Working Cows - Regenerative Ranching to Maximize Profitability and Soil Health

Allan Savory joined me once again to pick up our discussion from our previous episode. He made a statement that intrigued me about saving Western Ranching Culture. I wanted to understand what he thought about Western Ranching Culture, what has jeopardized it, and how we go about saving it.

Ryan Noble of Yuma, CO joined me to discuss their thought process and strategies for managing through a drought. We talk about the physical side of drought management, the mental side of drought management, and what to do when you have done everything you can for drought management.

Dr. Allen Williams, a Partner at Understanding Ag, LLC, joined me to discuss recovering from academia, grazing for soil health, and monitoring soil and range health.

John Coleman Locke and Stuart Austin both master graziers in their own right joined me to discuss how and why they use animal density. We talk about John’s Ultra-High Density Grazing operation in Hungerford, TX and Stuart’s grazing at Wilmot Cattle Company in New South Wales, Australia. This was a unique opportunity to give these two gentlemen the opportunity to share the why behind their operations and then ask each other questions about their methods.

Meg Greski is a speaker, writer, consultant, and ranch hand. She has forged her own path into ranching and has been on a mission to extend the reach of regenerative ranching since high school. We talk about that experience today. We talk about grazing, enterprise selection, environmental selection, genetic selection, and a host of other issues.

Jim Gerrish, grazing expert, joined me to discuss the process of getting started introducing more and proper recovery (not just rest). We talk about where to start, how grass grows, and some of the reasons you might consider adjusting your strategy.

Bryan Moes, a feedlot operator near Watertown, SD, joined me to talk about his business and how Performance Beef has impacted the way they collect, manage, and interpret data. We also talk about some of the improvements in soil health that won Moes Feedlot the 2018 NCBA Environmental Stewardship Award for Region 7.Sponsor:Performance Beef

Charlie Arnott, grazier and biodynamic educator from New South Wales, Australia, joined me to discuss his new podcast, The Regenerative Journey with Charlie Arnott. We talked about a wide range of subjects including raising resilient children, the niche in which Charlie’s podcast exists, and how he is introducing biodiversity on his property.

Brian Alexander joins me once again to talk about what is new, better, and different as they come back to the same areas they strip grazed last year. We talk tools, recovery, and managing people.

Call in and answer these three questions: What have you done to make sure your ranching practices are in sync with nature? What are you doing to make sure you are more than the lowest cost producer? What are the indespensible tools you use on your operation?Call in:+1(605)549-5401

No doubt technology plays a big role in our daily lives. In this episode, I talked with Dane Kuper and Justin Sexten to learn more about Performance Beef and how the technology makes things easier for cattle feeders. We talk about the specifics of how the technology works, the way it is improving the quality of life for cattle feeders, and some on farm “gamification” that has sprung up among users of this technology. https://www.performancelivestockanalytics.com/performance-beef/Sponsor:Performance Livestock Analytics

Allan Crockett is a ranching consultant with many years of experience helping people work through their problems. He is also an instructor for the Ranching For Profit school put on by Ranch Management consultants. He joined me to talk about managing the people problems on your ranch. We talk a lot about passing the ranch assets and management on to the next generation as well as creative ways to get started with a ranch business.

Taylor Moyer, Crew Chief for the Jr. Motorsports Racing #8 Car in the Xfinity Series, joined me to talk about what goes into managing the complexity that exists in the shop of a NASCAR race team. We also talk about his families rich history in farming and his own personal connection to the farm industry.

In this bonus episode I share some highlights of the recordings I captured at the Holistic Management Canada 2020 Conference. There are recordings from Don Campbell’s talk on financial planning and keys to success. That is followed by a bull pen discussion with Don Campbell, Dana Penrice, Bluesette Campbell, and Ralph Corcoran. Finally we have Kevin from Red Deer, AB sharing his introduction to the Producer Grazing Panel of which I was a part. For the full recordings of all these talks and more support the Working Cows podcast at patreon.com/WorkingCows

Hugh Aljoe, Director of Producer Relations for the Noble Research Institute in Ardmore, OK, joined me to discuss the skills required to progress as an intentional manager. We talk about the intentional management of pastures, livestock, marketing, records, finance, and personnel.

