Hello, ladies and gents Robert Sykes, keto, Savage.com today
have got our, see, Carter of quarter Country meets on the
line and he is running a cattle operation in Wyoming.
He's been the family has been in the Family Farm for Generations,
then like that business has been going for Generations.
I wanted to dive in and learn a little bit more about how they
operate, what they've been doing differently as it pertains to
regenerative agriculture and we just honestly down into the
weeds of what the cattle industry is looking like like
what the standard conventional method is, what?
Are the pros and cons with that method, how he's doing things
differently and what that shift has been like and we kind of
diamond, some of the nuts and bolts about why his meat is
superior to. That of what is raised
conventionally from a micronutrient standpoint from a
phytonutrient standpoint from an Omega standpoint very very
interesting conversation. I have a lot of passion for
being good stewards of the land and treating this planet that
we're living on better are striving to leave.
It better than we found it. I feel like he is certainly of
the same opinion and doing things to make that a reality.
So I learned a ton I'm going to definitely be trying some of his
his cattle because I feel like it's just it's just going to
taste great. So without further Ado sit back
relax and do the podcast with RC Carter.
And we are live. Our see how I meant.
I'm good. How are you Robert?
I'm doing wonderful. Will wonderful.
Well, so I'm excited to chat with you.
You have your the owner of Carters Country meets and your
based out of Wyoming. He said, right?
Yeah. My wife and I, we've been, we've
been in the meat game for a little while now.
And we're, we've been ranchers for our Emily's been ranching
out here for Generations. How many generations we talking
about? I'm fourth, my family, the
Carters, a fourth generation, and my wife.
Who's the Hamptons? I think they're, they've been in
the Bighorn Basin for six Generations.
Nice, nice. So like, how did that or just
sort of going to be man. So, my family we have a, we had
a cattle farm and we've turned it into a pine Plantation, but
it's like a family farm. It's I guess I'm the fifth
generation now may be so or Junhee door.
He's always like, I take a lot of interest in them because they
hit home to me. So how did the origin story of
your family's lineage with the, you know, the the farm come to
be. So this is cat is for it's kind
of funny because my grandfather, he's he was the one who drugged
the family down here in 1964 and prior to that, he was he was
actually up in present-day Bozeman.
And at one point in time, he owned everything, I don't know
if you take part in Ski Sports, winter sports but feeling the
entire Bridger Bowl and like, that whole valley up through
there that it now is just like it's it's very it's high dollar
property. Let's put it that way.
Hmm. And he moved out of that country
because it was really they have pretty extreme winners.
It's tough to the it's tough Cow Country, right?
Yeah, one point in time, he had a Logging company and I thought
it was interesting. You said he had 50 guy he'd have
50 guys working for him and at any given time, at least two
guys in the hospital because it was such hard core work, and
very dangerous. And then in, so he moved his
move, the family down here in 64, and because it was a much
much milder climate, where it like 40 4200 feet elevation Ian
and we've got 27 neck natural springs on the ranch and it's a
lot more conducive to raising cattle and I thought it was
interesting. My grandfather, he's passed but
when he was I think he was 6 68 years old or so, he pulled me
aside and he was excused pretty excited because he said this is
the first year of my life that I don't owe any money to the bank,
since he took it taking his first loan out when he was 14.
He's old and he made it to 64 when you finally got them paid
off. So I was like, well that's
pretty representative of the Agra Agra industry, these days
also, and it's awesome. So what what did he do?
Initially to acquire all that land to begin with?
Because I feel like for us like our family farm like it's just a
it's not common to see people with any expanse of land these
days, like land is like so hard to come by all, you know.
In one spot. Like it's all broken up,
everybody's got everything subdivided, most people don't
have an acre to their name. So how did he come by all that
land initially? So initially we he bought it
from a family by the name of frison.
So George frison he was hit so George prisons.
Dad had died when George was just a little boy.
So George. He ran the ranch until he was
like, 44 years old and that the ranch had been owned by his dad
and his uncle. And when George was 44 years
old, his uncle sold the ranch to my grandpa, so George Moved on
and he went back to college and he was actually hoping to get
this wrong and Anthropologist. So he was like really into like
studying like the Paleolithic Ice Age, type of First Nation
people that were out here and he was actually inducted into the
National Academy of Science and he's passed a couple of years
ago. But that's that's how my grandpa
fell into this place. So cool.
And you know, it's it's different and it land was looked
at a little differently. I guess back in the 60s compared
to now post covid, like, there's, you know, nobody's
they're not making any more of it and especially out here right
now. There's like a, it's just, it's
ridiculous. It's really crazy.
What land prices are going for and if you're in agriculture you
just I mean it's this euphoric thing.
You want to be a come out and raise cows but you know you
better have Deep Pockets because you're never going to be able to
pay for the land, versus what it can produce in, you know, in
terms of soybeans or cow or you know anything when it comes to
agriculture. Yes, is so important them and
like I feel like our family is so much closer as a result of
the farm that we have. Like that's what we have our
Thanksgiving. That's where we have our dear
camps. We have this Central meeting
place with it's like little old cabin on it.
That's fallen over right down the river.
And I feel like having that is one of the reasons like that's
probably the reason our family is as strong as it is.
