Working Cows - Regenerative Ranching to Maximize Profitability and Soil Health

The Ranch Rolodex podcast is coming soon. The guys behind the podcast joined me to discuss their stories as it relates to starting a ranch. We discuss the importance of mentorship, challenging paradigms, and finding a network of people who can help you go further. Make sure to regularly hang out with Zach Hopson, Derek Jackson, and Daniel Unruh of the Ranch Rolodex Podcast.

Sponsors:

Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition - Grazing School

Dominium Wealth (Episode 490)

Ranch Right

100th Meridian Ranching

Relevant...

Many are familiar with the benefits of essential oils for external use and aroma therapy. Advanced Ag Products has figured out a coating technology that can get essential oils to the lower GI tract. They have been seeing great results with increasing livestock health and animal performance. We discuss this technology and its benefits with Dr. James Caldwell and Ken Stewart today.

Sponsor:

By-O-reg+

Jake Miller has been facing a prolonged drought. They have been diligent to protect the range health and continue to challenge their cattle to move their ranch forward in the face of this drought. This has paid dividends when they have had large rainfalls. They have been able to hold on to the rain they do get and see the range spring back to life.

Sponsors:

Dominium Wealth (Episode 490)

Ranch Right

100th Meridian Ranching

Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition - Grazing School

Relevant Links:<...

Long-term Care can easily eclipse five figures per month. That becomes an issue pretty quickly from a cash-flow perspective. There are ways to protect the ranch and other assets from the threat of long-term care expenses. Mary Jo Irmen and Michelle Prather are writing a new book that will walk ranchers through the process of protecting their assets. 

Sponsor:

Remedi Animal Solutions

Relevant Links:

Care Income Planning

Farming without the Bank

Michelle's Book

As the regenerative space matures it becomes more and more apparent that one of the challenges is finding genetics that won't break the bank with their maintenance requirements. On the other side of the same coin a challenge can be finding a marketplace for grass-based genetics that you have raised. Cory Eft is seeking to solve that through his Astoria Livestock Platform. We discuss what drew him to this work as well as the process through which he has been going to get it off the ground.

Sponsor:

Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition...

Emilie Hopson has spent years working in corporate HR. Now she has moved on to server ranchers with that expertise. She wants to help give ranchers the tools they need to grow thriving business that serve the ranchers, their families, their employees, and their communities.

Sponsor:

Remedi Animal Solutions

Relevant Links:

Agri-Culture

Gabe Wight had experience in fields where technology was deployed to help improve the effectiveness of the businesses in which he was involved. So he knew there was a way for technology to help his livestock business thrive as well. He developed Herd Advisor to help get his arms around the data he needed to help him make better decisions.

Sponsors:

Sunshine Bible Academy

Ranch Right

Relevant Links:

Herd Advisor

Pat Miletich struggled to breathe. For someone competing at the highest levels of Mixed Martial Arts that was a significant limitation. He found out that through detoxification of his body he could breathe better. This lead him on a journey about the connection between soil health and human health. Now he is on a mission to help farmers and ranchers detoxify their soil.

Sponsors:

Ranch Right

Kip Fladland Horsemanship

Sunshine Bible Academy

Relevant Links:

Soil Saviors (Code: WorkingCows10)

The problem with most AI platforms is that they are more concerned about keeping you engaged than they are about giving you accurate well researched information. Ian Murdock trained Save.Ag on quality information from research papers and other sources to make sure that it gives accurate and relevant information to serve ranchers.

Sponsors:

South Dakota Grassland Coalition

Sunshine Bible Academy

Kip Fladland

Relevant Links:

Save.Ag

It's easy to love the idea of being a day working cowboy. It is less clear hot to survive and thrive financially while doing that. Crockett Carothers has found a way to do both. It requires a different way of thinking about how you use your time. Crockett has managed to create the margin whereby he can make a living and have time to day work. 

