SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi there, I'm Molly, and I'm Jamie. We're the owners of Higher Hand Software, and this is season six of our From the Pasture podcast. For more than 15 years, we've been helping breeders promote their pedigree livestock with our easy-to-use, animal management-driven website software. Each week, we're bringing stories from the pasture, breeding philosophies, ranch traditions, cattle knowledge, and conversation with folks using Hired Hand to power their livestock marketing. So settle in for today's episode of From the Pasture with Hired Hand.

Jaymie 0:33

Today's episode is a really meaningful one because we're talking with a family who didn't just start a ranch, they brought one back to life. We're joined by Guy and Charlotte Cody of Cody Cattle Company, located in Granby, Massachusetts. Their farm has been part of Charlotte's family since the 1940s, when her grandparents first established it. For many years, the land sat quiet, no barns, no animals, until Guy and Charlotte decided to bring it back, starting small and growing it into the full-time operation it is today. They're registered Texas Longhorn breeders, longhorn beef producers, passionate advocates for knowing where your food comes from, and instrumental leaders in building the New England Longhorn community. Guy and Charlotte, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Thanks.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

Hi Jenny, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:18

I'm doing pretty good.

Jaymie 1:19

How about yourself? So for those listeners just discovering you for the first time, can you walk us through the story of this farm from its roots in the 40s to sitting empty for years? And then ultimately you all bringing it back to life in 2015.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

So my grandparents um ran this as a full uh cattle operation. And um through the years with that, my father uh was it my father was a diesel mechanic, and he also had a passion for farming. But with five kids, um, farming wasn't exactly going to pay the bills and such. So he stopped doing it more of a full-time thing and transitioned to being more of a full-time diesel mechanic and avid NASCAR fan. Um he always kept a couple of animals, but uh, as he got into his probably 60s, his body started failing him. And while he still wanted to do all of these things, he didn't have the abilities to do so. So we uh we were actually sitting at this table for Thanksgiving dinner, and right out the window you can see our fields and such. I said, Dad, wouldn't it be amazing to put cows back out there? And he's like, I'll never forget it. Because he's like, kid, do you know how much work that is? You're crazy. And then I week or so later, and guys were buying cows, and um, it was important to me that I knew where the beef that we were eating. We're gonna have beef on our table, that's just part of who we are. And um, I love cooking, and it just made sense to start doing this. So we started with Angus in Herford, and then the guy loved the longhorns, and believe it or not, in Massachusetts, we went either even further east to get our first longhorns. We bought them out of Rhode Island, and they were two um heifers, and we quickly realized they were the prettiest ones in the field, the easiest to take care of, and they were thriving. So we just transitioned out of Hereford and Angus and strictly into Texas Longhorns, and we love it. And our goal has been to bring the Texas Longhorn herds in this area up to being the best that they can, getting as many breeders involved in it that we can, and um teaching people whatever we've learned in in our process, and it's it's we we met some of our goals in the first few years. Um, I think we made traditional mistakes. We bought we bought cats because they were pretty, they had a nice color and whatnot. And I don't think we have any of our original cows anymore. Um, we transitioned to different pedigrees and different lines and such. And then we did our first fraternity last year, which was a goal. As soon as we went to the first fraternities and met people, we loved it. And we knew that if we really wanted people to get involved in the breed, we needed to get them to come to some of these shows. And hard asked for people to get them out of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, and Connecticut to get them to drive to the closest, which is like eight hours. So we brought it up here and we do the branding party too. So we've we've created uh an environment for people to learn about longhorns and get involved in it and such. And we I think we've enjoyed it quite a bit.

SPEAKER_05 4:45

Yeah, it was important to us to try to grow the breed in our area. You know, we've been we've been in involved now for quite a bit, and and we are heavily involved, I would say. We we do a lot of traveling, we go to all all of a lot of the shows and sales, and uh we've both been involved with uh the TLBA and the ITLA and different committees and things over the over the years. So uh it was it was important to us to try to grow the breed in our area. Um, and and we've done that to the point where um last year we were able to hold our first charity here in. So it was a I think it was a good success. We had a great happy for that and hoping to just kind of keep that moving.

Jaymie 5:22

Well, and it definitely takes people, individuals like yourselves to um, you know, be that, I guess, champion for the longhorn industry in those parts of the country where um you know longhorns aren't there's not a lot of them. Um so it's I'm sure everyone in your area also appreciates the work that you're putting in to build that sense of community um for everyone around you. So, Charlotte, when you were younger and your family had Angus, were you actively involved then or not?

SPEAKER_03 5:58

I think I was seven years old. Um, it was November and like in the barn was hit by lightning. So the the time that I had with my family in farming was really very young age, and it wasn't anything like what we do now. Um, I always loved it and was always involved on a smaller scale with what whatever my dad had, whatever he wanted to do. Um, but nothing like this, absolutely nothing like this. And so we had a lot of bursts for sure, um, with just working the cows and all kinds of things. Guy's family had horses growing up, so I feel like he honestly had more of a farming experience than I did.

Jaymie 6:40

All right, guy, when when she was like, I think I want to get some cows and put them in the yard, what was your initial thought?

SPEAKER_05 6:47

I was excited. Um, I uh we're we're just super active people and we're not ones to kind of sit home and sit on the couch and watch TV. So we've always got something going on, whether it's a project or you know, for the last eight years I've been building fences and putting up barns and fixing things, and uh that's what I enjoy doing. So um it wasn't wasn't a problem for me at all. I was I was excited about it. And we started small and um our we fenced off the first area with the first field, and I've been working hard to just kind of get the grass to come back and you know, fertilizing and reseeding everything and putting line down and all that, and uh just getting better and better every year. And uh so yeah, it's it's been it's been exciting.

Jaymie 7:31

So from those early years when you first started, um how did that phase shape the farm that you have today? Like I know you talked about some of your mistakes in building fences and whatnot.

SPEAKER_05 7:44

Yeah, I think we we just um we we learned a lot from uh the people we've met throughout the industry, and and and every time we travel, we try to make it a point to go visit people's ranches and what works for them and what doesn't work for them, and we I think we really learned a lot from that. Um when we set up all the kind of did it temporarily a couple of times because I wanted to sort of try out some different ideas, and through trial and error, we figured out a system that really works well for us, and then we kind of permanently put everything together and it's worked great. So um, I think it's just been a lot of research, um, a lot of visiting people and just just uh talking with everybody and and the people in the industry have been great. Everybody is super friendly and um helps each other out. So I think that helped get us going and and we sort of want to pass that along too as new breeders come in. We always um like to take them and and teach them everything we can and make it as easy for them as as we can to get started.

Jaymie 8:41

So at what point did it shift from hobby farm to um the full-time operation of like, oh boy, this is like really happening, we did this.