And I feel like land is just such an interesting commodity
and the problem is it that people have over commoditized to
the point where it's just, they don't take it for the value that
it is, but just simply having a big, you know, spot of land and
being good stewards of that land is I don't know me like that.
Super, super important. So it's awesome that you have
that's also in your family has had that you've been doing this
for as many generations as you hand.
Did, you know, like is it just kind of Vacation like everybody
in the family is just going to be working.
The farm is that just what everybody assumes as soon as
they're born? No, I mean our our parents
they're pretty weird pretty loose, you know?
And so it was kind of whatever you know, Different Strokes for
different folks. So my brother went on to become
a professional snowboarder, my sister, she has you know, a
professional professional career but they both they both live
here and I took the path of of taking over the ranch.
It's going to be an interesting time for you because like, when
your, when your dad was running it and his name was running it,
like there was no social-media influencer marketing podcasting
online space and it seems like as of lately, the Quality Craft
meet, you know energy industry has definitely started to lean
into social media and just all at that brings to the table from
a branding in the market. Ting standpoint, which is good
but it's like different because you're having to lean into a
totally different set of tool sets than your, then your dad,
his dad was leveraging. Oh yeah, I mean back, back then.
Back in their day. They mean, you you pretty much
the only alternative there was no alternative.
I mean, it was just the commodity Norm.
That's that's your only alternative.
But I will say that, you know, back in the 60s and whatnot.
There was a lot more. There was a lot more processors,
and we've sent seen it. The beef Market Place.
Really get Consolidated to the point now where it's almost a
core. It is a quad awfully.
I mean, there's four for beef Packers control, 80 to 86
percent of all beef killed in the United States and imported
into the United States. So really, you don't have many
options, you know, if you are just Just producing for the
commodity. The commodity markets, social
media is great, you know, we've kind of got a love-hate with it.
Is a job. Yeah.
And so, a lot of times you're out doing doing the work and you
end up getting pulled away to capture the moment with your,
with your dang phone versus just really being in it.
But you know, what do you do? It's a great tool and it's a
really cool. It's a really cool tool to as a
connector. Of people, we've met some
amazing people across the whole United States, that just are
amazing and support us and love what we're doing and you know,
so that's that's definitely one of the plus sides to it.
Telling the whole trick to that social media thing is you know
participate in it by contributing but don't really
limit how much you're going to consume.
Yeah yeah I think definitely creating more so than consuming
is a Paramount importance. Yeah.
So A media with with that industry, having such a quad,
ah, Polly Focus, you know, the four main packing companies.
How how does how do you manage things that you don't just
simply get lumped into everybody else?
That's not placing as much of a significance into the quality of
the meat and the Omega profile. The what the the animals are
finished on. Like there's definitely a
consumer base that really, really values that That.
And if you just kind of go the way of what most, you know,
Ranch they're doing, just going the commercialized route, your
kind of pushed into a certain trajectory whereas if you're
trying to stand out from that and really you know, Market to
the people that are placing a significance on those hiring
cuts of beef. Like, how do you, how do you
manage that from a processing standpoint?
I mean, we definitely, we don't, we don't process all the animals
that we raise. We still rely pretty heavily on
marketing, you know, the vast majority of our animals into the
commodity commodity Market because we haven't reached, we
haven't reached a volume within our own infrastructure of Carter
Country meets two to exhaust our supply though, at one point.
Some point in time, we would love to be able to do that, but
Ali just what we're into is really just pushing the bar and
and really would like to set ourselves as the bar when it
comes to regenerative Lee raised nutrient-dense food.
I mean that's really what we want to do and I think it's
we're on our way to doing that. We're definitely not perfect but
we're not so close-minded, we can say hey we you make.
We make mistakes. And as long as we're honest,
About it and move forward and just no, don't stop trying you
know to to do better you just create create and be it be
honest and transparent about what we're doing.
No hundred percent man. Hey it's the way to be so if I'm
following you right you've got enough Supply in the beef cattle
that you whatever you're able to process in-house.
It's going through that the coders country meet you cars
Country Meat medium. That's what you preferentially
do with anything. On that.
Yeah, you're not have demand for you, pushed through the
traditional systems and that pretty much like with that
media, just goes, wherever it goes right?
Yeah. You never know where it's going.
There's a lot of games. A lot of games that can be
played in are played in the meat packing industry.
So you don't I feel like about a lot of the higher quality meat
from that's produced out here in the Mountain West of the United
States ends up sending getting Overseas, and a lot of a lot of
beef is actually brought up from South America and that's, that's
really what a lot of that stuff is what's being sold through our
Public School Systems and senior citizen centers, and that is
this lower quality product edit. And an interesting experience,
we've in our town, it's a tiny little town, you know, 260
people, and our Public School System, my wife, and I've got
three boys young boys. And at one point time, I
approach the school and I said, hey, I want to, I want to
supply. I want to know.
My kids are getting, you know, the best beef while they're in
school and I'm I assume that my price points going to be too
high for them. So I said, I told them to, you
know, give me a price and I'll, I'll match it, whatever it is,
I'll match it. So, at that point in time we
were selling, we're selling hamburger into the commodity
Market, or I'm sorry. The wholesale Market over in
Jackson, Hole and restaurants, and what For, you know, around
$5 a pound. So the school system gets back
to me and they say, we're paying 86 cents a pound, what?
