Welcome to the Grazing Grass Podcast Episode 93.
we ended up just basically doing a taste test to figure out this is exactly where we wanted to go.
You're listening to the Grazing Grass Podcast, helping grass farmers learn from grass farmers, and every episode features a grass farmer and their operation. I'm your host, Cal Hardage.
On today's episode we have Nathan Stucky of Stucky Family Ranch and we talk about the process he took to get started in the grass fed beef industry and why he made those decisions to go that way. It's a great episode and I think you'll enjoy it. Before we get started, 10 seconds about my farm. This is the time of year I'm just dreaming about green grass, wondering how soon I can start grazing.
I'm trying to plan for the year, but also we are getting ready to sell sheep or lambs that we lambed out last year. We'll be taking those to market later this week. Not much there, but enough of that. Let's talk to Nathan.
Nate, we want to welcome you to the Grazing Grass Podcast. We're excited you're here today.
Well, thank very much for having me. I'm excited to be on.
Nate, to get started, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your operation? I.
Sure. I am a, I guess you would call it a once removed rancher, generationally wise. Um, had both grandparents on my mom and dad's side, both cattle. Kind skipped a generation, but I've had that itch or that b to always want to do it since I was little. And so that kind of led me to being here. I live in Kansas City. Our ranch is in Fort Scott, which is southeast Kansas. Kind of went the unconventional route of getting into this by studying at KU as opposed to sitting at Kansas State, which is
big Ag school in, in Kansas. Um, and then just kind of worked my way into. Into being where I'm at.
So what was your field of study at ku?
I studied economics.
Oh, study economics. That's, that's a pretty good background. Um, going into agriculture.
It is, It's, kind of,
yeah.
I guess you would say more just kind of looking big picture or expanding your horizons as opposed to narrowing your field of study. And here we are.
True. Yeah. So when did you, um, you've always had this itch. Did your, your grandparents, did you visit their farms ranches as a kid and that kind of built that desire to have something of your own?
I did, so my grandpa raised cattle until I was probably five or six and started with, we lived kind of on, I don't know if I would call it a farm, but we had some acres and I got a. Bucket calf when I was three, which kind of helped, helped, helped drive that desire and want to, to raise cattle. So, and then I did, I did a few things in high school with buying steers when I was, you know, 15, 16. We put 'em on pasture from the spring and then we'd sell 'em in the fall.
Oh yes.
had a little bit of experience with ranching, I guess, I mean, to some degree, or some experience with cattle. But this was a completely new adventure and operation that we jumped into.
And when did you jump into it?
So we jumped into it in 21. And when I say we, it is our family ranch. It's my brother, sister, and I, they are silent partners, kind of some financial backing to help. The operation. I am the president, if you will. I'm also the day-to-Day laborer and everything in between.
Well, first off, I have to say I'm really impressed if I was on a venture with my brother and sister, it'd be hard to keep 'em silent. So good job there.
Well, I will say that's, that's, it's kind of a funny story is that they were to start very much silent and then one day I had to have my brother come out to help me at the ranch and had to treat a cow for, for pink Eye and, went down and, um, contact neighbors first. Nobody could help me. Ended up having to rely on him, took him down with me. Um, and I told him, Hey, we've got this, this cow that's got pink eye.
We're gonna go out, we're gonna las so it hold it tight and I'm gonna spray its eyes with pink eye. And he, he goes, fine. I'll go down and I'll help you with this as we're, as we're heading down to the ranch. He asked me, so how many times have you done this? And I
Oh
oh, I've never done this before. I bought the lasso today. And so then he immediately was like, oh my gosh, like, you have no idea where you're getting into. And I'm like, no, I don't. we got down there, get kind of, you know, we get the cows close. I try to lasso, I miss, brother gets fed up with me trying, says, gimme the lasso, I'm gonna get the cow. He goes over there, lassos the cow, looks at me like, Hey, look what I did. And that cow takes off like a shot
Oh,
him through the pasture.
oh, no.
And I am, I am, I'm giggling so hard that I couldn't even have sprayed the cow, had he got him right.
Right. Yeah.
And so after that he, he basically said, I'm, I'm not coming down again, and I'm not, I'm not gonna do any more manual labor with you down here.
Oh yeah,
I said, that's, that's, that's pretty fair. I understand your stance on that now.
yeah. My, my brother comes out sometimes. My sister does too, and they'll help whenever we do dad's cows, but usually once every few years they come out and then they're, they help a little bit, and then they're good for a while.
Yeah. It's gonna be a lot of coaxing before I get my brother to come down there again.
Yes. Yeah. So to get started in 21, were you able to buy some land to get started or you find a property to lease?
So we bought some land. We had a, a friend of ours who he bought 40 acres, um, in Fort Scott. And then this, the parcel that we bought, which is 60. Catty cornered him and came for sale and he said, Hey, I think this is a really good opportunity. You guys should look at it. So we went down and viewed it, liked everything about it, and decided to get started.
