Join us as we welcome the dynamic duo, Brooks and Abby Bowser of Bowser Family Farms, who take us through their farming evolution from conventional practices to the world of regenerative grazing. Our guests reveal their inspiring journey, learning from pioneers like Gabe Brown, and how they have implemented diverse cover crops and pasture management techniques to nurture their soil and livestock. As Abby transitioned from traditional to regenerative methods, the Bowsers saw firsthand the ecological benefits unfold on their farm. Their candid reflections on the challenges and victories encountered offer valuable insights for anyone interested in sustainable agriculture.
Listen in as the conversation shifts to the burgeoning biodiversity that regenerative agriculture brings. Brooks and Abby share observations from their Michigan farm, where wildlife, such as pheasants, has flourished, signaling a restored habitat. They delve into the intricacies of fencing strategies and the impact on cattle, drawing parallels to the needs of flower farming and pollinator habitats. This chapter highlights the necessity of a long-term perspective, underscoring the patience required when making decisions that shape the future of our ecosystems.
Finally, we explore the pivotal role of social media in marketing farm produce directly to consumers. The Bowsers discuss their successful strategies that leverage storytelling and education on soil health to connect with their audience. They also touch upon the diversity in their livestock operations and the economics behind the choices they make. Wrapping up the episode, Brooks and Abby extend an invitation to other grazers to join the conversation and share their own experiences, emphasizing the power of community and knowledge sharing in advancing regenerative grazing practices.
Links Mentioned in the Episode:
Bowser Family Farms
Bowser Family Farms on Instagram
Bowser Family Farms on Facebook
Visit our Sponsors:
Noble Research Institute
Kencove Farm Fence
00:00:00
Cal: Welcome to the Grazing Grass Podcast,
00:00:01
Cal: episode 114.
00:00:04
Brooks: Surround yourself with people that are
00:00:05
Brooks: already doing it, that are like-minded.
00:00:07
Cal: You're listening to the Grazing Grass
00:00:09
Cal: Podcast, sharing information and stories of
00:00:12
Cal: grass-based livestock production utilizing
00:00:14
Cal: regenerative practices.
00:00:17
Cal: I'm your host, Cal Hardage.
00:00:21
Cal: You're growing more than grass.
00:00:23
Cal: You're growing a healthier ecosystem to
00:00:26
Cal: help your cattle thrive in their
00:00:28
Cal: environment.
00:00:29
Cal: You're growing your livelihood by
00:00:31
Cal: increasing your carrying capacity and
00:00:33
Cal: reducing your operating costs.
00:00:36
Cal: You're growing stronger communities and a
00:00:39
Cal: legacy to last generations, to last
00:00:47
Cal: generations.
00:00:47
Cal: The grazing management decisions you make
00:00:48
Cal: today impact everything from the soil
00:00:49
Cal: beneath your feet to the community all
00:00:50
Cal: around you.
00:00:52
Cal: That's why the Noble Research Institute
00:00:54
Cal: created their Essentials of Regenerative
00:00:57
Cal: Grazing course to teach ranchers like you
00:01:01
Cal: easy to follow techniques to quickly assess
00:01:04
Cal: your forage, production and infrastructure
00:01:07
Cal: capacity in order to begin grazing more
00:01:11
Cal: efficiently.
00:01:13
Cal: Together, they can help you grow not only a
00:01:16
Cal: healthier operation, but a legacy that
00:01:19
Cal: lasts.
00:01:20
Cal: Learn more on their website at nobleorg
00:01:24
Cal: slash grazing.
00:01:26
Cal: It's n-o-b-l-e dot org.
00:01:30
Cal: Forward slash grazing.
00:01:34
Cal: On today's episode we have Brooks and Abby
00:01:36
Cal: Bowser of Bowser Family Farms and they come
00:01:40
Cal: on.
00:01:40
Cal: They share about their journey, about what
00:01:43
Cal: they're doing on their farm cow, calf,
00:01:46
Cal: finishing beef and pork, as well as crops
00:01:50
Cal: For the overgrazing section.
00:01:52
Cal: We dive into a little bit more about social
00:01:54
Cal: media marketing.
00:01:55
Cal: The bonus segment for our grazing grass
00:01:58
Cal: insiders is about on the farm store.
00:02:02
Cal: So very interesting segment there,
00:02:05
Cal: excellent episode.
00:02:06
Cal: However, before we talk to Brooks and Abby,
00:02:09
Cal: 10 seconds about my farm.
00:02:11
Cal: If you drive by my farm you might say I am
00:02:14
Cal: a good grass farmer right now.
00:02:16
Cal: I think most farms you drive by this time
00:02:18
Cal: of year in my area people can say that
00:02:22
Cal: there's still some that's over grazed and
00:02:25
Cal: there's tons better I can do, but this time
00:02:27
Cal: of year it's always easy to think we're
00:02:32
Cal: doing better than we are.
00:02:34
Cal: Not to be negative, but just keep working.
00:02:36
Cal: Do a little bit better each day.
00:02:38
Cal: 10 seconds about the podcast.
00:02:40
Cal: On next week's episode we have August
00:02:42
Cal: Horseman.
00:02:43
Cal: He was on back on episode 15.
00:02:47
Cal: So you might want to catch that or go back
00:02:49
Cal: and review it.
00:02:50
Cal: We catch up with him next week.
00:02:53
Cal: Find out what he's been up to and how
00:02:55
Cal: things are progressing on his journey.
00:02:58
Cal: Enough of all that.
00:02:59
Cal: Let's talk to Brooks and Abby.
00:03:02
Cal: Brooks and Abby, we're excited for you to
00:03:04
Cal: be here today.
00:03:05
Cal: Welcome to the Grazing Grass podcast.
00:03:08
Brooks: Yeah, thank you.
00:03:09
Brooks: We're excited to be here too.
00:03:10
Brooks: This is our first podcast.
00:03:12
Brooks: We've been a listener for a few months now.
00:03:15
Brooks: Nick Rogers turned us on to it.
00:03:18
Abby: Yep, we're excited to be here.
00:03:20
Abby: Can't wait to chat with you.
00:03:22
Cal: Wonderful To get started.
00:03:25
Cal: Let's just start by telling us a little bit
00:03:26
Cal: about yourself and your operation.
00:03:29
Brooks: So I'm a first-generation farmer.
00:03:32
Brooks: My grandpa gave me the opportunity to
00:03:33
Brooks: manage his small farm when I was in high
00:03:36
Brooks: school.
00:03:37
Brooks: I went to Michigan State and I got out of
00:03:38
Brooks: there and I met Abby yeah.
00:03:40
Brooks: So we came back on the farm.
00:03:41
Brooks: My grandpa gave me the opportunity to run
00:03:43
Brooks: the farm for ourselves and then, yeah,
00:03:47
Brooks: started doing everything pretty
00:03:47
Brooks: conventionally, Got on YouTube, found Gabe
00:03:51
Brooks: Brown, and the rest is history.
00:03:52
Brooks: After that, as far as the whole grass
00:03:54
Brooks: farming and regenerative farming journey,
00:03:58
Brooks: and a little bit about my background.
00:04:00
Abby: We couldn't be more opposite.
00:04:01
Abby: I grew up on a farm.
00:04:02
Abby: I'm a fifth-generation farmer.
00:04:04
Abby: We had beef cattle and we had a market
00:04:06
Abby: garden.
00:04:07
Abby: So we went to farmer's markets and had
00:04:09
Abby: vegetables and cut flowers and we had a
00:04:12
Abby: retail store on farm as well.
00:04:15
Abby: And I did 4-H and I've been a part of the
00:04:17
Abby: cattle business and when I met him he
00:04:20
Abby: looked like he was a farmer.
00:04:23
Abby: I thought he was a farmer.
00:04:24
Abby: But as we got going, it's been a very
00:04:26
Abby: interesting experience with someone that's
00:04:28
Abby: I was raised really conventional and he's
00:04:30
Abby: had a lot of interesting ideas about
00:04:33
Abby: agriculture, and so the balance between
00:04:35
Abby: that has been very fun.
00:04:38
Abby: But I'm completely on board now after
00:04:41
Abby: seeing, going to the Soil Health Academies
00:04:44
Abby: and reading some of the books and listening
00:04:45
Abby: to the podcast.
00:04:46
Abby: It all makes sense.
00:04:48
Abby: But it took me a little bit to get here.
00:04:51
Cal: Oh yeah, when you've got that background of
00:04:54
Cal: however you're doing it, it's much tougher.
00:04:56
Cal: I think Tom Lester said that he'd rather
00:04:58
Cal: make a farmer out of a boy off the streets
00:05:00
Cal: of Tokyo versus a conventional farmer.
00:05:03
Abby: Yeah.
00:05:04
Cal: Something like that.
00:05:05
Cal: I'm sure I'm messing that quote up, but
00:05:06
Cal: that's okay, someone will fix it.
00:05:08
Abby: Get the trust yeah.
00:05:11
Cal: So let's just jump back on your side,
00:05:14
Cal: Brooks, for a second.
00:05:14
Cal: You got this opportunity with your
00:05:16
Cal: grandpa's land to do some things.
00:05:20
Cal: What prompted you to do that?
00:05:22
Brooks: To just farm in general.
00:05:24
Cal: Yes.
00:05:25
Brooks: Yeah, obviously, being a high schooler, you
00:05:27
Brooks: don't always know what you want to do.
00:05:28
Brooks: But he came to me and said do you want to
00:05:29
Brooks: get serious about this?
00:05:31
Brooks: And I said, absolutely.
00:05:32
Brooks: I didn't know anything about it but it
00:05:33
Brooks: sounded pretty intriguing.
00:05:35
Brooks: So we went to Michigan State and fell in
00:05:36
Brooks: love with farming, met all kinds of friends
00:05:38
Brooks: still friends that I have now today just
00:05:47
Brooks: absolutely fell in love with it.
00:05:48
Brooks: As a kid did you think you would be doing
00:05:50
Brooks: farming?
00:05:50
Brooks: Not at all.
00:05:51
Brooks: My grandpa first asked me, I'm like what be
00:05:52
Brooks: a farmer
00:05:52
Brooks: no way.
00:05:52
Brooks: My dad owned a body shop and I thought
00:05:54
Brooks: maybe I'll learn how to paint cars.
00:05:55
Brooks: But once I started on the farm, grandpa
00:05:58
Brooks: gave me a lot of leeway and learning some
00:06:00
Brooks: stuff.
00:06:01
Brooks: I felt like I had some ownership in the
00:06:02
Brooks: farm.
00:06:04
Brooks: Yeah, just fell in love with it, made a lot
00:06:06
Brooks: of mistakes.
00:06:09
Cal: That happens, abby, did you know you were
00:06:11
Cal: always going to come back to the farm?
00:06:14
Abby: I did not at all.
00:06:15
Abby: Obviously, growing up with a market garden,
00:06:18
Abby: we had a whole acre of vegetables and
00:06:20
Abby: flowers and it felt a little bit more like
00:06:22
Abby: slavery than it should have at that time,
00:06:26
Abby: and so I went to school and then I ended up
00:06:28
Abby: changing my major to ag business management
00:06:31
Abby: and then thought I would go the business
00:06:33
Abby: route sales.