And so I go to my buddies in the, my chef friends.
And I was like, what? Like, what are they buying for
86 cents? A pound.
And it was, it was just, I mean, they they didn't know at that
point in time, they the cheapest burger that any of my chef
friends were buying was around 2:15 a pound, right?
And so I mean you Can just imagine, you know, that was
about the time there was this like pink slime people were
talking about slime, so who I don't know what they were
getting, but it was just, it was couldn't buy cheaper burger.
And it was really interesting to me because I'm like, wow, and I
was some delivering meat into these freezers and it got me
thinking and I'm looking at the rest of the food on those
shelves and it's just, you know, the most highly processed
waffles and and just Is re basically, you know, depending
on where you're at in your train of thought when it comes to what
food is in my opinion, I thought it was just garbage and I
thought it was really strange that like, if we're encouraging
these kids to, you know, to reach a higher level of
Education, why are we like, why are we giving them the scrape it
off the bottom of the barrel for him, you know.
So anyway, that's that's tough man.
So did you wind up? Just selling them your quality
stuff. It's such a Low price.
It was just not going to work out with the numbers.
No. In fact, what it was better for
me to just give it to them for free and use it as a tax
write-off. Wow.
Well certainly they can't complain about that.
No, no. So it worked and we don't know
if they made some changes and we had some, it's really
challenging juggling inventory, inventory.
So we kind of pivoted after covid and we went completely
molten mainly Way from the wholesale industry and really
into the direct consumer. I lost a lot of faith.
We lost a lot of faith. We almost we almost sunk is
accompanied with with this covid thing because we'd spend all
summer or all winter. I should say stockpiling beef
for some big Outlets over in the Jackson area because it's, you
know, when the tourist show up, it's kind of a feast or famine
type of scenario and covid hits and they say, hey, we're not
opening. And, you know, we don't have any
investors, we're just, you know, a family, trying to raise raise
and sell cows. And I had like 40,000 pounds of
meat stockpiled, for these restaurant industry and they
said, hey, we're not, we're not opening and so it was kind of a,
we were lucky to survive it and and get through it.
So we pivoted and now I feel a lot more confident in building
building real relationships and Community with real people.
And feeding families and you know supporting their health and
nutrition. Yeah direct-to-consumer I'm
assuming it really. It just depends on the business
but like for me 95% of my business is direct to Consumer
as opposed to wholesale and you're trying to grow the
wholesale side. But I'm I love direct to
Consumer because it's there's a lot more touch points and that
can be, you know, that can be challenging for sure, but at the
end of day, like it's cool knowing the people that are
going to be Zooming your product on a, you know, firsthand based
as opposed to just working through one or two big
distributorships or wholesale, you know, entities that you just
don't know. And I like to be able to know, I
like to be able to have those conversations and I would think
that from a you know, a meat standpoint going direct to
Consumer also would have a whole host of headaches and roadblocks
and obstacles but you just have a I don't like you build a
relationship and I think with so much volatility in the meat
industry, the Deep of those relationships are the The more
security you'll feel for sure. I completely agree with you.
I think the, you know, the whole cell industry, there's a lot
there's a lot quicker opportunity to move volume, but
there's also it's a lot more vulnerable to mean.
That's what we noticed in this in the selling beef in the
wholesale industry into these shafts is you know, maybe the
chef's 100% behind you and they love it.
But if there's a very high turnover rate in the restaurant
industry, Tree and all of a sudden, they would take quit
taking orders and you're, you know, a month would go by you,
finally, get a hold of somebody. And they're like, oh yeah, you
moved on, you know, or we would be actually, you know, six weeks
later, I'd be making cold calling some new restaurants in
the chef. That it was at one location has
actually moved over and set up shop at another location and
you're like, oh my gosh, I didn't even know you'd moved on.
And so it's a it was very fickle and challenging and It's slower
to grow the direct consumer, but in my opinion I feel like it's a
lot more. There's a lot more Security in
it and the relationships are great, don't know, when did you
start tackling direct to Consumers that pretty much all
post covid? Yeah, it was right.
It was like January. Right.
Right in that January when everything started to, you know,
kind of fall apart. What has been working well for
you as far as you know, marketing direct to Consumer
when what has not It worked well at all.
I mean, I don't know it's there. It's a whole new business model,
you know, so it's been, it's been a real.
It's been a real challenge, you know, to, we started out with
kind of high expectations and really not knowing the industry
that well, and we spent a ton of money on these Facebook Facebook
ads, it was kind of before and it was interesting, you know,
social media, the whole, the whole thing is changed so
quickly in the last Years. You know, we're putting content
out and it was just still pictures and now, like, people
are just like jumping on it and like wiggling their butts and
all of a sudden thing, you know, they're just like, they blow up
and we're more about like, you know, education and kind of
sharing information. And so, we do some reels and
those seem to work. But you I feel like it's one of
those deals you have to have your finger it's ever evolving,
right? I mean, we used to, I feel like
even a year ago, if you put a real up, you know, they would
live and they would grow pretty rapidly for, you know, upwards
of three weeks before they kind of petered out.
And now it's like, you put a real up and you get one good
day. You almost get like 24 hours
that it really grows quickly. And this maybe, you know, I may
be off base and that's just, you know, unique to our situation.