Oh, yes. Yeah. Well, very good. And when you got this property, um, was it fenced? What'd you have in place and what'd you have to do to get it ready?
Calling it fenced is questionable at best. We, we had walked it when we first looked at it and saw a bunch of cow droppings in the pasture and the, the realtor agent showing us the property said, well, the fence is good. No cattle have gotten in here. So we kind of knew that's not a hundred percent accurate. So
Oh yeah.
when we bought it, we decided let's clear the fence rows all the way back and put in five strand high tensile wire.
And that go pretty good for you?
It did it, it went well. Um, cleared a lot of areas and issues back. I mean, I don't know how old that fence was, probably 70, 80 years old. Everything was growing through it. I mean, there was no way to really rebuild it. It was gonna be just kind of patchwork at best and getting through there.
So we just made the executive decision, let's just kind of start over and get everything outta here so that we're not constantly having to go in and repair and update and replace and just kind of be fresh.
oh yeah. Yeah. And when you, you found that land, did you get it with the thought you're gonna do grass fed or you, you're going to cow calf? What was your initial thoughts on livestock?
Yeah. The initial thought was we were going to do cow calf operation. Um, I'd kind of done a bunch of research going into it and knew what I wanted to do. So it was just kind of getting it ready to be operational. That would make sense for us.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And at this time, uh, were you familiar with some ity practices? Had you read some, where was your journey on that kind of knowledge?
In fairness, not a hundred percent. I knew that I wanted to do grass fed because that gave me a competitive advantage being a small farmer as compared to trying to compete with the big boys and their operations.
right, yeah.
So that's where we kind of got started. And then from there, it was a lot of reading, a lot of research, a lot of YouTube, all those things that kind of led me down this regenerative path.
Very good. Did you, um, getting started, did you know what direction you wanted to go with cattle? With breeds of livestock?
So I'd done a bunch of research on that leading into it. And I knew I wanted to do American Wagyu 'cause I felt like there was a really good premium there for that product, especially on grass Fed. Knew from research that a hundred percent Wagyu doesn't do well on grass. And also what it cost to buy registered. registered. Wagyu cattle are pretty gosh darn expensive.
oh yes.
trying to find a happy median between, um, you know, knowing that we wanted to have a Wagyu incorporated into it, but also needed cattle that are gonna produce on grass and finding, finding the right genetics that made that work.
So how'd you go about that?
Honestly a lot of Googling and just searching. Um, I just started kind of looking up farmers in our area. I, I had looked up red Devon from everything that I've seen about them on grass and actually ended up calling a red Devon breeder not too far from us, about a couple hours. And that was a hundred percent grass fed and said, Hey, this is kind of what I'm looking at. I want to do red. Devon crossed with red Wagyu with the Akai.
And I kind of thought I, from Googling at least back then, which a couple years ago was kind of on the only one that kind of had thought of that. And then when I talked to them, they said, oh, we're actually starting to cross some of our cattle with, with Akaushi. And so then we worked out a deal to purchase some from them.
Oh yes, very good. And we looked at, I think, Akash, uh, how'd you say that?
Yeah. Akaushi, it's it's confusing. I just say red Wagyu. That makes a lot more sense.
yeah. Well, I look at it, I pronounce, I have trouble pronouncing words anyway, so throw in a weird spelling and it's got an issue. We had looked at the red, um, just to incorporate into limousine on dad's herd and try it out, and then we never. We thought we may AI some and we ended up not going down that path.
Now I've got a neighbor that, that has some, um, at least he's got a, I think he's got a percentage bull and I haven't got a chance to look at it and see, but I'm, I'm interested in how that goes. So you were able to get some red Wagyu crossed with red Devon.
Yes. Yeah. And so that kind of, for us. Felt like the perfect combination. We've got grass genetics from the Devon crossed with the red Wagyu for the marbling and the name and the end product that it made a lot of sense to go down this, this path with these cattle.
I've got a little tangent to go on real quick. Wagyu, have you ate Wagyu steaks and meat before?
Yes, I have What's your,
I have not.
Oh, you have it.
No, I haven't. So I've, I've heard lots of things, but I've just, I just haven't, so is it as good as what people say?
I think so. If you get the right genetics and they've done it the right way. Yes. Now I will caveat that with, there are times where it feels like it kind of the term Wagyu, where the brand Wagyu gets watered down when you see it
Oh, yeah.
with somebody like Arby's came out with Wagyu burgers or something.
oh. Yeah. And that's more my price range
right. Which is, I mean, I get it, but I think if you, if, if you find people that do it right, you, you can find a phenomenal product there what people are willing to pay for that product is, is substantially higher than what they will pay for anything else. Especially 'cause people have heard that term
Right,
that, that makes them want it. Um, and, and there are some really good other operations that you can, you can get Wagyu, uh, grass fed from too out there.
