The Rural Dispatch

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this episode of The Rural Dispatch, we sit down with one of our longtime drivers, Marty Wilken -- a man whose roots in trucking run deep. With well over 40 years behind the wheel, Marty shares his unforgettable stories from the road.  We cover everything from his family's start in trucking, dating back four generations, to h...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! This episode is for the folks who don’t have time for two-a-days at the gym and green smoothies. Whether you’re hauling cattle, running a business, raising kids, or all of the above — this conversation with Josh Snyder will give you practical, doable ways to move your body, eat better, and feel stronger. Josh is the founder of FitNK...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this episode of The Rural Dispatch, we sit down with Will Epperly, 2022 World Livestock Auctioneer Champion and co-owner of Dunlap Livestock Auction, to talk cattle, markets, and mentorship.  From growing up in his family's sale barn in Virginia to becoming one of the top voices in the industry, Will shares the path that led...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this episode of The Rural Dispatch, we sit down with Denny Kluver, a retired livestock hauler who spent 30+ years driving for Jeff Behrens, the founder of Behrens Trucking. From the very first load to the day he hung up his keys, Denny witnessed firsthand the growth of a family-run business and the evolution of the livestock haul...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this week's episode of The Rural Dispatch, we continue last week's conversation with Smoke and Mark Toms to share more raw, (mostly) unfiltered stories from their younger years. From struggling to pay the bills to building successful businesses, these guys have been through it all, and today they're telling the sto...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this episode of The Rural Dispatch, I’m joined Smoke and guest Mark Toms—a man of many talents and endless stories. Mark takes us on a journey through his career, starting with how he got into the trucking industry and the unique challenges of pulling a tanker compared to hauling livestock. We also dive into his passion for prote...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! This week on The Rural Dispatch, we’re talking all things trucks, trailers, and the cattle industry with Smoke. From EPA regulations to the closure of the American Foods plant in Yankton, SD, there’s a lot shaking up the trucking & livestock worlds right now. Plus, we’re breaking down which brand is really best when it comes to...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this episode of The Rural Dispatch, I sit down with Jeremy Behrens to talk about his journey from hauling livestock with Smoke and their dad, to running his own one-man trucking operation. We dive into what it takes to get started in trucking today, the pros and cons of new technology, and the importance of a driver’s role in the...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this episode of The Rural Dispatch, I sit down with Smoke and Jeff "Bug" Schroeder, a cattle feeder from western Iowa, to talk about his journey in the industry. We cover everything from feeding in dirt lots and barns to the realities of hedging cattle and what skills every good cattle feeder should have in their back p...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! In this episode of The Rural Dispatch: Delivering Stories from Rural America, I sit down with my better half, Smoke, to talk about the journey that shaped him and our family’s trucking business. We start with the story behind his name and his deep-rooted ties to trucking and agriculture. From its beginnings to where we are today, we...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! Welcome to the very first episode of The Rural Dispatch! I’m kicking things off with a solo episode to introduce myself, share my background, and explain how I ended up here—running a livestock trucking business, raising two little boys, and launching this podcast. In this episode, I talk about: How I went from a career in finance t...

Send us a text or leave a voicemail - we’d love to hear from you! Welcome to The Rural Dispatch, the podcast that delivers honest conversations from the fields, the highways, and the home front. I'm your host, Aly Behrens - headquartered in rural Iowa, I help run a trucking company that specializes in hauling livestock nationwide.  I was born and raised in small-town-Iowa and I’m passionate a...