But it seems like it's so inundated and So much material
that the the attention span is really, really slowing down.
We did a lot of ads, you know, initially and then we got to
where we were you know kind of questioning doing the ads.
And yeah I think it was Google and Google Google and apple had
some had a fallen out so you could no longer get your
analytics so you didn't even know how your ads were
performing. So that was a challenging
scenario. I think the best thing is Is and
being there's no better sales tax, that tactic than just Word
of Mouth, you know. Yeah Anderson that's really kind
of where we're at now is we're just, you know, just telling
people like quit trust and labels, you know, just taste it,
you know, your tongue knows your, we've evolved for hundreds
of, you know, who knows, how long but we've evolved for a
long, long time and our tongues drive this towards
nutrient-dense food. Like, that's We evolved and so
your tongue is connected to the supercomputer, which is your
brain. And so when you taste something,
you know, as far as Whole Foods, that's why a carrot that's grown
in someone's Garden tastes better than one from you know,
the grocery store or a farm fresh egg.
There's higher nutrient dense in it density in it.
So we want to encourage people to kind of take that power back
and quit trusting the labels because there's so much green
washing and and, you know, just smoke and mirrors out there
anymore. It's like taste it your you do
know like your body knows when something's good for you.
And when it's not with Whole Foods you obviously processed
foods. There's a lot of chemicals and
you know things that can trick you but with Whole Foods it's
you know, it's pretty straightforward.
I would think for the most part. No totally man.
You mentioned greenwashing which is a term that I've heard a few
times and I don't know if most of my audience is familiar with
it, but can you define that as it pertains to your industry?
Yeah, I mean it's kind of like when or get when the organic
label first came out, you know I mean it really was the intention
was there like hey let's quit using chemicals and really I
guess operating more harmoniously with nature made
more natural act practices. And so then but then it turned
into, you know, the government kind of took out, took it over
and made it a You had to get a stamp of approval and wait,
three years, and all these different certifications and
different things. And truth be told is it's what
has happened. Is a lot of, a lot of consumers,
believe it, right? They believe in the organic as
well as they should. They want better, they're
demanding better, they're demanding, more nutrient dense,
and healthy food that you like we want.
We want to know. That were not being lied to like
there's nothing worse than just being lied to.
And what we see is a lot of Corporations have gotten into
that because they see the money that's being left on the table.
And so the corporations have gotten involved and a lot of it
just comes down to, you know, an affidavit, there's just, is it
this? Or is it that?
And they sign a piece of paper and then it can get a stamp of
an organic stamp on it. And I feel like it was 2019
don't quote me on this but somewhere in that timeframe you
know 54% of organic labels were found in.
Non-compliance yeah so the whole thing was you know there's there
is there's a big money grab out there when it when the
corporation start getting involved like you can just you
can just go ahead and bet that it's going to get dirty
especially in the beef industry you know they say that any time
a Marketplace has got more. Then depending on who you listen
to any good Economist will tell you that any time there's more
than you know 20 to 40 percent corporate control that there's a
high probability that you know, there's going to be price
gouging and collusion and price-fixing and all these
different things. Well, the beef industry is its
contrary 86 percent of its control.
Yeah, so I mean, it's just like it's completely, it's just
there's a very high probability that it's It's dirty and and so
now, you know, we transition from the, the organic.
Now there's a lot of like grass debate over grass-fed
grass-finished mean an animal can be considered grass-finished
and all it has it only needs. It only needs to be on grass for
the last I think 90 or 100 days of its life.
And of that of that of that time period, what it's consuming,
only 30% of its diet needs to come from that grass.
So in essence you could have an animal that, you know, is pluck
directly out of, you know, backgrounding or, you know, has
been eating grain and and then is put out on a field of, you
know, GMO, regrowth seat, regrowth barley.
That Seed out and they can be put out there and then Fed Up
fed a different ration. 70% of its ration could be coming from
some other source and packaged and labeled and you know how to
you know as a consumer you just don't and so it's I feel that
it's as time goes on. I think the game's going to kind
of change and I just you're not going to you can't, you don't
know, you don't know if you can trust it.
I think the failsafe and all that is, go find a farmer or
Rancher somebody. That's local to you, go, make an
introduction and just go go Vibe them out, you know, go see, like
this guy's sounds Shady or does this, you know, there are they
doing it, you know, is there some cows on their land and just
have a conversation because those people they they've got
everything to lose. So it's kind of this internal
checks and balances like If you're a farmer Farmer Bob and
you're out there raising cows but you're doing Shady stuff.
Well, you know that if you get caught like that's it like if
you met if you're using bad processing and you make someone
sick that's it, nobody's ever going to buy your product again
and so it's a it's a good it's a good barometer to keep people in
check and you know, those farmers and ranchers.
Need they need, they need the direct consumer.
They They need consumers to support them because I really
think that, you know, with the trajectory of just farming and
ranching in general is we're going to have to at some point,
get an alternative to this commodity Norm because it's, you
know, we continue to go away the farmers and ranchers that get
the people that are raising the food in this country.
It's pretty. It's pretty dismal of the shape
that are Food Industries in. Well, I guess we're all going to
meet in the lab grown meat for too long.
That's that's what a lot. But thanks anyways, man.
