Practically Ranching

Send us Fan Mail Joe Kovanda is Chief Development and Strategy Officer for Compass Ag Solutions.  After a successful career with Bartlett Cattle Co and Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, he now lives on his family farm near Columbus, MT. Joe specializes in helping beef producers manage price risk with a suite of tools, including Livestock Risk Protection (LRP). Links: www.compassagsolutions.com joe@compa...

Send us Fan Mail Diana Rodgers is a registered dietitian from Concord, Mass.  She has authored three books, most notably, “The Sacred Cow.” She hosts the Sustainable Dish podcast, plus she founded the Global Food Justice Alliance. This Alliance has quite a mission statement: to advocate for the right of all people to choose nutrient-dense foods such as meat, milk, and eggs, which are critical for...

Send us Fan Mail Kelly Tastove is the Operations and Donor Relations Manager with Symphony in the Flint Hills, a non-profit organization that  heightens appreciation and knowledge of the Flint Hills tallgrass prairie. Each June, the Symphony brings more than 5000 people into a pasture in Kansas and provides one of the most picturesque settings for a symphony that you'll ever witness.  www.sym...

Send us Fan Mail Chelsea Good is the Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs and Legal for the Livestock Marketing Association. She lives and works in the Kansas City area and represents beef producers in a myriad of avenues.  Raised in a generations-long family dedicated to beef industry progress and leadership, Chelsea takes every opportunity possible to educate folks about today'...

Send us Fan Mail Lee Borck is Chairman of Innovative Livestock Services, Inc. and Chairman of the Beef Marketing Group Cooperative.  He's a past president of Cattle-Fax and the Kansas Livestock Association and has served on the Cattlemen's Beef Board and the National Cattlemen's Association.  A graduate of Ag Econ at Kansas State University, Lee is a huge supporter of his alma mater...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Dan Thomson is a professor in the College of Animal Science at Iowa State University. He produces Doc Talk on RFD-TV and online. He is also a partner in Production Animal Consultation.  Dr. Dan also works with various segments in the beef industry to help connect the dots and foster what he terms a "One Beef Concept." www.doctalktv.com www.pacdvms.com

Send us Fan Mail Gregg Doud is Chief Economist for Aimpoint Research. He served for three years as the Chief Ag Negotiator for the U. S. Trade Representative. He has also worked in Ag Policy in our nation's capitol for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, U.S. Wheat Associates and the Commodity Markets Council.  A native of Mankato, KS, Gregg now lives in Edgewater, MD. www.aimpoin...

Send us Fan Mail Doug Spencer is the State Grazing Specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He's based in Kansas, and his mission is to help ranchers and land managers maintain grasslands throughout his area and even across the high plains. While he works in a myriad of areas, his passion is native rangeland preservation. He lists several links to help range managers have th...

Send us Fan Mail Tom Perrier is President and majority owner of Dalebanks Angus. He's been a servant leader in nearly every community and agricultural organization in his home of Eureka, Kansas. Most importantly, he's been a great husband, dad and grandfather to his family.  This week, his family is being honored by the Livestock and Meat Industry Council as their 2023 Stockman of the Ye...

Send us Fan Mail Casey Niemann is founder of AgriSync, a customer-service platform for ticketing and remote support built specifically for ag businesses and equipment dealers.  Casey, his wife Tammy, and their children reside in Des Moines, IA. Both of them served as FFA State Officers while at Kansas State University, and both have continued to provide exemplary leadership within the agribusiness...

Send us Fan Mail Tom Black is manager of Reynolds Cattle Co.  Well into his 80's, he has forgotten more about cattle production than most know today. In an age when loyalty to a company or ranch is fleeting, he has worked for the same family in the panhandle of Texas for 64 years. He's soft-spoken and polite, but after eight decades living off the land in some of the harshest environment...

Send us Fan Mail Callahan Grund is the Executive Director of US Cattle Trace, a private, not-for-profit corporation made up of representatives from all beef industry segments with the mission of securely maintaining and managing data collected for disease traceability. We talk the recent history of cattle identification, technologies used and applicable uses for ID in the U.S. beef industry.  www....

