Transcript generated by Podium.page
Help us spread the word by tweeting about us at @podiumdotpage and including us in your shownotes! https://podium.page
NOTE: There were 3 speakers identified in this transcript. Speaker separation errors can arise when multiple speakers speak simultaneously.
0:00:01 - Cal
On today's show we travel to Texas and talk to Thomas and Emily about the operation they're working on. They raise cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens. We talk about the grass finishing of each of those species and how they're doing that, as well as marketing efforts. It's a great episode you'll enjoy. So we'll get started with the Fast Five. What's your name?
0:00:27 - Thomas
Go ahead. Hi, I'm Thomas Wade. We're out in Emory, Texas.
0:00:32 - Emily
I'm Emily and I'm the livestock manager here at the ranch. And yeah, like you said, our ranch's headquarters is here in Emory, texas. It's about an hour north of Tyler, so we're in East Texas.
0:00:44 - Cal
Oh, okay, and what's the farm's name?
0:00:47 - Emily
The farm. It's named as Legends Cattle Company and then Born and Raised is our sales side, so we were the marketing side, marketing side, yes.
0:00:58 - Thomas
Straight to King's Trail, lord yeah.
0:01:02 - Cal
And what year did the ranch start raising cattle?
0:01:07 - Thomas
Probably five generations ago.
0:01:08 - Emily
Probably five generations ago, yeah, five generations ago.
0:01:10 - Cal
I thought it was a long time ago. I thought it would be good to see it all new.
0:01:14 - Thomas
We've been here for a while.
0:01:16 - Cal
Yeah, what year did you all get involved in grazing animals?
0:01:21 - Emily
So in college my major was animal science with concentration in production, so I've been kind of in the grazing industry for quite a bit. I started with Legends in 2021. And from there I took on the cattle and I brought in sheep and we kind of learned a little rotation grazing through them and then from there we were able to expand to now four species.
0:01:48 - Thomas
Which are chicken, beef excuse me pork and sheep. So we do all four. We sell direct to consumer and that's where I came in. In 2021, I became a sales manager and overseeing the direct to consumer side. My background is not in farming, actually at all. I originally a small beach town in California. I moved down here about four years ago and just needed work, so I'm on the sales side. So they told me the. They call me the city boy around here.
0:02:20 - Cal
Very good, so that's very interesting. Welcome to the grazing grass Podcast, the podcast dedicated to sharing the stories of grass-based livestock producers and exploring regenerative practices that improve the land, animals and our lives. I'm your host, galf Hartage, and each week we'll dive into the journeys, challenges and successes of producers like you, learning from their experiences and inspiring each other to grow and graze better. Whether you're a seasoned grazer or just getting started, this is the place for you. Attention ranchers ready to improve your land and boost your bottom line, join Noble Research Institute for its March Ranch Management Courses. Business of Grazing in Edmond, oklahoma, march 4th through 6th. Learn to create detailed grazing plans, optimize profitability and make smart infrastructure investments. Noble Grazing Essentials in Huntsville, texas, march 25th through 27th. Discover how to assess carrying capacity, implement adaptive grazing strategies and develop effective pasture recovery techniques. Expert facilitators with decades of ranching knowledge will guide you through practical field and classroom training. Receive exclusive benefits. Include virtual meetings and one-on-one consultations. Space is limited. Visit nobleorg to enroll and invest in your land, livestock and legacy For 10 seconds about the farm.
Today we're feeding hay to cattle. We would prefer to be grazing more stockpile, but we don't have any, so we're grazing hay and we feed hay in multiples ways. Sometimes we bell graze, sometimes we unroll hay, other times we put it in a hay feeder. We also have some lambs on the ground. Sheep just a small portion are lambing the goats. They're just fat and happy right now and still being dramatic. If you have goats, you understand that.
For 10 seconds about the podcast actually wait, I've got something that straddles the farm and the podcast it's another podcast. It's another podcast. Jock on episode 149 had mentioned the pastor pod and Joe brought it up in our grazing grass community, our Facebook group, that he'd been listening to it. I thought you know I want to listen to that, so I started listening to it. I'm enjoying it. It's really good. A lot of humor on there. If you like it, you might check it out.
The Pastored Pod I think it's called the Pastored Pod, the Pastor Pod yes, thank you, joe. And Grazing Grass Insiders Grazing Grass Insiders they help support the podcast by providing a little bit of value to the podcast and you can join and be an insider at the grazinggrasscom website and it just helps us keep this podcast going. I appreciate you, joe. I appreciate the other Grazinggrass Insiders. If you'd like to join, like I said, go to the website grazinggrasscom and you can click on it and see there. We appreciate your support. Enough of that, let's get back to Thomas and Emily. Emily, I want to dive into your background, but first we got to ask a little bit more of Thomas. How did you end up doing marketing for a ranch?
0:06:02 - Thomas
Yeah, so I applied on Indeed one day. It was a small little company called Morning Rains, and they replied and finally Indeed. Finally worked out one time, oh right Indeed it did. It was an awesome experience and I'm really excited for the future.
0:06:20 - Cal
Did you grow up around livestock at all? No, you said city boy, so you had, I have zero rates of a livestock.
0:06:26 - Thomas
But I try to. I try to question everybody a few questions, you know, like, give me what's, what's the question there about livestock. So it's always a good thought, but I did grow up around like ancient, other stuff like that. So I'm very connected with nature and I respect all the animals and understand those. You know how, how the nature works.
0:06:48 - Cal
Oh, yes, yeah. And did you go to school for marketing?
0:06:51 - Thomas
I would say I'm a, I'm like a trial and do everything formally educated, but just kind of like I don't know a jack of all trades, all tech.
0:07:02 - Cal
Yeah, wow, I. I understand that my college degrees are not necessarily what.
0:07:07 - Thomas
I do yeah.
0:07:10 - Cal
They're just something I spent money on, then I don't utilize them to their fullest Right. Yeah and Emily, are you able to get Thomas out helping with livestock, or is he stuck marketing all the time?
0:07:23 - Emily
He does a really good job marketing he's the best. But every once in a while he'll come out for a farm tour. He'll bring some of the customers he meets at the farmer's market out here. We'll kind of go around and stuff.
But it really helps his side because he's able to see firsthand on what we're doing on the ranch, which then he can tell the customers and stuff and kind of give them a background on what we're doing on the ranch, which then he can tell the customers and stuff and kind of give them a background on what we're doing. So he does a great job on all that. But yeah, I'd love to see him out here.
0:07:53 - Cal
You always need the help. I'm sure. Emily, you mentioned you went to college for this growing up. Did you grow up on a farm or ranch?
0:08:02 - Emily
No, so similarly I'm also from california oh yes, that is interesting we actually were from about an hour away from each other. We found out whenever we both lived there. But I moved to texas when I was a kid, when I was about eight and so from there I kind of really always had a love for animals, for livestock and stuff. And then it wasn't until high school I joined FFA and that's where I really go deep into it.