Sponsors:

Graze Magazine

South Dakota Grassland Coalition Bird Tour

Sunshine Bible Academy

Ranch Right

Relevant Links:

Raising food is honorable and resonates deeply with us as humans. Much of worship throughout time has involved food. On top of that food can heal many of the diseases caused by our broken food system. Justin and Jenni Bajema are doing what they can to fix this broken system where they are. We discuss the reasons this work matters and resonates so deeply.

Sponsor:

Remedi Animal Solutions

Relevant Links:

Rebel Truth Podcast

Rebe...

Finding cattle that are adapted to your environment goes a long way to generating and protecting profit. Ken and Jenny Stewart have recently acquired a herd of Aubrac Cattle and given their breadth of experience they are very excited about their ability to adapt to a plethora of different environments.

Sponsors:

Indreland Ranch

Create Coaches

Ranch Right

Graze Magazine

Relevant Links:

XL Ranch

There are many challenges with passing the ranch on to the next generation. It is difficult financially because many times people need to live on the equity they have built. It is also difficult financially because of the pressure that development puts on ranches to make room for urban expansion. The South Dakota Ag Land Trust has a solution that can help with both of these aspects. Bill Eastman and Karl Jensen join me today to discuss the logistics and considerations of putting your land into a conservation easement.

Sponsors:

Create Coaching (Applications...

Marc Walther joined me to discuss several of the products his company produces. Trey Schmidt has been testing these products on his ranch for some time, and he was able to offer his perspective on the effectiveness of the products.

Relevant Link:

Impact Fusion Brands

Morgan Mickel has been sharing his ranching story on YouTube for about four years. He joins me to discuss the logistics of running a large-scale western sheep operation. We discuss working with herders, lambing, using guardian dogs, and marketing.

Sponsors:

South Dakota Grassland Coalition

Ranch Right

Sunshine Bible Academy

Indreland Ranch

Relevant Links:

Morgan Mickel on YouTube

Kip Fladland has been helping people get the most out of their ranch horse for decades. Today we are going to talk about the process of developing a connection with your horse and how to take your horse to the next stage of their training.

Sponsors:

Indreland Ranch

Create Coaches

Graze Magazine

South Dakota Grassland Coalition

Relevant Link:

Kip Fladland Horsemanship

Joel Salatin gave a great talk about how to undo the consolidation in our nation's food system. As part of that talk he read a chapter of his unreleased book "Food Emancipation." He also discussed at length the circumstances that led us to where we are with regard to food in this country and how we can chart a better path forward.

Sponsor:

Remedi Animal Solutions

Relevant Links:

Rogue Food Conference at Polyface (Code: Cows30 for $30 off)

The Lunatic Farmer Blog

Working Cows...

Tom Shea has found that unconventional mentorships are key to finding your way in Regenerative Agriculture. His relationships have continued to shape his path forward in finding a way to be profitable. This has led him to take unconventional approaches like grazing solar farms and using technology to increase his effectiveness.

Sponsors:

Create Coaches

Ranch Right

Graze Magazine

Sunshine Bible Academy

Relevant Links:

National Grazing Lands Coalition Bus Tour

National Grazing Land Coalition

How do we hear from God? The Bible is the Word of God. The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament are where we can hear from God. But what about other channels? What about coincidences? What about other voices that claim to be from God? How do we test those? Steve Kenyon of Greener Pastures Ranching has some questions as a result of some classes he has been taking at church. I try to answer those questions today.

Sponsor:

Sunshine Bible Academy

Relevant Links:

Greener...

Jimmy Stewart and his wife have been on a journey to find cattle that can graze year-round, calve on their own, and raise a calf on the range. They are continuing to push the envelope to find consistent and even cattle that can provide a heterosis bump for the customers purchasing their bulls.

Sponsors:

Ranch Right

Graze Magazine (Code: WORKINGCOWS)

Sunshine Bible Academy

Relevant Links:

Big Country Genetics

Dan Glenn of Deep Grass Graziers has been thinking deeply about what it means to be profitable in the ranching business. He has come up with a plan that could help more people be profitable when this current cattle cycle comes to an end. We discuss this plan as well as his upcoming innaugural bull sale where you can get your hands on his forage developed bulls and females.