Send us Fan Mail Jacqueline Leffler is a worker. She's also a thinker.  And a competitor. When you throw in her father, Bill, and grandfather, Jackie, who had business cards listing their contact info alongside the slogan, "Leffler Farms, Inc...Where Agriculture is a Profession," it's a recipe for success. In addition to farming alongside her dad and grandpa, Jacquelyne has sta...

Send us Fan Mail Cheramie Viator is a lifelong beef producer. She was raised on a family farm in Louisiana, has worked for some of the nation's largest ranches and now hangs her hat near Houston, TX, as she balances her day job with Westway Feeds while managing her family's cowherd and putting on youth cattle clinics in her free time. Throughout her career in the beef industry, Cheramie...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Urban is a chef, entrepreneur and currently is the Director for the Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services, a public K-12 school district with 77,700 students located in Greenville, SC. He leads a team of 750 employees to prepare delicious, nutritious food for students each day.  He strives to get a little better today than he was yesterday.  Best of all, he&apo...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Glynn Tonsor is an Ag Economist at Kansas State University.  He focuses on beef/cattle and pork/swine demand and supply decision-making tools and information. His broader interests cover aspects throughout the meat supply chain ranging from production level supply issues to end-user consumer demand issues. Links: AgManager.info gtonsor@ksu.edu

Send us Fan Mail Kyle Perrier is a hero. He won't say it, so I will. It's not just because he served in the Navy. AND in the Army. It's not just because he worked his tail off to earn a spot flying the Apache helicopter on numerous deployments...most with significant combat. It's not even just because he helped defend our freedom for more than twenty years as an enlisted man an...

Send us Fan Mail Lamar Steiger is a consultant to Walmart and other businesses in the beef supply chain. He owns The 808 Ranch in southwest Missouri and calls the Bentonville, AR, area home today.  Lamar is a lifelong student of the beef industry and today uses this perspective to help retail companies find new and better ways to manage the beef supply chain and deliver consistent, high-quality be...

Send us Fan Mail David Kleinschmidt is an Ag Economist by training. This background, coupled with a passion for soil health, holistic management and practical management make him a wealth of knowledge and perspective. On this episode, we cover a host of topics: Cover Crops, Soil Health, Microbes, GMOs, Chemistry, Biology, Profit over Production, Organic Matter. David used so many terms that I fina...

Send us Fan Mail Diana Clark and her husband, Dr. Daniel Clark, are the resident meat scientists at the Certified Angus Beef Culinary Center in Wooster, OH. A native of suburban Chicago, Diana attended the University of Illinois where she, under the tutelage of Dr. Tom Carr and other top scientists, received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Animal and Meat Science. She works with meat purveyors, distr...

Send us Fan Mail Bruce Mershon and his wife, Tracey, own and operate Mershon Cattle, a 2000 cow operation in western Missouri. In addition, they purchase and background 4000 yearlings annually. Bruce spent 30 years in the commodity trading world as he grew his family's cattle business. Bruce currently serves as President of the Missouri Cattlemen's Association. He and Tracey have both be...

Send us Fan Mail Don Graham lives in northeast Oklahoma and works with Crossroads Cattle Co. Don buys and sells tens of thousands of commercial cattle each year throughout the high plains. His focus is on value-added "program cattle," and he works with feedyards, stocker operators and cow-calf producers. Crossroads Cattle - Our Team 918-706-8875

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Ty Lawrence is a Professor of Animal Science and Director of the Beef Carcass Research Center at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX.   He was reared on a cow-calf operation north of Dalhart, Texas before pursuing formal education in the animal sciences at West Texas A&M University (B.S. '97, M.S. '99) and Kansas State University (Ph. D. '02).  Dr. L...

Send us Fan Mail Ryan Arndt is a rancher and a cowboy from the Emporia, KS, area. He and his family own and operate Arndt Farms, a diversified farming and ranching entity that spans portions of several counties in the Flint Hills. They run cows, purchased yearlings for grazing, plus are partners on several feedyards in western Kansas.  Their no-nonsense, no-frills approach to farming and ranching...

Send us Fan Mail Kelli Retallick is President of Angus Genetics, Inc, a subsidiary of the American Angus Association. AGI was established in 2007 to provide services to the beef industry that assist in the genetic evaluation of economically important traits. In this episode, we start with the basics of Expected Progeny Differences. We then discuss the continued need for phenotypes and measurements...