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Eggheads is the go-to podcast for egg industry professionals who are interested in leadership and innovation in the egg world. Host Greg Schonefeld explores the evolving world of modern egg farming, from the latest in cage-free innovations and organic certifications to navigating the economics of large-scale production. Whether you're an egg producer, supplier, or involved in poultry genetics, this show provides the insights and expert discussions you need to thrive in the industry. Crack open the science, strategies, and stories behind the egg industry’s biggest challenges and opportunities.
Cole Luthman:
At 4:30, 5:00 every morning I wake up and I go manage my own barn before I go to Cooper's. And then I go home and do all the biosecurity measures and shower and change clothes and go out and service Cooper's facilities as I normally would. And then I come back home at the end of the day, shower and do all the things again, and then go back into my barns.
Greg Schonefeld:
I'm Greg Schonefeld and this is Eggheads. I feel like as every generation gets older, they start to say the same thing about kids these days and how they don't know the value of a hard day's work. Well, today's guest really turns that stereotype on its head.
Cole Luthman:
Back when I was 13, we have a contract grower with Cooper's now and they were needing some help, so I drove down the road. It's only a couple miles away from where I live currently. And I started off packing eggs and doing some barn maintenance stuff. So I just started there when I was young and developed a passion for it.
Greg Schonefeld:
That's Cole Luthman, and at 13 years old, he began working at one of Cooper Farms contract growers near his home in Northwest Ohio. Cole grew up around agriculture. His family had a 500 acre grain farm, but it was clear even when he was in high school that he had a natural aptitude for livestock as well.
Cole Luthman:
When I was still in high school, my FFA ag advisor, she was really pushing me to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. So the FFA has this thing called a proficiency award, one of them being poultry production, and I ended up winning that award, which was pretty crazy. I didn't think I could ever get myself into a position like that. And then why stop there? She's like, "We got to go and pursue the national level as well." So I went to the national level and I was a top four finalist.
Greg Schonefeld:
All the while, Cole continued his work with the contract grower where he received mentorship that would alter the course of his career.
Cole Luthman:
So I was working through this contract family grower for several years, and as I was doing that, I got to meet a guy named Gus Skarky, who was a service rep for Cooper Farms at the time. And after talking with him, that led me into pursuing an agricultural degree at Wright State University Lake Campus in Celina, Ohio, where I pursued a bachelor's degree of agriculture focusing on animal science and agronomy. And I achieved that in two and a half years. So I was just pushing through to try and get it done and get out of school.
Greg Schonefeld:
Cole was eager to get out of the classroom and back onto the farm where he could do the thing he'd come to love most, working with animals. After graduating, Cole went back to work at Cooper Farms, but now instead of working for a contract grower, Cole is the lead service technician at the company, responsible for overseeing five out of their eight million birds, which is impressive given that he's only 25 years old. Today we're sitting down with Cole to pick his brain about his really unique career path and what other young people can learn from his journey through the industry. I mean, you've got this degree that maybe partially prepares you, but you also had all this hands-on experience already. Can you talk about, I don't know, that combination that have both served you early on?
Cole Luthman:
Yeah, so the degree itself, looking back on it now, would I have needed it? Probably not, based on my experience that I already had. But going to schooling and learning some more information about even just the poultry side of things was a lot more beneficial now than it was more than I ever thought it would be. It helped me understand disease issues and I use that on a day-to-day basis now, helping growers with health-related issues on their farms, figuring out what kind of medications and stuff we need to run to help improve their health status. But some of that experience now also came from being hands-on in the field. So being at Cooper's now for the last five years, I've seen just about everything from small little diseases such as E. coli to High Path AI unfortunately. So there's been a lot of growth and a lot of learning just within those five years.
Greg Schonefeld:
Can you talk a little bit about, I don't know, what your day-to-day looks like at Cooper Farms today or what your responsibilities are?