SPEAKER_05 8:52

It's funny because we both work full-time jobs in addition to doing this, and that's the first thing everybody says when they come visit our place is like, wait a minute, you guys both work full-time and do this on top of it? How do you do that? And our answer is always I don't know, we just figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

So are your makeup be ultra efficient?

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Like we can't, we don't have the time to mess around, so it has to be really efficient, and like all pretty much every corner of the field has a gate in it, and everything leads to the um well the story of our vet came here, and he's like, uh, when you come here in the sa in the summertime, all the cows are laying up on the hillside looking like at the field and at the barn, and you just see a bunch of heads and horns sticking out. And the vet, he's like, hop over the fence. He's like, All right, I can help you get them. And I'm like, no, we don't have to chase them. Like the only spot that our cows get a treat is in the holding pan. So if I just force them in the buckets, the whole herd comes running to us, and then we just starting them, and it had to be that way. One of us is here to help, the other one has to be able to do everything. And I think our most time-consuming thing now is watering.

SPEAKER_05 10:11

Yeah. Or well, in the winter time, no, this time of year, haying too, putting putting out hay, but the summertime's a little bit easier because I've got the grass seeds, so it's it's uh it's more watering, and we kind of put wells in different areas to make it as easy and as efficient as we can. I make my rounds in the morning before I get to work, um, checking on everybody and doing whatever needs to be done then, and and then uh when I get home, um I'll spend uh you know whatever it takes, an hour, two hours, three hours out back just getting everything done. And and then of course we get into summertime in the today's season, so we can making as much hay as we can. So it's uh it's a lot, but it's it's fun. It's the sort of work that I really love to do. I think we kind of work well today because she um her strengths are you know sort of on the marketing side and and talking to people and everything like that. I like to go out back and do the physical work and um but we can both help each other out. You know, she'll jump in the tractor and go make hay with me or whatever thing has are the kids involved?

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Do they like to help you out?

SPEAKER_05 11:19

Somewhat. Um the kids kids are all kind of do their own things. Uh some of them are a little older and they're they're not you know on their own and doing their own thing, working full-time, and um the two left at home are are students and they're they're they help up um as much as they can. Um it's it's mainly us that doing it.

Jaymie 11:40

Okay, so Charlotte, you um had talked about your dad, um, how he and how his um younger life was a big driving force behind you all getting cows and that type of thing. Um, can you share what it meant to him to have you want to get cattle again um on the very farm where he wants Adam?

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Yeah, I think it was um huge. So my father was like a really like a guy's guy. He was he was like a friend to everybody and um definitely not a weak person by any stretch of the imagination, but his emotions would certainly get the best of them. And um, he would always kind of reminisce about how much his father would be proud of him and proud of this going on and such. And I I never got to meet my grandfather. Um, so I only got to hear about him through my dad. Um, I really enjoyed just the idea of bringing this back and the idea that they're, you know, happy to see it thriving and still going. My dad would always say to me that um he knows I'll never sell the farm and do it whatever I can to keep it going. That meant a lot to me. And I know that he put a lot of trust in me. He was the only boy in the family. Um, he had the you know, his chair is in my father's adopted. His biological father died when he was um five years old. And Arthur Schardinger was married, my grandmother, and then my father. So that's my last name. My father's last name was Schardinger, but not at birth. And I think it's just um amazing that he ended up with this farm and he took so much pride in it, and such in this with his adopted father, and he's such a bond with his adopted father, which he always called dad. Nothing he was nothing less. Um, I I love that we're able to still keep this going. And in my imagination, I feel like they're all proud of what we're doing. Um, we were building fence, and I know let's drive some bunkers because he was building fence because I got distracted because in the um trees there were all the barbed wire fencing from that must have been put there 50 years ago, but the trees had all grown over the um the um barbed wire. And I'm like, oh, this is really cool. And then I called my aunt to talk to her about it and such, and he just goes up.

Jaymie 14:00

That's funny. Did he was he there to help you kind of plan out how to situate the different pens and where to build fence and that kind of thing? Did he give you some input?

SPEAKER_03 14:10

He got to the he saw our first our pasture that's up top of the road, and then our first pasture out back, and then we talked a lot about building the barn and then the other additional pasture so that we could start rotational grazing, but he only got to see the first field, and he only got to see the first two longhorns.

SPEAKER_05 14:29

When we first got um the cows, like she was talking about, he he his health wasn't the greatest, but it it he he was super excited to see everything kind of come together. And he had tractors that he'd never gotten rid of, and um, him and I would go out and we would make hay, and he loved it, he he wouldn't be able to do a lot, but he'd just sit there and watch. And and if something went wrong, he would kind of you know, he was a mechanics, but he would spring into action and be able to um help fix whatever it was that that broke. Um, but he'd come over every Sunday morning, he'd have coffee, and we'd sit here and come in and say, Oh, open up that that Craigslist thing. Let's let's see what we can find. And and we surf through Craigslist and try to find uh tractors or anything to do with haying or farming or cows, and we were always on some sort of an adventure together. And towards the end, when he wasn't well, he he would I remember one time he he got back up on the tractor, um, even though Charlotte wasn't too happy about it. It was hot, really hot out, and he wanted to go cut hay. So we got them all set up, put them on the tractor, and off he went. And he had a good smile on his face that he was out there doing his thing on an extractor cutting it. So it was it was really good.

Jaymie 15:33

Yeah, doing his thing, but then also doing his thing, but uh and enjoying it with one of his kids. So that had to, I'm sure that was a pretty fantastic moment for him.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

And the the follow-up the next time I was doing hay with so guy had to do something and he couldn't do hay, and there was that perfect opportunity of like these are the three days it should get done. I'm like, well, I'll just do it. And he's like, I want you out there by yourself. I'm like, oh no, my dad and your dad, they'll both be there. So these guys that know every absolutely everything, and no one's telling them. So it's it's kind of funny because I went and did like the first row of hay, and it was the square bales, and that the um the baling twine wasn't matching on both sides, so the bales were all lopsided and it kept breaking string. So both of them are telling me what to do, both are saying something different, and they're telling me how to do this and that and whatnot. And guys is and was older than my father. Um anyway, they're all they're both standing over both sides of the baler, telling me what has to be done, this is wrong and whatnot. But I climbed underneath the baler and there was literally a diagram that I'm looking up at and telling me what to do. So I think they both thought that they were right and both told me what to do, and I'm just like, let them run with it.

Jaymie 16:50

Let them run with it, and you're reading the directions and fixing it on your own, right? Great, thanks. That was helpful. So, what drew you when you were out of all of the cattle out there, what drew you specifically to Texas Longhorns?