00:06:34
Abby: I had internships with chemical companies,
00:06:37
Abby: so I was selling fertilizer and chemicals
00:06:40
Abby: and for my internships did a lot of crop
00:06:42
Abby: scouting and extremely conventional world
00:06:46
Abby: and thought I would go that route.
00:06:48
Abby: And then, obviously, choosing to stay in a
00:06:50
Abby: small town with your fiance at the time,
00:06:55
Abby: the job pool got a lot smaller and so I
00:06:59
Abby: ended up taking a job as a high school ag
00:07:02
Abby: teacher.
00:07:03
Abby: So we did that for about four years and
00:07:06
Abby: then, now and then I started my own flour
00:07:08
Abby: business.
00:07:09
Abby: So I'm actually a florist and a flour
00:07:10
Abby: farmer.
00:07:12
Abby: And that was around the time we had kids
00:07:14
Abby: and COVID and we decided staying at home
00:07:17
Abby: for me and doing my own business and
00:07:19
Abby: working on the farm too was a better option.
00:07:21
Abby: I turned out just like my mom, even though
00:07:24
Abby: I didn't think that was going to happen.
00:07:26
Abby: So now I'm raising flowers and selling beef,
00:07:28
Abby: so just like I did when.
00:07:30
Abby: I was younger.
00:07:31
Cal: There you go.
00:07:32
Cal: It's often it's these journeys.
00:07:35
Cal: How we end up here is always very
00:07:36
Cal: interesting and, whether or not we
00:07:38
Cal: anticipated it or not, I find fascinating.
00:07:44
Cal: Brooks, once you got started, you were
00:07:47
Cal: going to school.
00:07:48
Cal: When were you introduced to Gabe Brown, and
00:07:50
Cal: how did that journey go?
00:07:52
Brooks: I want to say that was probably like in
00:07:54
Brooks: 2018, 17, something like that.
00:07:57
Brooks: We were struggling on the farm financially.
00:07:58
Brooks: It just really wasn't making financial
00:08:00
Brooks: sense.
00:08:01
Brooks: I was starting to go in debt and I was
00:08:04
Brooks: working part-time for a guy that spread
00:08:05
Brooks: fertilizer and lime.
00:08:06
Brooks: And I listened to a podcast on YouTube and
00:08:10
Brooks: a guy named Gabe Brown came up, so I
00:08:11
Brooks: listened to it and just a light bulb went
00:08:14
Brooks: off.
00:08:15
Brooks: Oh my gosh, I think I can make it happen.
00:08:18
Brooks: This does make sense.
00:08:19
Brooks: Before that, I never heard the word
00:08:21
Brooks: regenerative ag.
00:08:22
Brooks: You know I was familiar with cover crops to
00:08:24
Brooks: some extent and we experienced with them a
00:08:25
Brooks: little bit.
00:08:27
Brooks: Um yeah, but once I heard gabe talk, I
00:08:29
Brooks: bought his book right away.
00:08:30
Brooks: I read that it was the first book that I've
00:08:31
Brooks: ever finished, oh yeah very good,
00:08:35
Brooks: congratulations on that yeah, I've read
00:08:38
Brooks: some sense.
00:08:38
Brooks: Wasn't much of a reader before that and it
00:08:40
Brooks: just made total sense.
00:08:42
Brooks: And what was it?
00:08:42
Brooks: 2019?
00:08:43
Brooks: I think we had the opportunity to go out to.
00:08:45
Brooks: Gabe was supposed to have a soil health
00:08:47
Brooks: academy in his farm.
00:08:48
Brooks: It got canceled because of drought.
00:08:50
Brooks: Um, we still went out there and we got a
00:08:51
Brooks: private tour of gabe's farm.
00:08:53
Brooks: He gave us a lot of good advice and kind of
00:08:56
Brooks: lit a fire underneath us that we really
00:08:57
Brooks: needed and that gave us the idea that we
00:09:00
Brooks: could make it work.
00:09:02
Cal: At that time, when you all went out there,
00:09:05
Cal: abby, were you on board?
00:09:07
Abby: I was.
00:09:08
Abby: I definitely was trying to be a supportive
00:09:10
Abby: wife, I think in the beginning we were
00:09:13
Abby: doing it together.
00:09:15
Abby: I'm not quiet by any means, so I was very
00:09:17
Abby: much what if we did this?
00:09:17
Abby: And we've been kind of doing it together
00:09:17
Abby: since we were doing it together.
00:09:18
Abby: I'm not quiet by any means, so I was very
00:09:18
Abby: much what if we did this?
00:09:18
Abby: And we've been kind of doing it together
00:09:20
Abby: since we were 20, which is crazy.
00:09:23
Abby: So we've been trying to figure it out
00:09:24
Abby: together.
00:09:26
Abby: So when this whole thing came about, it was
00:09:29
Abby: kind of a newer movement.
00:09:31
Abby: We didn't know anyone that was doing it.
00:09:33
Abby: He found it on YouTube so I was like I'll
00:09:36
Abby: buy in, let's do it.
00:09:36
Abby: He found it on YouTube so I was like let's
00:09:37
Abby: all buy in, let's, let's do it.
00:09:38
Abby: We made it a family vacation to go out to
00:09:40
Abby: North Dakota and so we were like, all right,
00:09:42
Abby: let's do it.
00:09:42
Abby: But after hearing Gabe, he's just so well
00:09:44
Abby: spoken and obviously knows what he's doing
00:09:46
Abby: and obviously does, does all these things
00:09:49
Abby: and it has been successful.
00:09:51
Abby: So it started to get more in my head.
00:09:53
Abby: I think what really solidified it was just
00:09:57
Abby: when he took it the next level, brooks.
00:09:59
Abby: We ended up actually implementing the
00:10:01
Abby: things and then just seeing them out of
00:10:03
Abby: nature that it's just been a night and day
00:10:06
Abby: difference.
00:10:07
Abby: There's butterflies out there, there's just
00:10:09
Abby: these giant swarms of birds.
00:10:12
Abby: It's just so much more enjoyable to be at
00:10:13
Abby: the farm.
00:10:14
Abby: And then I've taken several soil health or
00:10:17
Abby: not soil health, but soil biology classes
00:10:19
Abby: in college, and so that part made sense to
00:10:22
Abby: me.
00:10:23
Abby: I think what I was struggling with was the
00:10:25
Abby: cattle part, where it was like let nature
00:10:28
Abby: deal with the health issues of the cattle.
00:10:30
Abby: That part was hard for me to transition to.
00:10:33
Abby: We don't even treat for flies anymore, we
00:10:35
Abby: just let the birds do it.
00:10:42
Abby: And that took a minute for me to are you
00:10:43
Abby: sure, are you sure?
00:10:43
Abby: But slowly, just letting him obsess about
00:10:44
Abby: it and research it and let him implement it.
00:10:45
Abby: I do think it helped that I had two kids in
00:10:48
Abby: four years, so I was like I'm not really
00:10:51
Abby: paying attention, so busy.
00:10:52
Abby: Yeah, yeah.
00:10:54
Abby: So he's, he's.
00:10:55
Abby: I'm so proud of him.
00:10:56
Abby: He's definitely taken on all this, and it
00:10:58
Abby: definitely helps that he was first
00:10:59
Abby: generation, because I think I would have
00:11:01
Abby: been stuck in my own loop.
00:11:03
Cal: Yeah, very easy to do.
00:11:05
Cal: So when you all went out to Gabe Brown's
00:11:07
Cal: farm and you came back, what did you
00:11:09
Cal: implement or what did you do immediately?
00:11:12
Brooks: Yeah, our biggest issue was not maybe the
00:11:15
Brooks: biggest issue, but one of our issues was
00:11:16
Brooks: diversity in our pastures.
00:11:17
Brooks: We just took an old hay field that we'd
00:11:19
Brooks: planted and it was two species basically.
00:11:22
Brooks: So he gave us some ideas some pulse grazing.
00:11:25
Brooks: You set up a small paddock, get some high
00:11:27
Brooks: stock density for a little while and then
00:11:30
Brooks: you give them the rest of the paddock for
00:11:32
Brooks: the rest of the day and then long rest
00:11:33
Brooks: periods.
00:11:34
Brooks: So after that we started giving a lot
00:11:35
Brooks: longer rest periods.
00:11:36
Brooks: It was a 30-day rotation and now we're
00:11:38
Brooks: pushing 45, sometimes 60, which comes with
00:11:41
Brooks: its challenges with that hay field.
00:11:43
Brooks: Sometimes the forage can get rank on us.
00:11:45
Brooks: That's helped.
00:11:46
Brooks: Also, too, we're feeding corn and we still
00:11:48
Brooks: are.
00:11:49
Brooks: But he gave us some ideas and pushed us to
00:11:51
Brooks: to be able to raise our feeder cattle more
00:11:53
Brooks: on grass than grain.
00:11:54
Brooks: And and also you said, if you quit feeding
00:11:57
Brooks: grain tomorrow, you're going to make more
00:11:58
Brooks: money.
00:11:59
Brooks: But our biggest concern, or my biggest
00:12:02
Brooks: concern, is our product, to be able to
00:12:04
Brooks: finish cattle on grass.
00:12:06
Brooks: So we're trying to, trying to go slowly
00:12:07
Brooks: into it and we have.
00:12:08
Brooks: We've every year we've cut back on grain
00:12:11
Brooks: more and more and this year we'll we're
00:12:13
Brooks: still going to feed grain, but it'll be a
00:12:15
Brooks: lot less.
00:12:17
Cal: Oh yeah, and we're still going to feed
00:12:17
Cal: grain, but it'll be a lot less oh yeah, and,
00:12:18
Cal: and it's a journey and there is so much of
00:12:20
Cal: it.
00:12:20
Cal: That's an art.
00:12:22
Cal: So, yes, taking it slow, learning as you go,
00:12:24
Cal: reflect on what's happening.
00:12:26
Cal: A wonderful plan there now.
00:12:29
Cal: When you got your started working with your
00:12:31
Cal: grandpa's land, were you just farming that,
00:12:34
Cal: or do you have some livestock too?
00:12:36
Brooks: yeah, we had livestock since day one.
00:12:38
Brooks: That was what I started we had 20 oh, you
00:12:40
Brooks: started with livestock cows.
00:12:42
Brooks: Yeah, that was.
00:12:43
Brooks: Yeah, that's what that was the first thing
00:12:44
Brooks: that I started with.
00:12:45
Brooks: Yeah, so we had 20 acres of hay, 18 head of
00:12:47
Brooks: cattle.
00:12:47
Brooks: We direct marketed all those, but they were
00:12:49
Brooks: in a feedlot uh, feed and grain, which I'm
00:12:52
Brooks: very thankful that I started with the
00:12:53
Brooks: direct market business because it seems to
00:12:54
Brooks: be that seems to be a hard thing for people
00:12:55
Brooks: to get into.