Cole Luthman:
For sure. So as of right now, I have about 10 contract growers that I maintain on a daily basis, and it doesn't seem like a whole lot, but one of them includes our Golden Heritage Complex, which is approximately four million layers. So within our company, soon to be eight million layers. I take care of roughly five million of those right now. So on a day-to-day basis, I wait for phone calls in the morning as the first thing. So about 7:00, 8:00 or so, I'll get some phone calls from growers, "Hey, I'm starting to see this," or, "I'm starting to have a decline in egg production," or, "I'm starting to see an increase in mortality. Can you stop out on my farm and take a look at the birds?" So I plan my day according to that, go out to the farms, report back to our company veterinarian and on what we found.
That way we can better assist the growers with any of the issues that they're having. So really every day is a little bit different, and that's what I really love about my job. There's not anything set in stone. You pretty much develop your schedule. You go out and work with these growers and just these growers in general is like having a second family to me. They really care about your presence. They really care about all your assistance, and then you develop a personal relationship with them as well, more or less, not just a working relationship. So all that's been really good as well.
Greg Schonefeld:
That's great. And part of what I'm hearing there, I mean, so you're waiting for these calls and then you're troubleshooting. How did you gain the experience to be able to troubleshoot things like that?
Cole Luthman:
So within my first year of starting at Cooper's, I pretty much rode around with the service rep that whole year. I didn't have any farms under my name, but it was just to get me exposed to the environment and the grower network itself. But then this also gave me the opportunity to see the problems with another service rep and how they handled them. And fortunately, Gus Skarky was that guy. He was the guy that trained me and he was my mentor while I started at Cooper's. And from little diseases such as E. coli and how to post birds and what that looked like or necrotic enteritis, just any of those little diseases that had great impacts on bird health and how to handle them, he was able to show me that. So now anytime I go out to a barn now, that's just all real simple easy knowledge that I'm now trying to pass on to our newer service reps that have just started within our company as well.
Greg Schonefeld:
You're kind of in a seat where you get to see a lot because you're seeing things across several operations.
Cole Luthman:
Yup. I get to see anything from cage facilities, poultry facilities now since I just took this job position as well. And right when I started, Cooper was making the huge transition from being majority caged to going cage-free. And the whole aviary network of cage free was definitely a learning experience for everybody, but I was fortunate enough to start that process with them too. So we got to see the dos and don'ts right away and then how to fix some of the problems inside of these aviary barns before they start. And I think just from starting recently with cage-free aviary barns, knowing what we know now, we can raise a lot healthier flocks to produce high quality eggs.
Greg Schonefeld:
Do you think that that change is almost, I don't know, in some ways an advantage for you because everyone's a little new to it?
Cole Luthman:
Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, there's a lot of growers in our network that are 40, 50 years old and I'm 25. So having somebody like me come out on their farm and try and tell them what to do is sometimes a little challenging. You have to look past that a little bit because they also do have experience with their buildings. They know how their buildings operate different times of year. So when we made this transition to cage-free, they were just as clueless as the rest of us. So we were all learning together and they were actually reaching out to us for assistance because we have contacts in the industry versus themselves to help them fix these problems.
Greg Schonefeld:
Interesting. How do you work with someone older than you and with all this experience? And maybe you've got a different angle of experience or certain things you've seen, but you know they do too. How do you approach that?
Cole Luthman:
So when I run into a situation like that, and I don't run into it as much as I used to, but when it did start, I would just let the grower explain their building to me, explain their process, and I would take it from there and then go back to the office or maybe just when I was on my drive to the next farm, okay, how can we make this process better? But without stepping on the growers toes as well and trying to work with them. So when I would go to the farm, to me it was more important to establish a good relationship with them first. And then once I got a good relationship established with them, it was a lot easier to point out changes like, "Hey, what do you think about trying this instead of what you've been doing?" Honestly, it seems to be working and it's a lot easier to get stuff done that way.
