Wheat, Whistles, World Travels for Mark Oklahoma Farmer’s Career

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Yeager: Oh, do we have a fun one today. This is going to be maybe a little more of the theme you'll see in 2026. Here on the MToM podcast, we're going to have conversations with more farmers. They're always good for good stories and just explanation of what's going on in their area or in as in this case, today. Career. Don Sheba is a guy I met on a story way back in Oklahoma. We were visiting his farm, and it was thanks to Mark Pearson. We'll get into that in this discussion about how Mark and, had connected me with Don Schieber. Or if you need a little closer off the map, Ponca City, Oklahoma, that's where you're at. But Don talks about his address. So part of the reason we visited Don is his relationship with the wheat growers and the wheat industry in the state of Oklahoma. He's also been around the world to talk about wheat and crops and commodities and many other things. And we'll get into some of his travels there. But where the fun stories truly begin is talking about one of his jobs off the farm. We'll talk about officiating high school football. We'll get into a couple of those tales. But what many of you may know or have noticed in past MToM podcasts, I have a coffee mug from Don and his seed cleaner, imagine that. This is the coffee mug. It's at the office. I'll show you in the tag what it looks like, or at least in the social media posts about this podcast. But we're going to talk about Don's seed cleaning business, how it started, where it took him, and what it exactly did for the wheat industry and his farm. We'll get into what's next. After more than 50 years of farming, he's hit a milestone with age. We talk about the family transition, but most of all, we just have a great conversation with a wonderful human. I'm Paul Yeager, this is the MToM podcast. New episodes come out each and every Tuesday. If you want to send me a note about someone I should talk to, send it to me at Paul.Yeager@IowaPBS.org. Now, let's get to I have to say, Don, our meeting more than a decade ago has stuck with me for many, many reasons. Did you always have visitors coming by the farm?

Schieber: Did I?

Yeager: What did you always have? Visitors and strange people coming by your place?

Schieber: Sure, yeah. We've had trade teams here from all over the world in different places Japan, Taiwan, Colombia, South Africa, different places. And I made friends all over the world. And with some of these people. And I still keep in touch with, people in South Africa, Thailand, Singapore, those places. And, it's just been, real rewarding experience.

Yeager: And clearly, you think Iowa is a foreign country.

Schieber:  Well, not really, but, Mark Pearson had been here to, through Ponca City. A he didn't come here, but, him and Ken Rudin interviewed me one time on the radio up in, Des Moines and, and they were kind of jiving about, corn country talking to wheat farmer.

Yeager: And I think that's kind of how we met. I think Mark had given. Yeah. Your contact information. So we show up, these people show up. What's the first thing you show them? When a visitor would come to the farm?

Schieber: Well, it depends on what their reasoning is for coming, but most of the time, they want to, we try to get them there during wheat harvest. The South Africans we had one time had never been on a combine. They had like, they they didn't understand what we were doing, but I took each one of them a ride for a bin full of wheat. And they looked at it go in the end, and they'd look at it in the, in the bin, and then they'd look out what's coming out the back, and they'd say, how does it do that? So, you know, that was, that was eye opening experience. So, and another thing we learned when we have trade teams come here, it's really important to return the visit. The South Africans, when they were here, they rode the combine. And when we went back, they knew who we were. And they were so glad to see us. And we still keep in touch. And, same thing in Mexico. You know, the Mexicans, they come here, and then we we still keep in touch with a lot of them.

Yeager: Why is it important to have those back and forths?

Schieber: Well, you know, when I was involved with U.S. wheat, that was what we did was try to develop markets and and keep markets going around the world. And, if there's problems, try to solve them for the for the customer. And we just we just need to keep in touch with them so they know what we got in every year. Plains Grains Incorporated makes, yeah, hard red Winter wheat survey nationwide for all the hard red winter wheat states. Puts that into a book. With all of the samples analyzed, they'll get 6 or 700 samples every year, analyze them and put them in a book, and then U.S. wheat will use that with their, wheat quality, tours that they make around the world. And so those things, it's really important. And with the help of the government, we're able to do that.

Yeager: You, live in a time where trade delegations, were the norm. Do we think those are going to be the norm going forward?