SPEAKER_05 17:07

Um, for me, I don't know. I was just I've always been intrigued by them. I mean, we we just don't we never had any around here. You you didn't see them around here, and to be totally honest, I wasn't even sure because I know so little about them, and I knew them being familiar with them being down south in Texas, but I wasn't sure that they would even be able to survive and thrive up in the north, the northern climate. But um, you know, we we s we saw a couple on one of the Sunday mornings sitting here on going through Craigslist. We saw some for sale in Rhode Island and took a drive down, and I thought they were they were gorgeous. They were they'd just been weaned little six-month-old heifers, but we bought them and and it was like she said, uh you know, within the next year they just blossomed into these beautiful animals, and we quickly discovered they were the easiest ones to keep. They weren't jumping fences, they weren't getting sick, they weren't you know, getting involved with a lot of the other things the other ones did. And uh we slowly transitioned the whole herd over. Um I just I I I just think they're really unique animals, and we just fell in love with the breed.

Jaymie 18:06

The person that you originally bought your first lone horns from, are they still active? Do they still have long horns?

SPEAKER_05 18:13

No. So they weren't they weren't registered, I guess they were they were from a registered herd and and they were very uh she was it was very small, and I think she was moving and she only had like uh six of them or something like that. We ended up buying a couple of them. Um but no, there wasn't at the time there wasn't many um longhorns at all around here. Um there's a lot more known.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:35

And hopefully, hopefully more in the future.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

And my father's like, let's go get a bowl for a guy so he can breed those longhorns. And um he started looking on crack quests. And well, him looking on crack for us meant like I would type it, find it, and be like, here dad, this is check this one out. Because that was technology was not his thing. Um, so we find a bowl, it says like a six-month-old bowl cough in somewhere in Philadelphia. Something like that, in uh $600. And we're like, this is great. So I call the guy, leave a message, no call back. And my father, like when he wanted to do something, like he decided we're doing it, and like, now we're doing it. There's no whack time at all. And so this person had not called me back. And like this the sad part is is that goes out Thursday, and then my dad had passed on Tuesday, like it went that, and then a couple days later, and after my father's services, I get a phone call, and it ended up being um Kevin Vaughn. We didn't know them at all, but this is how we ended up knowing them. So Kevin says, You gave me a call, and I was sorry, I wasn't feeling good. I'm just getting back to you. And I start telling him the story, and like I'm if you've met Kevin Vaughn, Kevin is is definitely a big guy and such, and I'm on the phone with him as a total stranger and I'm crying like a two-year-old. Like, I need this bowl, it doesn't matter. That bowl could have had like four tails and and six eyeballs, it didn't matter. We we wanted that bowl, yeah, because this is the one we got. So we we jump into the truck and go to pick that up in January and brought him here, and like that was super emotional. And I think the same, well, it's a similar experience. Whenever you bring a longhorn home and it gets off the trailer and it's in your field, that's amazing. But that one was extra special, and um now I kind of laugh at that because he definitely was not a herd sire material, but at that moment in time, he was like the best thing on the planet, and it was it it introduced us to people who had registered long horns, and then it just we the next thing we knew we were going to cherry blossom and the fall classic. That was the closest show to us, and uh we've had fun doing that.

Jaymie 20:56

So, did you attend so that was in 2015, 2016?

SPEAKER_05 21:01

I think that's that 17 probably.

Jaymie 21:04

No, that was after my father and that's when you got the registered Texas Longhorns, and did that of uh April, I guess it would have been of 18. Is that when you attended the cherry blossom for the first time? And was that the first time a guy you got called out for leaving during bidding?

SPEAKER_05 21:24

No, that happened after. I think I think we in regulars, and then and then I might it was probably 2019 or so when uh bathroom and Charlotte Botaco.

Jaymie 21:34

Charlotte Bonnie Cow. Yeah, and you guys can never live that down now.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

No, it is I also had just gotten a new car, and I was like, well, we're not buying anything, so let's just take my new car. It'll be so much fun. So we go down there, and I remember that's we bought Candy Crush and Katrina, and we are sitting up in the bleachers, and I had my arm around him, and there I really liked Candy Crush a lot, and I so I I was just lifting my finger on his shoulder and Jay was expecting the bids. So I was fine. No one even knew that I bought this cow. And then the next one was a Dale Metz cow, and Dale comes out of the stands to go. I thought somebody behind us was bid. He's like, hey, we just pointed right at me. I'm like, oh I laugh at that story still because Jay will accept the bid very easily. And Dale Metz got me called out on that. And then so guy will put the truck and show and we can get the cows that we bought.

Jaymie 22:38

Funny. So you had no idea really that you purchased that first cow from there. You gotta watch out for Jay, I guess, huh?

SPEAKER_05 22:45

Oh, she knew. I just didn't know.

Jaymie 22:48

That's funny. That's funny.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

But it was fun. And yes, he he does get picked on for going to the bathroom. But then he's he tries to play it to his advantage and he's like, Oh, I really like this cow, so I'm gonna go to the bathroom while they're while she's out here.

Jaymie 23:05

Oh, that's funny. We won't let that secret out. Well, you know, we'll we'll keep that on the DL so nobody else knows your kick.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

Yeah, the guy's leaving, he probably likes the next cow coming up.

Jaymie 23:18

So, what does success look like for you when it comes to your breeding program now that you've had longhorns for I don't know, over about 10-ish years?

SPEAKER_05 23:29

I think for us, just uh improving improving our herd and improving the genetics and the overall cabbage of the of the animals that we we are producing. Uh we we love to compete in the Facharities, so it's it's always great that we have something that's competitive and we can take and and have it placed consistently. Um and that just I think shows that we're we're making strides in our program. Everything kind of takes time, you know, the decisions we make today about who we're gonna breed, we don't see the results of that for years to come. So it's a it's a process that I really enjoy studying the different lines and categories, figuring out who to breed to who. Um you know, last year we we went to our two shows. We had um I think we had two heifers that made the finals, so that was that was a good feeling to see that they made it into the into the finals. Uh and and we'll be back again this year with uh more and see where see where we go. We had a great year last year as far as uh heifer to to bull ratio, and we have a lot of a lot of great colorful heifers on the ground, and they're young still, so we'll see what they go up into.

Jaymie 24:35

So, what are some of the things you look for when you're planning your breeding for like next year and the year after?

SPEAKER_05 24:43

Um I'd say we look at we look at our cows and we kind of split them up into you know how can we how can we improve on any of the flaws that they might have, what bowls would would match up best with them. And and we'll do some we'll we'll do some AI work and and if we run two or three bowls. We have a fairly small herd, um, but we'll probably use two or three, maybe four bowls throughout the year uh for breeding in addition to that. Um our season for breeding, we we turn the bowl out on July 1st and um try to try to leave them out no longer than you know maybe into January because we kind of we just don't want to have the winter, we don't want to be calving this time of year. Um it's it's been a really brutal winter and this year we don't get any winter babies. Um we've run into that a little bit in the past because we might buy something from down south that was bred and have to deal with it, but we like to plan better and and not have to to deal with that.