Sponsor:

Ambrook

Relevant Links:

Deep Grass Graziers

When times are good in any sector of the economy it presents an opportunity to grow the business or diversify by investing outside of the sector in which we are most heavily invested. Chris Wiley has been a successful real estate investor for many years. He has done this while also holding down other positions sometimes across the continent from his properties. We discuss the how, when, and why of real estate investing with him today. We also discuss how to take a risk and some of the practical considerations to being a landlord.

Sponsors:<...

There is a day coming when food buyers will be able to scan an individual food item, not a barcode, and determine its nutrient density. Dan Kittredge is a part of the team working to develop this technology. Karl Palmberg is a farmer excited about the prospect of the technology and working to retool his farm to take advantage of it by growing the most nutrient dense beef possible.

Sponsor:

Remedi Animal Solutions

Relevant Links:

The BioNutrient Institute

Sunlight and Rain Grass-Fed Beef

Teddy Gentry of the band Alabama was self-educated in the back of a tour bus about what it takes to make money in the cattle business. He learned about soil health, grazing, and genetics. This led to his development of the South Poll Grass Cattle breed. We discuss the breeds that make up this hearty and profitable composite as well as the process and the unique restrictions they have placed on the breed to protect its long-term success.

Sponsor:

Ambrook

Relevant Links:

South Poll Grass Cattle Association<...

Jay Young of Young Red Angus is a big picture thinker. He has been experimenting with grazing collars for a while now and he is excited about the potential they have to revolutionize his business. He is talking about being more profitable running on fewer acres with better soil health and less time invested. That hits every facet of ranching. We discuss his vision for what the future could look like on this episode.

Sponsor:

Remedi Animal Solutions

Relevant Links:

Young Red Angus

5th Annual...

South Dakota Representative John Shubeck is on a mission to help South Dakota be ready when Thomas Massie's PRIME Act passes. He joins me to discuss his bill as well as what other states and residents in other states can do to help with Thomas Massie's PRIME Act. 

Sponsor:

Get Rogue Food Conference Recordings

Relevant Links:

John Shubeck Legislative Page

Bill Page (Already Signed :facepalm: Congrats Rep. Shubeck!)

One of the sweet spots in any system is when you can turn a "waste" product into a beneficial output. Wool, unfortunately, has become one such product. It isn't as high quality in wetter environments and certain breeds also struggle to produce high quality wool. Add to that the difficulty of those who know how to or want to shear sheep and you can see how this has led to a drying up of the wool market in many places. Israel Vasek has found a way to take these undervalued wool fleeces and turn them into a powerful, carbon...

Whenever I hear the "Welcome Back to Ranch Hacks" opener I am immediately intrigued to see what Malcolm MacLean has done to repurpose something to optimize his effectiveness on the ranch. While we do discuss some of his Ranch Hacks today we actually spend a fair bit of our time discussing his Total Grazing program and the cowherd he has been developing to fit that system. 

Sponsors:

Kaizen Solutions

Sunshine Bible Academy

Relevant Links:

Ranch Hack on Facebook

Ranch Hacks on YouTube

It takes a unique mindset to continue to stay in touch with the traditional way of doing things. Scott Gore has been on this journey from a young age. His focus has been on rawhide braiding. We discuss how he got started, lessons he has learned, as well as how he would recommend getting started today. We also discuss what he is doing to help others develop a similar passion to what he has for rawhide braiding.

Relevant LInks:

Scott Gore Rawhide

How do you regenerate a landscape that your family hasn't managed for decades? This has been the journey that Jim Eitel has been on. We discuss his strategy and the usefulness of the good financial information provided by Ambrook in deciding what to do next.

