Randy Blach came to CattleFax in 1981 and served as Director of Market Analysis for 15 years. He was promoted to CEO in January of 2001, a role that he continues to serve in today. During his tenure, the company has enjoyed significant growth and has continues to lead the industry with timely market information, in-depth analysis and forecasts on cattle, protein and grain markets in the United States and globally. Blach has been a keynote speaker at thousands of cattle, beef and related business...
Jan 03, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 47
Dr. Frank Mitloehner is a professor and air quality specialist in cooperative extension in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis. He shares his knowledge and research, both domestically and abroad, with students, scientists, farmers and ranchers, policy makers, and the public at large. Frank is also director of the CLEAR Center, which has two cores – research and communications. The CLEAR Center brings clarity to the intersection of animal agriculture and the environment, helping our glob...
Dec 20, 2023•54 min•Ep. 47
A bit different episode, as Matt will give a summary of the sires in their upcoming bull sale.
Nov 03, 2023•15 min•Ep. 46
Dr. Ted Schroeder is a Professor of Economics at Kansas State University. His research on livestock marketing and price analysis provides information and direction for the livestock and grain industries. This research focuses on improving commodity market efficiency by investigating price discovery methods, improving market coordinating mechanisms, and applied risk management. Schroeder also teaches courses in marketing and risk management. Links: Cattle Contract Library: Cattle Contracts Librar...
Oct 25, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Season 4Ep. 45
Joe Goggins is an auctioneer, livestock market owner, commercial cow-calf producer, yearling operator and seedstock producer near Billings, MT. His family has a long history as a passionate advocate for beef producers. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Livestock Marketing Association and has served in a variety of leadership roles in beef producer organizations. Angus Conversation Podcast link: Episodes | Angus Journal Websites: www.lmaweb.com www.vermillionranch.com www.publi...
Oct 11, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 44
Dr. Tera Barnhardt is a Veterinarian from Johnson City, Kansas. She consults with various feedyards, large cow-calf producers and dairies in southwest Kansas. She is a mother of three, and she and her husband are also involved in other businesses in the region. Plus, she is a tremendous advocate for the beef industry, appearing on various national news shows to help consumers better understand modern beef production methods and beef producers' dedication to a safe, wholesome food supply....
Sep 27, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 43
Tucker Stewart is the Senior Agricultural Policy Advisor for U.S. Senator Roger Marshall. Raised on his family's farm and ranch, Mid-Continent Farms, near Washington, KS, he strives to share the story of production agriculture with all those around him, whether at work or play. Links: Advocacy for Agriculture, The Show Circuit, https://bit.ly/SCAdvocacyForAg Episode #35, Practically Ranching, Gregg Doud, Building the Coalition...
Sep 13, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 42
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@compassagsolutions.com 970-372-0482
Aug 30, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 41
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 nutritious, environmentally sustainable, and equitable food systems that can sustain both human life and the planet. G...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 40
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.symphonyintheflinthills.org
May 24, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 39
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's beef industry.
May 10, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 38
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 and has served in various volunteer capacities within KSU. Raised in Marshall County, Kansas, he spent much of his adult life in the ...
Apr 26, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 37
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
Apr 12, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 36
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.aimpointresearch.com
Mar 29, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 35
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 the best data and info to help in this effort. douglas.spencer@usda.gov Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP): https://rangeland...
Mar 15, 2023•58 min•Season 2Ep. 34
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 Year. I sat down with Dad last January to record this podcast and it was posted immediately prior to the award, presented in Manha...
Mar 01, 2023•57 min•Season 2Ep. 33
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 segment.
Feb 22, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 32
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 environments in the U.S, his toughness and tenacity are evident. The Reynolds family is a stalwart of Texas ranching, and Mr. Black has bee...
Feb 08, 2023•33 min•Season 2Ep. 31
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.uscattletrace.org Other podcasts mentioned during the episode: https://theangusconversation.buzzsprout.com/2029894/117...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 30
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 started a direct-to-consumer beef business, Leffler Prime Performance, that helps her add value to their family's stocker/backgrounder and ca...
Dec 21, 2022•53 min•Season 1Ep. 29
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 has found ways to promote junior programs and inspire those around her to best tell cow-calf producers' story to consumers and ...
Dec 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 28
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's a fan of high-quality beef and Certified Angus Beef, and he does all he can to keep it in his recipes often. School Food...
Nov 23, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 27
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
Nov 16, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 26
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 and then an officer. It's because he did all of the above and still put priority on his family. He figured out how to do the best with what...
Nov 09, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 25
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 beef to consumers.
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 24
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 finally got tired of writing them all down in my notes. And little did I know that my recording software was basically se...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 23
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, distributors and consumers as she advocates and educates about not only high-quality beef, but the high-quality folks who ...
Oct 19, 2022•57 min•Season 1Ep. 22
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 been active leaders in their community and with ag organizations on the state and national levels....
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Season 1Ep. 21
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
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 20
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. Lawrence spent two years with Smithfield Foods in the position of research manager for pork harvest and processing facilities on the east...
Sep 28, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 19