I guess, I mean, I can't have a hard time understanding it, I
guess, you know, we'll just have to respectfully disagree agree
to disagree, right? Yeah, I don't want any part of
that. I'd much rather know, my local
farmers and get into farming myself.
And knowing my Foods coming from, then I have it come from,
a petri dish. Well, it's such as it doesn't
make sense, you know, and a lot of that is driven by the the
climate change this climate deal and you know, as as A steward of
land. I'm a Rancher.
And as a steward of the land, we know that there is a thing in
nature called new crop, nutrient cycling, right?
And so, not to be confused with like, I don't support these
large large feedlots, large large coffee foes like, that's
not necessarily where I want to be and how we operate.
But at the same time, I don't, I don't badmouth those people
because that is just, that's their operating.
Under the model that for, you know, 50 years, that's what the
consumer has demanded. So just recently, everybody's
demanding something different, you know, so here we go.
Here's the cry, but it takes time to transition.
And so a lot of these folks that are screaming, you know, climate
change. Well, I have to them, I say
well, if we get rid of the cows then what happens to our
nutrient cycling? Because For thousands of years
like out here in the, where arid West we were, we had, you know,
millions and anywhere from 40 to 60 million bison, roamed and
cared for these lands out here. And those those herds when they
would come through, you know, there'd be, I think in the
Bighorn basins that in the Bighorn Basin which is where
we're located, they estimate, there's anywhere from four to
six million bison would come through seasonally.
So So every spring that come up on over the mountain and roll
through, and, you know, there's a count.
So we have to look back at the historical record.
Do you even know like what did America look like back then?
Right, because there's a lot of changes took place.
And so the closest we can get to is like these historical
accounts from the the Trappers, and so they would climb to the
top of a, you know, a peak and say, what and then write down in
their Journal, like what did they see?
And so, they'd see these massive Herds of Bison coming through
and they would they were they were moving and terms of a herd.
So they stayed close together because if you were a buffalo
and you're off by yourself, something was going to eat you.
And so they stayed close together and there was a lot of
competition, because as they traveled, you know, you can
imagine. There's six million bison in a
hurt. You ate, you know, and there's
Buffalo to the left and Buffalo to the right, you just ate what
was in front of you. So it was like a herd of locust
and they would come through and they would eat everything and
They would till the soil and they would transfer the energy
from their feet into the soil and poop and pee and mix.
The biology from their stomach into that in, do into the soil
and there's a counts from the US Cavalry that say, you know,
they'd fought, they'd be coming out here to, you know, do
whatever. And they would they would get
behind a herd of buffalo and they said our horses, almost
starved to death because they didn't see a blade of grass for
three for three days. So that's like, that's really
something that's like basically the equivalent of plowing
plowing it but but not really pulling it.
So and so we that's the way, but we can like, when we're looking
at like, what the heck's going on, we have commercial social
agriculture organic like regenerative.
Like the one thing we should be able to all agree on is like
nature is perfect in a really weird world where we're all just
questioning like who's lying. What's the Truth.
It seems like everybody's pretty much lying at this point because
words are so Hollow. We don't really have to question
nature and so when it comes to the west and the Arid West in
the bison and that relationship between the bison and the grass,
that's the closest thing to the truth that we had.
And so, that grazing strategy was a high-intensity low time
duration. The herd would come through.
They would eat it all off and they would just keep on moving,
right? And so, the Bison were all
massacred round about. 70s out here.
They're pretty much gone. And so then we saw these, we saw
massive cattle, herds coming from the from the South Houston,
Texas and they come up here. And but the difference was those
were also a high intensity low time duration.
But the difference was there was no period of rest.
So the Bison would come through one year.
The next year they would they go a different direction so they
would let everything rest and it would let it rest for 2 to 3.
Ears. Well, so there's big herds were
coming up for, you know, 15, 20 years, there was Zero rest.
It was just Hammer, Hammer Hammer.
And then we started seeing little civilizations and
Villages and townships starting to take shape up here in
Wyoming, and there was no fences.
So, people would just they have their herds in their herds, just
lived out around town, and same thing.
Kind there were just, there was no rest period.
So then in 1934, The US government recognized that there
was a problem with the grazing and that, you know, we've
experienced in the extreme degradation of our soils.
So they enacted the Taylor, what is called the Taylor grazing
act? So that basically cut the whole
West into a piece of pies and said, okay, each Rancher you're
going to get this Mount this this piece of you land, you get
to manage and this many cows but what that did is it it
basically, it's the opposite of the high intensity low time.
Aggravation it's low intensity High Time duration.
So we have these permits and we go out and we turn our cows that
out and they get to stay there for an extended period of time
and it's basically the exact opposite.
And so what we are seeing there is a study that just came out by
the Bureau of Land Management and we see it shows is the
40-year study and shows continued degradation of our
Arrangement continued degradation or lower water
quality. So I guess I point going back to
what we initially started talking before I get to rent in.
Here was the, you know, this this push against, you know, the
cows in the climate is. It's like, it's not the cows
fault, cows are getting blamed for the degradation of our soils
in the west, it's not the cows, it's the management and it's how
the, how it's being grazed. And so when we take the animals
off of the land, what happens is we lose, we lose the our
nutrient cycling like He's I don't see a proposal for anybody
to bring the Bison back and even if you did without the
Predators, with the heard in the migration through that is the
key. It doesn't matter.