00:12:55
Brooks: So I'm extremely thankful that I started
00:12:56
Brooks: with a direct market business because it
00:12:57
Brooks: seems to be that seems to be a hard thing
00:12:58
Brooks: for people to get into, so I'm extremely
00:12:59
Brooks: thankful that we already had that started.
00:13:02
Brooks: Then I went to MSU for beef cattle
00:13:04
Brooks: management.
00:13:04
Brooks: It was an ag tech program, so it was just a
00:13:06
Brooks: year, but I worked on a feedlot there.
00:13:08
Brooks: Oh yeah, I came back with the feedlot ideas
00:13:10
Brooks: in my mind.
00:13:11
Brooks: I went to North Dakota for an internship.
00:13:13
Brooks: They were very conventional and also they
00:13:16
Brooks: had a cow-calf operation, but unfortunately
00:13:18
Brooks: I didn't get to work with the cows a lot
00:13:19
Brooks: there.
00:13:20
Abby: We got the crop bug.
00:13:21
Abby: I feel like we were like then we were
00:13:23
Abby: raising our own corn and soybeans for our
00:13:25
Abby: feed.
00:13:26
Abby: And then we were like everyone around us is
00:13:28
Abby: a crop farmer.
00:13:29
Abby: So we definitely were like, okay, we need a
00:13:32
Abby: combine.
00:13:32
Abby: And then it started to get very heavy crops
00:13:36
Abby: and very conventional yeah yeah.
00:13:38
Brooks: So when I got back from north dakota,
00:13:40
Brooks: grandpa had a total of 350 acres.
00:13:42
Brooks: I started to farm all of it, all very
00:13:44
Brooks: conventionally and my grandpa's big on he's
00:13:47
Brooks: an organic guy, so we had any feed that we
00:13:50
Brooks: raised with the cattle.
00:13:51
Brooks: We would moldboard, plow, disc plant and
00:13:54
Brooks: then cultivate and we struggled at trying
00:13:57
Brooks: to make that work and that's how I got
00:13:59
Brooks: introduced to cover crops because we
00:14:01
Brooks: thought maybe that would help with some
00:14:02
Brooks: weeds and stuff.
00:14:04
Brooks: And it really didn't help a lot.
00:14:06
Brooks: Maybe we didn't give enough time, I don't
00:14:08
Brooks: know.
00:14:08
Brooks: I was doing the best I could with the
00:14:09
Brooks: knowledge I had at the time to erase things
00:14:10
Brooks: perfectly.
00:14:12
Brooks: So then, obviously, I got in contact with
00:14:14
Brooks: Gabe and started no-till and using cover
00:14:16
Brooks: crops, but what comes with that, obviously,
00:14:20
Brooks: is some herbicides too Right.
00:14:22
Abby: Which, at the time, we were all in on.
00:14:23
Abby: But then, I think, as we got older, we
00:14:26
Abby: started looking at it in a more financial
00:14:28
Abby: sense too and we were like, okay, if we're
00:14:30
Abby: going to make this work, we really need to
00:14:33
Abby: perform financially.
00:14:34
Abby: And just looking at our input costs,
00:14:37
Abby: obviously as all farmers do you're like how
00:14:39
Abby: did this number get so big?
00:14:41
Abby: And then just trying to figure out how to
00:14:43
Abby: get that number down is basically where it
00:14:45
Abby: all came from, in a very simple sense.
00:14:47
Brooks: Yeah, it was extremely scary how much money
00:14:49
Brooks: we spent on the farm, especially being a
00:14:50
Brooks: small farm with that time, 25 out of cattle,
00:14:53
Brooks: 350 acres it was scary how much money that
00:14:57
Brooks: we were spending.
00:14:58
Cal: Oh yeah, so talk about just for a moment.
00:15:03
Cal: Talk about that process.
00:15:04
Cal: When you came back from Gabe Brown's and
00:15:06
Cal: you started implementing some different
00:15:08
Cal: grazing practices, you were and I believe
00:15:13
Cal: you still are feeding out cows using some
00:15:16
Cal: corn and stuff.
00:15:16
Cal: But talk about that process to go to lower
00:15:20
Cal: expenses.
00:15:21
Brooks: Obviously on the farming side, a diverse
00:15:23
Brooks: cover crop, diverse crop rotation.
00:15:27
Brooks: That was step number one on trying to cut
00:15:29
Brooks: back our inputs as far as the crops that we
00:15:31
Brooks: raised for our cattle.
00:15:32
Brooks: And then we found ourselves a lot of times
00:15:35
Brooks: in the middle of the summer feeding hay.
00:15:37
Brooks: We had a flail mower, we had green chop and
00:15:39
Brooks: feed and one day we got done baling hay and
00:15:44
Brooks: I grabbed about three, four bales and I
00:15:46
Brooks: hauled them from the hay field in to feed
00:15:48
Brooks: the cows in the middle of July and I
00:15:51
Brooks: thought why in the world are we doing this?
00:15:53
Brooks: At that time I didn't have any permanent
00:15:55
Brooks: fence up around the farm but my cows I got
00:15:58
Brooks: my cows pretty familiar with temporary
00:15:59
Brooks: fence on the piece.
00:16:01
Brooks: We ran around three quarters of it with
00:16:03
Brooks: temporary fence and anything that was
00:16:05
Brooks: growing we grazed our cows on, just so I
00:16:07
Brooks: didn't have to feed harvested feed.
00:16:10
Brooks: And then and then obviously we started
00:16:12
Brooks: after that.
00:16:13
Brooks: We started getting a little more familiar
00:16:14
Brooks: with adaptive grazing and trying to get
00:16:16
Brooks: more diversity in our pastures and moving
00:16:19
Brooks: once a day, twice a day, high stock density,
00:16:22
Brooks: giving certain areas different rest periods
00:16:24
Brooks: to see what might happen.
00:16:27
Cal: And one thing Abby mentioned earlier
00:16:29
Cal: butterflies, birds and stuff.
00:16:32
Cal: How soon did you notice a change on your
00:16:34
Cal: pastures?
00:16:36
Brooks: I didn't pay attention a lot because I
00:16:39
Brooks: guess, to give you a little more backstory
00:16:40
Brooks: too, at the main farm we only had 15 acres
00:16:42
Brooks: of pasture for 25 to 30 head of cattle, so
00:16:47
Brooks: it wasn't obviously it was way overstocked.
00:16:51
Brooks: So we started implementing that and then
00:16:52
Brooks: obviously putting fence up around the farm
00:16:54
Brooks: to give that pasture more rest and I would
00:16:56
Brooks: say probably in year two we started to
00:16:58
Brooks: notice a big difference in just the health
00:16:59
Brooks: of the pasture and maybe after three years
00:17:02
Brooks: you start noticing birds.
00:17:04
Brooks: Even though we weren't looking before,
00:17:05
Brooks: you're like I don't think these birds were
00:17:07
Brooks: here before and now you can go out and I
00:17:11
Brooks: would say two to three years you started
00:17:14
Brooks: noticing just some wildlife diversity out
00:17:16
Brooks: there and it was just it is.
00:17:19
Brooks: You can shut down the side-by-side.
00:17:21
Brooks: Me and my oldest daughter like to climb on
00:17:22
Brooks: the roof after we move the cows to a new
00:17:24
Brooks: pasture and just look and you see the birds,
00:17:26
Brooks: you see some flies, the butterflies, and
00:17:29
Brooks: the neighbor next to us has honeybees and
00:17:30
Brooks: the honeybees are everywhere over there.
00:17:33
Cal: Oh yes.
00:17:34
Brooks: And then me and my daughter really like to
00:17:35
Brooks: look for worms, now there, oh yes.
00:17:37
Brooks: And then me and my daughter really like to
00:17:37
Brooks: look for worms now and it was oh yeah, I
00:17:38
Brooks: would I would say two to three years.
00:17:39
Brooks: We started just noticing things and then
00:17:41
Brooks: obviously it just keep, continues to
00:17:43
Brooks: progress after that I, I think and this is
00:17:47
Brooks: going to be my opinion I think those.
00:17:49
Cal: That's one of those things you don't really
00:17:51
Cal: notice.
00:17:52
Cal: You don't notice the absence of it.
00:17:54
Cal: Really you're not.
00:17:55
Cal: You're out there just doing what you need
00:17:57
Cal: to do, and then when you start getting more
00:18:00
Cal: wildlife in and stuff, it's not.
00:18:02
Cal: Oh yeah, I saw three birds today, or
00:18:05
Cal: whatever, but at some point it becomes wait,
00:18:08
Cal: did we have this before?
00:18:10
Cal: I don't recall all this yeah, we just
00:18:13
Cal: didn't.
00:18:13
Brooks: Regenerative agriculture it's ultimately a
00:18:15
Brooks: shift in mindset too.
00:18:17
Cal: It is yeah.
00:18:22
Brooks: If you don't know what to look for.
00:18:23
Brooks: You didn't look for it and the only thing I
00:18:24
Brooks: noticed was when I would get done.
00:18:24
Brooks: Cutting hay at the farm is all the bugs on
00:18:25
Brooks: my hay mower, but it was mostly potato leaf
00:18:27
Brooks: hoppers.
00:18:27
Brooks: It wasn't like a vast diversity of insects
00:18:30
Brooks: and spiders and stuff.
00:18:32
Cal: Right.
00:18:33
Brooks: And.
00:18:33
Abby: I think the switch to regenerative
00:18:34
Abby: agriculture is, like he said, a mindset,
00:18:37
Abby: but you're also just paying way more
00:18:39
Abby: attention to nature and you know, you're
00:18:42
Abby: just observing things.
00:18:43
Abby: We have pheasants again coming out.
00:18:46
Abby: We can constantly hear them and see them
00:18:47
Abby: running around and flying around is I'm a
00:18:56
Abby: pheasant hunter and we go out.
00:18:57
Brooks: My grandpa's got a place out in North
00:18:58
Brooks: Dakota.
00:18:58
Brooks: We go out there a year to pheasant hunt and
00:18:59
Brooks: you come back home and you might see one or
00:19:00
Brooks: two a year, but over the last two years
00:19:02
Brooks: we'll go out there in the spring, shut the
00:19:04
Brooks: side by side off and you just hear a cackle,
00:19:06
Brooks: cackle oh yeah neighbors are commenting on
00:19:08
Brooks: it and they're really excited.
00:19:10
Brooks: People driving by the farm they'll see
00:19:12
Brooks: pheasants cross the road and it's like,
00:19:14
Brooks: okay, we're doing something right.
00:19:15
Cal: There's a reason why they're here oh yeah
00:19:16
Cal: there's nothing else around that's
00:19:18
Cal: attracted them, it's it's got to be what
00:19:19
Cal: we're doing on that subject, the we have
00:19:23
Cal: wild turkeys and we have a few around and
00:19:27
Cal: on the lease lands.
00:19:28
Cal: Just drive me crazy.
00:19:29
Cal: I want to see wild turkeys over there.
00:19:31
Cal: I've been managing a few years.
00:19:33
Cal: I'm hoping to get closer to getting some
00:19:35
Cal: wild turkeys in that area and it's right on
00:19:37
Cal: the edge of some brush and so we get some
00:19:40
Cal: nice edge area along with the grassy
00:19:43
Cal: savannah like area.
