Beef Runner Podcast - Food, Farming and Agriculture Advocacy

On Episode 012 of the Agriculture Proud podcast, we’re headed north to British Columbia to discuss a number of topics with attorney and rancher, Ryan Scorgie, from Kamloops, British Columbia. I was able to catch up with Ryan during a recent trip to Penticton for the BC Cattlemen’s Annual General Meeting.

Succession planning is an important topic for many farmers and ranchers across the country as we prepare to pass the business from one generation to the next. Ryan shares his advice on how to start that planning process and where you can find resources for more information, including how the younger generations can be prepared for this planning discussion.

We also discussed Ryan’s role as a rancher in the community as he uses drones on the cattle operation and works with local researchers to evaluate methods for pain management in cattle. Ryan also pays close attention to trending topics on the food scene – grass-finished beef, being able to match our product to needs of consumer, and the need to educating consumers on what it means to be a cattle producer. It was definitely a diverse conversation, covering many topics, but I love the opportunity to share stories from farmers and ranchers, not only in the U.S., but including our neighbors to the north as well.

You can connect with Ryan Scorgie via his law firm’s website, forwardlaw.ca, or shoot him an email at [email protected].

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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A few weeks ago (Episode 008), we discussed photography skills with Jenn Zeller, South Dakota Cowgirl, in the context of being out on the ranch for advocacy and sharing your story. This week, we take a little different approach to photography skills and turn our attention to capturing those sometimes hard-to-get photos of cattle on the ranch when you want to utilize images for online marketing or advocacy.

I’ve been receiving questions from several ranchers over the past few months as we’ve been selling cattle on AgriClear, so I figured this would be a very fitting topic. Summer is the perfect time to be capturing those photos of cattle with slick hair coats and green landscapes, even before you begin planning for fall or winter marketing.

On this week’s episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I’m joined by Rachel Cutrer, founder and CEO of Ranch House Designs. Rachel has strong roots in the ranching and cattle community, being part of the V8 Ranch, a premiere Brahman and Shorthorn breeder located in Texas. Over the years Rachel has taken her love and expertise for marketing to found Ranch House Designs.

During our conversation in this podcast episode, Rachel shares a bit of her expertise and some great tips for improving your use of these tools and capturing those hard to get photos of cattle. She also shares some advice for others who want to become more involved in the marketing end of the cattle business.

If you haven’t yet found Ranch House Designs, I certainly encourage you to find them on social media. They do a lot of work to help cattle producers utilize online tools to promote their businesses and advocacy work. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You should also follow their blog. A special thanks to RHD for including this page as a top agriculture blog to follow!

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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It’s always a great day when farmers gather a great audience on social media when sharing their story. In recent weeks, Brian Scott has seen his audience grow multiple times over when he posted a video of his 6-year-old son operating the tractor during planting season. The video, posted on The Farmer’s Life Facebook page, has more than 5.4 million views to date.

On Episode 10 of the Agriculture Proud podcast, Brian Scott, farmer from Indiana and blogger at TheFarmersLife.com joins us to discuss how he has grown an audience of almost 43,000 on his Facebook page. Brian regularly shares the different activities throughout the changing seasons, often using his drone or gopro camera to capture new perspectives of farming and field work. In the podcast, Brian shares a few tips on how others can utilize these tools to share their life on the farm or ranch.

Brian joined me a few years ago on CNN where he discussed numerous hot topics on the farm. This evolved into one of his most popular posts ever where he explains his cropping agreement with Monsanto and growing GMOs on his family farm. Brian has been a guest on this blog previously, writing the popular Ask A Farmer: Why do farmers leave dying corn in fields?

You can connect with Brian on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and his blog.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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I’ve always been a big supporter of our Land Grant University extension and research programs. Growing up in 4-H had me acquainted with their efforts from the start. Continuing education in the college of agriculture had a natural integration through my undergraduate years, and my graduate research program allowed me to dive even deeper working closely with a state Beef Cattle Extension Specialist. Today, I still work with these programs by volunteering on the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station State Advisory Council. So, am always excited to catch up with our Extension and Research faculty to help share the stories of their important contributions in the agriculture communities across the country. 

Episode 009 of the Agriculture Proud podcast features guest Dr. Megan Van Emon, Montana Beef Cattle Extension Specialist located in Miles City, Montana. Dr. Van Emon also works on a USDA-ARS research station, Fort Keogh, so she has the opportunity to serve and be involved in a number of great projects working for Montana cattle ranchers.

I recently caught up with Dr. Van Emon to learn more about her story becoming involved in the agriculture community. Like me, she moved West to follow a passion for working with ranchers who are great stewards of our land, raising some amazing cattle.

The Montana State University Beef Extension team does a great job making their research findings available online for users to find and share. You can follow their Facebook page – Montana State University Beef Cattle Extension – to find their updates. They have also set up a website where we can easily access the annual College of Agriculture and Extension Research Report to stay informed about their latest research work.

Be sure to connect with Dr. Van Emon on Twitter (show some love so she’ll tweet a bit more!) and you can find her contact information here. You can definitely tell she has a passion for working with ranchers and helping others learn more about our favorite topic – beef cattle ranching.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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Have you met likely the most popular rancher on Instagram. Jenn Zeller is the guest for Episode 008 of the Agriculture Proud podcast. I always have fun catching up with Jenn, so I am excited to have her on the podcast to share a bit of her story and knowledge. Jenn has been recognized by Instagram for her work in sharing the experiences of ranch life through photography.

In this episode, Jenn shares a few tips for those of us who would like to improve our photography skills and what to avoid when you’re capturing scenes on the farm and ranch. She does a great job of explaining the basics of what to look at for those of us less-advanced with the camera. Also, Jenn has a great story to share in moving from the Dallas area to rural South Dakota. She loves working with horses and cattle and was excited to take her story to Los Angeles with Instagram last year. I think you’ll really enjoy this story.