If you've got bison on your land or cows, if they're not moving
in a high intensity low, time duration grazing, pattern,
that's the problem. And so if you take those animals
off the land completely, now all of a sudden you have grass
that's growing up, it's, you know, and nothing's consuming
it. So the nutrients in that grass
are Longer getting put back in sped up.
So that the process and animal eats grass the microbes
understood enter stomach break it down, and return it to the
soil. You know, they poop on the
ground and then the bugs, the dung beetles, they move it back
into the soil. So there's this whole natural
ecosystem in cycle that stops. And so now you just have yellow
grass, that's above the ground and it's less.
So they basically they call that fallow.
And so, all that carbon, that's in that grass.
That's not being returned to the soil, in the carbon Storage
Bank. It's just oxidizing and going up
into the atmosphere. So all these individuals that
say cows are bad for the environment, like I'm not
talking about the feedlots, that's a different whole
different situation, but on a range range, setting cows are
necessary. Cows are 100% necessary for the
nutrient cycling or else. You want to talk about a climate
disaster if that's real. I'm not smart enough to know
these things but if it is Real. I feel like grass oxygen carbon
oxidizing into the atmosphere is a much bigger problem, but you
know who knows? Now I would totally give me
everything you've said and I would assume the soil
degradation that comes from this low intensity High, duration
management that is currently in place still while not optimal
pales in comparison to the soil degradation that occurs as a
result of mono crop Tegra culture.
Yeah. Yeah, I would agree and I mean,
we don't feed grain to our animals and I don't inherently
have a problem, feeding grain. You know, I don't see real
problem feeding grain to cows, like feeding corn to cows.
I'm not down with the GMO thing. We don't feed feed grains to our
cows, but the real problem I have with with, with grazing,
those grains, is that the act of grazing a mono crop and all the
yuck that has to go into that, the, you know, the Calls and
it's just man, the erosion. I've seen I've seen Fields where
guys guys above us are irrigating it and it's just
they've got corn in the ground and the creek, the from their
run, off the Creeks just turns brown, or I guess more red.
We've got red dirt out here but just the the erosion.
And it I really think that the majority of this is just a lack
of Education. When I first ran into
regenerative agriculture, It was like, I've been a ranch or my
whole life and I thought I'd, you know, it's about time you
think you know it all, you know, get ready.
You're going to get a good seat. Your you get ready to learn
something. And I learned about Isis got
into regenerative agriculture and I'm like, holy smokes like
I've been doing it wrong and it's like until it.
But a lot of people aren't willing to even admit that
because it's like it's a real ego gut check.
You got to be able to admit that you did something wrong.
Yeah. And lots of folks aren't willing
to do that but it's actually it's a really empowering thing
because when you admit you're doing something wrong and really
like back up and correct it and move forward, you're really
living, you're really living in more of a truth than you were
before and that feels that feels a lot better, you know?
And I would imagine that transitioning from a tree, you
know, conventional method of raising these beef cattle and
Processing them. And then transitioning from that
to a regenerative. Agriculture model is not a
trivial thing. That is not something that is
not a very agile, maneuver right there.
Yeah. I mean, it's just this, you
know, it's just a commitment to in a trajectory you know, you're
never, I don't think you're ever going to be where you want to
be, but it's just like a commitment to try, you know, to
try to move that direction and I mean for folks that are for
folks that love a good challenge, it's really great
because you're always learning and you know and it that's what
we noticed from when we when we sent in our progression of
Trance transformation from more or less commodity to more
regenerative, you know, there's these two its regenerative is
more of a flow than a force and a lot of things and commodity
agriculture are First, you know, it's just like you think about
Mono crop Agriculture and we're in nature.
Do we, you know, you never see one one, specific species just
growing prevalent without something else in the?
I mean, it's not a healthy ecosystem.
Yeah, and, you know, with these sprays and all these chemicals,
I think that's I think those are the real problems, you know.
I think that's just a tragedy. We don't even know.
You know, you go take a submarine ride in Maui and at
all the, the dead coral. You know, there's a reason and
it's coming from somewhere, you know?
And I think that these two the chemicals time will tell that
that's that's going to be. We're going to really regret
that yeah, as far as just, you know, species degradation and
her own own human human health. I totally agree, man.
So what does a, what is a day in the life look like at your
Ranch? What species, what breed of
cattle yoson but we just we pretty much raised Blac, Black
Angus, Black Angus, Cattle. Okay, so what is the the life
cycle for a typical Black Angus, on your Ranch look like, I mean
it's you know, will start spring.
We start calving in the spring. You know, when when things are
when it's nice out in the grass starts to grow, we start calving
and you know typically they stay with their moms until like step
10, December, October. And that's that's when we wean.
So we'll be we'll have them out in.
It's called The Badlands it used to be really good lands but in
past degradation it's called the Badlands now but We'll spend our
Springs out there and then kind of transition as it warms up in
the throughout the summer, transition to go up country and
get up onto the mountain. The Big Horn, mountains and
graze that. And then about the time, right
before, snow starts to fly. We'll come back off the
mountain, we in the calves and then, you know, decide where,
which direction we're going with them.
If we're going to, you know, graze them on fields or or sell
them outright or what we're going to do.
And then Just kind of you just kind of repeat the site.