I started my freshman year with a pig and then from there I grew to cattle. So by my senior year I had four or five livestock animals in the FFA barn, four or five livestock animals in the FFA barn. And then I knew that was kind of the career path and goal I wanted to set for myself was to make a living out of it, basically.
0:08:53 - Cal
But to jump all the way back there when you were thinking about getting into ag or taking FFA. What prompted you to that At that time? Was it just a curiosity, or was you thought I really like animals, I want to learn more about it? What? What really got you to take that next step into it?
0:09:13 - Emily
So in California my grandpa owned a ranch up near Oregon, and so as a kid, we used to always go up there. He had horses, he had the cows, and so I always had a love for it. And then when I lived in Texas and I saw the opportunity, it was something I really wanted to take advantage of, because I knew how much I loved it as a kid. I've always loved animals. Oh yes, that's kind of what prompted all of it to turn into what it is today.
0:09:42 - Cal
Oh, very good, I think those journeys are always really interesting. When I got into high school, in middle school we we had started daring full-time. But shortly before that my dad was working for a business and I knew they always contracted out with engineers to draw up plans for stuff and I'd hear the the hourly. Let me try that one again, the hourly rate. They got paid and I thought, oh, that's what I want to do.
As I went to high school, even with my farm background, I thought I'm not taking ag, I'm taking drafting, and kind of going down that path and about I don't know. Two or three weeks into school I realized that was a bad decision and I should have went in ag. My friends who went in ag were talking about it and I had an unfair advantage or disadvantage. My uncle was the principal, so that has some disadvantages. But the advantage here was we were at my grandparents one day and he was over there and we were talking about it and I'm like I don't want to be in drafting, I want to move to ag, you know. But the schedule change had already happened or ended. You couldn't do it anymore. And he's like, oh, we'll move you on Monday. So I was like, oh, great. So that really prompted me or got me into ag earlier then. But I think it's always interesting how those little things in life make such a profound effect upon where you go. Once you got out of college, what was your next step, emily?
0:11:14 - Emily
So from there it was kind of just finding a job, because where I lived is in the DFW Metroplex and I mean there's not much, not much farm jobs.
0:11:25 - Cal
Right.
0:11:28 - Emily
And so I was searching and searching and then finally I actually came.
0:11:32 - Cal
Across the same post on Indeed.
0:11:33 - Emily
And so I started talking with the company, emailing back and forth and kind of trying to see if there was a spot on the livestock production of things. And then sure enough, after a couple of weeks of going back and forth, they were they're able to meet, able to make an offer and bring me on here at the ranch. So I mean, I've been loving it ever since.
0:11:54 - Cal
Oh, very good.
0:11:56 - Thomas
Yeah, it would be real weird if it switched to a job, like if I was on the farm and she was doing the marketing, this code for you would not work very well.
0:12:05 - Emily
How it works right now is not what it's meant to be, right.
0:12:10 - Cal
You know, as we talk about farmers, especially when you talk about small farmers, they have got to do all the parts and, like, the marketing part is not my strong suit for the farm. Yeah, so it's really good that it can work to your all strengths. Yeah, so so it's really good that it can work to your old strengths. To move away from you all just a little bit. Let's talk about the Garrett and the ranch you mentioned. It's been there five generations, I believe. Yes, sir.
0:12:39 - Thomas
Yeah, have they always ran beef cattle? Yeah, so recently, from our knowledge, it was mostly calf cattle they did business. We'd also install a sperm as well.
0:12:48 - Emily
Oh yeah, yes, so we had a full operation, and so we did a lot of printing of semen and stuff and trying to. We won some awards at the Fort Worth Stock Show. We would sell lots of our bull semen and everything trying to be kind of like how do I say? This Like focusing more on the production side of things.
0:13:07 - Cal
Oh yeah, a seed stock producer with production focus, that's what it's called. Yeah, yeah.
0:13:14 - Thomas
And it's definitely you know, like in our current product. It shows, you know definitely all of the insights from other you know, de-ferrariers, other local just how you know refined, or you know how well we've worked with our students for the past 15 years.
0:13:30 - Emily
Genetics is definitely something the Gears have prioritized very much. Their whole seed stock, their cow, calf reduction and, as Thomas said, it really does show whenever we're finishing our animals, whenever we get our product back, when we see it hanging at the processor and everything.
0:13:48 - Cal
Have they always been into Angus breeding?
0:13:52 - Emily
Yes, Angus and Raman breeding, which is a Brit. We focus on Brangus here, but I mean it's.
0:13:59 - Cal
Oh, okay, Okay. I was looking at your pictures and I just thought I actually can see a little Bringus in that animal.
0:14:08 - Emily
now that I look at it, yeah, they like the Bringus breed, just because the weather in here in Texas are a little bit more hardy, and they finish better, especially with the grass-fed product, from what they found.
0:14:21 - Cal
Oh yeah, Now, when you came on, Emily, they were still running cattle. Were they doing grass-fed at that time?
0:14:30 - Emily
They had just started the grass. They were still a seed stock producer, but they had a lot of calls coming in about asking if we sold beef because there was beef.
0:14:39 - Cal
Oh yes.
0:14:40 - Emily
And so that was kind of a door open for our owner Colton, kind of a market he can tap into, maybe take advantage of, because during that time the market wasn't that big in DFW for there wasn't a lot of outlets, I guess, offering what we could offer. And so he gone early, started, jumped in on it and then from there they were finishing a couple, couple cows a year for some customers and that grew into our business and then what it is now.
0:15:10 - Cal
About how many animals do you all finish out direct to consumer a year?
0:15:15 - Emily
Really so as we've been growing. I know last year we did about 60. This year we plan to do around 80.
0:15:23 - Cal
Oh yes.
0:15:24 - Emily
So that's just on the beef side of things, though.
0:15:27 - Cal
Right, yeah, but that's, that's very good.
0:15:29 - Thomas
That's a nice amount going out to consumers and you all have that DFW area which is just booming in population and to like, with only doing 85 cows, a lot of our seed waste we don't have, like we have 1% seed waste that we actually really really like to see, just because we want our stock available as much as possible and make sure that it's getting to the bottom of the dinner plate and not in the trash as well.
0:15:56 - Cal
Oh yeah.
0:15:57 - Thomas
We definitely take that very seriously how many cattle we're raising per year to feed our business.
0:16:03 - Emily
And really how their concept in the beginning was to do bulk orders, so it was either eight halves, quarters or fulls, and so that is pretty much a staple in our business is people being able to buy in bulk or pre-order a whole cow and just know it's going to be a high-quality product.
0:16:24 - Cal
Oh yeah, when y'all came on, go ahead. It's going to be a high quality product.
0:16:28 - Emily
Oh yeah, yeah but when you all came on, go ahead. But so like what the bulk order is turning into now, people wanting to buy individual products, which kind of introduced us to now the farmer's market side of things is individual cuts, which now led to okay, let's expand our, let's expand our protein, let's see what else customers would be wanting to listen.