00:19:45
Cal: I am just watching for wild turkeys all the
00:19:47
Cal: time.
00:19:47
Brooks: I've yet to see them there, but I'm like
00:19:49
Brooks: they're going to be back yeah, we have a
00:19:52
Brooks: fair amount of wildlife in here in general,
00:19:54
Brooks: um, but just as far as upland birds,
00:19:56
Brooks: they're just habitat destruction.
00:19:58
Brooks: It's the only reason they used to be here,
00:19:59
Brooks: from my knowledge, everywhere, but
00:20:02
Brooks: everybody's taking fence rows out and
00:20:03
Brooks: plowing their land, and well, and our whole
00:20:06
Brooks: farm there's not very many trees because it
00:20:09
Brooks: used to be cropland, so it used to be one
00:20:11
Brooks: big field, and so it's not.
00:20:13
Abby: we're in the process of working with the
00:20:14
Abby: nrcs and we're going to be planting some
00:20:17
Abby: trees and getting windbreaks and some
00:20:19
Abby: habitat clusters for different birds and
00:20:22
Abby: things, but right now it's just a big old
00:20:24
Abby: flat field.
00:20:25
Brooks: Oh yeah, it's got a lot of grass growing,
00:20:27
Brooks: though, a lot of grass.
00:20:28
Cal: Yeah, good, yeah, Just for a moment.
00:20:32
Cal: Let's jump back and talk about where you're
00:20:34
Cal: located and what the land is mainly used
00:20:37
Cal: there for.
00:20:39
Brooks: Okay, yeah, so southern central Michigan.
00:20:41
Brooks: We're about an hour north of the
00:20:43
Brooks: Indiana-Ohio border, oh, okay.
00:20:46
Brooks: It's corn, soybeans, wheat, a lot of woods.
00:20:50
Brooks: We've got a fair amount of woods, small
00:20:52
Brooks: acreage fields.
00:20:54
Brooks: An extremely big field around here is 400
00:20:55
Brooks: acres, but most of them are 10 to 30 to 40
00:20:58
Brooks: sections oh yeah, not very many cattle.
00:21:02
Brooks: It's more like a hobby farm cattle country.
00:21:04
Brooks: There's a few here and there, but as far as
00:21:07
Brooks: getting any knowledge from any cattle
00:21:09
Brooks: farmers around here, it's been pretty tough,
00:21:12
Brooks: you know and where I think we're like right
00:21:13
Brooks: at the edge of the corn belt.
00:21:15
Abby: So we're like in a weird, weird spot a lot
00:21:18
Abby: of conventional corn and soybeans, but we
00:21:20
Abby: get a lot of rain, we get a lot of moisture,
00:21:22
Abby: yep, and, like you said, lots of woods.
00:21:24
Abby: So lots of farmers trying to take out fence
00:21:26
Abby: rows and take out all these trees and stuff
00:21:29
Abby: yes, you notice, I see this same thing here.
00:21:33
Cal: people go in and they've cleared, or
00:21:36
Cal: someone will buy a property and they'll go
00:21:38
Cal: in and they'll clear every tree off that
00:21:40
Cal: property and then it's only in the fence
00:21:43
Cal: rows and then it may change hands again, or
00:21:47
Cal: maybe they want to replace that fence and
00:21:49
Cal: they take a bulldozer and go down that
00:21:50
Cal: fence line and now quarter section.
00:21:54
Cal: Most land north of me is in bigger areas.
00:21:56
Cal: South of me it's not.
00:21:58
Cal: Now you've got this property void of trees.
00:22:01
Abby: I'm like wait why are we doing that?
00:22:04
Abby: Yeah, and especially in my world with
00:22:07
Abby: flower farming.
00:22:08
Abby: Obviously it's very close to the
00:22:11
Abby: regenerative movement.
00:22:12
Abby: We're constantly wanting habitat for bees
00:22:14
Abby: and birds and we want as much habitat as
00:22:16
Abby: possible with our flowers so that they can
00:22:18
Abby: pollinate and create.
00:22:20
Abby: And so for us, I'm really into right now
00:22:23
Abby: planting a lot of perennials and cutting
00:22:24
Abby: from those, and with that I would love if
00:22:27
Abby: every all the trees would have just stayed
00:22:28
Abby: there and have been established.
00:22:30
Abby: And now I'm planting new trees and new
00:22:33
Abby: bushes and new shrubs, and I've got five
00:22:35
Abby: years until I see the benefit, when I know
00:22:38
Abby: that our farm in the sixties had tons of
00:22:41
Abby: that and I wish they would have just stayed
00:22:43
Abby: there.
00:22:45
Abby: So it's very.
00:22:46
Abby: Our worlds are very similar in the farming
00:22:48
Abby: and the flower farming um to into the
00:22:51
Abby: regenerative movement, so that's something
00:22:53
Abby: that's been really cool to see too we do
00:22:57
Abby: have one really nice oak tree we do have
00:22:58
Abby: one.
00:22:59
Cal: Oh yeah, oh very good yeah so talking about
00:23:04
Cal: your cattle, and you went out there and you
00:23:06
Cal: put up some fence.
00:23:08
Cal: You just did temporary.
00:23:10
Cal: Have you gone back with more permanent
00:23:12
Cal: perimeter fencing?
00:23:13
Cal: How are you doing your fencing?
00:23:16
Brooks: yeah, so we fenced the entire farm.
00:23:18
Brooks: I think it was 2022.
00:23:20
Brooks: Um, we put up timeless post electric fence.
00:23:22
Brooks: All All our interior fences, for the most
00:23:25
Brooks: part, are temporary fence.
00:23:26
Brooks: At this point.
00:23:27
Brooks: That's probably just because of indecision
00:23:30
Brooks: by me I'm a little bit nervous to put a
00:23:32
Brooks: permanent fence up because I might not like
00:23:33
Brooks: it.
00:23:33
Brooks: I would like I want somebody to come down
00:23:36
Brooks: and give me some pointers on where I should
00:23:38
Brooks: put permanent fence, saying that we did get
00:23:42
Brooks: involved with the nrcs and we in the last
00:23:44
Brooks: two years we furnished.
00:23:45
Brooks: Now we put in 8 000 feet of water pipe and
00:23:48
Brooks: frost free hydrants, so we're a little bit
00:23:51
Brooks: stuck on where some of the fences would
00:23:52
Brooks: have to go, but it oh yeah, as far as
00:23:55
Brooks: interior fences, everything's temporary and
00:23:56
Brooks: it really does work pretty good for us and
00:24:00
Brooks: talk about like your daily moves yeah, yeah,
00:24:02
Brooks: so we're doing daily moves, the feeder
00:24:04
Brooks: cattle we're, so we're not feeding grain
00:24:06
Brooks: right now.
00:24:07
Brooks: In previous years we would feed grain from
00:24:09
Brooks: weaning all the way until finish, but over
00:24:11
Brooks: the last couple years we put them on
00:24:13
Brooks: pasture.
00:24:13
Brooks: We do daily moves.
00:24:14
Brooks: This year we're doing moves twice a day and
00:24:17
Brooks: we're not going to feed grain until the
00:24:18
Brooks: last 60 days.
00:24:20
Brooks: Oh yeah, and we also got a pens agro gate
00:24:24
Brooks: lifter or fence lifter, which I'm
00:24:26
Brooks: struggling with at this point, but from my
00:24:28
Brooks: understanding, there's a training process
00:24:30
Brooks: along with that, so we're just going to
00:24:31
Brooks: keep plugging away at it.
00:24:33
Brooks: Our cows are mostly once a day moves.
00:24:35
Brooks: Every once in a while, on the weekends,
00:24:36
Brooks: I'll I'll do some twice a day moves, try to
00:24:38
Brooks: do some high stock density and stuff what's
00:24:40
Brooks: our herd?
00:24:41
Abby: like we have our cow?
00:24:42
Brooks: calf yeah, we have our cow calf describe
00:24:45
Brooks: what we have going on today.
00:24:46
Cal: Yeah, we have two herds see, I should just
00:24:48
Cal: let abby run this so we have cow calf.
00:24:51
Brooks: We got 32 cow calf and then we got 40, 40
00:24:55
Brooks: feeder cattle that we're going to finish
00:24:57
Brooks: this year and then we do.
00:24:59
Brooks: I should mention we do have a pastured pork
00:25:00
Brooks: operation too oh, I didn't realize you had
00:25:03
Brooks: pork as well.
00:25:04
Brooks: Yeah.
00:25:04
Brooks: So we got in that by accident because
00:25:06
Brooks: during COVID all these big confinement
00:25:08
Brooks: operations were euthanizing animals and
00:25:10
Brooks: we've got a couple of friends in the pork
00:25:11
Brooks: industry and they said, hey, we got 18 pigs
00:25:14
Brooks: here we're going to euthanize.
00:25:15
Brooks: Do you want them?
00:25:16
Brooks: So we took that opportunity, which was a
00:25:18
Brooks: mess at first.
00:25:19
Brooks: We, which was a mess at first we put them
00:25:20
Brooks: on pasture.
00:25:21
Brooks: They were out there with the feeder cattle.
00:25:23
Brooks: It was entertaining and we learned a lot.
00:25:24
Brooks: We learned that they don't move or load
00:25:26
Brooks: like cows.
00:25:27
Brooks: That was probably the biggest issue we had,
00:25:30
Brooks: but overall it was pretty successful.
00:25:32
Brooks: We sold them right away.
00:25:33
Brooks: We made some good money.
00:25:35
Brooks: Part of the reason is we got them for free
00:25:37
Brooks: and there was demand for it, so we
00:25:40
Brooks: continued to do it after that.
00:25:40
Brooks: Last year was the first year that we would
00:25:42
Brooks: rotate them.
00:25:43
Brooks: We gave them a section every week.
00:25:45
Brooks: We had out on pasture fully.
00:25:48
Brooks: That came with some challenges, but I think
00:25:50
Brooks: overall we went and looked at the pasture
00:25:52
Brooks: the other day that they were in and it's
00:25:53
Brooks: recovering.
00:25:53
Brooks: We think it made some improvements and
00:25:55
Brooks: people seem to like the pork too and that
00:25:59
Brooks: first year they had all hernias.
00:26:03
Abby: So they had these giant basketball-sized
00:26:04
Abby: hernias and that's basically why, they were
00:26:06
Abby: going to get rid of them.
00:26:07
Brooks: They were ugly.
00:26:08
Abby: They were really bad, but when they got out
00:26:10
Abby: there, it was their first time being
00:26:11
Abby: outside, and so they were running around
00:26:14
Abby: like they were so excited.
00:26:15
Abby: And then, by the time they went to
00:26:17
Abby: slaughter, most of their hernias were gone,
00:26:19
Abby: which was like a really cool that sold me
00:26:22
Abby: on the pastured pork thing.
00:26:24
Brooks: That was like a really cool thing to see.
