From Trucking to Farming: A Real Grassroots Business Journey

Speaker 1 (01:31)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I am your host Quentin Edmonds, know, better known as Q. And today I am joined by someone that you are gonna love to hear from. I am so excited because for me, I think this is the first time that y’all we’re gonna talk about some agriculture. Now, know, we need real estate, so we’re gonna talk some real estate too. But my friend here, he is making some moves in the agricultural space.

farm to table. He’s going to tell you some more about it. And I’m so happy to have today my friend, Mr. Duggan. Did I pronounce that right, Mr. Duggan?

Speaker 2 (02:08)
Yep, that’s correct.

Speaker 1 (02:09)
Absolutely, absolutely. I’m so excited to have you here, man. I know our listeners are going to learn something about your business and what you do. And so I’m excited about it, man. So if you don’t mind, brother, let’s dive in. yeah, absolutely. So listen, so if people may not be familiar with what you do and are familiar with your world. So tell me what is it that keeps you focused these days?

What is your business about, my friend?

Speaker 2 (02:38)
Well, I guess really and truly what keeps me focused is my own personal health. You know, I want to stay on top of it. And then I know that I feel better compared to when I started doing this. And that’s what gets me motivated to get it to other people. You know, is to say, Hey, it’s worked for me. I know it’ll work for you. This is a natural process.

Speaker 1 (03:03)
Absolutely. So we talk about health. So a lot of ⁓ a lot that has to do with health has to do with food. And so man, tell me about what your business got going on over there. Like how do you help people when it comes to health and eating and stuff like that? Like what you got going on over there, brother?

Speaker 2 (03:19)
So we raise beef, we raise chicken poultry, and then we also raise eggs. So we raise chicken for meat, and then we raise eggs as well. And the thing that has all this going so well is that all of the animals are on grass. ⁓ I couldn’t say it enough. could sit here and talk about grass for hours, but that is the key factor here.

Speaker 1 (03:44)
No, absolutely. Absolutely. I love it, man. Where are you at? What market are you in right now?

Speaker 2 (03:50)
So I’m in East Texas. ⁓ The town I live in is called Quitman. It’s Wood County. ⁓ There’s a big lake here called Lake Fork. And that’s probably the thing most known around here.

Speaker 1 (04:04)
Gotcha, gotcha. I love it. So listen, let me see if I can try to tee you up. Is it a lot of grass there? And if it is, what’s the benefits of it, brother?

Speaker 2 (04:11)
a lot of grass, a lot of grass. And so I guess I got to kind of point out this isn’t planted grass. This is all just native grown grass. What grows here naturally, we don’t plant in our pastures or we don’t we don’t even ⁓ we don’t even use fertilizer. ⁓ We just let everything what happens in nature and we let it happen. I’m sorry, can’t I was there kind of a second part to that question.

Speaker 1 (04:39)
No, no, no, no, no, just about the grass. I you and I literally talked about how grass is important to your business and what you do. And I would just, I wanted you to tell me a little bit of how, why is the grass important for what you do and how can the lack of grass affect what you do?

Speaker 2 (05:48)
Okay, so the reason why grass is important is because cows are herbivores and that’s all they eat. That’s all they should eat. And a commercially raised farm cattle are 80 % fed grain and for size, to grow size. And the grass, you know, is what the cow should eat. So it grows and when it grows, it takes a lot longer. When it grows, it grows the way that it should. And it’s what produces the healthiest meat that we can eat.

Obviously we shouldn’t eat a whole lot of red meat, we tend to stay focused on chicken, but the beef as well. If you’re going to eat it, you should might as well be the healthiest.