Jaymie 25:38

And are there are there any um any of your breeding from this last year that you're most excited for this spring?

SPEAKER_05 25:48

Yeah, we uh we have a a a bull um ambro, but he's a higher ground son, he's black and white. He's he's young. He on his on his third birthday, he just turned three, and he was, I think, 89 and a quarter inches tip to tip. Uh he won he won the bronze last year at the horn showcase, so we're really excited about him. Um I I love the uh the production of of higher ground. He's done a lot of great things a lot of horn movement and his offspring. And and uh Ambro seems to be uh we have we have a handful of calves from him last year, and we're really excited about the way they they look at this point. And and we put the bulk of our herd to him again last year, so um this coming season in 26 we'll have a lot of Ambro babies uh coming coming again.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

What is the first fraternity you're gonna go to this year?

SPEAKER_05 26:40

Bluegrass and and then and then cherry blossom the following week.

Jaymie 26:45

Nice. Well, let's shift our focus and we'll talk about your beef program because I know you've mentioned how important it is for you to know where your beef came from. Um why is it important for you to to raise beef for consumers and not just cattle for the ring or for the pasture?

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I often say this to people your your pastures are like a parking lot, and you can only park so many cars in a parking lot. So I can only put so many cows on these fields, and if I have a field or a parking lot where I can put 20 cars, how awesome those cars are, there's gonna be a bottom. And I think it's easier for people to recognize that with cars than it is in their own cows, and I'm totally guilty of that too. Like it's it's hard to criticize your own cows. Funniest story, I sat next to someone at the bluegrass sale one year, and I was sitting next to them at the bull fraternity in our first. This was our first time bringing a bull to a fraturity, and I sat next to this breeder, which is a very good breeder. They they their name is on a lot of stuff, and they've been in it for a long time. And she had no idea who I was, and when my bull came out, she's like, Oh no, this one here is not even a bull that doesn't even have this characteristic or that one, the horn direction's wrong, the colors off. I'm like, oh my god. But it was such a good like it was so good to hear that raw advice from somebody, and um, I won't forget it. And I've actually talked to this breeder and told them, and I laugh about the story today. I wasn't involved, I was so thankful to because we learned so much that I needed to learn. Um, but going back to your question, we have to always keep our numbers in check, otherwise, our fields are gonna be destroyed and we're not gonna be able to like we're gonna manage the herd and always put our lower end up into the beef program. Um almost all of our sears go into our beef program if we're not selling at a younger age to another farm. Um, it's a significant amount of cash flow for us in the business because the um up here there's not a lot of Texas longhorn beef, and it I I use that to my advantage in marketing and letting people know the difference between the beef. Um I asked the burger before I asked them to try to bake because I think that the burgers themselves take them. And like that just the quality, it's so good. Um and I guess growing it just for ourselves would be one thing, but our numbers have outgrown that and we've been able to utilize the money to help us with improving the herd or anything on the farm that we need to do.

Jaymie 29:23

So when you're talking to those people um about longhorn beef specifically, do they is it important for them to also understand how you raise your cattle, like what you feed them and that type of thing?

SPEAKER_03 29:35

So I I think so. I think that usually within the first two questions, one of them is is what have you what are you feeding them? Um explain to people that they're they don't have a lot of fat in them, but fat is where the flavor is. So even though it's a smaller amount of fat, I I truly believe that the flavor is is phenomenal. Um, my first year in this to build up our beef program, I spent the first years doing farmers markets, not in the summertime, but in the winter, the winter's farmers market that is in the mall next to us, and they take the whole center of the mall and line it up with all the farming tables. So it's nice. It doesn't matter how bad the weather might be outside. They have this spot every Saturday morning. You can go and it's an indoor farmer's market, it's great. When I went to sign up for this, the woman running it said, you know, you're gonna have to work really hard. We have three people selling Ingus already, and nobody knows the Longhorn beef. And like, okay, um, I put pictures of our longhorns, I put what looked like gift boxes of beef, I put our spices out, and then um one of the skulls from Longhorns. And when people came by, I wasn't like, hey, nice weather, or how are you today? I just asked them, like, have you ever had longhorn beef? And they either said yes, no, or I went to Longhorn Steakhouse before. Yeah, they're like, I don't remember. I'm like, no, if you tried it, you would really and um it I built enough reasons to not have to do the farmer's market anymore. And if someone calls and says, I have all this beef, I can't sell it. Where do you get your customers? That's exactly what I think anybody should do if they're trying to build up their beef program. Just get out there and and talk to people about it. And you know, you might not the whole cattle on day one, but these will be your repeat customers. And I think there's more money in the repeat customers that buy smaller packages than the whole cow. But my favorite is if we take six to the butcher, I'd like to have them already sold and the people here waiting to pick them up out of the freezer van so we don't even have to store it. Because the second it goes into your freezer, the profit margin starts to sink. Because now you're paying to keep this cold. And I I I feel like that to me bothers me. I don't want there to be something we're just paying for it to stay cold. It needs to be sold.

Jaymie 31:56

Do you sell a variety of different cuts or is it mainly ground beef? Uh no, we we do sell a variety.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Um we oxtail and the tongue, like some people don't get those. I I can sell all of those. That I think you just have to find the right group of people who want to cook that. And we do short ribs and steaks and roast, stew beef. We've consistently done all of it. And I've had a couple where the steaks weren't weren't awesome, but I think you just you learn, and and now everything that we have has been born and raised here. So I I can I feel like we can um make better.

Jaymie 32:37

Well, you talk about feeding and grazing. Um, your cattle rotate through um uh rotational grazing through, I think you said if I counted right, maybe five different pastures, roughly.

SPEAKER_05 32:50

We have four main pastures and yes, and a couple of small on the here on the farm, and we leaks a couple of pastures as well.

Jaymie 32:58

How do you is it what challenges do you have being where you're located with the winters and that type of thing while doing rotational grazing? Do you have any pointers or any tips for people?

SPEAKER_05 33:09

The biggest challenges here really are the weather. Um it's an it's an unknown. Um if you hit a drought and your grass dries up, then you're you're haying a lot earlier than expected. Um you know, weather in general, if you don't if you know not just the hay, but the grass, the grass in the fields and and being careful not to overgraze um and making sure that you're you're bouncing them you know back and forth between pastures before they they overeat it. Um and and you know too much rain can be detrimental as well, you know, if it gets too muddy and um we we we don't have that big a problem as as others. Um our our fields are pretty pretty good at draining off, but um yeah, I think it's it's just really the the weather is the biggest thing.

