Ranching Returns Podcast

In just a short few years Hobbs built a ranch and marketing brand, sold the brand, moved to a new state and started from scratch building a new ranch and brand. Today we discuss that journey. Resources mentioned: Jaimie Elizondo  Johann Zietsman - Man, Cattle and Veld Allan Savory - Holistic Management How to Win Friends and Influence People As always, check us out at Herd Quitter Podcast on...

Colton and Ethan Munger are brothers who grew up on their families ranch in Nebraska. To learn more about their family ranch you can listen to my conversation with their dad Brian on episode 35, it's one of my favorites. I love what these two are doing because while many feel their is no opportunity in rural America to start a business and find success, both Colton and Ethan in their early twentie...

Shawn has one of those inspiring stories that prove it's still possible to start and grow a ranching business from scratch. He shares his journey building a ranch and then making some serious changes such as improving grazing management, changing cow type, moving calving window, planting cover crops, and quitting haying. We wrap up the conversation talking about his direct marketing enterprise, al...

Alejandro manages the 30,000 acre Las Damas Ranch in the Chihuahua Desert of Mexico. Through his management in under twenty years he has increased his ranch carrying capacity from 150 cows to over 600 cows and his next goal is 1500. He talks about focusing management on the best areas of your ranch to get the highest return on investment. He also shares how simple trials offer almost no risk and c...

Cattle herd numbers having steadily been declining for the past several years due to lack of profitability and drought. This has been resulting in a steady increase in cattle prices and one would expect that when rain comes again the current shortage of calves combined with pulling heifers back into the breeding program will result in a big jump in cow/calf profitability. The question is, what wil...

Join Clay, Brian, Jason and myself as we discuss our podcasts, what we've learned through them and questions we have surrounding ranching and agriculture. As always, check us out at Herd Quitter Podcast on Facebook and Instagram as well as at herdquitterpodcast.com. You can also check out Pharocattle.com for more information on how to put more fun and profit back into your ranching business!

Lance Klessig has been involved in agriculture his whole life in a variety of roles from working on a dairy farm, to working for the Soil and Water Conservation District, but in 2020 he and his wife purchased their own farm. Because of their willingness to pivot and focus on marketing experiences and finished food products instead of commodity's he was able to quit his off farm job after only two...

Jacob Wolki brought a unique business perspective from managing several different retail businesses and dozens of employees before starting his farm in the past few years. Those skills have allowed him to scale a regenerative production model and direct to consumer meat business. He shares all of that along with how he set up a 24/7 self serve store, and much more!  Resource Recommendations:...

Dave Pratt is past owner of Ranching for Profit and author of my favorite book "The Turnaround: A Ranchers Story".  In this weeks podcast he gives us a summary on the RFP definition of true profitability in business and then discusses retirement and succession planning from the perspective of both a young individual working into a farm as well as the exiting generation. The topic of successio...

Trevor went to Ranching for Profit in February of 2022 and came home ready to make big changes. By the time summer came around he had sold his cows and was custom grazing cattle for somebody else. We talk about what this has meant for him and his ranch business. We talk about entrepreneurship in rural America, and much more! Resources Mentioned: Dirt to Soil - Gabe Brown North Dakota Grazing...

Allan Savory has a lifetime of experience developing what he has termed Holistic Management. He shares in this podcast a brief overview of his history and what the management has the potential to do for our businesses and our world if implemented at scale!  As always, check us out at Herd Quitter Podcast on Facebook and Instagram as well as at herdquitterpodcast.com. You can also check out Ph...

Dayton Steelman is a veterinary entomologist responsible for doing the research around genetic fly resistance. He shares in this podcast how over his decades of experience he made observations on how breed and size of animal impacted fly numbers on cows and shares his journey to figure out the cause. 

Many dairy farms when considering the opportunities to expand a dairy choose to build larger building and grow more feed to bring to the cows, and scale up on one site through infrastructure and technology. Joe Tomandl looked at the opportunity to expand his dairy farm in a  little bit different way. He loved the value that grazing brought to his dairy in soil and ecological benefits, as well...