Speaker 1 (06:26)
Absolutely. Nah, I hear you, man. That’s good. And I know in this climate, things are not easy all the time. So tell me when it comes to this local kind of business, like the benefit from buying local, how is that better for you than, not even just for you, for us? Like, how is it better to do local than just like, you know,

truck deliveries, that explaining to kind of that farm to table kind of process and how do you keep that kind of running smoothly, you know, in your

Speaker 2 (07:02)
Well, so the benefit to the benefit to eating locally is ⁓ I’ll give one one points a major talking point is that we’re all aware of allergens. We, you know, see it on news. They tell us that the pollen count and all that. Well, the the pollen lands on the grass. The cows eat that pollen. They develop antibodies to it and that, you know, gets into their blood and

through their meat. And then when we eat the meat, we get that too. And it’s the same that the cow ate. And so it’s localized anti allergens that we get through the meat that we eat. Same thing with the chickens and same thing with the eggs. When we buy meat from say, I just use Walmart because it’s the most known store, but even even like Whole Foods, ⁓ it’s it’s meat that’s or it’s even in the produce that’s been trucked in from

who knows where, sorry, excuse me. Sometimes, you know, sometimes China, so, or overseas, I don’t wanna say just China, but overseas. So I, you know, I just, ⁓ when you buy locally like that, you’re consuming all of the…

just just it’s just there’s so much to name that you could go through it all the air that it breathes is the same air that you’re breathing you know and ⁓ and so it’s it’s meat quality is going to be the best quality for you i would even take this to a point so like we serve the dallas we’re out in east texas and we serve the dallas area and so if we i would say i would not sell to somebody in arkansas i would you know say they lived in little rock i’d say well

find you a farm somewhere outside a little rock and buy their versus buying from us because we’re not we’re not that localized although our our geographical area isn’t much different. You know, it’s in probably wouldn’t see that much difference in in the benefits of the meat. A you’re supporting a local farmer and B ⁓ it’s more localized so it’s it’ll be just even if it’s 3 % it’s just that much better.

Speaker 1 (09:10)
Absolutely. Nope, I get it, man. I get it. And I love how you said when you when you was explaining the different allergens and and and what the animal is consuming, like anything that’s affecting their atmosphere is is what affect us, you know, anything that they’re consuming because we consume them is going to consume us. And so I love the process that you guys are going through.

to make sure that we can cut down on as much as, know, stuff being transmitted, trying to cut down as much as possible. And so, yeah, no, so I absolutely love that. And so I know, you know, of course with businesses, things can go sideways. There are times that you gotta pivot fast. So you mind sharing the time with you within your business, kind of had to make a pivot or kind of had to, you know, work around something, yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:35)
Well, I guess I would say, you know, we’re pretty, we’re pretty young in the business still. We haven’t really had a, had a, kind of like, is this a catastrophic moment? You know, I guess you could say that was whenever we first started with, I had, I had to quit trucking. Somebody had to be here to, to, work the farm all the time, you know? And this is a family deal. My, my dad works here, ⁓ you know, and my sister. So we, we, we have a,

you know, kind of a system of working this and on the main laborer. But ⁓

So yeah, the trucking and when we decided that we would do more than the mono farms, we started with cattle and then we brought chickens in. When we brought chickens in, well, they eat. So a chicken is an omnivore, right? So it does eat more than grass and ⁓ they eat quite a bit of grain. That price is expensive. you know, just seeing that, just seeing that.

a instant dip in what you have available, you know, it was, it was a little bit of a shock, but, ⁓ you know, just sticking with, just sticking with it and knowing that we’re working through it.

Speaker 1 (11:44)
No, Nope. get it, man. Thank you for sharing us. You know, this is a perspective that people are really they don’t get sometimes, you know, so it’s like they’re they’re learning now here this perspective of what’s what you’re doing and even the part that I really love. ⁓ And I and I, know, we really shows that you guys have been doing this for a while going to continue doing for a while. You bought in your dad. This is something that you have been accustomed to.

kind of since you were born, right? Like this is something that you and your family have been doing for years. I ain’t gonna put your age out there. talked back, back, back stage. Let’s just say, you know, just, let’s just say it’s been more than 20 years, you know? Like this is something that you’ve been accustomed to for more than 20 years, correct?