Well, and, and like you mentioned there, public perception and perception is reality for so many people. Um, so there already have this belief where they're being told this is, is top quality beef. And then when they have it. It's confirmation bias. I mean, Angus does really good steaks, really good meat, but at the same time, you can do a lot of good things with other breeds. But Angus has done a tremendous job in marketing angus certified beef.
Yes, they have. I mean, they're definitely the top association for marketing. I mean, they
Oh yeah,
of just about anybody else out there with, with a breed association for what they are able to go ahead.
yeah. Yeah. They've just done a great job. I recall in the, I wanna say late eighties, early nineties, probably late eighties would be more accurate, maybe mid eighties. Um, the dairy industry, I. Really promoting butter, real butter and margarine was coming out and had been out and it was taking some of the market share. And it was really a concern. But the dairy industry, in my opinion, and I don't have the big picture, we were milking a few cows, in my opinion. They approached it wrong.
They didn't start, um, doing any blended products or anything. They were just so anti margarine and, and anything that's not real butter. And they, and in my opinion, they should have embraced some of that and, um, capture some of that market early on rather than giving it all up. But hindsight, that's, that's my opinion. And I don't have a lot of numbers to speak for. That's just always what I thought they should have done.
But Angus has done a tremendous job because they got on board of marketing their meat or beef early. I, I couldn't say when, but early. And they've just done a tremendous job of that.
Yeah, they have the CAB label that can get put on beef, sells 'em for a premium. I mean, people see it when they go to grocery stores, when they're going. I think even McDonald's had it for a while. I don't
Oh yeah.
or not, but, um, people are willing to pay for that. So if they, you know, they, now I will tell you. For the average consumer between an Angus, a Hereford, red Devon, whatever breed you have, you put the beef out there, they're probably not gonna tell a difference. But that association has done a phenomenal job promoting, promoting that product.
I, I struggle because I grew up on Holstein beef, and I just think that's the greatest thing ever.
Yeah. I mean, I think if you get, if, if you buy your beef from small, local farm town, you know, ranches and farmers, it's probably gonna be a lot better product than you're gonna get going to the grocery store. Whether
Oh yeah, yeah.
Holstein, Longhorn, Wagyu, Angus, whatever it is, it's just a, it's just a better eating experience overall.
Yes. Okay, let's jump back now. Uh, so you had the opportunity, you got some red Devons, some red Wagyu, um, crosses there. You bring them on your farm. How'd that go?
It went well. So they are from grass fed operation like we wanna run. So it wasn't too much of a change for them to get used to what we were doing. They were used to rotational grazing. They were used to not being pumped with a bunch of antibiotics or chemicals or anything like that, which is what we were very about and we don't do. So that that made the transition very smooth to have them incorporate onto our ranch. They pretty much hopped off the trailer ready to go like it was day one.
We didn't have to do a whole lot of doctoring or anything like
Oh yeah. When you brought 'em on, did you, were they, um, cows, bred heifers? What'd you buy?
So we bought predominantly yearling heifers and then we bought a few steers just for having something we could finish out and kind of test the market with, if you will.
Oh yeah. Because if you start with cows and you're gonna raise calves and you're gonna finish those calves for your grass fed market, you're talking four years down the road before you have a product.
Right, exactly. For us too, especially with me being first time jumping into cow calf, I wanted, I knew what I wanted to get to, which was, we're gonna breed them, we're gonna do this. But I wanted to just have cattle on the property and give me six months of working with them. And being around them and just experiencing what happens with cattle.
oh yeah.
started to focus on breeding and producing calves for going forward,
So that those first six months, let's talk about that just a little bit. Was there anything that you're like, oh, I, I didn't realize this.
flightiness, I guess would be one in the beginning.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
having them not used to a new person, being out there and getting them to be comfortable with somebody new in a new environment. And even though they came from grass fed rotationally, grazed system, still getting them to respect temporary hot wire, having to go out there and get them back into paddocks and that sort of stuff was all. All new and an all a big challenge for for a while.
I just, uh, purchased a few, uh, Corriente Longhorn cross heifers that are bred, and I brought them home and the guy I, I purchased them from, I purchased animals from him in the past and he has electric fence, but he doesn't, he doesn't do rotational grazing or use polywire or polybraid like I do. Well, I got those heifers home and of course the weather turned cold because I got 'em home. I guess last Saturday I went and got 'em.
It could have been Friday anyway, weather turned code, I put 'em out there, my electric fence. Is not going good. Um, I, I've gone around it, I went around it today, but it's not shocking them as hot as it should, and I've gotta do some more tracing out there. But they're not respecting my fence at all, which normally what I do, if I bring in an animal, I put 'em in a pen. I have up at the house near our corral, and I put electric fence across it, and I give 'em a few days.