Repeat the cycle, this is ours, what the day, what the Day
brings man. We never know.
He is wake up and figure it out. Yeah.
It's you're just dealing with animals and nature and anytime,
you know, we try to make plans but invariably, they always get
blown up. So we tried to make plans, but
you just, you have to be really good to be in pretty good
Rancher. You have to be really good at
the audible and you just, you know, kind of being able to goo
To operate with some calm in the chaos times, like today, you
know, it's 20 below zero. It's relaxed could all right,
we're gonna, we're gonna do more things, more things, you know,
how to House freeze at one of our tenant houses?
Froze up. Couldn't get some trucks to
start. So we're just the, you just kind
of see where you need to be, what kind of workers you'll
typically have commanded. Like, how many hands you have
out there that just wanting to be there and be like living the
cowboy life? You know, it's it's tough man.
I mean we've had we've had a lot of guys come through.
I think the most depressing part of it is you can't like we can't
pay people, you know you can't pay somebody I think going right
going wage for a solid Hired Hand is and we pay pretty good
is you know, to 2000 to 2500 dollars a month and so people
that are, you know, And I'm not trashing on it.
But typically the the folks that are really migrate to this type
of work, are, you know, most of those types of individuals and I
might get in trouble for saying this, but most of them need more
of a life coach than, oh, shoot. Sorry about that, they need more
of a life coach than they do. You know, a job just because
it's low paying. So anybody that's kind of got
their their ducks in a row and are high operating Like they
move on to where they can make some money and but because
agriculture is soda such a depressed market.
Like we can, you can't afford to pay somebody, you know, five
thousand dollars a month. Yeah.
And so you know we just you just kind of do we lean on family, a
lot to help and being kind of what this regenerative
regenerative thing. We're really leaning more
towards you. No less.
Working more with late nature. Try to take trip taking the
labor out, staying out of the tractors, just letting nature
take its course and you know, let us point us in the direction
of like where we need to be. No 100% man.
Makes a lot of sense. I'd love to dive into some of
the, the Nuance about the quality of your beef.
So like you said, before we start recording that, you just
got some, some lab tests on the Omega profiles that right?
Yeah, we did. So, it was over a year ago, we
sent we sent our beef and sent some samples in.
I think we sent three different samples in from 32 separate
animals, send it into the Bayou, nutrient food Association, and I
would give a big shout-out to those guys and dr.
Stephen Van Vliet Fred, Fred provenza, I think, Mark hymens
involved in In Dane, kittridge they.
So they've got a whole system and I don't even want to you
know, butcher it for him. But anyway we sent them our beef
and they sent us are our nutrient nutritionals back and
basically comparing our beef to also that they have a an
established grass-fed database, and then they have a grain fed
database. And yells was just light years
ahead of everybody else. Well, I mean, I don't know.
I don't want to brag too much about what, what our, how our
animals did. But they yeah, they were their
exceptional, you know, we ranked in the very highest percentiles,
as far as all the beef that's been, you know, that they've
looked at it. So, I don't know the size of
their database. I think they've they've done,
you know, hundreds of samples across the United States, but as
far as the Omega, I think it's and I sometimes I get this
backwards, so correct me if Wrong is that the Omega 6 to 3
Ratio or the 326? So you typically want to see a
higher, it's typical to see higher omega-6 than omega-3.
So anything, that consumers can do to intake more.
Omega-3 relative to omega-6 is generally good, okay?
So it was a 10 to 1 on the 32, on the 623, so basically, they
said they told us, the scientists told us that our our
rate R Omega A 6 to 3 ratio was three, almost three and a half
times more healthy when compared to the average grass,
grass-finished beef. So you're ahead of the, the
other, your head of the people that are ahead of the charge.
So you're you're a winner among the winners.
Yeah, yeah. And then with the, you know, so
there are some other interesting statistics, the essential our
beef, exhibited, 70% higher, Fire in was it seventy percent
higher in essential amino acids, 80% higher and non-essential,
amino acids than other grass-finished beef?
Um and the really cool one with the the phytonutrient.
So I want to talk about the phytonutrients because this is
we're still kind of geeking out over it.
I think it's really cool. Maybe everybody saw like kissed
a girl I think it was Diana. Rogers did the documentary,
leave us kiss the ground. They're talking about, you know,
the difference between grass-finished and grain
finished beef, and they basically came down to like
their other than the Omega differences.
There wasn't Much of a difference but since that time
there's new information has been released and it pertains to
phytonutrients. And so by nutrient food
Association and dr. Stephen Van Vliet those folks.
Hold on a second. Those folks are really leading
the charge, and so phytonutrients are basically
defined as metabolites or chemicals, that are unique to
different plants and basically, all the Florida that's out there
in the universe, right? They've identified, I think over
26,000 different phytonutrients. And so, each plant has got a
chemical signature that is unique to it.
Depending Species. So, the theory is that the more
you are, what you eat, the animal is what idiots, so the
more diverse and animals diet. The more of these phytonutrients
are going to be stored in the fats and so, they really don't
know. Like, they just they have not
been studied at all, but they've been shown.
There's a ton of Promise a lot of it has got like,
antioxidants. I mean, it's I was explained to
me basically. Be like it's going like going
into the jungle and saying does this does that plant cure cancer
like we have no idea because they haven't even been studied
and I was talking to dr. Van Vliet and he says with the
technology we have that he basically feels that they're
only seeing about five percent of what's actually in the food.
