David and Cassidy chat with our own Irons in the Fire columnist and podcast contributor, Paul Marchant, about his newly published book, “Musics of a Would-be Renaissance Cowboy.” The book is a collection of Paul’s columns for Progressive Cattle and its sister magazines. He shares the inspirations that have helped his career in ranching and how collecting that experience and learning about others helped shape his new book. The editors also chat about major events of 2020 and where the beef industry goes into 2021.

David, Paul and Progressive Cattle editor Carrie Veselka visit with Hugh Aljoe, a range and pasture consultant and director of producer relations at the Noble Research Institute. Hugh discusses those common hurdles that producers see when buying new equipment, adopting new record-keeping programs, and building a mindset for data and analytics. He additionally shares how the pandemic has affected producer attitudes in the past months.

Join Paul, David and Cassidy on the Progressive Cattle podcast for a visit with the legendary cowboy poet and performer Baxter Black. Baxter shares a look back on his start in column writing and cowboy poetry, and his connection to his readers and listeners. He also shares a preview of his new series of audiobooks with stories about life and love on the rodeo circuit.

Join David, Cassidy and Paul as they host the podcast from the sound stage at the Cassia County Fair and Rodeo in Burley. Their guest is Randee Munns, a veteran barrel man and rodeo clown who has worked events across the northwest U.S. for almost 40 years, and is still working the circuit at age 70. They discuss the importance of returning to fair events after a long stretch of isolation in the age of coronavirus.

We’ve talked about the challenges the current pandemic has brought to the beef industry, but what about the opportunities? Listen in as David, Cassidy and Paul talk with University of Idaho meat scientist Phil Bass about possible innovation in the cow-calf segment all the way to retail.

Packer segment dynamics - with John Nalivka of Sterling Marketing Inc. joins Paul, David and Cassidy to explain how packers are faring during COVID-19 recovery, monopoly investigations that have begun on packer pricing, and how the industry is catching up with the backlog of cattle that are still waiting to be processed. 

Jim Robb, senior analyst with the Livestock Marketing Information Center, visits with David, Cassidy and Paul for a discussion about livestock markets and feed outlook heading into summer 2020. Listen in as Jim addresses slaughter number increases, placements into feedlots, heavier carcass weights, use of the Defense Production Act, packer and labor shortages and the summer plantings for corn.

Join David, Cassidy and Paul as they visit remotely with Kim Brackett, a member of NCBA’s advisory panel for Beef Quality Assurance programs. The four chat about market premiums on BQA, advisory panel discussions on pain management and antimicrobial use, stockmanship seminars for the coming year, and participation in programs among producer segments. 

Recruiting and retaining talented employees seems to be a consistent challenge across the beef industry. In this episode David, Cassidy and Paul talk with Rick Machen of the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management about a series of articles he wrote for Progressive Cattle on employee management.

Other topics such as social distancing, the stock market and what’s coming up in the April issue are also on the table. You don’t want to miss it!

Join David, Cassidy and Paul as they ask Nebraska cattleman Shane Wobig to weigh in on his experience with the Premium Red Baldy program, a genetically verified partnership between the Red Angus Association of America and the American Hereford Association.

They will also preview the March issue, including articles on easing into artificial insemination, the economics of sexed semen and some insight on how chutes and facilities can perform best with cattle behavior. And, Paul chimes in on calving season and his travel wardrobe woes.