But I thought, well, they, they come from this gentleman. I've had good luck in the past with his cattle. I'll just put 'em out there. Um, they, I mean, within five minutes of being up there, they'd stuck their head under a fence like, no, that, that's on me. I should have kept 'em at the house. Should have strung an electric fence out there. Made sure it was really hot. Let 'em touch it a couple times, but. The weather was changing. I thought I want to get 'em up there.
It's about a mile from our corral. So I thought I want to get 'em moved. And um, you know, always whenever you try and hurry and you don't do stuff quite like you need to, you find out you should have done it the right way. I
That was, I mean, one of the things for us is that we don't have any, we don't have any corral structure. We have, it's just acres and fences. So
Oh yeah.
to learn by trial of fire basically, you know, of getting used to getting used to
Oh yes.
and you'll have also, you know, kind of one of the frustrating things of running single braid or polywire is you'll have deer hit it that aren't used to
Oh, we have.
seeing that all of a sudden just shows up in the pasture, that sort of thing. Um, but if you keep with it, eventually they'll, they'll respect it. As long as, I know it sounds like you kind of had a little issue with fence not staying hot. And we've had that issue too. We don't, we don't have any electricity to the ranch, so everything is off solar panel. Um, and when we first put that in, didn't know anything about solar panels, didn't understand. How much we needed and that sort of thing.
And fence would stay hot for a day or two and then it'd die and then we'd have issues and that sort of thing. But now we've kind of learned and worked through that, that we are, we're to the point to where if the fence goes out, the cattle will still respect it and not come close
Oh yeah.
for a while. Which is, which is kind of what I wanted. You know, we live over an hour from the ranch. I need something that I know with the electricity fails. having that five strand fence is still gonna keep them in.
Right. Yeah. And, and that's the great thing. Once you get 'em trained, even power goes out for a little bit or something, um, it's usually not a problem. Yeah. So just on that, that subject, what do you have as a energizer? How do you have it set up so that you're, you're making sure you're getting that fence hot?
So we have Speedrite energizer, I wish I could tell you the exact model. Biggest one we could buy just to power everything.
Oh, yeah.
we've got three, probably, I don't know, 18 by 30 inch solar panels that are now connected to it with
Oh yeah.
rods in there.
Well, that's, I was gonna ask you, you read my mind about the ground rods, because that's one area I find people like to skimp on, and that affects the quality of your fence.
Yeah, I noticed that when we first, the guy that put 'em in was pretty minimal on those. And so I just went back in and just put as many as I could out there in the area that we've got and just said. I'd rather have more than not have enough. It's not that
oh, yeah,
to buy those and put those in, it's, it's worth it. Every penny
yeah, yeah. And so I, I assume you have a marine deep cycle battery on it.
I do, yes. And it's got a year warranty and it'll last about a year every time. But
Oh yes.
you know, I've, I've got it now to where I know like, okay, it's typically it's gonna die about the first November before we get into the winter season. And I go out there and I just replace it, no questions asked,
Oh yeah.
let's start fresh. 'cause that's the worst is getting into winter and you've gotta go replace a battery. And you know, ours is put to where it's basically in the middle of the pasture. And depending on the weather condition, you could be walking, I don't know, a quarter mile plus carrying a battery. That's not fun. You do that one time and you realize, okay, we're not doing that ever again.
Right?
of it, you know. year one you learn, year two, you realize, all right, let's get, let's get this fixed now or replaced now so that we're not having the same issue we had last year.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And actually that, that is what I'm trying to figure out if my battery's, um. Well, exactly. I have a solar, um, panel on this out here. It's worked great, but other day not putting out, well, it was completely dead. I brought the battery to the house and charged it, took it back up, but still not, not doing right.
And, um, so I, I disconnected, I had some electro netting up on some stuff, so I took it off and I thought, well it's, it's doing about a, a kilowatt, so I'll let it be today and tomorrow I'm gonna go up and trace it out. Well, I'm gonna completely disconnect it and, and just start from the beginning and see if I can identify where the issue is. Typically, I don't have an issue with it. It might be the battery's getting old on it.
Yeah, that kind of happens. You kind of learn that. There's been times where I've thought the energizer is bad or whatever, but it typically always goes back to the, the battery. And I don't know what Energizer you had, maybe you mentioned or not, but Speedrite, for us has been fantastic. We've got the remote that we can turn it off and on from wherever we're at in the
yeah.
which is, if you're getting into this, I recommend having one of those that is such a, that's such a lifesaver and a game changer to be able to just go out there and say, okay, I gotta work in this area or wherever I can turn it off and on from any spot you can check everything. It's, it's, it's a night and day advantage to have that
I, I have a cyclops, uh, energizer, but I have a Speedrite remote, which means the remote doesn't work for the energizer, but I love the voltage reading. If I'm losing amps anywhere, it gives me a direction on it. I really like that tool. Um, it'd be really nice if I had that remote control energizer with it, um, so I could turn it off, but I have to go back to the energizer, flip it off, go do my stuff, turn it back on.