Speaker 2 (12:29)
Absolutely. So actually I was, I was born and raised in Dallas and, ⁓ but we, started doing this. We started raising our own beef. We raised one cow and, man, I, I, I just, I can’t explain it. It’s so exclamatory how different it is. The beef when you raise it versus buying it from the store, it’s, it’s crazy. And, ⁓ so ever since then, you know, I’ve always kind of known this was something I wanted to do.

My dad was the one who kind of brought it into the family, you know, and it’s just been downhill from there.

Speaker 1 (13:04)
I love it. love it. But of course, man, you know, we like to a little real estate on the parts of podcast, right? So man, tell me a little bit about tenant, tenant farming. Tell me a little bit about that, man. Where does that fall into your perspective and fall into kind of maybe your plans, right?

Speaker 2 (13:22)
So how does real estate fall into tenant farming? Is that sort of what you’re asking?

Speaker 1 (13:27)
Well, I know you and I, we’ve talked about the tenant tenant farming, you you brought that up a little bit when you and I was talking about. So of course, you know, you know, that takes property, right? And so I just wanted you to tell me more about the idea that you had about tenant farming.

Speaker 2 (13:43)
Okay.

Okay. Yeah, sure. So my idea is, I kind of got from a showtime. I think it was showtime. I can’t remember what network it was. But they, it was a show called Downton Abbey. And you familiar?

Speaker 1 (13:58)
Come on man, don’t play with me next. Yes sir, yes sir, I’m playing. Yes sir. ⁓

Speaker 2 (14:04)
Gotcha. So they lived in this like castle and ⁓ they don’t do very much depiction. I think you might have, can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (14:14)
Yeah, I can hear you. Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (14:15)
Okay, okay. So they didn’t do a whole lot of depiction of it, but that castle was sort of funded by the farm that ran, you know? And all the people that lived on the farm were tenant farmers. And so it would show them like going to town. you know, I’m not a hundred percent sure. I’m definitely reading more and more as more I can find it.

But the, the, the whole market, I think really self sustained on that property, the people farm produce, it came to it like a farmer’s market. And when the castle needed it, that’s where they went to get it, or they would put an order in and it would be delivered. But then also if the town needed it, you know, they just came to that market and got what they needed and they all lived on this.

I did the research on it. Downton Abbey is called High Clair Castle in real life. it’s, I think it started as like 7,000 acres. And so, I mean, I know you got enough land there to support a small community. That’s for sure. But, ⁓

That’s that’s, so that’s kind of like how, how that would work. I guess, you know, the, people live there, they work and, and, and, and their, their labor sort of pays their stay, you know? And, and, ⁓ then my idea from there would just be making it more modern. know, we’re housing, air conditioning, all that good stuff. Suits, know, pipe water, all that stuff. Yeah. It’s stuff they didn’t have back then.

Speaker 1 (16:33)
Listen, right. Exactly. Right. No, I love the idea. And I, you know, I was trying to find the term we just talked about it, but that, you know, the community aspect of it all, right, right. benefiting from the work that they put in them, from them having to buy into the system. And so I think the tenant farming, buying a large farmhouse, have you, because I know you mentioned, you haven’t mentioned on the podcast, but I know you mentioned buying a farm, a large farmhouse.

Would you want it where you are or what like what what market do you see putting that in? Will you keep it close to where you are? Would you you know try to be more than one like what how would the vision look in your day?

Speaker 2 (17:13)
It would be, it would be close to where I am as far as I can tell. So you have the USDA kind of gives you a map. If you look at the map of the United States and it’s got different zones for gardening and ⁓ we live in a, in East Texas where we live, it’s a pretty ideal for growing just about anything. You know, we, don’t have harsh winters and we usually we don’t and ⁓

Yeah, so I would see it being around here and then I’m in Texas. There’s lots and lots of big acreage land around here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:49)
No, that’s good, man. That’s good, man. I appreciate you saying that, you know, you’re making moves. You have vision and, know, I know the next move we make, it can compound things or can kind of create chaos. And so I know you got to play it well. You got to play it the right way. And of course, you you talked about a community kind of aspect. So let me ask you this. How do you feel about

relationships like within what you’re about to do or even where you are now? Do you have you benefit from building relationships, know, business relationships or relationships with other farmers like what you’re doing right now? How does the relationship aspect look?