Schieber: Well, maybe not with this administration. We have now because of all the, the, the difficulties people have getting, visas to come visit us. And so, you know, it's still remains to be seen, but I would sure hope that we still have a lot of that. Looking looking forward to.

Yeager: And it's important for relationships and understanding.

Schieber: Oh, yes. Yeah. Well, you know, we want them to see what we have, and then be able to purchase that, you know, we have to export about half of our wheat crop. And we haven't been doing that the last couple of years. So we need to we need to keep that possibility still open and make, make it the were that we can get those purchase those sales made and well we've got a lot of work to do there.

Yeager: You're in north central Oklahoma, right?

Schieber: Yes. We're 100 miles north of Oklahoma City.

Yeager: And, pretty much the middle of the wheat belt.

Schieber: Well, we're in one of the top 4 or 5 counties in Oklahoma that produce wheat.

Yeager: And have the last couple of years, tarnished the belt, not just in the sense of you mentioned the crop and the price and the export opportunities. Has it been a little tougher in the last few years to to be in the middle of all that wheat?

Schieber: Well, it has been, a couple of years ago. We've had a pretty good drought then this last year it started out that way, and then it turned off to rain. And, we, we we had a lot of wheat that didn't get harvested in our area just because it turned to weeds and sprout. And, when you get up to 30 or 40% sprout and when your sample is cut, then you know, you're looking at an insurance check and, and, some people are saying, well, you know, if you gotta have insurance to survive, you're in the wrong business. But a lot of us are have insurance because our bankers require.

Yeager: What's the was there a reason for the retirement age? Well, the struggles in the field or. You know what led to the end here?

Schieber: No, the, I'm going to miss it. Really? But my age is sneaking up on me. You know, I don't have that much time left. Who knows how much. You never know from day to day. But if something happens to me, I don't want my wife and my kids to, have to deal with everything that I've got, so.

Schieber: And I've. I've started selling all of my equipment. I'm down to two items left, and I've pretty well sold everything without an auction. So, And I got my price. So that's, you know, when you can do those kind of things, you're in pretty good shape. And we will have some land that we'll probably sell in a year or two. But, you know, right now we're dealing with tax problems. So we'll see how, see what see what we do next. And you know we just can't sell very much at a time.

Yeager: Yeah. That really puts you into a, a bind. That's the old, land rich cash poor. The, you've got everything on paper and and iron. And when it comes to sell, the government says, oh, that's, that's a lot of cash to, to all of a sudden.

Schieber: Yeah. Well, the, you know, you live poor and die rich, but, when you when you've got a pretty good, financial statement and a net worth, but you're cash poor, so that, that is, probably the life of a farmer.

Yeager: You didn't necessarily live poor. We'll get into your life in a moment. I want to just. I'm going to retract before I go too much further down the retirement path. Are you as they always say on the farm, you on the home place?

Schieber: I live, five miles from where I grew up. And,

Yeager: So you're in the neighborhood. You can see it from here. You know, it, you know, has anything changed since you were a boy?

Schieber: Well, everything has gotten faster paced. We, we used to to plow, mow, board, plow with a lay case, tractor pull, pulling a three bottom plow. And now, you know, we plowed this one field. That was 200 acres. It took seven days with two tractors. And then when we started getting four wheel drive and bigger equipment, we went out and did it in one day. So, things have gotten so much faster paced and and, then we've got better, genetics and all of the crops that we grow. And we, we didn't used to be able to grow corn or soybeans in this area. But now with the genetics we got, we've been able to do that. And, it's, you know, you can farm a lot more, if you can acquire the land. But, that's the problem is that you're always busy. You don't have any time for relaxation because you're either planting corners or soybeans or harvesting wheat. And then when you get to harvest in wheat, you gotta get ready to plant the next crop. And then you've got beans and corn to harvest. So you don't have a whole lot of time.

Yeager: And those are your big three wheat, corn, soybeans.

Schieber: Yeah. That's.

Yeager: Did you ever miss anything else?