0:16:48 - Thomas
You know, listening to your podcast, like I'm guessing, a lot of people have kind of always like they start on chickens or they start on bees, and then you know you start moving more and more and more along the journey. So we're at the floor right now, right, that stacking of enterprises. So we're at the, we're at the four right now.
0:17:08 - Cal
Right, that stacking of enterprises, you know, utilizing the same land base to get more proteins out the door and provide more things. One-stop shopping for your customer.
0:17:21 - Thomas
It's a lot better for our farm as well. Like, as you know, we've kind of rated those animals kind of over and put them in the same power shares as well, and so it kind of helps us as well, not just being a single beef farmer or a single chicken.
0:17:37 - Cal
Oh yeah, right With talking about those management practices, a little bit more Thomas on rotating pastures and more regenerative practices. When were they started? On the farm or on the ranch? I'm terrible. I call everyone a farm. You're giving me a nosebleed.
0:17:56 - Thomas
I saw like with customers it's always a cow, you know, and I'm like no. You got to use land insurance when everyone's. We'd be like that's a steer and I'm like oh yes, yes, yes, sir.
0:18:11 - Cal
You know, it's always a good time.
0:18:14 - Thomas
We've always, from the start, had a regimen practices with our rotational graze. You know, our chicken pasture raise, our pork pasture raise and then our lambs being grass fed, grass finished pasture raised and rotation with grace as well. So we feel like that's the best long-term solution, as well as we see a lot of the corn, you know, corn fed, corn finished off.
That honestly is destroying, or not, I guess, our environment or our way of long-term longevity in this way. So you know, and we feel like the delivery is a better product on the table that you'd want to see from, you know, the grocery store or other spots like that Right.
0:18:54 - Emily
As far as the ranch itself, though, they have been practicing the regenerative farming, rotational grazing for I mean longer than I've been here, and I think it's something definitely for the outcast operation that they wanted to focus on, just because of the margins you're able to achieve when you're not having that tri-feed bill, you're not having to supplement different feeds or proteins and stuff that you know that when you spend the money on the seed for the pasture, then that's their winter grazing, you redo it in the, then that's their winter grazing, you redo it in the spring and you have your summer grazing, and so it's definitely something they've done for many years, and now we do it a little more More efficient.
It's more efficient now with the finishing practices.
0:19:41 - Cal
Oh yes, and we're going to cover, we're going to get a little bit more into that grass, finishing a little bit later in the marketing. So right now I want to talk about jumping back just a little bit. When you got there, emily, it was beef only, and you all, and then you brought in sheep. Why'd you bring in sheep? At the time? I know Thomas had mentioned that. You know, just the marketing getting more proteins out, better use of the land Was that the driving force or was there something else?
0:20:09 - Emily
So we knew we wanted to expand and so to us, being a grass fed grass finished beef operation, the next kind of step for us was sheep, because they are 100 percent grass fed grass finished. They are 100% grass fed grass finished, and so we knew that we were able to take our pasture land for the cows and not have to do too much really intense work and then we can able bring sheep on. And so when I came on, we got all of the ewes and the rams and then we started our breeding program because we wanted to really do the same thing we're doing with the cows. We wanted to really do the same thing we're doing with the cows keeping genetics in-house, not having to go out and buy lambs that you don't even know if were fed grain in the beginning or when you get to the age.
We wanted to, like I mentioned earlier, kind of keep our margins as large as possible, and so having them grow graze now our grass pastures really was kind of the next step for us and what?
0:21:11 - Cal
what breed did you go with when you all got those initial hair sheep?
0:21:14 - Emily
so we went with dorpers. I spent a lot of time researching just because it's east texas, it's hot, it's humid. Trying to figure out what breed is going to do the best here, because, just being in FFA during high school, I knew all the different breeds, I knew what kind of does best in our region and then what would be best for a grass-fed and grass-finished product. So we decided to go with Dorpers.
0:21:42 - Cal
Has that decision worked out really well? You guys are sticking with the door first, yes, or has there been anything you're like? Maybe we need to change it up a little no, we're.
0:21:49 - Emily
We're really happy with the lamb product. We thought it was delicious, but the one thing that has consistently be a challenge is the coyote.
0:21:59 - Cal
Oh yes yes, they are definitely a challenge, always With your, your Dorpers and introducing them to the farm. How was that process Did you? I'm trying to think how to word this. Emily introduced hair sheep to the farm and, of course, I'm a slow learner. It took me by surprise a lot of things about them. One they're not miniature cattle. You can't handle them the same way. How easy they are surprised me. How little hay they eat surprised me. But there were some things that surprised me about that. How was the journey for you all adding sheep to it?
0:22:43 - Emily
It was definitely a learning curve for everyone. So cause it was me coming in new employee and all of a sudden I'm introducing a hundred head of sheep when we have a whole group of people on the ranch and that we're used to cattle, and so it was definitely a learning curve for everyone. We started off, we pinned them in our in our we call it a picture pen. We pinned them in our picture our we call it a picture pen. We pinned them in our picture.
Oh yes, for about 30 days just to get them acclimated to being on the ranch, acclimated to the livestock dogs, and then for them to be used to us being in there with them, because they didn't know us, they weren't used to people and so from there we kind of learned how to deal with them.
We got them used to a hot wire, trained them on a hot wire, and then we found out the best way for us here at the ranch to be able to work them. And so one of the challenges we had was trying to use our cattle shoots and cattle pen to work sheep. And we learned really fast. That is not the answer and so, yeah, just a bunch of learning curves, trial and error, and so we found out the best premises for us, realized that loading them all on a trailer, working them off the trailer, is the best route for us, and it makes it to where the sheep are used to going on the trailer. So it's not a constant fight.
0:24:01 - Cal
Oh yeah.
0:24:02 - Emily
Yeah, it was definitely just a learning curve that everyone. It took time, but yeah.
0:24:09 - Cal
It does take time and yeah, it took more time than I ever anticipated it taking, but it took some time. Thomas, on the marketing side of that, do you find your customers readily interested in purchasing LAMP, or is it more of an educational piece that takes them a little while before they're ready to to invest in some land?
0:24:28 - Thomas
yeah, I mean, I would say there are some people that are very like on top and that's what they seek, some customers that you might have to introduce certain products to. But as overall, I like this. You know, just give it a try. We have, you know, like little lamb chop or lamb chops that are great. I like to say, that's know, just give it a try. We have, you know, like, little lamb chops that are great. I like to say that's like a Saturday, sunday type of meal, you know, or you know, a date night that stays just by using that. And then also, too like for people that have might not had a good experience with lamb, this is also another way to like reopen that. This is also another way for them to like reopen that. On lamb, especially about its grass thin grass, finish, so Australian, or some of the other stuff that's sold in the stores, and so it's really nice to see the people are open to opportunities of trying other types of lamb or other species as well, which is really really nice to see.
0:25:24 - Cal
Oh yeah, it is. How many head of sheep do you all process each year?
0:25:28 - Emily
So last year we processed about 15. And then this year we have about 15 babies that were that we were birthed last spring, that we're working on finishing right now.