Jaymie 33:54

When you for those people who may not be familiar with rotational grazing, and when you say overeat it, what what does that mean? Do you look at the height of the grass? Do you look at the density? What do you look for?

SPEAKER_05 34:04

Uh both. Mostly, mostly the height. Um, you don't you don't want them to eat it down too low, and and the the grass will just have a really tough time recovering from that and growing back. So we'll we'll usually pull them out of the field before they get to that point where it's too low and put them into a new field and let that uh grow again for you know several weeks or a month or whatever it takes before that um regrows and then we can turn them back out onto that one again. So keeping the number of your your ratio of your cows to acreage ratio is is important. Um, because if you have too many cows for your for your land, you know, it's it's really hard to keep up on them trying to get freedom. What is the cow to land ratio where you are so so we're fortunate we have really good grass in this part of the country and and we can we can run two cow calf pairs per acre. Um and and not a lot of other parts of the country can do that. I know there's there's parts of Texas that probably running one cow calf pair per 20 acres. Um so we're fortunate that we have good grass, we just don't we just have a short season. So that's that's a we usually can't let them out on the grass until mid-May. And then depending on the year, um you know, maybe they have grass through October. We're usually probably, you know, by November we're usually haying again. So the the summer.

Jaymie 35:28

So for those people who live close to you um and have the same environment, same soil, um, is there a grass that you would recommend that they grow? Because I know some grow better in different areas.

SPEAKER_05 35:40

Yeah, we we we use a we use a pasture mix. So it's we don't we don't really plant just one thing. It's it's like a Timothy, alfalfa, clover, orchard grass, chrome. We we have a little mix of everything. I I buy it by the seed like that. And that way if you have certain conditions of the grasses aren't thriving, you know, the other ones in that blend will. So it kind of is a good balance to carry it through.

Jaymie 36:05

And as Charlotte had mentioned earlier when we were talking, um, and she had said last year there was 17 Saturdays where it just rained. And you know, you couldn't get out, you couldn't do things. When it rains like that and you're doing rotational grazing, does all of that rain have an effect on the cows in the pasture and how long that they're there and foot or health health health and that type of thing?

SPEAKER_05 36:27

Yeah, like I said, we're we're fortunate because we don't have a lot of mud. Our fields drain pretty quickly where the cows are. The bigger problem with the rain is is getting our hay in. Um last year was difficult because the the whole first half of the year was extremely wet. And we're lucky that you know, if if I can't get the hay dried, we can we can wrap it and make paleage. Um, but then after August 1st, um, with all the rain we had gotten, we just finished our first cutting and then it stopped raining and it didn't rain again for a couple of months, and the second cutting just didn't grow. So it's there's always a challenge whether um, you know, and then and then we ended up you know having to buy some hay at the end of the year because we weren't able to make enough to get through.

Jaymie 37:11

So again again, and earlier when Charlotte and I were talking, she was talking about this time of year specifically, and maybe this year specifically, it's been so cold for so long. Um she was talking about how you are up at 5 a.m. going out, checking water and and everything like that. Um, what does a typical day-to-day life look for the the two of you since you also have full-time jobs?

SPEAKER_05 37:34

Yeah, so that this time of year it's it's tough. It's been a really tough winter um with the extreme cold temperatures. We I mean we'll normally get below zero occasionally, but this year it's just every morning has been consistently below zero. And then we you know we have a lot of snow cover. We had a farm a couple of weeks ago, and and uh it's just makes it really challenging. So the we we have we have heaters, I keep all the water farm. We have heaters in every bucket, but it's when it's that cold, they still freeze over. So I I'm I'm out there breaking the ice a few times a day making sure that they have access to clean water, clean water all the time. Um, and it's just added challenges with your hoses freezing, um, the equipment doesn't want to start, the tractor doesn't start and when it's below zero, and the fuel gels up, and there's all sorts of problems that go along with the cold, and and it's been a it's been a challenging winter for sure. Um, but yeah, I I get up early, go out, do my round in the dark, of course, um, with a headlamp on because the daylight is so short this time of year. Um I go to work, come home. Um, when I get home, it's start doing the same rounds again, making sure uh everybody's got water, ice is cleared from everything, putting hay out, um, and then probably fixing whatever needs fixing as far as equipment goes. And I I usually finish the day with my headlamp on as well, and I'm in the house whenever I whenever I get done with everything.

SPEAKER_03 39:05

His work while working is more of desk work now. It's with we deal with people during the day for day jobs, and then we deal with animals on the off time. So Guy is uh um Amherst College is only 15 minutes from our house, and um he's a director of all the trade shops, so it's it's um conversations on projects and Zoom meetings and people dealings all day. And I think both of us feel that we'd rather deal with the than some of the things that we have to do on the day to the day.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

We just always get home in physical work for the rest of the day. I enjoy that. Yeah.

Jaymie 39:46

Yeah, definitely. Um there's it's still stressful, but a different kind of stress, but maybe also a little bit more peaceful stress than the day job.

SPEAKER_05 39:54

I think the the most rewarding time of year is when it's a little nicer out spring and and summer, and we'll have a long day at work and we'll jump in the UTV and in the evening and just drive out and then park in the field and just watch the cows and watch the calves running around playing, jumping, and that's that's uh to us that's that's probably the the most rewarding part of it. For sure. This I every winter, um especially this one, I I just look forward to April rolling around and knowing that the shows and futurities and everything start back up, and I look forward to calving season starts for us in April. So that's always a really exciting time of year to see the calves hitting the ground. Um I love to see the the the young ones get off their winter coat and see what they look like and just watch them grow. And um so we'll get there. A couple more months to go.

Jaymie 40:48

A couple more months, and you can hang up the headlight, hopefully. Well, Charlotte, you mentioned your mom lives pretty close by um and she's traveled to Texas with you before to the horn showcase. And then, Guy, you also mentioned how um you grew up on a horse farm. Um, how how special is it to you all to have this kind of and to your parents to have this kind of multi-generational um support around the farm?

SPEAKER_05 41:18

I I think it's great. Um, well, yeah, like we said, I grew up from horse farm um not too far from here. My my weekends as a kid were spent um all over New England at four of our shows. My father was big into showing horses, and I never really read it as much as he did. I always like enjoy going for a back ride, but just never never took the time to get into it to the level that he did. Um he's he's going to be 90 this year. Um, I'm fortunate to have both my parents are still here, and they come over often and um visit, and they they light up, they they really love to see what we've done, and they're they're just amazed at at what we've been able to do in the in the short amount of time we've been doing this. And and he just he and really enjoys coming over and seeing the animals and asking questions. And we've taken them to um a few places as well. We took them to Virginia and to Bluegrass.