Greg Schonefeld:
Touching on cage-free, from your perspective in your seat, do you see some keys there, maybe some key challenges or key things to look for when it comes to cage-free?
Cole Luthman:
For sure. So giving the birds the ability to roam the house is its own challenge in itself. I mean, there was a reason why birds were first placed in cages instead of being on the floor. The main challenge just being that the bird is so sensitive, she doesn't like when it's extremely hot. She doesn't like when it's extremely cold. It can cause her to do weird behavioral things such as piling. And you have to understand when that stuff happens, what caused it. So now having some of these buildings for five years now, that's extremely easy to me. You have one section of the house that all of a sudden you have random bird activity, they're clustering in groups. It's like, okay, what's going on? They obviously don't like something in the environment, and usually it's temperature related.
So now we know how to solve those issues. Especially right now as we're going into the fall season, it's going to be a little cooler outside. Growers are going to have to make some tweaks to their temperature. That way the cool air is not blowing directly on the chickens. It'll help keep their behavior more calm. And really overall, that's pretty much the main challenge with cage-free is just understanding their behavior and you have to monitor it daily.
Greg Schonefeld:
I've never been in charge of operating a facility or sitting in your kind of seat, but just what strikes me from my seat is there's so many variables. If something's going wrong, is it temperature? Is it lighting? Is it genetics? Is it training of the bird? I don't know if experience just tells you what the likely cause is, you've seen problems and then you've seen solutions. I mean, how do you think about that kind of thing?
Cole Luthman:
For sure. Yeah, experience has definitely helped with that. And because of that, when I start up a new flock, I have a lighting schedule, I have a temperature schedule, I have a feeding schedule that I provide the grower with. That way, it gives them a great tool to use right away. Because I can't be on the farm every single day, but if they at least have that tool to follow it, they can call me and ask me questions. And from there, it'll get their flock started off in the right direction with hopefully avoiding some of the issues that we have seen in the past by not doing it this way, such as trying to draw the birds down into the system to keep them from laying so many eggs up top.
If you move them out or move them down and even them out, they're less likely to all want to go lay eggs in one nest box. They'll spread themselves out. So then you take away that piling risk. Lighting, you don't want to have the house too bright. You have to find what's comfortable with the birds. So certain areas of the house are a little dimmer than others. If you notice the birds staring at lights, that's not a great sign. You have to make it a little bit darker. Same thing with clustering. They'll cluster due to light, they'll cluster due to ventilation issues. So just keeping a close eye on them is very important.
Greg Schonefeld:
Interesting. And so you touched a little bit unfortunately on having to deal with HPAI. Can you talk some to that experience and what your role was in that?
Cole Luthman:
For sure. So in 2023 was our first High Path experience, and Cooper Farm started in a Turkey facility. And none of these locations were close to each other. They were all pretty well spread out. And it's like, "Okay, it's happened. It's finally here. Now it's do our training. We've been through a bunch of training and stuff, so let's take what we've talked about forever in meetings and apply it to these farms and just get the situation handled as quickly as possible." And then when it officially hit one of our layer facilities, unfortunately it was the farm that I worked on as a kid, and it really did hit home. That was our first one, and being able to be there for them was a great feeling for me because it was a learning experience for everybody. And we were able to get that farm put down in a relatively quick manner.
We understood our issues that we had and how to make them better. So we were like, okay, if high path ever comes back, I feel like we're more prepared and we'll be ready for the worst case scenarios. And then unfortunately this year, basically December, right before Christmas, we had our first non-negative, and it was honestly devastating because it was one of our large facilities. So we worked through our, basically what we've learned at that previous farm, we were able to get that farm put down pretty fast, but it's like, okay, hopefully it'll stop and it's maintained right there and we won't have to worry about it. But within a couple of days, it started spreading from location to location. And at that point I was still in the office. I was trying to keep myself away from being on site with all the diseased farms, but just my nature basically, I'm like, I can't sit here and do nothing. I have to go out there and help them.