0:25:43 - Cal
Oh, okay, okay, finishing right now. Oh, okay, okay. And I want to come back to that age of finishing of sheep a little bit later when we talk about grass finishing. But so you're direct marketing a portion of them than the others. How do y'all market the other lambs?
0:25:58 - Emily
So the other lambs? They're part of our breeding program.
0:26:02 - Cal
Oh, okay, okay, and do you have all registered stock? Yes yeah, okay, very good. And then you said you've added pork and chicken. When were they added to the process?
0:26:16 - Emily
so pork was added, probably six months after the sheep, and so I came in. We had plan, we had a plan for what was going to go where, basically on the ranch, and so once the sheep were up and running, it was time to focus on the pork. And so for the pork, we once again like the sheep. It took a lot of a lot of research because we wanted some, we wanted a product that would stand out because, like typical pork you buy at the store, it's just it's not as flavorful, it's just kind of a meal. You put together pork chops and stuff. So after research and kind of determining, okay, what's again going to do best in our region, we decided to go with the red water breed, which is not a well-known breed but it's a North Texas or East Texas native breed.
So, it's a heritage breed. And so they do extremely well in our conditions.
0:27:14 - Cal
Did y'all have any trouble sourcing breeding stocks for that?
0:27:18 - Emily
Yes, just because it is a very, very not popular breed. But I was able to find a breeder down in Huntsville that I worked with and all of our, all of our products have come from him, All of our pigs have come from him.
0:27:33 - Cal
So it's consistent.
0:27:34 - Emily
We know exactly what we're getting. We know how they're going to finish.
0:27:37 - Cal
So are you bringing them in as feeders or are you doing feral?
0:27:40 - Emily
to finish, Right now we're bringing them in as feeders just because the feral to finish requires a little more of it, requires a different operation than we're set up for, because we want to make sure they have a history of crushing their babies or killing their babies. That's something we are looking into doing in the near future. It's just kind of how we're going to set that up farrowing crates. If we're going to have to make a birthing barn or because we want it, we want them to be able to maximize their production. We don't want to kind of just throw them in the field and say good luck.
0:28:25 - Cal
Oh yeah, and just on any species. Finishing is one enterprise, production and producing babies is another enterprise. Enterprise. Production and producing babies is another enterprise. And a lot of times they take a little bit different management, different tools et cetera. And so you added the pork and you went with red wattle. Has the meat been everything you thought it would be?
0:28:50 - Emily
Yes, there is a huge huge difference in our product. Compared to what you would see in the store, it's got a really rich red color. I'm sure you told us to tell us more we can't, we can't, we can't keep baking and stock.
0:29:05 - Thomas
At the current moment it's off the shelf Like, uh, it's, it's really really quality stuff and our customers are always raving about it. Yeah, it's really really quality stuff and artesian lazy are always raving about it.
0:29:15 - Emily
Yeah, it's very rich in flavor, for sure.
0:29:18 - Cal
I've talked different times about getting a few pigs and I haven't pulled the trigger and done it because I'm just like I just don't know about the market, because pigs are so cheap and any time you're raising animals and you figure in those costs, especially for pork, it's just a little bit more expensive than what you think it would be. So I'm always worried about that price point.
0:29:40 - Emily
Yeah, and so we actually plant pastures for our pigs. So we work with a company that gives us a good mix for what we're trying to achieve. So they'll help us put together a fall grazing mix for pigs. They'll help us together spring grazing mix, so that it's pretty much a mix of different grasses, roots, turnips and stuff that.
0:30:02 - Thomas
Oh yeah.
0:30:02 - Emily
They're able to root and really just graze on that. So it's been a good balance that they're grazing the pastures. They're out there, they're eating the roots of the plants and they're eating the turnips and stuff, and so it really benefits them in finishing and the meat quality we're getting.
0:30:21 - Cal
Oh yeah, I'm sure it does. Yeah, and before we dive back into that, on finishing chickens, when do you add chickens to it? Chickens or poultry? I don't remember if you said poultry or chicken. I guess I should have wrote that one down.
0:30:36 - Emily
We, it's just chickens right now. We're just doing chickens. We are, we are looking to doing turkeys for the next, for the upcoming fall, so that we're focusing on figuring out for the spring so we can get it ready for next fall. But as far as the chickens, we added chickens probably probably almost around the same time as the pigs. We kind of did it around the same time.
It was a lot of kind of trial and error based on what we wanted to raise them in, how we wanted them to be. Pasture raised Because there are some people that do pasture is where they just throw them in the field and they just have a place for them to go at night. We weren't sure if that was going to work for us because of the lifestyle dogs that are out the different species are running.
0:31:23 - Cal
Oh yes.
0:31:24 - Emily
Um, and so we decided on these chicken houses that we built, and then every day we had moved them, we had moved.
0:31:32 - Cal
Oh yes.
0:31:33 - Emily
So they have a fresh pasture, fresh grass grass, every day. And we started with 100, so we're doing batches out of 100, finishing every eight weeks, and then from there, last year we started, we bumped it up to 600, so every six, every eight weeks, we finished 600 chickens and so like.
just because we upped the production rate, we invested in a larger chicken house. It's now 25 by 50. It gets moved every day. They get fresh pasture every day and the drapes come down at night so we don't have to worry about really any predators getting in. It blocks them from the cold.
0:32:24 - Cal
Really took a lot of the errors we found from our batches of 100 when we were starting out to kind of know what we needed to up production and how we were going to be successful doing that and really find what was best to make an investment in For that chicken house, that bigger one?
0:32:33 - Emily
did you all build it or did you buy it as available for other people? So we built our first one. We built our first one based on we used the we used a greenhouse, basically, and we put skids on the bottom, we wrapped it in chicken wire, got a tarp and everything for it, and then that ended up being blown away one of our more heavier spring storms. So from we kind of had to scramble, revert back to our first style. We were doing it just until we got another one built. So we actually invested in one from Pasture Tech and it has worked. So that is what we're using now.
It's so good. It's one of the best investments we've made here on ranch Now. It's so good.
0:33:16 - Cal
It's one of the best investments we've made here on Ranch. Is that 600 you're doing per batch the capacity of it, or do you have some room for growth there, or would growth require a second one?
0:33:23 - Emily
We do have room for growth, yes, so we can probably run up to 900 in that house. But we upped production last year and it was kind of getting feedback from our customer base like, well, how much is it going to sell? Is it like, is this something worth?
0:33:39 - Cal
ranking.
0:33:40 - Emily
And so, based off of last year, it's definitely something we're ranking up this year.
0:33:46 - Thomas
It is one of our top sellers. And we we always don't want to produce more than we can sell as well, and so, therefore, we always had to just try ramp up the quality to our customer base as well.
0:33:59 - Cal
So we're not losing food waste or anything like that.
0:34:02 - Emily
To you I'd say on the wooden plates yeah, we really don't. We don't want to overproduce, because we don't want to be selling our customers something that's been in the freezer for a year, that's been in our store.