Schieber: I grew sunflowers one time and that was enough. I didn't do that anymore. But outside of that, well, when I was in, in college, met my wife and, and, she had another year when I graduated. So I went to graduate school, and all these things happen for a reason, I guess. And my master's thesis was the soil survey of a new farm that, OSU had got for a research station. So when I got through with that and graduated, they said, well, we need somebody to run that place. Are you interested? And I said, well, sure. Why not? So we were there three years and, I developed an interest in seed wheat. And, so I started growing seed wheat. And I had a little dab the first year, and, and I didn't know how I was going to get it processed, so my co-op would do it, but they wanted to do it on Sunday. So that's what we did. And then I thought, well, I need to get a seed cleaner myself and do it myself and I can do it when I want to. So I found one up northern Kansas and bought it. And then I discovered that was cleaning all my neighbor's weed and mine wouldn't get cleaned. And I thought, well, you know, this might be a pretty good business. So we started another friend of mine, we we bought two old cleaners out of a co-op, put them together. And the first year it was 1974, we cleaned a half a million bushels because we had such a cheap problem and all the elevators around the area. So that really worked, worked out good. And then another neighbor bought a seed cleaner from a guy in, Lubbock, and he brought it to my place to put it on a trailer and get a motor generator for it and everything. So I rigged it all up. And when the guy was here, I asked him if he had any more use cleaners because I was want to get a better one. He said, all I've got is a brand new one at the factory that a guy ordered and then backed out on. So I said, well, how much you want for it? And he said, $10,000. I said, let me talk to my banker. So he said, go for it. So I bought it. And then, I wanted to put it on a gooseneck trailer, and I wanted a diesel motor, and I wanted a big generator and, and, so I had a neighbor that sold trailers, and I went talk to him and told him what I was wanting to do. Not really sure how I was going to do it. He said, well, sounds to me like what you need is a cattle trailer with no racks. And I got there looking at it and everything just matched up perfect. So I ordered a trailer and it came in, and then I went to the factory and got the sheet cleaner and bought a motor and generator in Saint Louis. On the way back. And every time I had a problem putting everything together, it dissolved itself. Well, as it turned out, it worked out so well. I took it to the three year show, a big machinery show in Kansas, and met a co-op manager and the board from, Sunray, Texas. And, they just they had a bunch of seed wheat. So my first big job was 70,000 bushels. And, so I did that, and then I was showing different people the cleaner, and I said, well, would you build me one? Well, sure. So I built 13 of them and sold them and, got that going real well. And then I ran, ran it for 44 years cleaning seed wheat in the summertime. And that's when I went to No Deal. And, because I didn't have time to farm in the summertime. And then I was just growing seed wheat. So it just worked out. This, you know, everything just happens for a reason. And, and, I just, I cleaned all the wheat in one co-op. They had five elevators full of wheat. This was in 001 when we had a big ice storm, but, it took me all winter. But when I got done, I'd clean 985,000 bushel, and I've cleaned, rocks out of wheat in Texas, and train loads come in out of Canada. They picked up off the ground going to the feedlot, sample great wheat and and, they were the rocks were messing up the roller mills and and the feedlots and, then, I cleaned grasshoppers out of wheat and, one guy had and he had a tandem load of grasshoppers that we got out of 8000 bushels of wheat and had to clean it because the elevator wouldn't take the wheat. So we did that. And then, at the, at the port in Tulsa, we'd been there 14 or 15 times. Separating mixed grain and the mixed grain is how they find leaks in their system. But usually it happens when they put it on a barge and they have to unload the barge. So those kind of things and, and, it's just been a real, real deal. And then I had one guy that I clean seed for called me in January, and he said, I've got a real problem. And I said, what do you do now? And he said, well, I put 25,000 bushels of wheat on top of 400,000 bushels of corn. And I thought, well, do what I tell you, and you won't have that big a problem. So I said, pull it out of the middle of the barn, don't let anybody in the barn. And when it turns to wheat, then stop and start putting that in a separate bin. And whenever that gets done, you goes back to corn stop, because the weed will come out first pretty well and, well. And they had to separate 35,000 bushel. So that was that was a a good deal for him and, and me both. But we've, we've just, the seed cleaning business has just been really good. And then I had a guy come by one day and, and wanted me to teach his son how to how to run a seed cleaner, so. Sure. So two years he worked for me, and then I sold him my business, and, I was getting too old to manhandle the augers anymore. And I was doing between 2 and 300,000 bushels every summer, three months. Last summer he did 450,000 bushel, but he ran 24 hours a day, and I could do that. But he had a good helper that they they did it. So that all worked out real well.