Nevil Speer writes for Drovers magazine and has experience ranging from cattle production, to business management consulting and cattle market data. He joins me to talk about the factors contributing to the cattle market today, and what we should be doing to prepare for the years to come. As always, check us out at Herd Quitter Podcast on Facebook and Instagram as well as at herdquitterpodcast.com...

Cooper Hibbard manages his generational ranch in Adel, Montana and shares how his family through grazing management, changes in their calving season, and genetics have managed to increase ranch production even in one of the worst drought years in their history. We discuss his thought process on early versus late weaning and how they have reduced hay feeding to a couple hundred pounds of hay per an...

Eunice Williams shares the story of how Bud, through observation, learned how animals respond to humans and developed his principles of stockmanship that are so valuable to reducing stress on animals which results in less health issues and increased profits. She also shares how he came to develop sell/buy marketing which has helped countless producers generate profit in marketing livestock. As alw...

Lance Gunderson is owner of Regen Ag Labs and he joins me to discuss soil health, why it's important to test, which tests to perform, how often and so much more!  As always, check us out at Herd Quitter Podcast on Facebook and Instagram as well as at herdquitterpodcast.com. You can also check out Pharocattle.com for more information on how to put more fun and profit back into your ranching bu...

Michael Groot had the opportunity to take over his in-laws farm and quickly got to work transitioning to a regenerative crop farm and direct market meat producer after attending a Dave Brandt event. Now he is researching how rotating cropland with perennial pastures improves the soil and potential profitability of his cropping enterprise. We also discuss their direct to consumer marketing brand, W...

In this weeks episode we follow up on our conversation last week with Rob Pierce and discuss in more detail his heat tolerant cattle breeding program. If you haven't already, listen to episode 91 to hear Robs ranch transition and this one will talk about the different breeds he using to produce a low input, heat tolerant, beef animal bred to thrive in portions of the country and world where heat a...

Rob Pierce quit ranching in 2008 and after a member of his church signed him up for Kit Pharo's PCC Updates and Newsletters he found hope that there might be potential to be profitable in ranching. And so after a 4 year break from ranching he jumped back in with corriente crossed with PCC Red Angus bulls. He has since developed a heat tolerant breeding program which we will discuss in more depth i...

Mark and Sara Hewitt from Minnesota joined me in this episode to share their story of taking the bold step of leaving the family farm where they were constantly met with opposition and no promises of transition or change to start a farm of their own! They talk about the decision to leave the family farm, their focus on minimal debt and managing their business as well as the many enterprises they j...

Jason Medows is a rancher in Missouri and also the host of the Ag State of Mind Podcast. We discuss his transition to an intentional low input ranch business, and how he runs the business while working full time off the farm as a pharmacist. We also discuss mental health in agriculture as his podcast is focused around breaking the stigma around mental health in Ag. Resources Mentioned: Can't Hurt...

Eric Barth is the Farm Manager largely responsible for managing the steward program which is their internship program. In this episode we discuss his path to Polyface farm, the farm and all it's enterprises and how they manage their internship program to ensure that interns leave with a ton of value.  Resources Mentioned: Extreme Ownership - Book Stockman Grass Farmer As always, check us out...

By running their ranch as a business and focusing on return on equity they have expanded their business to owning livestock in 26 counties in Texas and 13 different states. Missy Bonds talks to me about how they expanded the business, how they run their numbers and take action with confidence! Resources Mentioned: TCU Ranch Management Program As always, check us out at Herd Quitter Podcast on Face...

Andy Junkin of Stubborn.farm specializes in working with stubborn farm families to get out of crisis, or begin the conversations around farm succession. We discuss these as well as how you can work with another generation to incorporate new ideas into an existing operation!  As always, check us out at Herd Quitter Podcast on Facebook and Instagram as well as at herdquitterpodcast.com. You can...