0:34:18 - Cal
We want to make sure they're getting the freshest. Yeah, and that all makes sense. Well, let's transition to our overgrazing section At Redmond. We know that you thrive when your animals do. That's why it's essential to fill the gaps in your herd's nutrition with the minerals that they need. Made by nature, our ancient mineral, salt and conditioner clay, are the catalyst in optimizing the nutrients your animals get from their forage. Unaltered and unrefined, our minerals have the natural balance and proportion that your animals prefer. This gives your herd the ability to naturally regulate their mineral consumption as they graze. Our minerals won't just help you improve the health of your animals, but will also help you naturally build soil fertility so you can grow more nutrient-dense pasture year after year. Nourish your animals, your soil and your life with Redmond. Learn more at redmondagriculturecom. And for the overgrazing section, we're going to talk about grass-based finishing, and then we're going to cover a little bit more in marketing in here, because we don't want Emily to talk for a long time and Thomas get no words in.
0:35:29 - Thomas
I swear I'll hear all the fog to us.
0:35:31 - Cal
Yeah, everyone wave at Thomas. He's here.
0:35:32 - Emily
No, I'm joking, hear all the bog dust.
0:35:34 - Cal
Yeah, everyone wave at Thomas.
0:35:37 - Thomas
He's here.
0:35:39 - Cal
Okay, on the grass, finishing one thing you mentioned earlier, emily, you all do some planting to get some forages out there for finishing, or that was my understanding of it. Are you all doing pasture drill and putting in forages and finishing all species on different forages, or how are you managing that?
0:35:59 - Emily
So we create a specific blend, a seed blend, for all of our different species, just based on what they're going to do the best on. We don't want to graze our cows on our planted sheep pasture because it's not made for them, it's not going to give them the highest nutritional value that they get on their own. So we work with our seeding company and we are able to come up with the right mix for each species that benefits what they need. The time of season it is kind of help align and accomplish our goals, kind of help align and accomplish our goals.
0:36:37 - Cal
So most of these mixtures are they annuals, or there's some perennials in there as well.
0:36:39 - Emily
There's some perennials in there, yes, and so our fall and winter is really just some winter grasses, and then we also like to throw in some peas meat rye. Our case, like I said, do like turnips and radishes. We also have a little bit of that in our sheep mix too, because they like to the tops, the green part I guess the forage part is really neat.
0:37:02 - Cal
Oh yes.
0:37:03 - Emily
And then in the center it's really, it's really grass, grass, heavy focus, grass focused. So it's more of like your Bermuda fescue clover grass focused.
0:37:16 - Cal
So it's more of like your Bermuda fescue clover Right. One thing with the brassias, the turnips and beets and stuff. I've often heard good things about planting that with your winter annuals you may be planting. I've just not had very good success rates with it. I'm sure it's the way I'm doing it and I've got to figure that out better, because I've heard good things from using those species With your boy. I was so focused on what I was saying.
I didn't even get the next question in. You know there's only one track up here With your different species and getting them in. What kind of time period or age are you finishing each at? And of course we may want to just start with chickens because it's the easy one to get out of the way. I assume you're finishing them at six or seven weeks.
0:38:05 - Emily
We finish ours at eight weeks. At eight weeks we finish them at eight weeks Just because we want to. We don't really love to push feed. We don't want them to be growing too fast. We want them to focus on that grazing, getting the natural, natural proteins from the bugs and then the grass, and so we finished them at eight weeks and we found that really works best for us, especially them being out in pasture.
0:38:32 - Cal
And we you're using Cornish cross. What weight are they at?
0:38:35 - Emily
eight weeks for you they're what he said, like that is eight pounds.
0:38:40 - Thomas
Yeah, oh, yeah, like once it goes, the weight processing is like four four pounds, kind of.
0:38:47 - Cal
my next question and with the, the processing, ending up with that four, four and a half bird, are you finding that works really well for your consumers? Do you ever get any feedback? You'd like a smaller one or larger?
0:38:59 - Thomas
one. So we do have some sets of of rangies kind of suits around there. Lushy's developing a good relationship with the customer, kind of knowing where they sit. You know, if you have a couple of two they're probably going to want a little bit on the smaller side and a couple you know a family is going to want a bigger.
But you know, with beer can chicken and then in the pot or crock pot, you know there's always leftovers. So it's just using the recipes and making sure that you're connecting with the customer best as possible. But every once in a while, you know you all got, you know, worried. It just doesn't matter to them.
0:39:37 - Cal
But that's how it usually works. Yeah, and you're producing the chickens spring through fall.
0:39:44 - Emily
Yeah, so our chicken season is pretty much. We'll start back in the end of February and it'll run until about Christmas, so we take a little break during those like really cold months, just because we want to make sure we're not setting them up for failure, basically.
0:40:02 - Cal
Right, and are they put on pastures that you planted, certain forages you thought would benefit the chickens more, or are they more somewhere? I don't even know where the ore would be on that. So are you planning specific species for your chickens to graze?
0:40:19 - Emily
No, so our chickens were just on our native pastures. But one thing that we have seen really benefit with our new chicken house and rotating them every day since the beginning is that they become a natural fertilizer for us.
And so as they're eating, they're scratching the surface, they're really digging in that fertilizer for us. And then in the summer that morning dew helps to kind of water it down, since it's not getting burned up by the sun. And so if you look out across our pastures we have two kind of next to each other. The ones with the chicken on it always looks better because of that natural fertilizer. So we sometimes move our cows onto that one if we're kind of in the middle of a rotation period, just because we know it's quality grass.
0:41:05 - Cal
Oh yeah, it's amazing what chicken litter will do to ground and improve it yeah.
0:41:12 - Thomas
Somebody who's never been around it. It's tough smell to be around yes, yeah, we.
0:41:22 - Cal
You know, for a number of years we had some commercial houses, so spreading that litter out. And then there's still some commercial houses not too far from us and when we head to town we know when they've spread the litter out.
Yep, yeah, it's definitely. You know those big houses getting that smell off. You was just awful and just being in there, I love the chicken tractor smaller size and the way that works With your pigs. At what age are you finishing them? And I'm assuming with the pigs they're kind of like chickens. You can't finish them completely on grass.
0:42:00 - Emily
You've got to add some grain in there as well, yes, so we add grain into their diets, but we really limit it. We limit it because we don't like fatty products on our pigs, and so they get about 120 pounds a feed a day between 20 of them, and so actually it really just depends on where they are in the stage if they're younger, if they're older, how much they're really needing. But we do use grain to finish them. We don't like to focus on, we don't like it to be their main kind of protein, I guess, or their main source of feed, and so with our pigs we finish them around 280 pounds, which takes us about, I want to say, like eight to nine months, or maybe not.
Oh, okay, I would say probably closer to seven. Seven months it takes us to finish them to the weight we want.
0:42:51 - Cal
I'll be honest, Emily. I know we've got listeners out there, though that may be yelling at the. However, they're listening, saying that's not the right timeframe. You could tell me whatever on how long to finish the hog, and I'm going to be like okay.