So I pretty much put myself on every single High Path farm. And I was there from basically dawn to dusk, helping them get their facilities put down and start the cleanup process and help them work through all the challenges. The most reassuring thing from those growers too was their appreciation for us. Hearing later on after High Path moved on and things were settling down, getting the phone calls back from the growers saying how prepared we were and how much they appreciated us being there to help them was honestly one of the greatest feelings in the world.
Greg Schonefeld:
And it sounds like, I mean, you could look to, Hey, I'm still the young guy here. I'm the less experienced guy here. Someone else is going to handle this, but it really sounds like you're taking an approach like, I'm just going to step in and do whatever I can.
Cole Luthman:
Exactly. Yup, I just had to. But thankfully we have a great service team and just being out on the farm wasn't the only stressful thing. There was so many other factors. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the full recovery area and how densely populated we are, but the amount of swabs that we had to send out to these farms daily for egg movement was just crazy.
Greg Schonefeld:
Yeah, Ohio really got devastated overall earlier this year.
Cole Luthman:
It did.
Greg Schonefeld:
You had to be on pins and needles for a period of time there.
Cole Luthman:
Yup. And the growers, when you would sit there and they would ask you like, "Hey, my neighbor just broke with High Path AI, can I make it through it? What's the likelihood that my farm will be okay?" And they'd be a half mile down the road, basically right in the wind direction of the other farm that just broken. We'd be like, "Do what you can, do what you can control, but if you can make it through seven days, then fingers crossed you'll be okay." And most of them farms would start seeing signs within seven days after a previous break at another farm. So it was just devastating. Everybody felt helpless.
Greg Schonefeld:
So if you can't tell already, Cole is one of those people who's just a doer. It's just not in his nature to sit on the sidelines while all of the hard work gets done. And managing the relationships with all those contract growers and making sure their flocks stay healthy, as if that wasn't enough, Cole recently decided to take on even more responsibility by becoming a contract grower himself.
Cole Luthman:
2023, Coopers were looking to start expanding again. And my boss at the time, he actually has a barn with Coopers as well. So I approached him and I'm like, "Hey, what's the chances that I'd be given the opportunity to build a barn someday?" And he goes, "Oh, for sure. We're definitely not going to put it past you. Once the time comes, we'll sit down and talk about it and see if stuff works out." So we had a couple meetings about it and they're like, "Yep, go ahead and start getting stuff started." And overall, since working in the industry at such a young age and the passion that I developed for it, I think this has ultimately been my end goal to get something of my own someday. So we got that building started in the planning phase back in 2023, and then we started construction in the spring of 24. And I just got my first flock of birds here in May of 2025 and things have been honestly going really well. The birds have been really healthy.
The startup process has been awesome. The installation of the equipment was great, so can't complain. Can't complain about that. And yeah, everything, honestly, that was one of the best startups you could possibly have on a new flock in a new facility. And so now that also goes back to my day-to-day stuff. Basically at 4:30, 5:00 every morning I wake up and I go manage my own barn before I go to Cooper's, and then I go home and do all the biosecurity measures and shower and change clothes and go out and service Cooper's facilities as I normally would. And then I come back home at the end of the day, shower and do all the things again, and then go back into my barn. So it's pretty much turned into a full-time job and commitment, but it's honestly been my dream and I couldn't imagine myself doing anything different.
Greg Schonefeld:
That's great. Can you talk a little bit how that works? So you're a grower, part of the grower network. What does that mean exactly?
Cole Luthman:
Yep. So Cooper Farms is basically just a contract company. So Cooper Farms owns the birds and provides the feed to the growers. So Cooper Farms in general, having about eight million layers. We have about 56 grower locations not owned by Cooper Farms that help raise the birds. So being a grower is extremely important. Having all of our service reps go out to these farms to manage the birds is a key and vital aspect to how our company operates. And when we choose growers, we always try and choose the ones that are ambitious, especially on the cage-free side because it's not an easy task no matter what anybody says. It's got its own fair share of challenges daily. And choosing the right people to maintain those flocks is very important. So when I was given that opportunity, I think they obviously seen that too, that I was going to be a good caretaker for them.