00:26:26
Brooks: Yeah, it was like a rehabilitation center
00:26:28
Brooks: for them, but then we obviously slaughtered
00:26:30
Brooks: them and sold them they had a good end of
00:26:32
Brooks: the life, though, yeah yeah, two things
00:26:35
Brooks: with that.
00:26:36
Cal: First, on your cattle are you buying
00:26:37
Cal: feeders in to, to feed out to or processing?
00:26:43
Brooks: yeah.
00:26:43
Brooks: So we had 26 calves last year.
00:26:45
Brooks: Demand is bigger than that, so we ended up
00:26:47
Brooks: buying another 17 feeder cattle and we're
00:26:50
Brooks: tossing around the idea.
00:26:51
Brooks: I just attended a marketing and economics
00:26:54
Brooks: workshop with Understanding Ag.
00:26:56
Brooks: I came out of that with really questioning
00:26:58
Brooks: the idea whether we should have our own
00:26:59
Brooks: cows or not.
00:27:00
Brooks: They gave us some decision calculators and
00:27:01
Brooks: Alan Williams I'm sure you're familiar with
00:27:02
Brooks: him.
00:27:02
Brooks: I asked him the biggest thing I idea
00:27:02
Brooks: whether we should have our own cows or not.
00:27:03
Brooks: They gave us some decision calculators and
00:27:04
Brooks: alan williams I'm sure you're familiar with
00:27:05
Brooks: him.
00:27:05
Brooks: I asked him my biggest thing I want to take
00:27:07
Brooks: out of this is is it worth us having our
00:27:09
Brooks: cows and rather than just buying feeders?
00:27:11
Brooks: And he laughed and he said 90 of the time
00:27:14
Brooks: for small producers it's not worth having
00:27:16
Brooks: your own cows.
00:27:17
Brooks: And also, we can hook you up with some good
00:27:19
Brooks: genetics.
00:27:20
Brooks: Don't believe that your genetics are
00:27:23
Brooks: superior to what's available out there.
00:27:25
Brooks: Yeah, we're really tossing the idea around.
00:27:27
Brooks: Abby's not fond of it, but is it
00:27:30
Brooks: financially worth it?
00:27:31
Brooks: And I think some years maybe it is and most
00:27:33
Brooks: years it isn't.
00:27:35
Abby: I just think that the cows come with a
00:27:36
Abby: little bit more stability.
00:27:38
Abby: Being our own market that will go right
00:27:42
Abby: into our feeders.
00:27:44
Abby: To me seems a little bit more stable,
00:27:46
Abby: riding the market price and going and
00:27:48
Abby: sourcing them and that seems like a lot of
00:27:51
Abby: stress.
00:27:52
Abby: And then I just feel like we've worked
00:27:53
Abby: really hard to get, we've culled a lot.
00:27:56
Abby: We've went through this whole journey with
00:27:58
Abby: these cows and maybe I'm being a little too
00:28:00
Abby: emotional, but I think I I'm not sold on
00:28:03
Abby: the idea.
00:28:04
Abby: Obviously, if the pencil makes sense and
00:28:06
Abby: the financials make sense, I'll be on board.
00:28:08
Abby: But I think the scary part is just year
00:28:10
Abby: from year it's going to be completely
00:28:11
Abby: different.
00:28:13
Brooks: I read a book one time called how to Not Go
00:28:15
Brooks: Broker Anshun, and one of the quotes in
00:28:17
Brooks: there was marry your wife, not your cows,
00:28:19
Brooks: and that stuck with me.
00:28:23
Cal: But, like Abby said, that's a tough
00:28:26
Cal: transition.
00:28:27
Cal: I've mentioned on the podcast before that
00:28:30
Cal: my dad and I have this discussion with his
00:28:32
Cal: herd, with my herd.
00:28:34
Cal: I really have a affection for the cows.
00:28:39
Cal: We've bred them for generations and they're
00:28:42
Cal: not ideal but we think they're going in the
00:28:44
Cal: right direction.
00:28:45
Cal: It's hard at times to think just getting
00:28:49
Cal: rid of that, but so much I see when you
00:28:52
Cal: start penciling it out.
00:28:54
Cal: Just doing a stocker program to finish is
00:28:58
Cal: much better if you have that in market, but,
00:29:01
Cal: man, I like my cows.
00:29:05
Cal: If you have that in market, but man, I like
00:29:06
Cal: my cows.
00:29:06
Cal: In fact I sold some cows last year that I'm
00:29:08
Cal: still complaining to my wife.
00:29:09
Cal: I sold because I just like them so much,
00:29:10
Cal: which is not a healthy attitude for a
00:29:12
Cal: business to be ran as a profit.
00:29:15
Abby: No, that's yeah, it's a it's a tough
00:29:17
Abby: balance yeah everybody loves their cows,
00:29:19
Abby: for sure I think it's like life to the life
00:29:22
Abby: balance.
00:29:22
Abby: We're at a kind of a weird spot.
00:29:24
Abby: We just opened up a retail store on farm
00:29:27
Abby: two weeks ago and so we're in the the
00:29:30
Abby: landing point of do we jump and go full
00:29:34
Abby: force and do we?
00:29:37
Abby: We get rid of the cows, we expand the
00:29:39
Abby: feeders, we just get a ton of this going
00:29:41
Abby: and we're the meat people and we're the
00:29:43
Abby: retail people, or do we hold on to the cows
00:29:47
Abby: and see how it goes and wait a little bit
00:29:49
Abby: longer?
00:29:50
Abby: That's just a lot of a lot has been brought
00:29:53
Abby: to our plate in the last two years, and so
00:29:55
Abby: we're just trying to decide what our
00:29:57
Abby: business plan is.
00:29:59
Abby: What makes sense for our family?
00:30:00
Abby: What makes sense?
00:30:00
Brooks: for our family, oh yeah it makes sense
00:30:01
Brooks: financially and yeah, yeah, I think the
00:30:05
Brooks: biggest question with, or the biggest
00:30:07
Brooks: positive if we didn't have the cows is we
00:30:09
Brooks: could have more feeder cattle and we could
00:30:12
Brooks: sell more meat.
00:30:13
Brooks: And from my, from what I look, the way I
00:30:15
Brooks: looked at it, there's more margin in the
00:30:17
Brooks: feeder cattle and selling direct market
00:30:20
Brooks: business rather than the cow calf.
00:30:21
Brooks: It it just always seems to be that way.
00:30:23
Brooks: So, yeah, some years we can raise a calf
00:30:24
Brooks: cheaper than we can buy it.
00:30:25
Brooks: Some years we can't.
00:30:26
Brooks: But the margin for a cow-calf is, I think
00:30:31
Brooks: it'll always be smaller than feeder cattle
00:30:34
Brooks: stockers and then selling direct to
00:30:35
Brooks: consumer.
00:30:37
Brooks: But that would also we would basically
00:30:40
Brooks: double our meat sale.
00:30:41
Brooks: We'd have to double our meat sales.
00:30:43
Brooks: So that's also another balance.
00:30:45
Cal: Right, and it's also with you having that
00:30:49
Cal: already, that market defined and you're
00:30:51
Cal: already able to market.
00:30:53
Cal: You could and this is me just off the cuff
00:30:56
Cal: you could grow that feeder size while
00:30:58
Cal: slowly reducing the cow size based upon
00:31:01
Cal: what your market providing you, while
00:31:02
Cal: slowly reducing the cow size based upon
00:31:03
Cal: what your market is providing you, yeah,
00:31:03
Cal: and that way gives you some of that
00:31:05
Cal: assurance and security of keeping a foot on
00:31:09
Cal: both sides of the fence.
00:31:11
Brooks: Yeah, I think in the past too.
00:31:13
Brooks: I mean, I've been pretty married to the
00:31:15
Brooks: cows.
00:31:15
Brooks: You know, we're trying to grow our cow herd
00:31:17
Brooks: trying to grow our cow herd and we were a
00:31:20
Brooks: little bit, we weren't very aggressive with
00:31:23
Brooks: them.
00:31:23
Brooks: I guess I should say we had a longer
00:31:25
Brooks: calving period.
00:31:27
Brooks: We wouldn't call a cow necessarily if she
00:31:29
Brooks: had a big problem.
00:31:30
Brooks: We would just maybe wait until she didn't
00:31:32
Brooks: breed and then we would send her.
00:31:33
Brooks: I think this year I'm just going to get
00:31:35
Brooks: really strict.
00:31:36
Brooks: I'm going to do a 45-day calving window.
00:31:40
Brooks: Anybody that has any problems is going to
00:31:42
Brooks: go.
00:31:42
Brooks: Anybody that doesn't breed back is going to
00:31:43
Brooks: go.
00:31:43
Brooks: Anybody doesn't breed back is going to go.
00:31:44
Brooks: And we're just, we're going to get more
00:31:46
Brooks: strict with our calling program.
00:31:48
Brooks: Oh yeah, and maybe we won't get rid of the
00:31:51
Brooks: cows totally, but we're going to hopefully
00:31:55
Brooks: have some really good cows rather than
00:31:56
Brooks: holding on to these.
00:31:57
Brooks: Oh yeah, these stragglers.
00:31:59
Brooks: I don't think it's doing us any good and we
00:32:02
Brooks: we have a pretty good.
00:32:03
Abby: We've went from having a lot of calving
00:32:05
Abby: issues to almost none.
00:32:08
Abby: That's already been so much better on the
00:32:10
Abby: side of pro cows.
00:32:12
Abby: We constantly have this pro and con cows
00:32:15
Abby: discussion.
00:32:17
Abby: On the pro cows, our cows are calving.
00:32:20
Abby: We're not touching them, we don't do
00:32:22
Abby: anything, they're just doing their thing.
00:32:23
Abby: Knock on wood Right as we talk in their
00:32:27
Abby: canal but and we've worked them hard, in my
00:32:30
Abby: view, because of growing up with a
00:32:31
Abby: conventional cow herd where they didn't
00:32:33
Abby: really do a lot of walk in and move in- oh
00:32:35
Abby: yeah we're.
00:32:36
Abby: We're working them really hard and they've
00:32:38
Abby: been through a lot and I feel like they're
00:32:41
Abby: the ones that are doing really well, are
00:32:42
Abby: doing really well.
00:32:43
Abby: Obviously, you're going to have the
00:32:44
Abby: stragglers that we do need to call yeah and
00:32:47
Abby: make into, which is another thing.
00:32:49
Abby: In our retail store we're trying to do some
00:32:51
Abby: brats and some processed meats and some
00:32:53
Abby: value-added products, so we're hoping that
00:32:56
Abby: those cold cows will do that for us for the
00:32:59
Abby: summer grilling season yeah, which
00:33:01
Abby: obviously doesn't make it calling a cow
00:33:03
Abby: burn so much.
00:33:04
Brooks: There's some years where you can get a good
00:33:05
Brooks: call cow market, but some years you can't.
00:33:07
Brooks: So if we're able to add some value to them,
00:33:10
Brooks: what let's call her, make some money on her
00:33:13
Brooks: oh yeah, one last question on the cows
00:33:16
Brooks: before we jump back to the pork for just a
00:33:18
Brooks: moment.
00:33:19
Cal: What breed of cattle are you all using?