Sponsor:

Ambrook

Relevant Links:

Eitel Valley Farms

Many are familiar with the three-legged stool of Holistic Management made up of Economic, Social, and Environmental legs. While conventional agriculture by and large does a great job of focusing on the environmental and economic legs we can tend to neglect the social leg. Even if we focus on caring for our people it is easy to neglect our community. Today we are joined by Desi King and Bill Milton of Winnett ACES an organization focused on revitalizing rural Montana through facilitating education in regenerative agriculture and making improvements to rural social and cultural infrastructure.

...

Have you ever heard anyone say, "Noone wants to work these days?" Dallas Mount joins me to discuss how to find, hire, and keep good employees. We discuss when to hire and what to pay those people we do hire. 

Sponsors:

Wineglass Ranch

Arrow L Ranch Composite Bull Sale

Relevant Links:

RanchingforProfit.com

We hear many references to a "land of milk and honey." What is that? Why is it desirable? How can we make it a reality on our ranch? We answer these questions and more with Alejandro Carrillo on this episode. Alejandro Carrillo is an accomplished grazier and ranch manager who has had much success in creating a thriving and diverse ecosystem.

Sponsors:

Wineglass Ranch

Arrow L Ranch Composite Bull Sale

Take the Survey:

Working Cows 2026 Listener Survey

Relevant Links:

...

We could potentially be leaving a lot of money on the table when we don't have control of our own monetary system. We know the banks often have the largest and fanciest buildings in town. What if we became our own banker. Nick Kosko is here to help us understand how the process works and who would benefit from taking this approach.

Sponsors:

Rogue Food Conference (Code: Cows30)

Take the Survey:

Working Cows 2026 Listener Survey

Relevant Links:

CreateTailwind

The more off ramps we can build into our cattle marketing strategy the better. Having versatile cattle that are capable of working in multiple different enterprises gives us more opportunities. Mason Lautenschlager has been on a journey to develop a composite breed that can provide marketing flexibility along with maternal longevity for his customers. He joins me to discuss the process of developing this breed today.

Sponsor:

Wineglass Ranch

Take the Survey:

Working Cows 2026 Listener Survey

Relevant Links:

Arrow L Ranch...

There are many people saying out loud and in public that they would like to see global beef production greatly curtailed or even ended. Organizations like the World Economic Forum talk about ending the idea of private property. Then they elect Larry Fink of BlackRock, a company that is actively buying up private property. How do we engage in the fight to protect this way of life and the property necessary to continue in it. Shad Sullivan joins us to help us understand what is happening and how we can get involved to push back against those who would...

My family joined me at the North Dakota Association of Soil Conservation Districts Annual Meeting to share their thoughts on their favorite (and least favorite) parts of ranching the way we do. We discuss the importance of recognizing the importance of having differing specific on our team. We also discuss the importance of allowing our employees to rest and the lessons we can learn from "The Head of Ranch Security." This was such a special opportunity to have my whole family on stage with me.

Sponsors:

Arrow L Ranch Composite Bull Sale

Shawn Freeland has been on quite a journey to get started as a first generation rancher. We discuss the role of grazing and paying attention to soil health in helping that journey succeed. We talk about getting started by buying 10 cows on a whim to pursuing a high input approach to putting his cows to work for him.

Sponsors:

Rogue Food Conference (Code: Cows30)

Take the Survey:

Working Cows 2026 Listener Survey

Relevant Links:

Dry Creek Ranch

It is very easy to get the cart before the horse and spend all our time picking colors and fonts and never think about a message that will connect with our ideal customer. Matt Stone is here to help us avoid this trap. He talks us through our marketing strategy, our message, and finally how we should think about our branding.

Sponsors:

Kaizen Solutions

Arrow L Ranch Composite Bull Sale

Take the Survey:

Working Cows 2026 Listener Survey

Relevant Links:

...

How do we pass on the faith to the next generation? God has entrusted us with tools that are simple. You might say ordinary. They are ordinary in that anyone can do them. They are extraordinary in that when we are faithful to deploy them God gives the increase to our efforts and more is accomplished through them than we could accomplish through any of our best laid plans. In this episode I share with you a sermon I recently preached at a men's breakfast at Bethel Church in Frontier, Saskatchewan.

Happy New Year! May...