Yeager: So you start this in the early 1970s, you said, I think you said 74.

Schieber: Yeah. 74.

Yeager: If you don't start that business, what would what do you think your farming path would have been? Would you been able to stay just as a guy growing corn and beans?

Schieber: Oh, I would have probably just grown wheat and and, run cattle stock or cattle. But then I, you know, I used to do that too, before I really got involved too much in the seed business. But, then I got too old for the cattle deal, and.

Yeager: And so it allowed you, did it allow you to financially survive? And and you already had a mechanism when the 80s hit is, I guess, what I'm trying to get to. So you already had that other business going so you didn't have to scramble, like maybe some of your neighbors did, to find something to supplement the times that you were in.

Schieber: That was, one of the things that saved my farm, because in 89, we were having trouble making payments, and, we had we had some neighbors that were well-off that helped us. But, you know, it was it was tough surviving 21, 22, 23% interest and, those kind of things, this it got so bad that we had chapter 12 bankruptcy papers filled out but never had to file them. So we were we were fortunate. But, a lot of my neighbors did. And, when Don Nickles was our senator, he was from Ponca City. He came to my house one New Year's Eve morning, and I had some of my neighbors come. He wanted to talk to some of them that had trouble and I had 3 or 4 neighbors that I knew were having trouble. And they come over and, that was one of the saddest days I ever lived through, because they were sitting there with tears in their eyes. And, that was, that was a tough day, but it was reality.

Yeager: What was the toughest year then in your 50 plus years of farming?

Schieber: Well.

Yeager: Or I'm not sorry, not tough. Toughest day, toughest year?

Schieber: Probably 93. We had a complete 100% hail out. And we had we were. And a neighbor of mine decided we needed to do some custom harvesting. Go down to southern Oklahoma. And while we're down there, we got hailed out. And, so then we come back and we were struggling pretty tough again. Even though we survived 89 and, and 88, 87. So, but, well, 87, I had wheat that was six inches tall and we had a 500 year flood. And, I had one field that, crop insurance. There was one little hump that stuck up out of the flood that didn't get damaged. The other part of the field, there were 600 acres in that field. We lost the whole field, except that little hump. And that little hump was the only thing that they had to prove that I even had it planted. And, then they then they, they said that, my crop insurance said that I didn't really qualify for crop insurance because I didn't pay the, the higher the premium because it was in the flood area. And I said, well, you know, when you don't pay the premium, what do you normally do? Well, we cancel it. How come I wasn't canceled? I could never answer that. So, just kind of asking. Yeah. So that was a tough year. But you know, when you have 2 or 3 tough years in a row, the next year that is bad is even worse.

Yeager: Yeah, that's that's the side of it. So we can't be down all the time. What was the best year?

Schieber: Wow. I've had several good years. Let me think. Probably, 2004, as as my, career at the research station for the university. We met a lot of people, that was west of Enid, which is about 100 miles from where I live now. We had a lot of good friends over there, and, we had one couple that were. They didn't have any kids, and they were older. And so I helped him a lot. And we were like kids to them. And they were like parents to us again. And, so when they passed away, they, gave us their farm and that was, that was a big deal. And, you don't you don't expect things like that to happen, but when they do, it's really nice.

Yeager: Your seed business. So I guess I should have even asked this at the very beginning. You did kind of cover it. Exactly. What is in wheat seed cleaning?

Schieber: Well, a lot of people try to call it seed conditioning, but, you got to separate all the dirt and the trash and, the the the knocked the the, Whitecaps off of it. Take the weed seeds out of it. Because, you know, the next wheat crop starts right there at the drill, and you want the best quality seed you can get, and you want to take out the small grains, too, if you can make too much of them, as you can get out and just plant the big ones. My father in law was really good at growing Milo in the west end of the Panhandle, and everybody was always teasing him about how he, did better Milo than they did. And they he said, well, my problem, my my secret is that, planet with the, germ facing down so it can grow easier and so, you know, you gotta have a little bit of fun along with everything else that you do.