Yeah, I'll tell you a funny story about turning it on and off was we first started and I had my parents out there to help me just do a few maintenance items around there. Just simply mainly because my dad was around cattle most of his life, so he's familiar with it, understands it. Um, and then I was trying to do some work on the fence, and this is before we understood how much we needed to have solar panel wise.
And we just had a little, little unit we bought from like tractor supply that we thought was gonna power this
Oh yeah.
And it clearly did not. It would last for maybe a day or two and, and would shut off 'cause it just wasn't enough, enough power getting to the battery to keep the battery charged. So I'm out there trying to do some work on the energizer, getting it figured out what's going on, what's causing it. My dad's in another part of the pasture at this time is not taking a phone call. Typical. I'm trying to crawl back and forth underneath the fence to figure out what is causing issues.
At the same time, he is checking the fence for electricity, so I'm turning it off, crawling underneath it. He sees that it's off, he's turning it on. I'm crawling back underneath to do some other stuff, and I am, I am getting hit, you know, I'm getting, I think it's 10,000 volts of basically what we have just right through my back. I can't figure out what's causing this now. I think there's like some sort of short going on in the fence
oh yes.
that, that's causing me to get hit. I'd get out, turn it, check it, and like, okay, it's hot. Turn it off. Crawl back underneath to go try to reassess with the battery and the, the energizer situation. He would check it again, realize that it was not on, he'd turn it back on, I'd crawl back underneath it, get hit again.
Oh, yes.
And then eventually
feel good.
I, no, it does not feel good. And then eventually I got with him and I was like, what are, like, there were some very choice words said between each other that a father and son should not say to each other.
Imagine so. Yeah, it's one of those You have to apologize later. I'm sorry for what I said in the moment. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you got these steers there, cattle, some cows that, or some heifers I think you said there. What did you breed them to for your first year on those heifers?
So we took all of them, we AI to. Primarily red Wagyu. Again, we
Oh yeah.
we did some that was, um, a cross between red and black Wagyu
Oh yeah. did you have any calving problems with them?
We have not, uh, we had, I'll be honest with you, some calving issues from not having cattle completely comfortable with going through the corral and all the process of getting them AIed and when we tried to round them up to get them into the corral for getting them synced and all this other stuff kind of overworked them. And so we ended up with not as many taking as we would've liked.
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Um, but the ones that we've had calves from have been very, very happy with.
And, and that brings up a a good point there. When you're AIing cattle, you've gotta have a way to get 'em in and you need 'em to remain relatively calm during the process. Uh, and earlier you'd mentioned, you all don't have too many, too many pens in way of a corral. So how did
have nothing.
how'd you do that then?
So I'm, I'm blessed to have really good neighbors and those, that, that, that is a huge, huge benefit of where we're at. So I've got a neighbor that's got a portable corral.
Oh
neighbor that's got a chute and then I've got another guy that does the ai. And so
Oh yes.
just the tough part is working with all of them to get schedules to line up so we can get everything perfectly set up to be at the same time.
Oh yeah.
Um, and then, you know, year one, 'cause they weren't fully. I don't know if train's the right word, but they weren't used to me. a lot more work to get them into the temporary corral, get them ready to go and do all that stuff Now because we've gotten them trained to alfalfa cubes. I can go out there into the pasture. You can put the temporary corral wherever you want and I'll have them caught in 15 to 30 minutes. They'll just call me right in. Like, it's like it's nothing.
Oh yes. Yeah. And are you continuing to AI each year or do y'all end up purchasing a bull?
So year one we didn't, which was a mistake on my part that was kind of being penny wise and pound foolish. Should have bought one just for cleanup for having calves we could take to the sale barn to market. That was, that was, that was on me not thinking fully through it this year. We AIed and then found. Another person close to us that had bull he was willing to lease that we used for cleanup. The uh, cleanup bowl we got was just, just a run of the mill Angus bull.
Um, he had two, a red and a black, and I asked him what sells better at the sale barn? And he said, black. And I said, we'll, take that
Yes. Yeah. Well, uh, at a certain point, the, the most important factor becomes getting those cows in calf, getting them pregnant. So you have something to market.
that is, that is 100% the most important thing I think personally. I mean, it's having something you could sell is, is, is a huge factor. Whether
Oh, yeah.
you know, you've got it AI to the genetics or the breed you wanted and you can sell to specialized. Other ranches or farms that do the same thing you do, or if it's a calf you can sell at market, at the sale barn that is light years ahead of not having a calf that's born out there.
Right. Yes. Now on AI in your cows, did, did you sync 'em so that they were able just to come over there and Ai 'em all timed, or how did, how was that managed?
Yeah, we did Simply because it's hard to keep neighbors from not using their own equipment. We, we decided to sync and AI all at the same time and really wanted a tight calving window.