SPEAKER_04 42:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:10

That was that was kind of exciting when we went to Bluegrass. I he when he found out that we knew Bob Loomis, um, he he knew Bob Loomis from from Quarter Horses, or knew okay. He was really surprised to hear that uh he knew him. And I thought he's gonna he's going to be there and he's gonna be judging, so I can introduce you. And and I did, and the two of them had a a great conversation, and and he was he was just thrilled that he got to meet Bob Loomis.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

So that have come on to our farm to learn about long horns and just to start their own herd, whatnot, I feel like we've we've expanded what I would call our family significantly because they we have we do stuff with people who call and want to see a cow. If it's a restaurant that wants to have our beef in the restaurant, I ask them to bring their whole team here. And because I think a waitress who's tried a burger and has seen the cows and how they're raised is gonna do a much better job than just saying a menus of a farmer's burger. Um, and then UMass college and 60 minutes plus last. And they have an ad program. So every year they come here with a whole bus full of students in the ad program. And it's really cool because they'll challenge the kids. If we have a project that we want to do and we're not sure what it looks like financially, if it's gonna work out or not, the professor will actually challenge the team the students to go through the whole process and work the numbers and and such and map it all out for us, and then we come here and present it. And they ask all kinds of questions. We put them right out into the fields with us working and let them do the hands on stuff and really experience what it's like to be stronghorns. So they dump students. Call right away when they get to UMass and they want to come here and work on the weekends or they want to hang out on the farm. And so we've had kids here that are not ours, but they've been here for Easter dinner, or they come over just to have dinner during the week. And I love that additional family that we've picked up.

Jaymie 44:18

Have any of those how well how many years have you been doing that with those students?

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Um, UMass, I think it's been four years. This would probably be a good one.

Jaymie 44:29

Yeah. So not quite long enough for those students to maybe get out on their own and purchase their first longhorn and maybe start their own herds, not quite old enough yet.

SPEAKER_05 44:39

One of them, um, although he hasn't purchased a longhorn, I think we he was the first one that we met. And and he he was um probably a senior, maybe when we met him. He called us out of the blue wanting to come see if we had any work done the farm, just wanted to learn. Um, so he came out and we just we just sort of hit it off with him and connected, and we stay in touch with him. Uh, he went on to complete his master's degree. He's got a good full-time job now. He's um his farming is more into um you know growing um tobacco and corn and things like that. Uh but he comes over and helps us out all the time. He stays in touch on a regular basis and comes and visits and helps us and helps me make hay. And he just loves you know working the cows and everything. And um I think he plans on maybe getting some some cows in the future, but uh it's it's just uh it was it was a neat connection to make that that um we stay in touch.

SPEAKER_02 45:29

Well, you had your first faturity last year.

Jaymie 45:32

Um what made you want to have a faturity? I know you said earlier that you really fell in love with the faturity, the whole atmosphere of it all, and um everything the knowledge that you gained from doing it. Um one, what made you want to do it? And two, after you decided to do it, were you thinking, why did we decide to do this? This is so much.

SPEAKER_03 45:54

That was our entire summer. Like we really dedicated our time to it in every detail that we could think of, and we utilized what we learned on the road to apply to our fraturity. And the reason why behind it, um, I really do like the fraturities, but I also realized that part of our goal was to increase the longhorn population on the east coast, like the northeast. So if we just keep having people buy a few cows and they have these small herds, but they don't get to do anything with them, um I don't feel like that's really nurturing the industry. If you can get them to buy a couple of cows, one thing, but I think getting them to come back, getting them to um participate in a show, that's gonna keep them going. And for us, that's part of our drive. When we go to legacy, that's like the kickoff of the season for us, and and all this negative stuff that we get through the winter, it kind of just rejuvenates you, and you have fun, and you're like, okay, we're in it again for another season. And um, I really wanted people to at first the cows that we were bringing back, sometimes we would be at a sale and there'd be a good cow that was being sold in it. Like Texoma was a good sale for me with with this concept. We'd go there and it was Dale Hunt and Bob Loomis and their cows dominated that sale. And most of the people, my opinion was that most of the people in that area did have a lot of those genetics already, but we didn't. On the Northeast, we didn't really have a lot of those genetics. There are not a lot of people traveling back and forth to bring these animals. So if there was something that we liked and it didn't, maybe I didn't need this cow. I'm not sure I could really say I needed something like a cow, but they didn't really need it. But I'm like, this is a great cow, like someone will have a good experience with this cow. We would buy it because I I want people up here, if they're gonna get into the industry, I want them to have excellent cows to start with. And ideally, I want to see them in the futurities and know that we helped them get to to something, to, to win something. That happened to us at um East Coast. We sold um SDR Lucy. She was actually a cow that we bought at the Texoma sale, and we kept her for two years, and she had we kept kept her for three years, and two of those years she gave us heifers, and we kept them, and then we decided to sell her. She had the best Jeremiah calf that we've seen from her and from him at that time, and we sold her, and um, it was really exciting to see them win the faturity with that hepper, and that is something that it just takes a lot of effort and work and willingness to let something go and hope someone does something great with that.

Jaymie 48:39

Well, and not only just when you have the faturity, it's not only them just buying the cow, right? But like when they go through the whole faturity process, they maybe learn and understand a little bit more about the different characteristics of lone horns so they you know can play with breeding or be more educated, you know, when they do their their breeding and stuff.

SPEAKER_05 48:58

We have a lot we have a lot of people local to us that we had sold to, and and we always try to tell everybody check out these sales and these shows. And nobody wants to make that six-hour drive to Pennsylvania or the eight-hour drive to Virginia, and we understand that. But that was part of the part of wanting to do it here was just like be able to bring an event that people in this area will be able to go to easily and um also make it so that the other people that are serious about it will make that longer six or eight hour drive that we always do. Um and I think it it worked well, and I think we had a really good turnout. Um, but yeah, back to the other part of it. It was a ton of work. Um when when we when we first talked about doing it, we actually went to a couple of different facilities in our area to see if we could rent um places there to do it. And the dates were, I think, were the biggest problem, and just the dates really weren't working out um with what we wanted to do. Um, so we looked at our place, you know, we're standing in our barn, I think it was last year in the winter, and we're like, you know what? Like we could do this here, we could make this happen. I knew there was a lot of changes I had to make and things to be able to accommodate everything, and that's what we spent the whole summer um doing and getting ready.

SPEAKER_03 50:11

The Eddie Woods sale was happening in January, but we knew we weren't gonna make it. And so what we did instead was we invited anybody who had interest in cats, bot, or anything cows. We invited them all here and we hosted an Eddie Woods viewing party. We just put out a ton of food, and at that moment I'm like, House is full.

