Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xnLyii6krVg
What does it take to run a four-generation family business through cotton, cattle, pipeline restoration, AND a 7-truck hopper fleet — all at the same time?
This week we sat down with Bob Blackwell and his son-in-law Jared Reaves at Blackwell Trucking in Wayne, Oklahoma. Three generations of Blackwells have worked this land. Bob started chasing pipeline restoration jobs 25 years ago when one came across his field — and built Blackwell Trucking on the side just to keep his own equipment moving.
Then the last four years took a swing at them. Pipeline work went quiet. Solar customers walked off with over half a million dollars of unpaid work. Flatbed rates collapsed. And the family that had survived everything from boll weevils to a 1970s farm bankruptcy was looking for a way forward. Then Jared heard a podcast in his pig barn that changed everything. In this conversation we get into the full picture: how pipeline restoration actually works, why Bob won't buy stockers, the brutal economics of cattle and cotton, why he calls solar "a shell game," the wreck-truck rebuild, the engine that came apart in the shop, the role of faith in their business, and the very human moments behind the family's "GIG, GAP" philosophy — God Is Good, God Always Provides. If you're a carrier wondering whether there's a more consistent path than flatbed, a shipper looking for hard-working family operators, or a farm-and-ranch family trying to figure out the next chapter — this episode is for you.
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CHAPTERS 00:00 — Meet the Blackwells: 3 Generations on the Same Land
00:55 — How a Pipeline Across Bob's Field Started Everything
02:30 — Why They Started Blackwell Trucking
03:00 — Today: 7 Trucks, Goal of 10
04:34 — The Podcast in the Pig Barn That Changed Everything
05:30 — Why Hoppers Are More Consistent Than Flatbed
06:00 — Working with Chris & Michael at RFG
06:50 — The End Game: Cutting Out the Middleman
07:30 — "It's a Turtle Race"
08:00 — Cattle, Wildfires, and What Bad Land Management Looks Like
09:30 — The Engine That Came Apart in the Shop
10:00 — What Pipeline Restoration Actually Is
12:53 — Inside a 100-Mile Pipeline Project
13:30 — The $500,000 Solar Disaster
14:30 — "Solar is a Shell Game"
17:30 — Three Generations of Blackwells
18:00 — Why Bob Won't Buy Stockers
20:40 — The 8-Cent Brangus Lesson That Changed His Cattle Operation
22:00 — When Bob Got Into Rodeo Stock
23:30 — Where He Markets His Cattle Today
25:40 — Cattle Prices: Then vs. Now
28:20 — Cotton Country: How an Entire Region Dried Up
29:30 — Milo, Sorghum, and Fallow-Ground Decisions
31:42 — "The Only Difference Between Farming and Vegas..."
32:30 — Why Weather Is 95% of the Business
33:30 — What They Do for Fun: Lake Murray
34:30 — How Jared Got Here: Saint Louis → Mizzou → Bartlett → Springfield
37:00 — Why Joplin Stockyards Surpassed Oklahoma City
38:30 — "The Wealthiest Companies Got Wealthy off the Backs of Farmers"
39:50 — Why Cotton Doesn't Pencil Anymore
41:00 — The Peanut Program and Government Subsidies
43:00 — The Soybean Crop That Paid for His Son's Birth
45:30 — Why Equipment Payments Don't Work Anymore
46:30 — Converting Cropland to Bermuda Grass
47:04 — How Faith Holds the Whole Operation Together
48:30 — "GIG. GAP. God Is Good. God Always Provides."
48:50 — The Check-in-the-Mail Moments
CONNECT WITH BLACKWELL TRUCKING Wayne, Oklahoma
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