Ian Mitchell-Innes is a world-renowned grazier and educator. He is a wealth of knowledge and communicates clearly and practically his passion to help people receive the maximum amount of benefit possible from the key resources entrusted to them. At the end of this episode I share some thoughts on how we can respond to this current time of uncertainty.

Ben Gotschall of Davey Road Ranch joined me to discuss the ins and outs of managing market complexity. We talk about nutritional food, getting that food to market, and getting paid for those products.

Ariel Greenwood, partner at Grass Nomads LLC, joined me to talk about the day to day realities of managing land, animals, and people in a nomadic lifestyle. We talk about how she got started, where she is now, and how she thinks about the importance of communication to those down the supply chain in our food system.

Cody Spencer, Co-Manager of Roam Ranch in the Hill Country of Texas and Co-Owner of Sweetgrass Bison in Southwest, AB, joined me to discuss the work he is participating in to regenerate an abused and brittle landscape. We talk about using cover crops, calving in sync with nature, and finding animals that are adapted to a wide variety of environments.

Dr. Abbey Wick and Tim Hammerich, the two minds behind the NDSU Soil Sense Podcast, joined me to talk about why the started this podcast and what they were hoping to accomplish through this venture.

I sat down with Jamie Depape, Chief Operations Officer for Annelida Casting Innovations, a worm casting bio stimulant manufacturing company just outside of Edmonton, AB, CA. We talked after finishing a tour of the first of two facilites. This was a great opportunity to see, hear, and smell the benefits of worm castings for range and soil health

Here is my talk from the 2020 Holistic Management Canada Conference. I was asked to share the lessons I have learned from 100+ podcast interviews. What have you learned through the podcast?

While in Camrose, AB, CA for the Holistic Management Canada 2020 conference I sat down with Steve Kenyon and talked about the discipline of lifelong learning. One thing that became abundantly clear at the conference was that many of the greatest minds in Canadian Holistic Management display a commitment to lifelong learning. Steve is a primary example of this so I asked him to sit down with me and talk about the why and how of his learning.

Darrell Oswald, Manager of the Menoken Farm, joined me to discuss how they are approaching improving soil health at Menoken Farm. We talk about the Five Pillars of Soil Health as well as the upcoming Farming and Ranching for the Bottom Line conference.

Craig Guffey, one of the minds behind Swearngin Angus, joined me to discuss how he got started from nothing. We also discuss finding animals that are adapted to the environment and challenge more than a few paradigms related to phenotype.

Cooper Hibbard is a member of a multi-generation ranch in the mountains of Montana. He joined me to discuss how they go about using polywire to graze these difficult terrains. We also discussed how they are trying to find genetics fit to their environment and what Cooper learned on various ranches on three continents.

Chuck Cosgrove a grazier from Utah joined me to disuss the successes, challenges, and benefits of an intensive grazing project on pivot irrigated circles. We talk economic benefits, land benefits, and animal performance.

Michelle Patten, of Patten Bookkeeping Services, joined me to discuss the ins and outs of having someone else take over some or all of your bookkeeping. We talk about the real costs associated with it as well as some of the benefits of getting good financial information in a timely manner.

Josh Dukart is a Holistic Management Educator and Rancher from Hazen, ND. He keeps a full schedule of coaching and facilitation opportunities teaching people to ask the right questions to help take their business to the next level. One such exercise on his own operation led him to start keeping track of his “To-Don’t” List.

Gabe Brown, of Brown’s Ranch in Bismarck, ND, joined me to talk about what they are doing to develop heifers that can perform in their environment. We talk about different ways of getting animals into the herd as well as different ways to market animals that fall out of the herd.

Dallas Mount, CEO of the Ranch Management Consultants purveyors of the Ranching For Profit School among other things, joined me to discuss the idea of Working on the Business as opposed to Working in the Business. We talk about what it takes to run an efficient and effective meeting as well as some reasonable expectations for frequency and what can be accomplished in such a meeting.

Glenn Elzinga of Alderspring Ranch in May, ID joined me to discuss his pioneering work with what he calls “inherding.” They have been experiencing multi-faceted benefits as a result this paradigm challenging practice.Amazon Wishlist:Working Cows Podcast

Marcos Jeffers of Jeffers Cattle Co. joined me to discuss how they have been steadily increasing their stocking rates through increased stock density for more than a decade in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico.