SPEAKER_05 50:30

And we watched it live on Hyderedon?

SPEAKER_03 50:32

Yeah, we did. Awesome. And it was our house is full of people that I would want to spend more time with. Like, this is really fun. And these people, some of them were brand new, they'd never bought cows, they were just interested. So they got to see, like, oh wow, you can bid on a cow from Massachusetts in Texas right now, and you can network with people and get it home. And it was a really cool experience. And then we had our branding party in because after that we called like a couple of people who had more cows with us, like Andy Brooks and Emma and Liam. And we're like, we were thinking this is like we should do the Pachuri, like we probably have enough people now to do this. And then we had our branding party, and we had nine trailers with cows lined up to to brand their cattle. And we do a branding party every year, and it's in March, so it's not the coolest time of year. Well, it is freezing cold actually, but it's not like come out and you have to have some grant to be at that branding party because it can be pretty cold. Um, but after the branding party, we had a few couples that stayed, and we walked through the barn and were like, think we can do this. And we both, I think, put in so much effort, but we also could never take credit for it 100% on our own. The people that we were circling our like surrounding ourselves with, they they just showed up. They showed up, and we had how many people worked the back on that day?

SPEAKER_05 52:00

I think we had like 14 people in the back. So it I think we had a good panel. We knew not a lot of our bat crew had a lot of experience, so we just threw back there, knowing that the more people we have back there, better it will go. And it went very smooth. They did a great job, they figured it out, and they kept things moving. Like we didn't we didn't want that downtime where we're sitting there waiting for an animal to come into the ring. We we tried we had the staging area set up throughout the the alleyway, and and they did a great job. But it was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_03 52:32

Yeah, and the food too. Like we wanted people that came here to experience the food in New England in the fall. So it's like everything pumpkins and squash, and yeah, it was just really good. The the kids did smoke, they smoked turkeys that we had raised. They they put um I round on a spigot, and we did a uh smoked brisket. And the night before we did burgers and climb chowder, and then Andy's family won Massachusetts Best Ice Cream. So they came down with their ice cream and served ice cream, and then um Isaac and Ashley have a farm in Connecticut, and they are for great example. They bought one cow from us, and on the day of the the futurity, and every single thing we host here, they always show up. And they are just they they're incredible. I'm really happy to call them friends, and it's the whole group that we've gotten to know up here. It's been pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 53:25

The the most nerve-wracking for futurity was the fact that being our first one, we had no idea how many people were going to to come. Uh, we talked to a lot of people about it, and and then a lot of people were saying, Oh, yeah, well, we're gonna we're gonna come, we're gonna come. And then, of course, there's a deadline. And I I'll I'll never forget this. Two days before the deadline, I think we had 12 animals signed up, and I think most of them were ours. Um, so we were kind of freaking out about that. And then two days later, I I kind of thought we I was hoping to get 60 animals. I was gonna be happy if we had 60 entries. Um, by the time Sunday night rolled around and the deadline passed, we had 79 entries. And and that we were completely full. That was that was the that was actually for the pens that we had um set up for them. And uh I guess the scary part of that is everybody that came seemed to really enjoy themselves. We got a lot of great feedback on it. Everybody had a good time and complimented everything. Um, and everybody said they would plan on coming back. And then the following weekend, of course, we went to Kentucky for the millennium, and was an overwhelming amount of people that we ran into that said, oh, we didn't make it to your event, but we heard it was so great, we're definitely coming next year. And I'm immediately thinking, Oh, like how are we going to accommodate a bunch more entries for next year? Well, we'll make it happen. Well, we are gonna do it again this year because it was it was a great time. Um and it and there'll be not as much work for us because a lot of the things are kind of set up. We've done it once, so we kind of have an idea of what what to do and how to how to make it go smoothly.

Jaymie 54:58

Well, from the people that I spoke to after Year Fraturity, um, they all said, every last one of them said they had a fantastic time. Um, the food, I mean the people that you had there, the animals that were there, but then also the time of year. They really enjoyed getting up into your neck of the woods for the fall.

SPEAKER_05 55:15

Yeah, and we we we made it so that um a lot of people too, if they and we were traveling far to come up here, and it's a great time of year to visit the Northeast. So a lot of people we had their animals that were able to stay here for two days or a week, and we we took care of them as they went up and did somewhere in the way to Vermont, went out to the coast to Massachusetts, and um that worked really well, and I think they were excited to be able to do that, make the trip up here to add a little vacation time to it.

unknown 55:43

Yeah.

Jaymie 55:44

So earlier, we know we've talked a lot about you um building the Longhorn breed there in New England. Um, how has having a website um enabled you, I guess, or helped you educate your customers and promote your cattle and even just tell your story um to the people that aren't familiar with longhorns?

SPEAKER_03 56:04

For us, it it's um it's very it's it's really helpful when you're talking to someone and it's a pretty common phone call for us at the end of the day, like after dinner, a phone call with um a new breeder or an existing breeder. I mean, those are those conversations and we love to have them. But if it's a new person that's interested in buying cattle, um, I love to show them. Go to the website and spin almost eating them, but also promoting your cow. But I'm like, you know, look at this cow, and this is what I like about me, and we're keeping this daughter, or you know, I I've sold the daughter, keeping them up. Anything like that that we can point out to um the reader, I think, is or a prospective customer is so helpful. It I mean, it's the you can't argue with the layout of the websites. I think that the way that all the longhorns get listed with all the same data, it's very clean and very informative. I think it's really helpful for people to be able to see how serious the longhorn breed is taken when you have that kind of layout to display your cattle. Um I think it I think it's been huge for us. I we do a lot on Google as well and on um marketplace. And it's interesting, they're not Marketplace, but Craigslist. So many people, when you ask them where they started with their longhorns, Craigslist. And that's true. And I don't underestimate the power of Craigslist. We always have an admin Craigslist.

SPEAKER_05 57:36

And it's sorry, a lot of times people will reach out on a Craigslist ad and say, Oh, what do you have for sale? And it's it's really nice. I can just kind of send them the link to our sale page and and kind of send every single individual picture and all the information, it's all kind of right there.

SPEAKER_04 57:51

Yeah.

Jaymie 57:51

I know some people like to list a sale price for their animals that they have for sale and some people don't. What is your preferred method?

SPEAKER_05 57:58

We we usually list them. Um right now I just actually just updated our sale page fairly recently, um, put some other animals on there. I prefer to put pricing on there, that the ones that we have uh planned to consign. Um if they're if they're going into uh sale, then I don't usually put a price on those.

