Bayerls are into transporting animals for the long haul

By WHITNEY NESSE The Land Correspondent

Conversation comes easy for husband and wife duo Jeff and Lisa Bayerl of Big J’s Transport in Lester Prairie, Minn. Not long into a visit, it’s easy to pick up their enthusiasm for the livestock industry. That enthusiastic passion drove them into the livestock trucking industry 24 years ago. “We knew there wasn’t room for me on the family farm,” said Jeff. “We were 18 years old. So one night, we went on a walk and talked about what we wanted to do. I told Lisa that I enjoyed truck driving and I enjoy cattle. I love working with cattle, so we decided to start up a trucking company.”

Lisa said there was never the question of who would be the truck driver; they both jumped into the business together.

The couple’s very first trailer could haul 12 head of cattle. “It was an old, steel gooseneck. We bought it from a pig farmer,” said Jeff. “We had it sandblasted and I did some welding and cleaning on it, and we painted it red to match the red truck we bought.”

“Our first customer was Rosen Livestock out of South St. Paul. He gave us a chance! So when the buying day was over, we would go into the Hutchinson station, pull all the fat cows out of there, and go to Dakota Premium down in South St. Paul. That’s how we got our feet wet,” Lisa added.

Jeff also started going farm to farm, dropping off business cards to start building a customer base. “It took a long time,” he laughed.

Jeff and Lisa worked various jobs in the earliest years of the trucking business. “[In the beginning] we both worked full time during the day; and at night we would haul to South St. Paul,” said Lisa.

Lisa chuckled as she recalled learning how to back the truck and trailer down Jeff’s parents’ driveway, “[Jeff] and his dad sat down and watched me back up, which was extremely embarrassing; but I got it! It took a while, but I got it!”

For Jeff, the driving, hauling and backing came easier since he had grown up doing things like that on his parents’ dairy farm.

In the early years, Lisa was a forerunner for females in the trucking business. “There weren’t many lady bull haulers,” she recalled. Lisa said it took a little time, but she earned the respect of the people she worked with by doing her job and doing it well. “I didn’t have anything to prove,” Lisa said, “I just wanted to do my job.”

When Bayerl’s began having a family of their own, their kids rode along as passengers. Having two children, one could go with each parent. Lisa said they would pack book bags for the kids with coloring supplies and maybe a snack or two, and the kids grew up in the trucks. “We never wanted anyone else to raise our kids,” said Jeff, “so we did what we had to.” Today, both children, Grace and Easton, raise their own livestock.

When asked what was the strangest thing they’ve ever hauled, Lisa immediately answered, “Fainting goats!” She went on, saying, “It was a mess — absolutely a mess! I was hauling alone, and the customer had 30 or 40 fainting goats. By the time we got them to the trailer, they were falling or seizing up! It was too many fainting goats at one time!”

They’ve also hauled llamas, beefalo, horses and longhorns.

Jeff’s favorite part of the job has always been the people. “Meeting people and seeing all of the different ways people run their farms is always fun!” he said.

Lisa’s favorite part of the business is similar. She said she loves that they have watched kids grow up to be successors of a family farm, and those kids are now Jeff and Lisa’s customers. “Watching the next generation start to farm and want to farm and be progressive is almost like a phenomenon. To watch this generation apply what they’ve learned and build and improve and be progressive is the coolest thing ever!” Lisa added.

Jeff and Lisa have had front-row seats seeing the quality of the animals improve over the years. They agree that with the increase of producers prioritizing proper nutrition, the quality of animals has skyrocketed. They said cattle in particular have increased in size, quality and efficiency. And seeing their custom-