Be sure to catch up with Jenn online. She can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, as well as writing for her blog (thesouthdakotacowgirl.com) and CavvySavvy.com.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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Happy Earth Day this week! I hope you celebrate by sharing more about the work our farmers and ranchers are doing to conserve our environment and be more sustainable in maintaining our open spaces. On Episode 007 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast I feature a conservation group you may have heard about, but may not have connected with the farming and ranching community.

In this week’s episode, I am joined by Jesse Tufte and Nancy Labbe of the World Wildlife Fund. Both of these gals work with WWF’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative, which works “to establish a productive dialogue between conservation interests and the ranching community in the Northern Great Plains; driven by the goal of maintaining grasslands by ensuring that ranching stays viable and sustainable.” I was first introduced to this program while working with the Montana Stockgrowers Association. WWF expressed interest in and continued to work with us to enhance Montana’s Environmental Stewardship Award Program which works to recognize ranchers who do great work in the areas of environmental sustainability, conservation and stewardship work.

While many in the farming and ranching community may not immediately recognize it, we do a great deal of work in these areas. The WWF has been working with ranchers to identify tools and measure their efforts toward greater sustainability. I had a great conversation with Jesse and Nancy and even learned a thing or two. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Be sure to visit their website to learn more – WorldWildlife.org/ranching.

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BRD. Google results tell me this is Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Germany’s official name. But that’s about all I know in German history. BRD in my life actually stands for Bovine Respiratory Disease.

On this week’s episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I catch up with Dr. Jim Little, a technical services veterinarian with Bayer Animal Health to discuss more about this disease – BRD, which has more than a $1 billion impact annually on the cattle business.

This disease may commonly affect cattle considered “high-risk” stemming from factors of “commingling with other animals, transportation stress, immune status, nutritional condition, environment conditions, and the skill level of management to diagnose cattle displaying symptoms of BRD” (Richeson, 2008).

BRD does have a major impact on health, efficiency, and performance of stocker and feeder calves. According to research from Snowder et al. (2006), BRD has a large impact on both stocker and feeder calves, with 13% and 17%, respectively, of calves being affected by the disease. Costs of the disease include not only treatment, but also losses in performance and, in some cases, death. You can read more in-depth stats about BRD in a previous post.

Dr. Little shares some background on BRD, as well as some prevention strategies farmers and ranchers can utilize. Bayer has also continued to bring more tools to the table for treatment of the BRD and we’ll touch on a few of those. Links for more information shared in the podcast include:

As a part of the Bayer blogger program, I am not compensated for sharing this information, but am thankful for Bayer Animal Health helping me contact experts on important topics impacting our cattle and livestock business today. As always, thoughts shared are my own. Learn more about Bayer’s efforts to support agriculture advocacy by joining the AgVocate Facebook group.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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Episode 005 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast takes us to Colorado for a visit with Sarah Bohnenkamp. Sarah is a leadership coach who works with and helps us work with millennials. I met Sarah a few years back working with the American National CattleWomen’s Beef Ambassador program and we’ve kept in touch over the years. She’s a gal full of energy and some great advice who can help all of us better understand our own leadership skills and work better with those around us – even on farms and ranches.

 Currently, I’m working with Sarah to put on a Leadership Series in conjunction with the Montana Stockgrowers Association as we work with a group of young ranchers throughout the year to be better leaders in their communities and in their careers.

Sarah also helps me address a question submitted by readers. How do we respond to friends and relatives when disagreement arises surrounding controversial topics – such as GMOs, antibiotics in meat, etc.? We want to preserve those relationships, but it’s not always the easiest conversation to address. Sarah gives us some great advice to help with these situations.

You can find Sarah Bohnenkamp online at sarahjos.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Periscope!

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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 Episode 004 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast features a discussion with a ranching couple from far northern Montana. Do you remember the fluffy cow craze a few years ago? The subjects of today’s podcast raise this type of cattle and are a great ranch couple to learn from and spend time with!

Butch and Doreen Gillespie raise club calves for youth participating in livestock programs across the country. The Gillespies have been involved in agriculture across the globe and are very involved in their local and state organizations.

This was definitely a fun conversation to have and I learn something every time I sit down with Butch and Doreen. They have a great passion for their role in the agriculture community, are always looking for opportunities to continuing their education and to give back to youth programs.

You can find them on Facebook at Gillespie Show Cattle and at GillespieShowCattle.com. You can also learn more about their local organization, Marias River Livestock Association.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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 Episode 003 of the Agriculture Proud Podcast features a discussion on a hot topic for both consumers and agriculture producers today. At the end of 2016, we will see the mandatory implementation of rules that will change how antibiotics are used in livestock. Veterinary Feed Directives (VFDs) are a result of changes to FDA’s Guidances #209 and #213, which were finalized in the summer of 2015. Information about the changes can be found on the FDA’s website.

In this this podcast episode, I pull a file out of the archives from my time with MSGA, and have a conversation with Dr. Bruce Hoffman of Elanco Animal Health. Dr. Hoffman does a good job of addressing the larger context of issues surrounding antibiotics use in livestock today, how this use relates to consumer concerns about food safety, and gives us good tips on how to prepare for pending changes for antibiotics use.

A few important points to pull out of our conversation regarding antibiotics and Veterinary Feed Directives:

More information about VFDs can be found in the VFD Central section at Feedstuffs.com. Learn more about the implementation of VFDs here.

You can also learn more about Elanco’s work to address global hunger at EnoughMovement.com. (that address is a correction after the audio was recorded)

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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