Oh, yeah. When you're ai, and that's always. Or, or timing typically sinking your cows and then being able to ai them works better for most beef people. Um, now when we dairyed, we very rarely sync anything outside, some heifers, but, um, I'm thinking this year I'd like to AI a few and, and my initial thoughts are I'll go in and sync everything, ai, everything, and then put a cleanup bull on them, which will, I mean, it'll be one of my South Poll bulls, so I'll be happy with the, the breeding.
But, um, trying to ai 'em one time first.
Yeah, I think that's a really good way. I mean, especially for young ranchers and people getting started, you know, depending on what your end game is, obviously that that factors into it. But if you are trying to get the best genetics you can for the cost, AI is a lot cheaper option than going out and trying to buy the most expensive registered bull you can find.
I, I completely agree. Now I have to say, I say that's my plan. I actually have another plan that I'm tossing around in my head as well, um, because I'm debating whether or not I should be raising any replacements. And I like the, I like raising my own replacements, but I think profitability takes a hit when I'm raising that heifer to a cow. And maybe I can buy in animals that will fit my system. I'd like to think at this point I know what I'm doing, which I don't.
Um, so I'm tossing around both ideas right now. Not sure which way I'm going to go, because I love the idea. I love breeding. I love the, the genetic aspect of it, and I don't like the idea not raising my own replacements because I know those animals. But when I start figuring things, I think, you know, maybe I'm not looking at this right. So I've got plenty of time think about it and debate it. Um, but we'll get it figured out,
Yeah, I think that's a, that's an important thing to look at. I mean, I, I think I'm kind of with you on the same line of thinking as I am. I want to control the genetics as much as possible too. I want to know exactly the lineage or what I'm putting into it as opposed to trusting what I'm hearing from somebody else. Um, so I, I fully get what you're, what you're, what you're talking about there.
Yeah. Now let's, let's talk a little bit about those first steers you got. Have you finished those and marketed them, or where are they on their journey?
So we have, we finished them and sold them last October, November sometime in there.
Oh, okay.
and sold most of them. We still have some beef that we're working through. Primarily it was just word of mouth to friends and family saying, Hey, we've got quarters or halves available, who's interested? And kind of just going from there.
How'd that turn out? Did it turn out like you thought it would?
I would say yes and no. We have had really good feedback from the beef that we have sold, that people
Oh,
really like it, really excited about it, but we didn't sell. Out of everything like we thought we would.
Oh yes.
which is, which is a tough, tough spot to be in. You take X amount into the butcher and then you've only sold y you've gotta come up with a solution to what you're gonna do with the rest of the beef. So
Oh yeah.
holding, I'm holding some beef and in a deep freeze here. My brother's holding some in a deep freeze at his place and we're just kind of, kind of, kind of selling that as we go now.
Yeah. And did you find that that, um, cross finished pretty easily on grass for you?
It did. It's, it's a, it's a great cross. It, they get fat and they're happy. The marbling on there is really good. I would say it's probably grating out choice if, if I had to pick, I'm not an expert on the USDA finishing system, but just
Oh yeah. Yeah.
and comparing what we've got, it's very tender. Um, a great eating experience.
Oh, very good. Very good. Did you, when you're, you're finishing those steers on grass, did you do anything special to get 'em finished? Did you, um, was there any gotchas when you're going through that process?
No, we haven't done anything different. We've, we've looked at, you know, maybe the last couple of weeks or a month going forward, supplementing with more alfalfa or maybe even beet pellets. And I know there's some questionable whether or not that considers a hundred percent grass fed or not, but looked at doing something different. But the end product has worked out great for us
Oh yeah.
we've, we've finished them out longer. I think a lot of times people finish cattle out to just when they hit that weight and they don't give a ton of time to mature
Oh, yes.
you know, so we've, we've. We gave our cattle three full years out there before we took 'em in, and I think that has really helped with, with the flavor and the overall eating experience.
Oh, very good. Yeah. And you know, just that giving them time. We, we pencil everything out. I was talking about what I'm going to do, uh, if I ai my calves or, or if I'm going to possibly not keep replacements, what's that going to do? We pencil this out, but in reality, um, the best laid plans don't always work like we think they will. And timing on finishing a calf, a calf's going finish when it finishes.
And, um, it's really tough to say they're gonna finish on May 21st, or whenever you say, 'cause you gotta work with that animal and what your forages are. And there's so many factors in that.
Oh yeah, there are a lot. And especially for the small producer, it's. Hey, we've got a time slot that's here, or we can do another one in three months. When can you get the cow in? You know, when can you get those steers in? And you've gotta be able to work around that. It, it's, it's very tough to get 'em to finish exactly the way you want as a,
Oh yeah.
in this, this day and age. And I don't, there's no issue with, with the butchers. I mean, they're trying to just book it up and they good on them to have it set up to where they can be fully booked and only have time, you know, here or here, and you've gotta
Oh, right. Yeah.
Um, but it does make it a little harder on the, the finishing product you're trying to to customers.