00:33:21
Cal: Do you have have a preference?
00:33:23
Brooks: I'm a little partial to red Angus, but if
00:33:26
Brooks: you look at our herd, we've got brown,
00:33:28
Brooks: black, white, we've got all kinds of things,
00:33:31
Brooks: but we do have a red.
00:33:31
Brooks: Angus bull.
00:33:32
Brooks: We've had a red Angus bull for three years
00:33:34
Brooks: now, so it's definitely becoming more and
00:33:36
Brooks: more red for sure.
00:33:38
Brooks: Yes, up until the last two or three years,
00:33:40
Brooks: we really haven't had a preference.
00:33:42
Brooks: But back in 2013, we bought a group of red
00:33:46
Brooks: Angus and we still have 90% of those cows.
00:33:52
Cal: Oh nice.
00:33:52
Brooks: And they perform really well, so it just
00:33:54
Brooks: sold me on the red Angus.
00:33:56
Abby: Oh yeah, for sure, same here.
00:33:58
Abby: I don't see myself or see our production
00:34:01
Abby: going to more of the grass-fed breeds.
00:34:04
Abby: I think we definitely prefer more.
00:34:05
Cal: Well Reading on your pastured pork.
00:34:07
Cal: Are you bringing in feeders and just
00:34:10
Cal: growing them out?
00:34:12
Brooks: Yeah, we haven't got any sows yet.
00:34:14
Brooks: We're not really set up to have pigs in the
00:34:15
Brooks: winter.
00:34:16
Brooks: It's our biggest issue.
00:34:19
Brooks: We're in an area where it really hasn't
00:34:20
Brooks: been an issue finding feeder pigs and you
00:34:23
Brooks: know some years.
00:34:24
Brooks: They're fairly reasonable.
00:34:26
Abby: And also our house.
00:34:28
Abby: Another interesting nuance is our house is
00:34:31
Abby: down the road from the farm.
00:34:32
Abby: So I just feel like Sal, you know, I feel
00:34:35
Abby: like if our house was actually on the farm
00:34:38
Abby: we would be more open to getting things
00:34:39
Abby: like that.
00:34:41
Abby: Oh yeah, we're down the road, so we can't
00:34:43
Abby: really always have our eyes on them.
00:34:46
Cal: I know, just speaking of that a little bit,
00:34:48
Cal: I grew up my mom and dad's house two miles
00:34:50
Cal: away from the dairy and just that two miles
00:34:53
Cal: is not that far, but it was far enough that
00:34:57
Cal: we just didn't run down all the time.
00:34:59
Cal: We grouped those trips and if we have to
00:35:01
Cal: we'd run back and forth because it's not
00:35:03
Cal: that big a deal, but just that little bit
00:35:07
Cal: of distance makes a difference in your
00:35:09
Cal: mindset and how you're managing and doing
00:35:11
Cal: things.
00:35:11
Abby: Yes, yeah, and there's definitely pros and
00:35:13
Abby: cons, I think, to having the house a little
00:35:16
Abby: ways from the farm.
00:35:17
Abby: We get to turn it off a little bit more
00:35:19
Abby: than we would if we were, it was out our
00:35:21
Abby: side, our window.
00:35:23
Abby: And for a family small young family it's
00:35:26
Abby: nice to be able to just talk about
00:35:27
Abby: something else for a minute.
00:35:29
Abby: But definitely the cons are like when I'm
00:35:32
Abby: at home with the girls I can't just go
00:35:35
Abby: outside and we can go see the cows.
00:35:36
Abby: We have to load up into the car and head
00:35:39
Abby: down there and so that's frustrating,
00:35:41
Abby: especially and with the retail store.
00:35:42
Abby: we've had to make some pretty yes, and so
00:35:43
Abby: that's frustrating, especially with the
00:35:43
Abby: retail store.
00:35:44
Abby: We've had to make some pretty boundaries
00:35:46
Abby: with our hours so that these are our hours
00:35:48
Abby: and we're not accepting just random
00:35:51
Abby: walk-ins because we're just not sometimes
00:35:53
Abby: not there.
00:35:54
Abby: So that's one of the cons on that.
00:35:57
Cal: One thing you all had mentioned early on
00:36:00
Cal: that when those first cows Brooks, you
00:36:03
Cal: direct marketed them to the consumer yes
00:36:08
Cal: that was covid was a big mind shift for a
00:36:11
Cal: lot of people.
00:36:12
Cal: That people started looking for locally
00:36:13
Cal: sourced meats.
00:36:14
Cal: But this was prior to that.
00:36:16
Cal: How did you develop and cultivate that
00:36:19
Cal: market?
00:36:20
Brooks: I guess, to be honest with you, my
00:36:21
Brooks: grandfather owned a business and most of it,
00:36:25
Brooks: maybe half to 75%, went to his business for
00:36:29
Brooks: a benefit that the employees got.
00:36:31
Cal: Oh, very nice.
00:36:32
Brooks: But we grew on that.
00:36:34
Brooks: Obviously we got a little bit of our name
00:36:36
Brooks: out.
00:36:37
Brooks: Shop teacher bought it.
00:36:38
Brooks: It was the first steer that I sold was to
00:36:40
Brooks: him.
00:36:41
Brooks: People just started to hear about us a
00:36:43
Brooks: little bit family friends oh yeah, so we
00:36:45
Brooks: had some hitty sales there at the beginning.
00:36:47
Brooks: Yeah, oh, my first sale was definitely I'm
00:36:50
Brooks: not I'm not sure if the meat was any good,
00:36:52
Brooks: but we sold and it just yeah, it was word
00:36:55
Brooks: of mouth, for sure oh yeah there was people
00:36:58
Brooks: back then that did value where their meat
00:37:00
Brooks: came from right, yeah, but let's transition
00:37:05
Brooks: to the overgrazing section.
00:37:07
Cal: And the overgrazing section we take a
00:37:09
Cal: little bit deeper dive into something about
00:37:13
Cal: your operation, and I just had a
00:37:15
Cal: conversation the other day.
00:37:16
Cal: Maybe it should be called severe grazing.
00:37:18
Cal: We're taking a deep dive for just a little
00:37:20
Cal: while and then we're moving on from it.
00:37:24
Cal: Today we're going to talk about using
00:37:25
Cal: social media to sell beef, but let's just
00:37:28
Cal: talk about that in general.
00:37:30
Cal: You've already mentioned how you started
00:37:32
Cal: that market.
00:37:33
Cal: How did you grow that market and continue
00:37:35
Cal: to expand it?
00:37:38
Abby: I'll take the reins on this one.
00:37:40
Abby: Obviously, he's doing the production side
00:37:42
Abby: of things and obviously I'm helping as well,
00:37:45
Abby: but my thing has been social media, and it
00:37:47
Abby: started with just like cute pictures of the
00:37:49
Abby: cows and people were, oh you guys are out
00:37:52
Abby: there, huh, and doing things, and that was
00:37:54
Abby: back in 2012.
00:37:55
Abby: So we've we've been posting for 12 years or
00:37:59
Abby: so, and so it started out with just a few
00:38:03
Abby: pictures here and there of the cows, and
00:38:06
Abby: then, obviously, you know the trends of
00:38:08
Abby: social media.
00:38:09
Abby: They have definitely grown.
00:38:11
Abby: Instagram, tiktok, all those things are now
00:38:14
Abby: very, a very big deal.
00:38:16
Abby: So with starting that, I don't think we
00:38:19
Abby: really sold meat out of the from the social
00:38:22
Abby: media until probably 2019, 2018.
00:38:26
Abby: But then obviously, like you said, 2020,.
00:38:29
Abby: Everybody was just bored, and on social
00:38:32
Abby: media too.
00:38:33
Abby: So it definitely grew in that sense and
00:38:36
Abby: when we got an Instagram and really started
00:38:38
Abby: making videos and trying to get a little
00:38:40
Abby: bit more intentional with our marketing.
00:38:42
Abby: I always say to people that ask I'm always
00:38:44
Abby: getting people that are like oh, I see you
00:38:46
Abby: on social media and sometimes it feels like
00:38:48
Abby: a self-indulgent project, but in a lot of
00:38:51
Abby: ways, yeah, it's part of the business, it's
00:38:53
Abby: marketing, oh yeah.
00:38:54
Abby: And so just getting more intentional and
00:38:57
Abby: coming up with what's our mission it's
00:39:00
Abby: helped us get an avenue and then trying to
00:39:06
Abby: show people what we're doing and how our
00:39:07
Abby: practices have changed, and trying to get
00:39:08
Abby: people to buy in to the beauty of it and to
00:39:11
Abby: the romanticized version of this
00:39:14
Abby: regenerative agriculture thing and which it
00:39:16
Abby: is.
00:39:16
Abby: It's beautiful to see, so we're always
00:39:19
Abby: trying to capture that.
00:39:20
Abby: And then then, I guess, as far as today, we
00:39:22
Abby: have an Instagram and a Facebook, and those
00:39:25
Abby: two are definitely different in a lot of
00:39:27
Abby: ways.
00:39:27
Abby: Instagram is a lot of videos.
00:39:29
Abby: It's turned into a video platform.
00:39:31
Abby: I always say, though Instagram is a large
00:39:33
Abby: audience, so when you're posting videos,
00:39:36
Abby: you're getting a lot of views, but maybe
00:39:38
Abby: they're not your customers, so we don't
00:39:40
Abby: really want to be influencers or social
00:39:41
Abby: media famous or anything.
00:39:42
Abby: So we're kind of we don't really want to be
00:39:43
Abby: like influencers or social media famous or
00:39:44
Abby: anything, so we don't necessarily try that
00:39:47
Abby: hard in those things.
00:39:48
Abby: But Facebook is much more our customers and
00:39:51
Abby: our communication with our customers.
00:39:52
Abby: It's much more community-based.
00:39:54
Abby: So the things we post, we get tons of
00:39:57
Abby: comments on there from people that are
00:39:58
Abby: actually buying our meat and want to stay
00:40:01
Abby: in the loop.
00:40:02
Abby: And then we're looking into starting to
00:40:04
Abby: utilize some like individual groups on
00:40:06
Abby: Facebook for like our customers so they can
00:40:09
Abby: ask questions and communicate with us, and
00:40:12
Abby: I think that and we're starting to work
00:40:14
Abby: with Barn to Door, which they're setting up
00:40:16
Abby: our website and our online store right now
00:40:19
Abby: and then that will be a lot of streamlining
00:40:22
Abby: and much more accessible for people to
00:40:24
Abby: literally take the Instagram or the
00:40:26
Abby: Facebook post or whatever and be able to
00:40:28
Abby: click right into our online store.
00:40:30
Abby: I'm heading that project to try to make
00:40:33
Abby: things everything just a lot more
00:40:34
Abby: streamlined and have everything be a
00:40:37
Abby: consistent branding.
00:40:38
Abby: You want to have your page and your profile
00:40:41
Abby: be consistent with what you're doing and be
00:40:43
Abby: simple and make sense.
00:40:45
Abby: In our area we're the first people to
00:40:47
Abby: really do this, and so it's a whole new
00:40:50
Abby: idea.