Yeager: And the difference between wheat and, say, corner beans is the genetics and the who owns the seed, right. You couldn't clean corn or beans. You'd be in a little more trouble.

Schieber: You could if it was, conventional corn or conventional beans. You can do that. But not very many people do because they don't have any of the the disease traits in it that these genetic varieties do. And you just got a better chance to make a quality crop with those genetics.

Yeager: Yeah. And that's how that works. And I think you told me, you went to several states with this business. You made, several friends along the way. Millions of bushels were probably cleaned. Do you think you're going to be known more as the seed clean guy than the farmer guy from from? Oh.

Schieber: Well, probably so, because, the guy that I bought my seed cleaners from lived in Lubbock, Texas, and, he told me not too long ago that I taught him more about seed cleaning than anybody. And I thought, well, he probably tells that to everybody that has a cleaner. So you never know. But, I, in the in the young man that, sold my cleaning business to. He still calls me once in a while. And and talks about things, but he's building a bigger cleaner now, so he can do a lot more than what he's been doing.

Yeager: There you go. That's that's good. Okay, so we've talked about the the next for your, your seed clean business, the next for your farm. I think you've got daughters. And none of them were interested in coming back. Did you ever entertain or work them harder? Had that, had those conversations go well?

Schieber: Two of my daughters are not married. One of them is, she lives in Tulsa. She's got four kids. She's a CPA, and so's her husband. They both have a lot better jobs than than, the farm would be. And our daughter in Florida, we have one in Jacksonville, Florida. She's got a job that, is in upper management, so she's doing really well. And our, our daughter, other daughter lives in Dallas, Texas, and she's into pharmaceutical reps. So she sells pharmaceutical reps to doctors and does a lot of those things. And, and, she had one that, she would even go in the operating room with soldiers when they did surgery for some. But they are doing all of them are doing so much better. And that's what you want for your kids.

Yeager: And sometimes it just doesn't necessarily go back to the land. It goes in other directions.

Schieber: Yeah, well, my one daughter, she came home and run the grain cart for me this year. And, after about three days, she was ready to go back to Florida.

Yeager: So. That's, just, that reiterates the decisions she had made on what, what to do with her life and maybe what not to do. When you also, weren't cleaning seed or farming, you had you had plans most fall Friday nights.

Schieber: Well, I wasn't good enough to play football. I did play one year in high school, but, you know, I, I would have played more, but I had to work on the farm. And that was the problem so many kids had, in those days. And so I thought, well, you know, I wanted to stay around football somehow. And the only way to do that was be a referee. And, when our first daughter was born, my wife's roommate in the hospital, they had roommates back then, and they started there, too. But, her husband was a referee. And so we got we got hooked up and got started. And that's when we lived in Enid. And, so I did that for 50 years. And there's we can tell as near as we could guess, it's close to 500 football games that, refereed. And then, we did two years of arena football in the spring. You get hurt in that deal.

Yeager: You had to jump up on the boards to get out of the plays then.

Schieber: Well, those guys are not like high school kids. High school kids that do everything they can not to hit you, but those guys, or they just knock you out of the way.

Yeager: You're used as a you're used as part of the blocking scheme. Oh. Yeah. Some of those offenses. Yeah. And you were the white hat.

Schieber: No, I was the umpire that either went with the linebackers. Yeah.

Yeager: Okay, so it was. Honestly. Come on.

Schieber: My favorite position.

Yeager: Is there's holding on every play. So how do you determine when there's not holding and when there is holding?

Schieber: Well, it yeah. You, you know, if, if the play goes one way and there's holding on the other side, you're not going to call it. You tell them you, you saw it. And that's the play would have come that way. You'd have nailed them. But in my position, when you see a, an offensive tackle, this wrapped his arms around the legs. As soon as the snap happens and tackles the guy. You got it. But, you know, if it's not going to affect the play, you let the let the game go and, catch it when it's really a problem. Barry Sanders, you remember who he was? His son. Late, high school football in Oklahoma. And, we refereed a game that he played in and, called back a 70 yard touchdown run. He had for holding.