0:43:06 - Emily
Yeah, we are different than a normal pig producer because we focus on them, raising the pastures. We're not feeding them until they get fat and trying to have a fast food. We're really wanting to prioritize that, that their diets and our product basically are what we're producing from them.
0:43:25 - Cal
Right, yeah, with the sheep I think you mentioned you. You're holding some over. That'll be yearlings coming up, so are you finishing your lambs out as yearlings?
0:43:38 - Emily
No, probably right under. The ones we are keeping back are the ones we're adding to our breeding program.
0:43:45 - Cal
Oh, okay, sorry, I misunderstood.
0:43:47 - Emily
No, yeah.
0:43:48 - Cal
So you're finishing them down a little bit under a year of age.
0:43:52 - Emily
Yeah, probably around nine months is when we're finishing them on our ground, oh, okay. So around the 100 pound, 110 pound mark.
0:44:03 - Cal
Oh, okay, and that gives you how many pounds per lamb of sellable product 40, 50?.
0:44:09 - Emily
40, 50 pounds yeah, Good size. You know you're to 50 pounds.
0:44:14 - Thomas
Yeah, Good size. You know you're always there to make you a tough possesion.
0:44:20 - Cal
Oh yeah, on your lambs. You know when we think about grass-finished beef and you can look at that beef animal and see if they're finished. You're looking at some fat on the tail head, you know. Does it have happy lines? That's always really good On sheep. How do you tell when they're finished?
0:44:38 - Emily
On sheep all the way. You can feel their backbones to really know how much fat is on those chops, and so that's what I kind of do. If we got them loaded in the trailer and we're deworming them or anything, I'll kind of feel just to see where they are, we'll take a weight and I'll kind of make a gauge based on that, on where they are with fat content and everything.
0:45:00 - Cal
Yeah, so you're wanting to be able to feel some fat along that top?
0:45:04 - Emily
line Mm-hmm.
0:45:06 - Cal
Very good For beef cattle. At what age are you finishing your cattle, and are you finishing steers and heifers or just steers?
0:45:13 - Emily
We're finishing steers and heifers or just steers. We're finishing steers and heifers. Yes, oh, okay. So we found that our heifers they're a little faster for finishing, but our steers we finish them at around 1,200 pounds and then it takes us about 18 to 20 months for a finished product.
0:45:32 - Cal
Oh, okay for finished product. Oh, okay, on finishing your cattle. You've already spoken a little bit to your your planting of grasses. Do you run those in a separate herd from your cow herd so they're on a higher plane of nutrition?
0:45:45 - Emily
Yes, and so our finishing cows are here at what we call headquarters, and then our cow-calf operation is on a separate property, just so we can keep them separate. Oh, okay, and we really focus on the ones here, getting the most nutritious pastures for them to finish, and so they come here when they're weaned, and then, from weaned to finished, they're here on our planted pastures.
0:46:10 - Cal
Oh, okay, okay. And with all these products, getting them finished, you've got to process your beef, you've got to process lambs, you've got to process pork, process chickens. Do you have a processing plant you're able to take all that to, or are you doing some in-house?
0:46:26 - Emily
We take them all, so our pigs, sheep and cows all go to a processing facility close to us. It's called Mineola Packing Company and we've worked with them for years. They're really great. We love them. They are exceptional.
0:46:43 - Thomas
They have things we all very intimately love, and that's definitely something that we, you know, really want to put in the front as well. Just working with other small, individual businesses and drawing this data away through the big corporations, you know, even if it's quote-unquote easier to work with those guys, we want to make sure that we're supporting our local area as well.
0:47:05 - Cal
Oh yes. And one thing I noticed you all have your own labeling for those package meats.
0:47:11 - Emily
So because we are with the smaller processors, they're able to work with us on the packaging. And then we've since we've grown, we are kind of realizing that we need a better inventory system so we're able to work with them on a barcode and everything, and then like oh yes.
Like what Thomas was saying, the smaller businesses. We use Windy Meadows in Commerce, Texas, for our chicken processing, so they're family owned and operated and they're really great as well. So our baby chicks also come from them. So we get them as a day old and then eight weeks later we take them back to Wendy Meadows to process them.
0:47:50 - Cal
Oh, okay, so they're a hatchery as well as a processor. Yes, oh interesting. I wish I had something like that closer to me.
0:47:59 - Thomas
Yeah, they are one of the companies that I don't think we would survive with if we didn't have the work.
We love, and they also sell their own products and stuff like that as well. We sell those as well. So we want to, you know, help us and everything like that. We definitely love to see other people's products out there as well. So we want to, you know, help, um, help us and everything like that. We definitely love to see other people's products out there as well. Just so you know, we're ensuring that that work is very diverse in the world as well.
0:48:26 - Cal
With your, your chickens. We talked about those and you got multiple sets going. So you're going to be processing a few or one batch every so often With your sheep, pigs and cattle. Are you just processing a few at a time or are you trying to process as many as you can at one time?
0:48:45 - Emily
No. So with our pigs we do two groups per year. And so once the pigs we have out on the pasture are close to that finishing mark. We have worked with our breeder to where he knows our schedule and his schedule and he's able to have piglets ready for us to come to the ranch as soon as those ones are done.
0:49:09 - Cal
Oh yeah.
0:49:10 - Emily
We do about 20. Two batches of 20 a year.
0:49:16 - Cal
Oh, okay, and do I think Thomas mentioned a little bit earlier or maybe it was you, Emily about the start was selling shares of an animal a half of a bee for a quarter, and now you've moved into some cuts and stuff. How is that going? Are you finding the customers really prefer the opportunity to purchase cuts? And now you've moved into some cuts and stuff. How is that going? Are you finding the customers really prefer the opportunity to purchase?
0:49:47 - Thomas
cuts. Does that cause a problem for you in storage? I would say for individual cuts it does help professionally. Me as a customer. I've definitely found that there are some people that love to do shares of hold trials.
We even go down the one eighths as well. So if you're a smaller family or two individuals or an individual though she sold more so than out of freezers space, but book eights of there. But we do also have boxes and other bundles that will be delivered biweekly or monthly. So a lot of people go to Val as they try to re you know, re-up every year so often, but the single cuts, those are reacted really really well. That's a big part of our business and which we love to provide as well, because it kind of gives you a little bit more choice overall.
0:50:33 - Cal
Oh yeah.
0:50:34 - Emily
It also gives our customers an opportunity to try our product before really making that investment. On getting a hundred pounds, that's a excellent point.
0:50:42 - Thomas
I mean, there's a lot of people that are dairy culinary. They culinary can cook extremely well, and so if they want to just try like a beef tongue or beef heart or something that might not be like traditional, kind of like cuts, that opens that up as well, which would go up.
0:51:01 - Cal
Oh yeah.
0:51:02 - Thomas
Same retarded right there.