00:40:50
Abby: The beauty of it really helps, but also
00:40:53
Abby: trying to get the actual content to them
00:40:56
Abby: and educate them a little bit on soil
00:40:58
Abby: health and why it's important and why it's
00:41:01
Abby: important for their health and our health
00:41:03
Abby: and the soil health.
00:41:04
Abby: So it's been a building project.
00:41:09
Brooks: I would say definitely, too.
00:41:10
Brooks: The most popular things seem to be when
00:41:12
Brooks: we're out there with our kids and our
00:41:15
Brooks: families, versus us just showing a picture
00:41:18
Brooks: of a cow eating some grass.
00:41:21
Brooks: People seem to really enjoy seeing our kids
00:41:23
Brooks: out there, and maybe that's what's selling
00:41:25
Brooks: too selling our story versus our practices.
00:41:28
Abby: Yeah, I think that's the main thing about
00:41:31
Abby: our social media is just trying to sell the
00:41:32
Abby: story.
00:41:33
Abby: And then there's been to get ahead of the
00:41:35
Abby: algorithm.
00:41:36
Abby: That's what Barnador promises as well.
00:41:38
Abby: Like the algorithm is going to be in favor
00:41:41
Abby: of someone that has consistent branding, is
00:41:45
Abby: posting all the time.
00:41:45
Abby: We find that.
00:41:46
Abby: I find that I have more interactions with
00:41:49
Abby: people.
00:41:49
Abby: If I post from 5 pm to 9 pm, more people
00:41:52
Abby: are seeing it If I post it from like noon
00:41:55
Abby: or so, just trying to find the.
00:41:57
Abby: It's quite an art to.
00:41:59
Abby: It's not just like here's a selfie of me
00:42:02
Abby: and like we'll post it, trying to be really
00:42:05
Abby: intentional about everything that we post
00:42:06
Abby: and have a mission to.
00:42:06
Abby: It's not just like here's a selfie of me
00:42:07
Abby: and like we'll post it, trying to be really
00:42:08
Abby: intentional about everything that we post
00:42:09
Abby: and have a mission to it.
00:42:10
Abby: Our new thing is like buy your meat from a
00:42:11
Abby: farmer.
00:42:11
Abby: It's just like simple when you go to where
00:42:13
Abby: you're not seeing the farmer, you're not
00:42:15
Abby: seeing the impact of what your dollar is
00:42:17
Abby: doing, so just doing those kinds of things.
00:42:20
Abby: And then, yeah, we see a lot of
00:42:22
Abby: interactions with our kids on there or just
00:42:25
Abby: faces in general.
00:42:27
Cal: Yeah, I think you mentioned this, but you
00:42:31
Cal: have a Facebook group.
00:42:33
Cal: I'm sorry.
00:42:33
Cal: You have a Facebook page for the farm and
00:42:36
Cal: then you've recently started a group as
00:42:38
Cal: well.
00:42:40
Abby: We haven't yet we're looking into that for
00:42:43
Abby: our specific customers With the retail
00:42:44
Abby: store.
00:42:45
Abby: A lot of people just have a lot of
00:42:47
Abby: questions and the retail store was only two
00:42:49
Abby: weeks ago.
00:42:50
Abby: We're thinking about trying that out and
00:42:52
Abby: then it'll be a spot for us to be able to
00:42:54
Abby: troubleshoot any issues with the online
00:42:56
Abby: store, Because that's coming up too.
00:42:59
Cal: So you're sharing stuff through your
00:43:00
Cal: Facebook page, you're sharing stuff through
00:43:02
Cal: Instagram.
00:43:03
Cal: Are you doing any lives or are you doing
00:43:06
Cal: all videos or photos content?
00:43:10
Abby: So no lives yet.
00:43:12
Abby: I know with my flower business I do a lot
00:43:14
Abby: of lives when I'm making bouquets.
00:43:16
Cal: Oh yeah.
00:43:17
Abby: Yeah, so I do a lot of social media for my
00:43:19
Abby: flower business as well, but I think I do a
00:43:22
Abby: lot of stories.
00:43:23
Abby: So on Instagram and the lives just haven't
00:43:24
Abby: do a lot of stories.
00:43:24
Abby: So on Instagram and the lives just haven't
00:43:26
Abby: had a lot of performance.
00:43:27
Abby: There's just not a lot of people on there.
00:43:28
Abby: I think you have to do a lot in the evening
00:43:30
Abby: and there's nothing.
00:43:31
Abby: Nobody wants to see us, like giving our
00:43:33
Abby: kids dinner Stories.
00:43:36
Abby: We do lots of stories about what we're
00:43:38
Abby: currently doing People like that and then I
00:43:40
Abby: do a lot of little questions.
00:43:49
Abby: So I'll post, ask a question or something
00:43:50
Abby: and then I'll answer those questions and
00:43:51
Abby: then on Facebook, all the stories that you
00:43:52
Abby: do on Instagram go right to Facebook, so
00:43:52
Abby: everyone can see those too, and we get a
00:43:53
Abby: lot of interactions with my stories about
00:43:55
Abby: what we are doing, live and that exact
00:43:57
Abby: moment.
00:43:58
Cal: Oh yeah, in addition to your Instagram and
00:44:02
Cal: Facebook, do you also do email marketing?
00:44:06
Abby: Yes, so that is the thing that we're now
00:44:09
Abby: moving towards.
00:44:09
Abby: So, now that I feel like we have
00:44:11
Abby: established our social media presence, I
00:44:14
Abby: obviously want to take all those things and
00:44:16
Abby: streamline them into another place so that
00:44:18
Abby: we can have one-on-one conversations with
00:44:19
Abby: these people.
00:44:20
Abby: I have tried to reach out and have people
00:44:28
Abby: put their emails in, but that is not always
00:44:30
Abby: successful.
00:44:31
Abby: Barnador, when we make a sale, will capture
00:44:33
Abby: the email for us, put it on a customer like.
00:44:36
Abby: We'll create a customer list and then we'll
00:44:38
Abby: be able to put out our email newsletters.
00:44:42
Abby: I've even said I would like to have a mail
00:44:45
Abby: newsletter because I get so many emails too.
00:44:52
Abby: There's just so much information being
00:44:53
Abby: inundated at all times on social media, on
00:44:54
Abby: your email.
00:44:54
Abby: So just now, the next challenge is trying
00:44:56
Abby: to get them to put their information in so
00:44:59
Abby: that we can have direct conversations with
00:45:01
Abby: them and give them more like customized
00:45:03
Abby: information, more in-depth information.
00:45:06
Abby: You have to have the people that care about
00:45:07
Abby: where their food comes from and care about
00:45:09
Abby: the mission which comes with caring about
00:45:12
Abby: the environment, which specific person.
00:45:15
Abby: So getting those people on a list is the
00:45:17
Abby: next thing that we're working with Barnador
00:45:19
Abby: on.
00:45:21
Cal: Oh, very good.
00:45:22
Cal: Do you see you expanding beyond Instagram
00:45:25
Cal: and Facebook, or is that where you plan to
00:45:28
Cal: maintain your social presence?
00:45:32
Abby: Yeah, we're maintaining our social presence
00:45:33
Abby: there.
00:45:33
Abby: I can't do tiktok, I'm just yeah, or it's
00:45:36
Abby: just.
00:45:36
Cal: Brooks can't dance.
00:45:38
Cal: What?
00:45:40
Brooks: no, I probably could, oh yeah.
00:45:43
Abby: I'm sorry yeah, I think obviously we went
00:45:46
Abby: down the road of thinking about tiktok, but
00:45:48
Abby: it is such a broad audience too.
00:45:51
Abby: With a retail spot that is local in a small
00:45:55
Abby: community, a large audience just really
00:45:57
Abby: isn't in our goals because just not you
00:45:59
Abby: have to think about who you're, who's
00:46:01
Abby: watching it, but then who's a customer?
00:46:03
Abby: That's our thing you have to have some
00:46:05
Abby: boundaries with social media.
00:46:06
Abby: When we first started I was like, oh yeah,
00:46:08
Abby: we're going to, we're going to do this,
00:46:14
Abby: we're going to do that.
00:46:14
Abby: We could do a YouTube video.
00:46:15
Abby: And then I was like, okay, let's focus on
00:46:16
Abby: our actual customers and just entertain
00:46:16
Abby: them and gain new customers in our area.
00:46:18
Abby: We don't need somebody from California
00:46:20
Abby: watching our TikTok.
00:46:22
Abby: If they're going to buy me, then great, but
00:46:23
Abby: they're probably not.
00:46:24
Abby: So we tried to create some boundaries with
00:46:27
Abby: social media and say these are our
00:46:28
Abby: customers, let's communicate with them and
00:46:31
Abby: try to gain more customers in our local
00:46:33
Abby: area and stick to Instagram and Facebook
00:46:36
Abby: and obviously just our.
00:46:38
Abby: I think our number one goal, like you said,
00:46:39
Abby: is just get email marketing going, and
00:46:42
Abby: we've done a little bit of text message
00:46:43
Abby: marketing as well, because I think that's
00:46:46
Abby: like a convenient way for people to get
00:46:48
Abby: information.
00:46:49
Abby: So, just yeah, sticking to those.
00:46:53
Cal: With your social media marketing as well as
00:46:57
Cal: your email?
00:46:58
Cal: Are you working with kind of a calendar and
00:47:01
Cal: planning it out a month at a time or a week,
00:47:05
Cal: or are you just trying to identify those
00:47:08
Cal: moments as you go through and say, oh, this
00:47:10
Cal: is a moment I should share?
00:47:13
Abby: Yeah, ideally I wish I could sit here and
00:47:14
Abby: say I had a schedule and everything but no
00:47:18
Abby: it's mostly an authentic posting situation.
00:47:20
Abby: We see moments, I videotape them.
00:47:23
Abby: I try not to also have my phone out
00:47:25
Abby: constantly when I'm out there.
00:47:26
Abby: Just for well-being reasons I like to keep
00:47:28
Abby: my boundaries with it and not just be
00:47:31
Abby: constantly videotaping everything, because
00:47:33
Abby: I have kids and we want to also enjoy our
00:47:35
Abby: life on the farm.
00:47:36
Abby: But obviously, like we're moving cattle,
00:47:38
Abby: we're out in nature and maybe if I see
00:47:40
Abby: something, it doesn't take much for me to
00:47:42
Abby: grab my phone and just start recording and
00:47:44
Abby: then maybe at the end of the week I'll go
00:47:46
Abby: back and look at all my recordings and then
00:47:48
Abby: I can make a quick reel.
00:47:49
Abby: End of the week I'll go back and look at
00:47:50
Abby: all my recordings and then I can make a
00:47:51
Abby: quick reel with all the videos spliced
00:47:52
Abby: together.
00:47:53
Abby: And making videos is a whole art too, just
00:47:55
Abby: having high quality video and high quality
00:47:58
Abby: sounds and music and stuff trending audios.
