff we got going on here there's after that's done there's always something to do and you know we have our own equipment and we love operating equipment yeah so we just you know just every day decide let's do this or he does that I do this and we just go do it we work for ourselves yeah and as long as I as long as you know you have the discipline and motivation then you know you can you can be successful cool we both got that a lot of it came from our time in the Marine Corps I think that's what I get from talking to most poultry farmers is you know it it may be rough and there's hassles and antibiotic free has come in and changed a lot of the dynamics but the fact is you get to be with your family or you get your own time and so you know there's just I mean it just seems to resonate with about every grower that I talk to what is probably what would each of you say is the one thing that's probably the hardest thing that you that you deal with well since didn't know anything about poultry farming and was all new to us you have a good flock and you think everything is going great you got this thing figured out yeah and you get your next flock in it's you know like you feel like you're you don't know anything at the time so maybe you're litter you get dry litter one flock but it might have been summer time and you go in the winter and you're like why is my floor so wet but it's just continuous trying to figure things out sure I think we're getting there yeah well I tell you I hear that resonated with a lot of growers nowadays who you know I've had growers say man I've been growing birds for 30 years and they'll say you know but I ain't been growing birds for 30 years in an antibiotic free environment so yeah that is a pretty common thing I hear people talk just you know I've been on 30 years I thought I knew how to grow chickens but there's just some variables that are constantly coming along what would you say is the hardest thing for me the hardest thing you know you're spending all the time in the military Marine Corps you kind of especially when you got to be a little senior you you got to control the situation oh yeah so if something was going wrong or there was a problem or job to do I mean you got in there and make sure it got done and done right and and you could control you know if there was any issues yeah bad or good you can control it here you can't control it I mean if like Scott said you've got you know you're doing everything right and right and you know we're not we haven't been growing chickens but a few years so we're nowhere near like some of these salty guys that just know every you know every trick of the trade but we feel pretty confident pretty comfortable with our abilities but it's you'd be cruising along and also you know you got a house or or flock and it's something's not right or you just you can't control the variables it's just it's but you know chick quality yeah weather I mean there's a lot it goes into it that you can't control it and then you just got to deal with it and being pretty new you know sometimes we've got a set around and and think and and what could this be you know or try some different things with our controllers or their venue so I think that's to me that's the hardest challenging part is you're no longer in control over a lot of this stuff I mean there's a lot of other variables that come into it that you can't control yeah yeah I can see that and you got to react yeah you know we're more like we act yeah that's our mentality act and get it so it doesn't happen yeah well in this business yeah you can do that but there's always going to be some react issues going on and and we don't like to react we like to act so in control that to me that's the hardest part I got you cool well I appreciate y'all taking the time and thank you for you know for your service thank you for growing chicken so we can eat too so anyway but anyway that's all for now and I just want to thank Scott Charles and if there's anything else we can do to help you we be sure to reach out to me at Allen at southland organics.com or at one eight hundred six zero eight three seven five thank you and if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel yet be sure to you'll get notifications of new videos as 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