Yeager: Was he the one that did the holding or. He was the runner?

Schieber: He was the runner. Yeah. That's why he had a 70 yard run.

Yeager: Oh, he had the run. Oh okay, I get you. Yeah.

Schieber: Yeah. And we nailed somebody else for a hold it, let it, let him loose. So but you know and there was a couple of times when you know kids, kids are kids and they, they get out there and start kicking, fighting instead of playing football. And a couple of times I even called timeout and got both captains out in the middle of the field and went to yelling at them that this is not football. And if you don't straighten up and start playing football, we're going to give you both the forfeit and go home. It made a lot of difference and they straightened up. So and then we've had you gotta you got to be able to deal with the coaches too. I had a coach on the sideline waiting for kickoff one time, said, we need to talk about that call you made. I thank you. I think you were wrong. And I said, well, coach, I'll be glad to listen to you, but if I agree with you, we're both wrong. Here you go. What was that? Was the end of that. And then another one. The coach called timeout, wanted to talk to the white hat. So he went over there and, he wasn't there 15 seconds and came back, and I said, that didn't take long. What was that about? He said, well, he told me we were wrong on that call we made. And I told him to look in the rule book on page 58 and it'll tell you were right. He said, thank you. That was it. I said, what's on page 58? He said, I don't know. So, so, you know, you got to be able to deal with them. And then we had another coach. They called timeout out on, in the fourth quarter when we had pass interference on his team and they were getting clobbered, and he come out on the field and he got out and he's, he said the first thing he said was, don't laugh. And he starts throwing his arms around. And all these kids on the field and all these coaches on the sideline and mamas in the crowd to come to see us get our tails kicked. They think, I come out here to rip your butt, but I come out here to tell you that was a dang good call. And, you know, it's it's things like that. You just, you know, you just can't wait for Friday night.

Yeager: And you did that. You said 50 years. Did you ever do any state championship games or playoff games?

Schieber:  Yeah, well, I did probably probably 100 playoff games, but we did four state championship games. Three of them were eight man games. And two of them the same school one. And they were like 7 or 8 years apart. But those things championship games are just what it's all about. That's you know, you got to be pretty good to do that. We had one game, one time where the year before these two schools played, they had a big rumble. And there was 8 or 9 ejections. And after that game, they canceled every sporting event between those two schools. And then the next year, they had to play in the playoffs. And we got that game because they knew we could handle it. And, so it was, one of the best sportsmanship games we'd ever had. And a couple days later, the coach from the the winning team sent us a text and said he was coaching for 29 years, and that was the most professional officiating he'd ever had. Well, those kind of things make you feel good. And, it just gives you more, more push to to keep going back and doing it again.

Yeager: And you said you did arena. Did you ever think about your crew talk about going to do some college games?

Schieber: Well, I had a chance to go to Denver one time for clinic and it was they had big eight, big 12, Mac conference and NFL looking for officials. And I got to think I was 57 at the time. And I got to thinking, I called the guy, I can't remember his name now that was running at the the DL, but he was a former NFL referee, and, he, he told me that, the big 12 had hired 257 year old umpires the year before. And I thought, well, I'm good enough. I think I could do it and, wouldn't be scared to do it. But, then I thought, well, I'd have to give up high school football. And I did not want to do that, so I didn't go. So high school football was just, that was where it was at for me. And, when I was chairman of U.S., we we had a guy named Jim Tunney who was one of the deans of the NFL officiating ranks for several years. And he came and talked to us and, he told me that he was, he had three orange, Super Bowl rings, and he was eligible for fourth one. But he didn't take it because he was the alternate, didn't go on the field. Well, I thought that was classy of him, but he was super guy.

Yeager: When your world did your worlds of farming and officiating ever, you know, intersect, I mean, was it one of those where you're dry? I mean, besides, you're driving from play from home and you get on the interstate and you're like, oh, that field looks good. That one. I mean, that's the nature of a farmer. But I mean, how much more did your worlds ever interact?