00:48:02
Abby: So I try to just stay up to date as much as
00:48:04
Abby: I can with all that, but also keeping
00:48:06
Abby: boundaries with social media so that I can
00:48:07
Abby: also enjoy my real life.
00:48:09
Cal: So very true, and I know from the podcast
00:48:13
Cal: and what we do on social media that takes
00:48:16
Cal: so much more time than you really think
00:48:18
Cal: it's going to.
00:48:19
Cal: You think, oh, it's just a post.
00:48:22
Cal: It won't take too much time, but it takes
00:48:23
Cal: time to get it, get the wording right, get
00:48:26
Cal: it out there and then if you're getting
00:48:28
Cal: engagement off of that, it takes time to
00:48:29
Cal: reply to those people and make sure the
00:48:32
Cal: conversation is going in a productive route.
00:48:35
Abby: For sure, and I think with having kids it's
00:48:37
Abby: a balance, because I don't want to be on my
00:48:39
Abby: phone constantly when I have the kids but
00:48:41
Abby: they go to daycare part-time a couple of
00:48:44
Abby: times a week and so then I'll maybe record
00:48:47
Abby: some things and then maybe when I have a
00:48:49
Abby: daycare day, I have an office day, I'll sit
00:48:51
Abby: down and I'll really hit it hard and just
00:48:54
Abby: trying to like schedule out that time, uh,
00:48:56
Abby: to be completely present with whatever I'm
00:48:59
Abby: doing.
00:48:59
Abby: That's been the balance.
00:49:03
Cal: Very good, wonderful conversation thus far,
00:49:06
Cal: brooks and Abby, but it's time we
00:49:08
Cal: transitioned to our famous four questions.
00:49:10
Cal: Our famous four questions, our famous four
00:49:11
Cal: questions, are sponsored by Ken Cove Farm
00:49:13
Cal: Fence Supplies.
00:49:15
Cal: Ken Cove Farm Fence is a proud supporter of
00:49:18
Cal: the Grazing Grass Podcast and grazers
00:49:20
Cal: everywhere At Ken Cove Farm Fence.
00:49:26
Cal: They believe there's true value within the
00:49:27
Cal: community of grazers and land stewards.
00:49:28
Cal: The results that follow, proper management
00:49:29
Cal: and monitoring, can change the very world
00:49:32
Cal: around us.
00:49:33
Cal: That's why Ken Cove is dedicated to
00:49:35
Cal: providing an ever-expanding line of grazing
00:49:38
Cal: products to make your chores easier and
00:49:40
Cal: your land more abundant.
00:49:41
Cal: Whether you're growing your own food on the
00:49:43
Cal: homestead or grazing on thousands of acres,
00:49:46
Cal: ken Cove has everything you need to do it
00:49:49
Cal: well, from reels to tumblewills, polytwine
00:49:53
Cal: to electric nets, water valves to water
00:49:55
Cal: troughs, you'll find what you're looking
00:49:57
Cal: for at Ken Cove.
00:49:59
Cal: They carry brands like Speedrite, o'briens,
00:50:01
Cal: kiwi Tech, strainrite, jobe and more.
00:50:05
Cal: Ken Cove is proud to be part of your
00:50:07
Cal: regenerative journey.
00:50:08
Cal: Call them today or visit KenCovecom, and be
00:50:12
Cal: sure to follow them on social media and
00:50:14
Cal: subscribe to the Ken Cove YouTube channel
00:50:18
Cal: at Ken Cove Farm Fence for helpful how-to
00:50:21
Cal: videos and new product releases.
00:50:24
Cal: They're the same four questions we ask of
00:50:26
Cal: all of our guests.
00:50:27
Cal: Our very first question what is your
00:50:29
Cal: favorite grazing grass related book or
00:50:32
Cal: resource?
00:50:34
Brooks: So I would say my favorite resource would
00:50:36
Brooks: be Understanding Ag, their website, their
00:50:39
Brooks: newsletters You're getting one, I think
00:50:41
Brooks: it's a couple times a month, I guess I
00:50:43
Brooks: forget and then also the Grass Farmer.
00:50:46
Brooks: That's my favorite thing to get in the mail.
00:50:49
Brooks: I'm always reading it every time we get it.
00:50:51
Brooks: And as far as the book goes, jim garish's
00:50:53
Brooks: kick the hay habit was definitely a big
00:50:54
Brooks: eye-opener for me, and I recently just read
00:50:58
Brooks: the turnaround story or a rancher story by
00:51:00
Brooks: dave pratt.
00:51:02
Brooks: That was.
00:51:02
Brooks: That's probably my favorite book and that
00:51:04
Brooks: didn't have a lot to do with grazing
00:51:06
Brooks: necessarily.
00:51:07
Brooks: It was more financial, but it was a big
00:51:10
Brooks: eye-opener for me.
00:51:11
Cal: If you're not profitable, you're not going
00:51:13
Cal: to be grazing too much, so I think it
00:51:15
Cal: qualifies.
00:51:15
Brooks: Exactly.
00:51:16
Brooks: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can have the
00:51:18
Brooks: healthiest soil in the world, but if you're
00:51:19
Brooks: not making money, what good is it?
00:51:22
Cal: Right, exactly.
00:51:23
Cal: Yeah, abby, do you have some resources to
00:51:25
Cal: share?
00:51:26
Abby: Brooks mostly yeah.
00:51:28
Cal: Oh, okay, there we go.
00:51:30
Cal: That works again.
00:51:30
Cal: I have two children, so reading a book is
00:51:35
Cal: difficult yeah no problem, I just didn't
00:51:39
Cal: want to leave you out thank you, so our
00:51:41
Cal: second question what is your favorite tool
00:51:43
Cal: for the farm?
00:51:44
Brooks: utv for sure.
00:51:46
Brooks: That allows us to move the cows wherever we
00:51:48
Brooks: want, put up fence, the kids can go in it,
00:51:50
Brooks: the whole family can go in it.
00:51:52
Brooks: That we bought that in 2020 and before that
00:51:55
Brooks: we're using my old colorado and it was a
00:51:57
Brooks: pain in the butt to try to move cows and
00:52:00
Brooks: put up fence.
00:52:00
Brooks: And oh yeah, so definitely the utv that's
00:52:03
Brooks: been.
00:52:03
Brooks: Yeah, that's our.
00:52:05
Brooks: As my father-in-law says, it's his right
00:52:06
Brooks: hand man, oh yeah and he he added a little
00:52:10
Brooks: attachment to it.
00:52:11
Abby: What was it last week where we can drive
00:52:13
Abby: right over the fence and oh yes underneath
00:52:16
Abby: the yeah, that's been life changing.
00:52:18
Brooks: I don't know why it took me so long to do
00:52:19
Brooks: that, but I've often thought we have a utv
00:52:23
Brooks: here.
00:52:23
Cal: My parents do.
00:52:24
Cal: I don't use it very much, but I've looked
00:52:26
Cal: into buying a UTV or ATV.
00:52:28
Cal: Sticker price scare but I thought I get one.
00:52:32
Cal: I've got to fix it so I can drive over it.
00:52:34
Cal: It's just a hassle, as I'm out there in the
00:52:36
Cal: pickup, yeah.
00:52:37
Brooks: Yeah, for sure.
00:52:39
Cal: Our third question what would you tell
00:52:41
Cal: someone just getting started?
00:52:43
Brooks: Get in contact with somebody that's already
00:52:45
Brooks: doing it.
00:52:46
Brooks: I, for the first couple years I was on
00:52:48
Brooks: YouTube a lot.
00:52:50
Brooks: I didn't have contact with a lot of people.
00:52:52
Brooks: Since we got in contact with Gabe, we
00:52:53
Brooks: attempted some grazing conferences.
00:52:55
Brooks: We've gotten contact with other people that
00:52:57
Brooks: are doing it and it's put us light years
00:52:58
Brooks: ahead just knowing different people that
00:53:00
Brooks: are doing it.
00:53:01
Brooks: Go to a grazing conference, just whatever
00:53:04
Brooks: you can do.
00:53:05
Brooks: Surround yourself with people that are
00:53:06
Brooks: already doing it, that are like-minded.
00:53:09
Abby: And if you have a wife, keep an open form
00:53:11
Abby: of communication with her and try to work
00:53:14
Abby: together as much as possible.
00:53:17
Abby: And yeah, like you said, just getting in
00:53:19
Abby: communication with other people has really
00:53:21
Abby: helped us for sure.
00:53:22
Brooks: And attend a soil health academy.
00:53:24
Brooks: If you're just familiar with soil health,
00:53:26
Brooks: attend it.
00:53:27
Brooks: It'll change your mindset instantly.
00:53:28
Abby: Not sponsored or anything.
00:53:36
Cal: Excellent advice there.
00:53:43
Brooks: And our last question where can others find
00:53:45
Brooks: out more about you?
00:53:46
Brooks: Instagram and Facebook, and we do have a
00:53:47
Brooks: website too, and I'm always open to people
00:53:50
Brooks: emailing me and calling me.
00:53:50
Brooks: I don't know everything, but I definitely
00:53:51
Brooks: love to chat about soil health and adaptive
00:53:53
Brooks: grazing.
00:53:55
Cal: Wonderful Brooks and Abby, we really
00:53:56
Cal: appreciate you coming on today and sharing.
00:53:59
Brooks: Thank you this has been awesome.
00:54:01
Abby: Yeah, thanks for having us, it was really
00:54:03
Abby: fun.
00:54:04
Cal: I really hope you enjoyed today's
00:54:05
Cal: conversation.
00:54:07
Cal: I know I did.
00:54:08
Cal: Thank you for listening and if you found
00:54:11
Cal: something useful, please share it.
00:54:14
Cal: Share it on your social media, tell your
00:54:16
Cal: friends, get the word out about the podcast.
00:54:19
Cal: Helps us grow.
00:54:21
Cal: If you happen to be a grass farmer and
00:54:24
Cal: you'd like to share about your journey, go
00:54:26
Cal: to grazinggrasscom and click on Be Our
00:54:31
Cal: Guest.
00:54:32
Cal: Fill out the form and I'll be in touch.
00:54:36
Cal: We appreciate your support by sharing our
00:54:39
Cal: episodes and telling your friends about it.
00:54:42
Cal: You can also support our show by buying our
00:54:44
Cal: merch.
00:54:45
Cal: We get a little bit back from that.
00:54:48
Cal: Another way to support the show is by
00:54:50
Cal: becoming a Grazing Grass Insider.
00:54:53
Cal: Grazing Grass Insiders enjoy bonus content,
00:54:56
Cal: monthly Zooms and discounts.
00:54:59
Cal: You can visit the website grazinggrasscom,
00:55:02
Cal: click on support and they'll have the links
00:55:05
Cal: there.
00:55:07
Cal: Also, if you haven't left us a review,
00:55:09
Cal: please do.
00:55:10
Cal: It really helps us, as people are searching
00:55:12
Cal: for podcasts and I was just checking them
00:55:15
Cal: and we do not have very many reviews for
00:55:17
Cal: 2024.
00:55:19
Cal: So if you haven't left us a review, please
00:55:21
Cal: do.
00:55:23
Cal: Until next time, keep on grazing grass.