Speaker 2 (18:31)
Um, so yeah, I have actually, I work with, uh, have worked anyways with another farmer here locally and, sort of just trading chicken and beef, know, allowing, he, he raises beef as well. He raises red Angus. We raised Simintoso, we raised different beefs. And, um, so it kinda made sense or it seemed to make sense.

It is what it is. And it’s been working a little bit here and there, but it’s still in its infancy, you could say. And, ⁓ but yeah, it’s been beneficial for sure that, you know, we get a little bit of a little bit more exposure with our chicken and, ⁓ you know, we get to help this guy out too. You know, he’s a 10 mile away neighbor, but you know, he’s a neighbor nonetheless.

Speaker 1 (19:18)
Ten mile away neighbor. Yeah. I think you’re telling us a little bit about how it looks to be in your world. No, absolutely. Yeah. And relationships, everything. Whatever space we’re going to be in, we’re not living on an island. So relationships, everything, whether it’s no consumer to client or business partnerships or even family, right? Relationships are everything. And that’s something.

Speaker 2 (19:27)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:47)
that here we definitely like to talk about is building relationship, building continuity between all of us. Because again, we’re not doing this thing alone. know? So, So man, I appreciate you so much for sharing your insight and your perspective on what you do. ⁓ Now listen, before we’re about to wrap, but I do want to give you opportunities that anything you feel like we haven’t covered that you want to talk about, anything you want our viewers to know.

And I’ll give you a kind of clean call to action at the end, but just right now, anything on your mind that you feel like you want people to know about what it is you do.

Speaker 2 (20:24)
⁓ so I, would, you know, I’d love nothing more than to be able to, you know, sell what I produced out to the world. I just don’t see that being beneficial. So, because, because I could be, I could sell to somebody saying Seattle, Washington, right. And I don’t have to pay to ship it overseas. ⁓ it’s if they bought, if they bought from somebody outside of Seattle somewhere where there was a farm raising chicken or eggs.

you know, or beef, it would be better for them. So I guess the biggest thing that I could say wouldn’t necessarily benefit me directly, but it would help benefit what I do. It would be buy local, shop local, you know, Facebook marketplace, wherever you can search and ⁓ local farms.

Speaker 1 (21:12)
Gotcha. Absolutely. So based on what you just said, I don’t know how this is going to land, but I’m still going to ask it because I want to create the opportunity. So before we wrap, if you wanted somebody to connect with you or reach out to you, do you have a kind of a connection point? ⁓ How can people reach out to you if you wanted them to?

Speaker 2 (21:32)
You know, ⁓ I just have my personal Facebook page and it’s my first in lat actually my name’s, it’s Nicholas. So I have, ⁓ on Facebook is it’s Nicholas Dugan. And, ⁓ that’s, that’s all really, really, and truly. Cause again, I could reach, I could reach out to everybody. It just wouldn’t be beneficial. Everything I do is pretty much word of mouth.

Speaker 1 (21:54)
Absolutely. Yeah. listen, I mean, he put it out there is Nicholas. That’s you said, you can write D, U, G, G, A, N, correct?

Speaker 2 (22:03)
Yes, sir. And Nicholas is H O L A H N I C H O L A S.

Speaker 1 (22:10)
There you go. There you go. Well, listen, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. I appreciate your perspective. And so thank you. You know, we need people in this space and we need communication and things. We need perspective in this space. So I thank you for being in this space. Thank you for talking about the space that you’re in. And thank you for doing it the right way within a space that you’re in. So thank you so much. I appreciate you, Nick.

Speaker 2 (22:34)
It’s my pleasure. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (22:37)
So

for those, oh, absolutely, man, thank you. So for those tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with people just like Nick Dugan who are out here doing business the right way. We thank you, and we’ll see you next time on the next episode.

Speaker 2 (22:54)
See ya.