Schieber: Well, I got off the tractor plant wheat one day and drove 75 miles to referee a football game that night, and it was like 80 degrees when I got off the tractor. And so I expected it to be nice that evening. Well, we got to the game site and had a short sleeve shirt on and it was 31 degrees, so we like to froze to death that night. But the coldest game I did was on a Saturday afternoon, game that was 20 below zero wind factor, six inches of snow on the ground, and it was snowing. But, we we just said, I don't care if where he's at. He's inbounds. Complex. Oh, he's not.

Yeager: Well on the clock. He's inbounds.

Schieber: It's not going to stop.

Yeager: I don't even think we get that bad of weather in Iowa. You're farther south than we are. So good. You know, good for the state to keep playing that game.

Schieber: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, we've we've still our fields are still hot today. So, we had obviously 7 or 8in of snow a week ago and the today, yesterday it got up to 38, I think. So that's the first day we've been above freezing in over a week. And but they're, they're, they're promising close to 70 next week. So we'll see. But it's still plenty plenty dry.

Yeager: Has it hit you yet that you don't have anything to do here in a couple of weeks? No.

Schieber: I still got two pieces of equipment to sell a semi and a planter, and, we want to go to where I want to do some traveling. I haven't been up in the northeastern United States much. Of course, I, I did military time in Fort Dix, new Jersey, but. And I was up in New York a little bit. But I want to go up into Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, those kind of places and see what they're like. I mean, pretty well everywhere west of the Mississippi and, from, Ohio, South Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But up in there didn't make it.

Yeager: So you've got some traveling to do, but at what point it'll probably be in that April, May when you're going. Yeah. It's kind of odd to not be getting on a train farther.

Schieber: Yeah. More than likely. I've got two close friends that want me to run a combine. This year, so I'll do that. I mean, I'm going to have to do something to make a little money because, I don't have any retirement as a.

Yeager: Farmer.

Schieber: But, and it's.

Yeager: Like, it's it's all driven off on wheels.

Schieber: Sorry, Don. Yeah, I get Social Security, my wife gets Social Security, but she gets mine, and that's what we live off of. So, and, you know, sometimes we got to add to it, but, you know, I'm looking forward to it. But then again, I'm not. But, you know, like Doctor Laura says, between now and dead, what are you going to do? So, you know, you don't know how much time you got. So I want to take advantage of every minute I got.

Yeager: I do a lot of, oral history interviews with broadcasters in Iowa. And one of the questions we ask, I guess I should ask, it's you. I didn't prompt you that I was going to do this. What's going to be the lead in your biography, Don? What's the lead line?

Schieber: Well, I told my wife that when she lays me in the casket, I want a smile on my face because I've had a good life. And that's all you can ask for. I mean, we've had we've had good kids and they've all done well, and they've done better than we have. And that's, that's a good accomplishment. And, I got a extremely good wife, and I'm really lucky that I found her. It's funny, we met at college, but I had the same friends for three years before we met. And, sitting there in lobby one night visiting with one of my friends who was her friend. She came in, she was working in the cafeteria in a different dorm, and I saw her and I thought, I don't know anything about her, but I better marry her. And, made her mad the first time I talked to her, because my friend said she could get me a date, so she'd set it up for the next night. So I called her, and I said, I hear we have a date tomorrow night. She said, well, you're supposed to ask me. So I knew then we had it, but, it was still a struggle.

Yeager: And tell me her first name, Don?

Schieber: Cecilia.

Yeager: Okay, Cecilia. And you, if you've probably had some good laughs and some good cries over the years together, and that's that's what it's supposed to be about.

Schieber: Yeah, probably. You know, you asked me what was the worst time and that was we had one daughter that we lost when she was 24. She had a, a, seizure disorder. And, and, we thought we had her cured. And then she had a baby, and, it came back and and, took her down when the baby was three months old.And, that was probably the toughest time we ever had. But our priest got us through it, and, you never get over it, but you get through it.

Yeager: Just, you know, life is one day at a time. Just like farming is one round at a time.

Schieber: Yeah, that's for sure. One crop at a time. And you know, you get one crop done. You're already looking for the next one.