Mike Callicrate is a rancher and advocate from Northwest Kansas. He has been a leading voice for fair and competitive markets for over two decades. I asked him to join me to discuss where we are in today’s cattle industry and what we can do to avoid losing control of our own operations.Join the Mob:FacebookMeWeLinks Mentioned:Organization for Competitive MarketsMikeCallicrate.comR-CALF USABook Mentioned:Meat Racket by Chris Leonard

I am going solo today to talk about some of my thoughts after attending Wally Olson’s Marketing school. I also talk about a couple upcoming events and plans for the podcast and it’s community.

Brian Alexander is a grazier from central Kansas. He has recently embarked on a strip grazing experiment. Brian joined me to discuss what he knows about this experiment on the heels of the livestock leaving his ranch.

Dave Pratt, President Emeritus of Ranch Management Consultants, joined me to talk about the lengths to which people will go to avoid paying taxes. We talk about strategies for using that same capital to turn a bigger profit and what is the definition of a truly healthy business. I also had a unique opportunity to capture Dave’s thoughts on lessons he has learned in two plus decades of leading RMC, the parent company of the Ranching for Profit school.

David Neason is a horse trainer and cowboy from Texas. He dayworks seasonally and trains horses in the off-season. He joined me to discuss common mistakes made by even the most experienced horsemen. We also talk about his membership community that where he scales his training to help more people get the most out of their relationship with their horse.

Wally Olson is a rancher and educator in Claremore, OK. He teaches people how to maximize profit through marketing decisions. He joined me to talk about how we can handle the marketing decisions we face this fall and into the future.

Mark Tague, CEO of Agric-Bioformatics, joined me to discuss AgBoost a DNA data visualizaiton tool that seeks to help seed stock producers and commercial cattleman a like interpret the DNA data captured from their cowherd. We talk about how the tool is being used by a range of production models and what excites Mark about future partnerships.

Mary Jo Irmen, author of Farming without the Bank, joined me to discuss the common objections she hears to starting with the Infinite Banking Concept or Farming without the Bank. Mary Jo also recently launched a new podcast. We talk about that and how she is hoping to serve the agricultural community in this new venture.

Jason Medows is launching a new podcast today. Ag State of Mind is a podcast geared toward changing and normalizing the conversation around mental health in agriculture.

David Kleinschmidt is a contract consultant with Understanding Ag, LLC. The soil health education organization started by Gabe Brown, Allen Williams, Ray Archuletta, and Shane New. He joined me to discuss how we can improve our pastures with cover crops as well as how we can move more toward a regenerative system.

Riki Kremers is a rancher from East Central Wyoming. She is an excellent business woman who has seen great improvements in her land base as she and her family have implemented Instinctive Migratory Grazing.

Xiaokang Chen (Alex) has a fascinating history that uniquely qualifies him to speak to the audience of the Working Cows podcast. He attended High School in the Boston area as well as attended a prestigious Entrepreneurial School (Babson College). As such, he understands the necessity of a profitable herd. Couple that with training from Johann Zietsman in finding genetically adapted cattle and you have a winning combination for an episode of the Working Cows podcast.

Grahame Rees of KLR Marketing based out of Australia joined me to discuss his takeaways from the 2019 Aussie Graziers US Tour. The tour ranches from Idaho to Kansas and nearly 6000 miles in between. We talk about the commonalities between this yea’r’s tour and last year’s.

We take a little detour today and talk to Kyle Bueermann and Matt Henslee, pastors of rural churches and hosts of Not Another Baptist Podcast. They joined me to talk about their new book “Replanting Rural Churches.” We approached this from the angle of finding faithful gospel preaching churches, finding community in rural contexts, and blessing rural pastors.

Nicole Masters is a soil health consultant who has a knack for teaching the function of the complex systems of the soil in a way that connects clearly with those who are listening. She joined me to talk about what our plant community tells us about our soil and what we can do to influence it positively.

Collin Osbourn is the Executive Director of Beefmasters Breeder United. He joined me to talk about how the breed was developed, what the results of that development process were, and how people are putting Beefmasters genetics to work for them.

Brian Alexander, a Rancher from the Red Hills of Kansas joins me to give an update on his strip grazing experiment. We talk about changes in the land, changes in the cattle, and Brian’s sense of how the experiment is going so far.