SPEAKER_03 58:17

I think the pricing too helps avoid like tire kickers that might be looking for a $500. That's just that's just not what we have. And then there's plenty of places to find that, but that's just not what we have. And I think it it can help the value of it by by putting the price tag in there. Um and I think we we fluctuate because it'll the cow might be at $5,000, but then she's confirmed bred to the post office, so that that or whatever it might be. But I think I I feel like we tend to change the pricing pretty frequently. I don't know if a couple of months is frequent, but I I think that that's I think for everybody the value of your cattle depends on the breeding status and in so many different variables.

Jaymie 59:09

Well, so you've since you've had longhorns for quite a few years now, is there any advice, or maybe give us two pieces of advice for people who are considering getting longhorns, or maybe those person people who have just gotten their first longhorns? What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_03 59:27

Go and to visit as many places and volunteer your time to help people that's of vaccinations or preg tests or anything. Um go in and look at someone's facility, but if you actually get the opportunity to battle with them, you get to understand the why behind the setup and such. And I I feel we always invite people to come on over and and like bring your boots and your working gloves because we want you to get in there and learn it. But we went to Jimmy Jones and we lived to help with Jimmy Jones's herd in August in Alabama. That was that was some of the hardest days I was experienced, but it was amazing to work with Christine and John and uh Terry and Tammy were there, and of course Jimmy. So you got to hear both of them talking about the different ways that they do vaccinations, like they do this vaccination is always on the left side of the neck, and that one's always on the right. And I'm like, that's actually really simple, but that's that's great. They're able to see if they're they're getting bumps or lumps or whatnot. Um, and I I was really helpful, and we got to you just learn from experienced people, and you get to use the pens, the holding pens and such, and you see what works and what doesn't. Um, but we have picked up so much, um, and and that really contributed to the redesign and reconfiguration of our holding pens so many times. And um I'd say the the your setup is so important when someone comes and they said, Well, I'm I want to buy cows, but I'm gonna do my setup first. Can you teach me what I need to know? That makes me take that buyer so much more seriously. That's Rob Gould out in Beverly, Massachusetts. He came in a few times to just check out in in you'd drive two and a half hours to help with work cows to learn how to do it before he brought the cows home.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:25

Yeah, that's I need that that'd be my advice. I'd say do do your homework. Um, and all of those things. We we had a young couple that uh wanted cows, and they came out and visited, there was they were two and a half hours away, and they came out and visited us, I think three or four times, and and they were studying our website, looking at all the different animals. They were unsure and they're just asking questions, and we would spend hours on the phone with them at night, and we didn't mind at all. I I love the fact that they were doing their homework. And and they came out and they uh tour the branding party, and they wanted they wanted to get right in there. Uh they they brought the gloves and their boots and they wanted to be just hands-on, and they're they're in there and they're they're getting and they're just heavily involved, and that's that's how you learn, and I think that's um and they they ended up buying um some really nice cows from us, and they started a nice little herd, and so it was it was just nice to see people do that because it's um a lot of times people just dive in and regret some of the decisions they make early on.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:21

We do mean to do that, but we didn't have like we didn't know what we were buying. We were just so excited to get them. We were just bringing cows home and bringing cows home, cats home, and thank God we had a beef program because we don't know what we would have done otherwise.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:38

And and I think visiting visiting the ranches of the you know, you're gonna buy cows from somebody, it's I think it's important to visit their ranch and just see see their herd, spend some time out there. We we love bringing people here because our animals are very common. That's all our disposition is is really important for us. And we won't, you know, occasionally you'll get one that that's a little standoffish or a little flighty or a little crazy. We won't sell that animal to somebody else and pass that problem along. Um, and and we want people to know that the animals that that are here are are calm, general though we spread out of your hand.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:10

I think most people in the industry are are honest people and you can call them and ask them about the animal that they're looking at it. Always tell people like you're buying your seed stock because you can't start with your own animal. So what you you should find stuff that you really like and want to reproduce it because you can't use that it won't be your breeding at a minimum 10 months, right? Everything is seed stock in the beginning, and it's so fun to see 10 of them, but if you had just three of them and they're all better, it's you're not going to be sorry in years when they've all doubled and tripled. Right.

Jaymie 1:03:51

Well, it's great that you take the time and have the patience um to answer all of the new questions from new people. And I mean, even readers who have probably had cattle for a few years, like you said, you went down to Jimmy Jones and you learned some things from him and Terry, and that's after you've had cattle for a while. So it's great that you're able to take that knowledge and then even pass it on um to know to newer people in your area. So what's next for Cody Cow Company? What do you have planned in the years ahead?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:19

We're buying a bunch more panels for this picture.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:24

Yeah, well, I I think we we're for charity hosting that, we want to keep that going and in in the in the near future. Uh it was a great success. We enjoyed it. Enjoy you know, having everybody here and and bring up everybody up that we see every everywhere else to this part of the country, they get to experience this. And um, so we want to keep that going. And I mean we want to just keep improving our herd and and uh through careful breeding, we just you know keep keep uh bettering the quality of the animals that we have.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:57

I think for me it's getting more it was the futurity was I definitely had a couple of sleepless nights thinking about it because I was blending my two worlds, which was the longhorns and then like my medical and dental like for for fund for our sponsorship. The majority of the sponsorship came outside of the industry, which was important to me. That was a goal that I had for myself. I really wanted to bring outside the able to do really good prize money. So for for me, that is definitely able to get the A because I want to get I want to make that even better and do better prizes. Um just keeping it in the industry because if the money from the breeders keeps going into the shows, that's money that comes from being able to buy cattle. So and I I love bringing uh sponsorors outside of the industry into the show because you never know who's gonna be the next breeder. You you just you don't, right? The breeders that you think of 10 different work in this industry and what they do for a living with their community. So I I worried a little bit this is gonna be full of catalogs, dentists, and doctors. How's it gonna go? What am I doing?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:18

It worked really great. We have a lot of dentists, uh dentists and doctors here, and they still talk about it every time we see them. Uh what a great time they had, and they can't wait until next year to come back.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

Our catalogs, like dentists, cow doctors. It was funny. Okay, but one of the cool things is is um the people who sponsored this of it. They were like, How did ours do? And did it they wanted pictures and they put it on their social media and on their websites? So I feel like in another way it's helping the industry as well because it the the it's the marketing just kept going on. It was pretty fun. And we did t-shirts for the event, we've done that for all of our branding parties, so you just see that stuff carry on, and it's pretty cool. So those are my goals, just to keep it going, I guess, and try not to um take too much out of the industry, just put as much back into it as we can.

Jaymie 1:07:16

Well, if people are looking for you, they can find you online at CodyCow Company.com. Um, thank you both for sharing your story about your the your ranch, um, the futurity that you're starting, everything that you're doing. Um, this has been such a powerful example of how family, land, legacy, and community have come together and how the Texas Wild Corn can thrive and survive anywhere when they're right with care and attention. Thank you both.