Oh yeah. So very true. Yes. So you finished that set. This coming year, did you go back and get some more steers that were yearlings to keep the process going? So you have some each year, or have you got calves that'll finish out this year for you?
So calves will not finish out until the year after?
That's what I, I was thinking, but then I thought, you know, maybe math isn't my subject, so I thought I'd better check.
Good question. So we are going to, we will supplement with some, we'll buy some steers to finish out this year. Um, and we've got, we luckily found enough other people that kind of produce beef the same way that we do, that we can, we can go to them and say, Hey, this is, this is how many steers we need. What do you have? Can you help us? And if they've got extra inventory, then we can buy from them and feel
Oh, very good.
that product because it's raised the same way that, that we do it.
Right, right. Yeah. Uh, one more question before we get to the overgrazing section. Uh, when you went in on that land and getting it set up, did you just start working with the forage that was there or did you go in and add anything, do anything special there?
We haven't done anything special yet. Um, I did look at working with NRCS on taking a piece that before we had, the previous owner had used for, um, row crop ground
Oh, yes.
getting that back into grass production, but it just didn't quite work out with what we wanted because they had to, or their requirement was the cattle had to be off the ground for that piece of land for a certain piece of time that has our, our water for the winter on it. So that didn't quite work out.
I was right. Yeah.
And so, um, really liked that idea and wanted, wanted, really wanted to pursue that because of the cost sharing and you know, how they kind of help with all the, all of that side of the operation. But I didn't want to have to go walk a quarter mile or more every morning and chop ice for cattle to drink out of, out of ponds.
Oh yeah. Yeah. All those other considerations gotta be considered. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Nate, it's time for us to transition to the overgrazing section where we take a little bit deeper dive into something about your operation. And today we're gonna talk more about focusing on the end product.
Yeah. I think that was kind of where, starting out I got stuck or I don't know if stucks the right word, but too focused on would be correct, I guess was I, was I focused on when I wanted to be able to finish the cattle? I. As opposed to when the cattle should be calving and when they should be growing and had to kind of flip that after one calving cycle and realized this isn't, this isn't the right way to be doing it. We need to be more in sync with nature.
Um, unfortunately it took, you know, took a pretty big hit there because we had to change the whole entire breeding season around to accommodate that. But know that going forward, that is putting us in a position to utilize forage better than what we've had before.
You know, with that breeding season, I think I've heard, and I'd like to attribute this to somebody, and I can't think who says this, but I know I've heard it, that, you know, the, the Kevin season is the place that, that farmers have the most area to. To make money that they're Kev outta sync with nature and or at a time that's not working for their forages. And they could really save money or, or better produce their animals if they were more in sync or, or just working with their forages.
You know, for instance, my dad and I, and I bring us up a lot because we're kind of a contrast. Dad's got a fall ke herd. I ke everything in the spring. Last couple of years we've been talking about this. And I use so much less hay than he does per animal. Uh, his cows are milking into peak lactation when we're starting into winter and we usually, we we're able to stockpile some grass. So, so we don't feed a great amount of hay, but we still feed a fair amount.
And we've talked about changing that Kevin's window for his herd, but. The logistics of doing that. Do you go six months without a calf? Do you wholesale sell the herd and buy all new animals in? And if you've looked at prices lately, that's pretty scary. Do we go six months? I don't know. We're talking about it, but as of now, we're still calving, the way we were, because that's a big change that we haven't quite figured out the direction we're going with that.
Yeah, that's a tough one. I understand exactly what you're saying. I don't know if there's a way to kind of piecemeal it. Maybe there is where you kind of slowly change the breeding season to get to where you want. You
And we've talked about that.
bad months. I don't know exactly, but
Yeah. And, and that's what we would end up if we go, if we try and push 'em to a shorter, uh, calving interval,
Mm-hmm.
you're gonna go through some months. You don't want calve in that way. If you push him to a longer calving interval, eventually you're gonna lose half a calf in there because you're pushing him longer each time. Um, but you're gonna go through some months. You don't want ke in then either. So, um, standing pat right now, uh, as we think about it and consider our options.
So, you know, our main focus has always been on the, the end product, which, which I think we've figured it out, has, has worked. We, we ended up kind of just basically doing a taste test to figure out this is exactly where we wanted to go. We ordered a bunch of grass fed, grain fed steaks from different operations, different breeds, and kind of just had a, a blind taste test with with family over the holidays one year and decided, okay, this makes sense. This is how.
We're gonna pursue this, this is what we're going to do and this is how we're gonna gonna build, build a herd towards
Is that where you identified, Hey, Wagyu is the way we want to go?
Mm-Hmm. That, that's exactly right. We did a bunch of different ones. Like I said, um, I mean, honestly, we, we tried Highland, we tried Piedmontese, we tried just straight grass fed from the grocery store. We did grass fed Wagyu from Firstlight Farms. We did grain fed Wagyu from heart brand and some other ones from local and just grilled a bunch of steaks, cooked them all the same, and said, Hey, rate these.