Greg Schonefeld:
So now being a grower yourself, does that give you added perspective when you're working with other growers as well?
Cole Luthman:
So that was also one of my key points too, when they were trying to decide whether I could build a building or not, was that it's sometimes hard to get growers to try new things. But with me having my own barn, I can try those things on my facility to see if it works or if it has any benefit before I try it on anybody else. So now when I go back to some of these other growers and it's like, "Hey, I've seen the same issue and this is what I did and it corrected it." They're more willing to try some of those things as well.
Greg Schonefeld:
Oh, man. You're a salesman too, huh?
Cole Luthman:
Oh, yeah.
Greg Schonefeld:
What about on the business side of things, because you're running a business now too. I mean you took, I would imagine some financial risk and those kinds of things. How do you think about that side of the equation?
Cole Luthman:
For sure. So that was all definitely something I was thinking about the whole time, but I never really gave it a whole lot of thought until everything was finished. And it's like, okay, I understand what all these other growers are going through. Thankfully I've got a healthy flock. But there's sometimes you get flocks that move in that are just out of your control, they struggle. And depending on what happens to your birds, that can put a huge financial burden on the grower themselves. That's why I always try my best to help the growers out in any way, shape, or form to benefit their farm, not just to benefit Cooper Farms, but it has to benefit them as well. So that's really put into perspective, the grower side of things versus just being a service rep. I could sit back and just say, oh yeah, we need to do this at this farm, and then wait a few days to get it started.
I mean, when it comes to anything disease related, I'm typing emails, texting people, I'm like, this is happening today. We're not waiting a day or two to get stuff approved. It has to happen now. And I think a lot of growers really appreciate that ambition and drive too because it's affecting Cooper's, but it affects them more than it does us.
Greg Schonefeld:
You understand the impact?
Cole Luthman:
Yes.
Greg Schonefeld:
Yeah. So is this kind of an investment you see setting you up for retirement? Is it like a side project? I mean, do you think you'll want to add more in the future? How do you see that side of things?
Cole Luthman:
Yes, so that's my goal. I've got the permit to build another building as well, so I'm hoping within the next year or two to get that process started. But yeah, I am looking towards my future, towards my kids' future. I don't have any kids yet, but I'm just trying to think of how can I better set them up down the road and this would be a great opportunity. So hopefully they've got a passion just as big as mine for the poultry industry.
Greg Schonefeld:
Well, maybe they'll get to hear this one day and they'll be inspired.
Cole Luthman:
That's right.
Greg Schonefeld:
So what do you say, I mean when people, you hear commonly, "Oh, young people don't want to work anymore, young people don't know how to work anymore." What comes to your mind when you hear those words?
Cole Luthman:
I mean, I completely get where they're coming from because I can see that as well. Some people are just your nine to five-ers. They do what they have to do and that's it. They don't really have any extra ambition to go and do anything else or go pursue anything extra. So people in our area, it's with it being pretty much livestock-driven, there's a lot of ambition to just keep that growing and to keep the agricultural community stable. I mean, yeah, basically people our age not having ambition and stuff. I'd say our area is very fortunate. We don't see too much of it.
Greg Schonefeld:
So what do you think the key is to that? It sounds like it's maybe the exposure. You're saying your area, there's a lot of exposure to this. People are born doing it, they know what it's like, that kind of thing.
Cole Luthman:
Exactly. It's already their lifestyle and they're just looking to basically improve their farms is what it's coming down to now. It's all going to a generational thing. They want to continue what their grandpa started, what their dad started and continued, and they just want to keep snowballing it and keep it growing.