0:51:05 - Cal
Oh yes, yeah, I've not tried it With your. You mentioned bundles there just a moment ago. Is that a subscription base where they're getting bundle, yeah, every two weeks or once a month?
0:51:21 - Thomas
so right now we have it every 30 days. I believe you can every 90 days as well, but those are boxes that are like the beef's blood box. We also have our grill box. We also have like our ground ground, ground product products pork, beef and everything in McQueen, and so that really helps kind of open up other people's ways of cooking and stuff like that Definitely helps, you know, diversify the cooking experience.
0:51:52 - Cal
Oh yeah, do you provide delivery? Do they come to the farm to pick up? Is it at farmer's markets? Do you provide delivery? Do they come to the farm to pick up? Is it at farmer's market? Yes, do you mailing so?
0:52:00 - Thomas
we do a free delivery for all of North Dallas. We deliver on Monday, oh okay, and so if you order it on Saturday or Sunday, we'll deliver it on Monday or Wednesday and that's for all of North Dallas. At the moment we are trying to extend further with our growth and more vans and other stuff like moment we are trying to stay in the farther with our growth and more vans and other stuff like that We'll be able to do all of DFW. But we do ship as well to all 50 states as well.
So we can do that as well, and then we also sell the first films farmer's market on Saturdays and Sundays.
0:52:33 - Cal
So we're out in the community as well. Oh, very good, Very good. One thing on your bundles. Do you find people prefer the bundles to purchasing a share, or is it just more like they've? These people's always purchased a share, so that's what they do? These people do bundles.
0:52:54 - Thomas
Yeah, I would say the bundles are definitely great, especially if it's like the summertime and you're doing the grill box you know, and they do rotate.
We do rotate the boxes seasonally. So you would want to summer box, spring box, especially if you you know you don't want to flakes when it's 32 outside and you're trying to grill out there. So we give catering to the best possible ways of seasonal cooking. So it's definitely kind of three months if you want to. You know, grow box each month. It definitely helps and then a share would be more on like a long term thing. So it just kind of depends on the customer and what they're looking to do. I know a lot of people like depends on the customer and what they're looking to do. I know a lot of people like to do the shares because then they never have to go buy meat for long periods of time, which is good as well.
0:53:45 - Emily
My opinion is that the beef bundles really allow the customer to kind of specifically find what they're looking for or what they're wanting. So, like if I was getting a beef share, I can't necessarily say I only want steaks or I only want roasts, and so it kind of and it was them to kind of choose like okay, if I only want roasts, then I'm going to get this feed box.
If I only want grillable items, I'm only going to get this, instead of getting a share and getting all these cuts that you're not entirely sure what you're going to do with yet yeah, when I think about it, I agree with you, emily.
0:54:20 - Cal
I think bundles have a lot of advantages, but traditionally, it seems, we as farmers market in shares and it's hard to change that paradigm. One thing I noticed about your website that I really like you've got the set prices on there rather than per pound by hanging weight. I just think that's a. You're removing some confusion for that customer whenever they're trying to do it and anytime you can remove some confusion and make it easier, it's going to be beneficial.
0:54:52 - Thomas
And with those shares as well. You know we're spreading them all the way through, so you're not just getting Josh, rose and Grand B's on the one way, it's going to get all three categories as well, and so I think that's kind of helpful as well. But yeah, we like to stay away from the hate noise, because each interval is different.
0:55:14 - Emily
Oh yeah, and we also want to make sure we want to focus on our customer base and know that they're getting the best experience as possible. We want to make it as easy as possible, just so whenever they come to us to buy meat it's not a whole process they know what they're getting, they know how much it costs every time.
0:55:31 - Thomas
Because I feel like some, like when I was in the beef industry, it was definitely a little intimidating Like asking, okay, well, I need to go to the butcher, I need to sign off on the thing white and stuff like that. And then makes you know account goes from you know 800 pounds to 400 pounds. It didn't matter two days you're on board or all that go. So it makes it a little bit more right on the process of your value I?
0:56:01 - Cal
I agree with you, thomas. One last thing on the bundles. If they have a subscription bundle, just so I understand this correctly, that bundle is not necessarily the same bundle every time. It changes with seasons, or can they get the same bundle every time?
0:56:18 - Thomas
So if you'd like to do the grill box all the way through 12 years out of the month, we can do that. We haven't seen a lot of customers do that, but it'd be something that you can have yearly around it Just it won't be on the website all the time. Oh it's just kind of that as well. Once you cancel it, then it will, then we'll stop some. But yeah, you can do like a girl box or a winter box to the whole time and that's a simple email.
0:56:47 - Emily
Oh, customer, sent us emails all the time. But oh yeah it's like if it's in the summer we're not necessarily going to post, really push a roast bundle, and so we'll kind of keep that inventory in for to fulfill our bulk orders, instead of kind of trying to push people to buy roast bundles, say so.
0:57:06 - Thomas
We'll definitely just shoot us an email. We'll we'll get you set up for it.
0:57:11 - Cal
Oh yeah, very good. Do you find most of your customers buy more than one type of protein?
0:57:19 - Thomas
Yeah, so we have definitely multi-purchasing proteins. So mostly chicken, beef, pork. Lamb is usually a little bit harder to sell. It's a little bit more out there, but we have a lot of people that will purchase well-dried proteins within one go. Um, usually you know you're going to get one single where it's just beef.
0:57:43 - Cal
Um, usually it's just two proteins, but we can always do the two proteins as well, oh oh yeah, what requests have you had for stuff you you're not providing yet?
0:57:55 - Emily
We've had a lot of requests for beef fat, because beef tallow is a big thing, right?
0:57:59 - Thomas
Oh.
0:58:00 - Emily
It's just with our product being grass-fed, there isn't a lot of fat. We're not fat enough, these animals, and so that's one thing we've gotten a lot of requests for on the farm.
0:58:13 - Thomas
I would say it's kind of like you can cut a cow so many ways and so many cultural ways of cutting and you have somebody that wants to play grains but then you have somebody that wants like a lot of it or you know dino ribs and it's kind of playing around game.
0:58:29 - Cal
But we try to keep our rotation, seasonal and stuff like that.
0:58:34 - Thomas
but I would say definitely beef fat's a big one and then beef heart here fat's a big one and then beef heart here.
Turkey's a big one, turkey's a big one we do have incestual blend, which is quite popular, which is a heart, liver, kidney blended with ground beef, and it's definitely one of our more popular items and I highly recommend for any other farmer's off-bearer to start using it, as it's not as aggressive or as, like you know, not a just gamey flavor. It's a little bit more relaxed. Oh, yeah, so you can grab the church bowl value out of it as well.
0:59:10 - Cal
Oh, very good, Very good. I know, just speaking on those cuts, my wife's from Hawaii and coming here she's like the cuts we have in Hawaii. I can't find them here. Yeah, it's just society cultural differences.
0:59:29 - Thomas
It's funny, I actually lived in Kauai for eight months. Oh yes, I know where your wife's coming from. What island do you live? I was living in Al open a little bit.