And then did, did an evaluation and said, okay, this, this is kind of the top, top of the line that people like the most, and that's where the operation should go towards.
Oh, very good. And that's a excellent way to begin with the end in mind and, um, figure out what you like and goes with that. We, we talked about, we have not produced any grass finished, um, beef and we've talked about doing it. Um, my wife and I have talked about it a lot. However, when I say that. To be honest, we haven't really ate grass fed beef.
We, we have traditionally finished beef with a little bit of grain, and that's always what's in our deep freeze and we haven't gone out to buy any. So one of our first things, we're gonna finish a steer so we can have it before we even try and, and marketing it just to make sure we're on the right path. And we like it.
I think that's a good way to do it. I mean, it really You finish it out and at least with us, if you dry age it 12 to 14 days, it works great.
oh yeah.
And the product's been good, and if you wanna sample some mistakes, let me know and I'll just send some your direction.
Oh, okay. I'll keep that in mind because yeah, I did pastured Poultry probably, I. It is probably 10 years, 15 years ago. I got some Cornish crosses. I built a, a pen, um, like Joel's saladin, the, the meat chicken pen. And I purchased 50 of them and I raised them in it. And the first thing we did, I thought, we're going to put up these for ourselves. If we like them, then we'll move the next step and see if I can market some.
I think the price point's really tough on those, especially where I live, but I thought, I'm gonna try some. So we did that first set, butchered them, got 'em processed, and my wife's like, I don't like 'em. It doesn't, it, it's not flavorful. I said, it's chicken, it's flavored from whatever you put on it. Um, she was not a fan. So that was the last pastured poultry that I did. Now. I, I have talked to her about maybe getting some Freedom Rangers and trying a little bit slower growing ones.
Uh, and doing it, I haven't yet because I do believe the price point in my area is just markets it out of my, out of the people here. So I don't know. But yeah. If you don't love it, it's hard for you to market to other people.
Yeah, absolutely. You don't have the conviction behind what you're
you don't. Yeah.
you've gotta be fully into it. Like you gotta try it and go, I, I know this product is good. I know it's, it's good for the consumer and you've gotta, you gotta fully be
Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Completely agree. Nate, let's move on to the famous four questions. Same four questions we ask of all of our guests. Our first question, Nate, what is your favorite grazing grass resource or book? I.
Good question. Probably give you a couple, I'm reading Joel Ton's salad bar beef right now, so that's top of
Oh yes.
Um, but I also think another really good one is Comeback Farms by Greg Judy,
Oh yeah. Yeah. Both. Excellent choices there. Yeah. Our second question, what is your favorite tool for the farm?
can I give you two answers on that one?
Yes. You can gimme as many as you want,
for actual tool itself is fence pliers and those. For what we have, build a fixed fence. They also worked as a hammer. They're pretty universal for a lot of issues. You're gonna, you're gonna run across in terms of day-to-day operational problems.
yes. Yeah.
The other one for us and for myself, is a good bag of alfalfa cubes. And once you get them cattle trained to that you can get them to do a lot of things that you could do without having to, you don't have to have dogs, horses, machinery. You can just get them to follow you just about anywhere you want to go.
Yeah, I, I love cows be following me as opposed to me driving them or trying to get them to do anything else. If they'll just follow me, it's all good.
Yeah. I, I love it about a 90% of the time except for that 10% when I'm working in a certain area and they just are just right up on you. 'cause they think you got some treats for him.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hazard of it. Yeah. Our third question, Nate, what would you tell someone? Just getting started.
For somebody just getting started, you definitely want to do your due diligence and do your research before you jump into it. I would say before picking out a piece of ground, it, look at it, do an assessment of the water, the fence, the forage, meet your neighbors, talk to them.
Come up with exactly what your end product is, whether that's you wanna finish cattle and sell to your friends and family, whether it's you wanna raise cattle that are just, you're selling the calves to the um, sale barn, whatever it is, figure out your end game, whether you want to be the marketing specialist that. Focuses on the end product, or if you want to be more of just the land steward, figure out your niche and go from there.
Um, but I would also say no time like the president to get started. You know, do your research, have a general idea, and then jump in and get started. There's a lot of things you can read about and have an idea about, but until you experience it, you're not gonna know how to deal with it. There's gonna be a lot of ups and downs in this industry. You're gonna have calves born, you're gonna have cows die.
You're gonna go through a lot of highs and lows, but don't feel like you have to have all the answers before you get started. I mean, there's a lot of really good books out there. There's a lot of great content on
there is.
I mean, your, your phone is a information highway to anything to help you get started in this industry.
Very good. And Nate, where can others find out more about you?
So we have an Instagram, it's just Stucky Family Ranch. And if anybody wants to get ahold of me, I love to talk cattle.
Wonderful. Nate, we appreciate you coming on today.
cal. I have enjoyed it. You take care.
You too.