Yeager: All right, well, don't be looking too hard here this, fall and or the spring and summer, because it ain't yours.

Schieber: Yeah, that's true, it is, and not mine. But that don't mean I'm still not interested in, you know, because if the guys that I rented my, land out that I own. And if they don't do. Well, I'm not going to get paid.

Yeager: Did you have somebody specific that you wanted to rent to? Were you looking for somebody under a certain age, size or you just wanted.

Schieber: Well, that retirement income. Now, a good friend of mine that we we did custom harvesting together starting in 93, we went down to southern Oklahoma and struggled doing that. And, but we we needed to do something because we were ready to harvest here for a month or two and couldn't do anything. We weren't growing corn or soybeans back then and just wheat. And, so we just I had a friend in southern Oklahoma and called him and see if he could find us a job. Well, come and help me. So we did it. And we did all the custom cut and wicked find around there and then moved to, north of Chickasha, south of El Reno. I had a cousin there. Well, we haul in my combine up there. We had a blowout on the combine trailer. We unloaded in the ditch, and when only 5 or 6 miles from where we were going, the farmer stopped. And he said, I'm having trouble. Well, yeah, we blew out a tire. He said, where are you headed? And I told him, he said, well, I know him. He said, you looking for a job? And I said, well, yeah, we'd like to find some more wheat to cut. He said, well, you can cut mine. I said, what do you got? He said, 250 acres. Well, where's it at? He just pointed right there. So we were at the field and didn't know it.

Yeager: Okay.

Schieber: So, you know, you got to have a little bit of luck along with good judgment and good weather.

Yeager: All those factors come together, Don. That's for sure.

Schieber: Yeah, they sure do. And you know, you can't just count on one factor. You got to have them all.

Yeager: It's, it's nice to have. And, I want to thank you for for your hospitality years ago and, continued communication that we've had over the years and all the visitors and guests. I think you've done your part to, spread the word of, of Oklahoma farmers.

Schieber: Yeah. Well, you know, we try, one of my favorite trips was when I went to Moscow. We went to, I had to give a welcome to, meeting of the Russian Grain Union. The 300 Russians in the crowd, all wearing headsets with, interpreters. And, somebody took my picture while I was speaking to them. And this was in, 2011 when they had a draft and, wanted to thank them, but I couldn't do that. But, I just told them that as an American wheat farmer, we don't like making money off other people's disasters. And that's true. And, said we need you back in the market. So, then when I got finished with my presentation, I said, you notice this gentleman took my picture. They always take pictures of the speakers, but nobody ever takes a picture. The crowd. So I said, if you all would stand, I would like to take your picture. So they finally did, and I took their picture. I had my camera with me and, I said, that's good. You can be seated. While they were sit down, I said, my wife, I'll never believe I got a standing ovation in Moscow. And I pulled that trick several places around the world. And it's worked every time. Had a good laugh and, gave one in, Jakarta a couple of years ago. And, told them I was a wheat farmer and, from Oklahoma, I have I don't think I've ever been this far from home before, but I didn't mention that I'd been to South Africa. But, when the meeting was over, this lady came up out of the crowd and she said, you from Oklahoma? And I said, yes, ma'am. She said, I went to Oklahoma State. So, you know, they get around the world, too. So that was, that was fascinating just to do that.

Yeager: You could both say go pokes.

Schieber: Oh, sure. Yeah. You do that every time you get a chance. Go pokes.

Yeager: Don, thank you so very much. I greatly appreciate your time.

Schieber: Oh, anytime, Paul, it's good to see you again. You need to come this way and visit.

Yeager: Absolutely. Next time I get down your way, I know where to go.

Schieber: I'll take you to a football game.

Yeager: Hey, now we're talking. Thanks, Don.

Schieber: Okay. Thanks, Paul.

Yeager: My thanks to the production crew at Iowa PBS, where the Market to Market TV show and the MToM podcast are based. Production supervisor is Sean Ingrassia. His crew includes Reed Denker, Neil Kyer, Julie Knutson and David Feingold, and the Kevin Rivers. The executive producer of Market to Market is David Miller. I'm Paul Yeager, your host and editor. We'll see you next time here on the MToM podcast.