0:59:39 - Cal
Oh, okay.
0:59:40 - Thomas
Just the experience and then how they work with kids and other stuff like that is really cool to see. And that's where we're trying to reach. Is, you know, also doing all their you know cuts of those sort of things, and that's not in the Hawaiian culture.
0:59:55 - Emily
Definitely something we focused on in the last couple of years is that zero waste that Thomas was talking about. Making sure you eat all parts of the cows, making sure we have a variety of products that fits all of our different customer bases and stuff, and so, like, the ancestral event he was talking about really helped us out because we're not wasting the liver or the heart anymore, and this is something that was not as easy to sell. We're not wasting the liver or the heart anymore.
1:00:16 - Cal
Oh yeah.
1:00:16 - Emily
Something that was not as easy to sell that's really a more confined market is now something we've opened up to more customers that are willing to try it and really like it.
1:00:26 - Thomas
Yeah, and I always tell questions like. I don't want you know your head space here. You know like I feel like every salesperson in the market wants like something crazy and it's like I just want your palette like cause. If I can change your palette, then you can open a lot of doors and that's. That's one of those things where using that in social blood is such a key in our business as well. That definitely helps.
1:00:53 - Cal
Oh, very good. Is there anything else we didn't cover that you all are like? I'd like to have said something about that. I've seen one.
1:01:01 - Thomas
Joey, do you have a quick cover of everything that we've done? Yeah, If anybody knows any, it's time to go back to using the whole channel. If anybody knows any people on DFW that does unprocessed weather, we're looking for a weather person. Oh yes, we're trying to do. It brings our other stuff out of our leather as well that we get from our cattle.
1:01:24 - Cal
Oh, very good. Well, thomas and Emily, it's time for our famous four questions. Today's famous four questions are sponsored by Manderley Farms Grazing Conference. Attention all farmers, ranchers. Manderley Farms Grazing Conference. Attention all farmers, ranchers and land enthusiasts, join us for our unforgettable grazing conference on February 21st and 22nd 2025. At the beautiful Manderley Farms in Pikeville, tennessee, nestled in the scenic Sasquatchie Valley, this is your chance to learn from the best in the business. Our speakers include the renowned Greg Judy, alongside the dynamic duo Greg and Debbie Brin. Expect engaging sessions, informative pastor walks and interactive question and answer sessions with our experts. Discover how to revolutionize your land management with regenerative grazing practices. Whether you're looking to enhance soil health, increase biodiversity or improve your pasture productivity, this conference is tailored for you. Don't miss this opportunity to grow your knowledge and your farm. For more details and secure your spot, visit wwwmanderleyfarmscom. That's M-A-N-D-E-R-L-E-Y. Same four questions we ask of all of our guests. And our first question what is your favorite grazing grass related book or resource? What?
1:02:57 - Emily
is your favorite grazing grass related book or resource? I say the two that really helped me a lot was Jim Garish. He has a series of videos that have really helped me kind of learn the whole grazing kind of side of production and then, there's a book called Grass Fed to Finish by Alan Nation that I read and that was with those two. Really helped me educate, educate and my knowledge on things here.
1:03:22 - Thomas
I would say that mine is not so much grass and I would say but is the book? Oh shoot, but you guys do barbecue down in Austin. It's more of like explaining all the cuts and stuff like that so I'm forgetting the man, but I'll, I'll just see y'all, but using using that to kind of explain, like what a poconia is or a flanks girl or stuff like that, stuff with hopes oh, very interested.
1:03:53 - Cal
Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Book titles I'll have to look it up as well. Excellent resources there. Our second question what's your favorite tool for the farm?
1:04:02 - Emily
My favorite tool is definitely our livestock dogs. They help protect them. They are really good about making sure to keep the predators off, making sure our livestock are healthy or taken care of. And, yeah, they run the ranch. We have one that stays with our sheep at all time and two that kind of just cruise around the ranch. They kind of cover everything. Whenever we have chickens, one of them hangs out by the chicken coop and then another one goes out and hangs out with the cows and so they're kind of just roaming around making sure everything's taken care of. But that has really helped as far as our coyote problem and making sure we're taking care of the animals as we should.
1:04:45 - Thomas
But you keep beating me up for employee of the week. I'm always like man. They want it again. Employee of the month.
1:04:53 - Cal
Oh shoot, try and Thomas, you'll get it one day.
1:04:56 - Thomas
Um, I would say my most useful tool on the farm is probably our sprayer van that we deliver All of our packaging and stuff like that. It definitely is very useful that we're driving around as one of our favorites.
1:05:12 - Cal
Very good, Very good. Our third question what would you tell someone just getting started?
1:05:31 - Emily
So for someone getting started, I would recommend you just to really know your farm, know your land, know what you have to offer right now, what you might need to with them. Let them know what you're doing whether that's a finishing operation, whether that's a birthing cow-calf operation and work with them to make a herd health plan. That way you know exactly what you need to do. Make sure your animals are healthy. If you want to do an antibiotic-free kind of route, then they'll be able to work with you to know what to give them, what not to give them and things like that.
1:06:02 - Thomas
Yeah, and I would say for starting out on the I guess on the marketing and the sales side was selling grass-fed, grass-finished products was just to be within the community as much as possible and just understanding where they're coming from as well as it's, you know, kind of born with, I guess, a different industry than you might see on the daily basis, and so understanding where they're coming from is how you know our product is helpful.
1:06:32 - Cal
Excellent advice, guys. And our last question where can others find out more about you?
1:06:39 - Emily
If you head to our website you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. Our website's a great spot to kind of get to know us. It has our story, it has kind of our focus, our mission, our values, and then, other than that, we're on tiktok, instagram and facebook, so I'm I'm kind of been getting a lot of content here that I've been posting and stuff, and so it's been fun.
1:07:00 - Thomas
And you can always email us too. Thomasbornrace2xcom are my numbers on the website as well, so if you guys have any questions, you're welcome to shoot a text or call us there as well.
1:07:12 - Emily
And other than that, every weekend at the Frisco Farmer's Market you can go visit Thomas and he'll give you a rundown of everything. So that's Saturday and Sunday 8 to 4.
1:07:21 - Cal
8 to 4. Very good, Thomas and Emily. We appreciate you coming on and sharing with us today.
1:07:29 - Emily
Thank you so much.
1:07:31 - Cal
See you.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Grazing Grass Podcast, where we bring you stories and insights into grass-based livestock production. If you're new here, we've got something just for you. Our new listener resource guide is packed with everything you need to get started on your listening journey with the Grazing Grass Podcast. It gives you more information about the podcast, about myself and next steps. You can grab your free copy at grazinggrasscom slash guide. Don't miss out. And hey, do you have a grazing story to share? We're always looking for passionate producers to feature on the show. Whether you're just starting out or have years of experience, your story matters. Head over to grazinggrasscom slash guest to learn more and apply to be a guest. We'd love to share your journey with our growing community of grazers Until next time, keep on grazing grass.
Transcribed by https://podium.page