Greg Schonefeld:
Yeah, interesting. Do you think also maybe there's some people out there who would be interested but just don't know what kind of opportunity is out there?
Cole Luthman:
I would say so. I mean, I was in that same shoe just trying to figure out what I wanted to do as a future career before I graduated high school. I didn't know what job opportunities were available at the time, and I was thinking about being a vet someday. But I also really didn't want to go through all the schooling that entailed to become a vet either. And then once I discovered that, hey, there's service positions, basically a step below a vet to go out to these farms and help care for these animals. I'm like, yeah, that's definitely what I want to do. So just getting exposed to the right people I think really makes a pretty big impact.
Greg Schonefeld:
What would you say to a young person trying to break into the field? How should they go about it and should they do it?
Cole Luthman:
I would say if you've got a dream and you've got a passion, try and follow that dream. It doesn't matter how young you are, age is not a factor on that. My dad would tell me all the time, "You got to start it when you're young." And he was a big help and assistance in getting this whole operation started for me. So if anybody out there has just a career ambition and they're wondering, yeah, I haven't pursued it yet because I don't think it's feasible. You never know until you try and you never know until you look. So just get yourself surrounded by the right people and things will just pick up and take off as long as you're willing to.
Greg Schonefeld:
What about for an egg operation looking to attract young people? What advice would you give them?
Cole Luthman:
I would say if you're trying to attract young people into the egg industry, I would make your company known, your opportunities known right off the bat too. I think Cooper Farms is really great at doing that. They everywhere, all over social media have different job postings for all kinds of different positions. Whether you want to be in a processing plant or a processing manager, the job opportunities are endless. So really for these companies, it's just a matter of voicing what they offer and I think that'll draw the attention to the younger generation.
Greg Schonefeld:
And what about, I mean, to someone just like starting out and wanting to build their career, the college degree, should they do that? And if yes, I mean, what else should they do? I guess what general advice do you have to someone just starting their career, maybe straight out of high school or straight out of college?
Cole Luthman:
I would say definitely still look down the road of your college degree because a lot of companies really like to have that in the back of the portfolio for you, but you don't necessarily have to have it either. If you've got career ambition and you've got a lot of experience in certain areas, a lot of companies will take that over your degree any day, especially with some jobs or some companies are really struggling to find some people. And basically as long as you're willing to grow, expand and accept the challenge, I don't think you'll have any issue finding a good job and a good career.
Greg Schonefeld:
Yeah. Is mindset a big part of it? I mean, have you seen some people come in with the wrong mindset?
Cole Luthman:
Yeah, I'd say mindset's pretty important. You got to look at the big picture of things and where you want to see yourself down the road. Don't just do it because you're comfortable or because it's something that you think it's easy. In our industry, you really have to care about what you're doing on a day-to-day basis because you are caring for animals and it's just very important.
Greg Schonefeld:
I know we talk a lot about the struggles to recruit young people into the world of agriculture, and that's why I felt it was so important to spotlight someone like Cole, who through a combination of academic rigor and a wealth of hands-on experience has managed to build an incredible career for himself. And instead of sitting around talking about how kids these days don't want to work anymore, I think our approach in the ag industry should be to take his advice and do more to broadcast the opportunities that exist in our industry to the younger generation. People like Cole represent the future and we need more of them. I feel at this point, we've gotten a pretty good idea of who Cole is as a person. But to really get an idea of what he's about, just one question remains. How do you prefer your eggs?
Cole Luthman:
Ooh, that's a great question. Actually, I'd say scrambled. I used to like them over easy a little bit, but not so much anymore. I'm more of a scrambled guy.
Greg Schonefeld:
Make sure you follow Eggheads on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And please throw us a five star rating, it'll really help us to grow the show. You can connect with us on Instagram and LinkedIn too. If you want to be a guest or have topic ideas, please send us a message. Until next time, I'm Greg Schonefeld and we'll talk to you soon.