So like to look at your food and look at the like turn around the
back of your, you know, your on your label when you buy
something from the store, you look at the The the ingredients
and you just see the carbs and protein and sugars and
carbohydrates, like it's so there is so much more to food.
Then we even know. And so this, this stuff matters.
So fighter nutrients is this new charge that's being pushed, it's
like kind of this. The tip of the spear in terms
of, you know, differentiating between grass and grain.
Because when an animal is eating a grain finish diet, they're
pretty much limited to, you know, three or four different
plants. You know, some grain, some
Alfalfa for protein and, you know, straw, or or You know,
beet pulp or something for filler.
But they're very limited whereas an animal that's out eating
grasses. There they have a lot higher.
They've got an access to a lot more of diverse of a diet.
And then to even split that hair down and you're like well, an
animal eating on an irrigated pasture where there's like, you
know, four or five different planted grass, has compared to
animals like we're doing, that are out there out, living on
native range. There's, you know, lots of
different plants and sedges and they get a little bit of pollen
from the sagebrush and, you know, a bite of some wild
flowers like all that stuff matters in it.
It really makes sense to me because I'm like, well, that's
kind of what we evolved eating was, you know, Wild game and so
they're eating much more of a diverse diet.
So, when they started measuring the phyto, nutrient density of
our beef, our beef stacked up, we were six, we measured 64
percent. Higher and phytonutrients than
the average grass-finished beef. And this is the one that just
tipped me over. When they were comparing our
beef to the average grain finished beef, we scored two
hundred and thirty nine percent higher in in phyto, nutrient
density. Wow, that's crazy, man, and I
bet, yeah, they have a lot better too.
Oh, man. I mean, it's like, yeah, if
you've never if you've never tried our beef before, I mean,
we hear it all the time. It's just like, it's much more
akin to you. You know, like wild game, you
know, just because it has more nutrient density and maybe for
your listeners, I don't. This is kind of commonplace for
us, but I don't know if people understand that but nutrient
density goes hand-in-hand with flavor and aroma.
So the better something case, you know, all the MSG and all
the chemical stuff aside. But the better, but the better
things taste. The typically, the more nutrient
dense it is and that's just like as we evolve our bodies were you
know, evolved to go towards more nutrient dense foods.
Well you can just a guys looking on your Instagram and you can
like see the difference to I mean the the meat that y'all's
cattle producing it just it just a much deeper darker Hue, which
is similar to what I'm used to seeing like with, with deer that
I've killed over the years and process, you know, it's just a
much. Much deeper more nutrient-dense
look. Now, a lot of companies are
dying the meats that it looks dark like that, but a wild game
meets on average just looks. So it's something like a deep
purple as opposed to like a pink.
Yeah, I've heard. I've heard that they died me.
I mean I wouldn't I've never seen that but it wouldn't
surprise me. It's too bad.
What about like Anna, antibiotics and hormones and
things like that. I mean, we steer clear that
obviously we're in the business of keeping animals alive.
So if something you know something sick like we
definitely give it a nearby otix.
But I think the big the big difference is that a lot of like
when people are talking about the antibiotics, what happens is
like when an animal is sick, like you have to try to, you
have to try to save its life, right, right.
But what happens in the large in larger confinement operations
is, it's like a, it's a load. And it's very I guess what you
say it's like prescription is more of a prescription like the
animals aren't even sick yet and they just start feeding
everything antibiotic. So it's in the ration and they
just feed it to everything as more of like a prevented
preventative measure to keep animals from from getting sick
and it's, you know, feedlots are it's messy.
I mean, I don't know if you have Kids.
But I think, I think you I think I saw you do have kids.
Yes, sir, putting all the kids, you know, and confining them in
a school setting and guess what? Like that's what's going to
happen. But we have found that through
management and not confining these animals and let it
allowing them to roam and you know kind of be out and not
tight and congested like those problems just go away.
Yeah no I really do and hormones far as hormones go like I've
heard of a lot of ranchers they Put like a hormone pellet in a
lot of these cattle like on the inner ear or something like that
and I don't know what the entire purpose is.
There enough is estrogen, I'm not sure what hormone is, but
I'm assuming it's to increase growth on some level.
Yeah, doesn't seem like a smart idea, either.
Well, that was really, that was pretty prevalent in like the 80s
and not, I guess maybe the 90s. I remember, I remember doing
that as a kid when we were growing up.
You know, they Called it Ral grow and you have to put his
little pellet and you you know they put it in their ear and I
think they figured it would add, you know 20 to 30 pounds of gain
on to a calf. So I mean really we're talking
about is like you know, is your caste worth twenty dollars more,
which was huge. Yeah you know when did when
you're dealing with such tight? Margins?
It was huge. That's kind of gone away.
I mean we I think out here in our area I only know one one.
Two minutes that that still uses growth hormones and I don't
know. I mean, I've read it, I've read
that, you know, the amount of hormone that's left in that
Animal. By the time it gets to your
plate is like there. There's there's more hormones in
your chicken then or your I think you I think it was that
the human body produces like 6,000 times more, that more of
whatever hormone it was in a day than, I don't know.
It I'm not I don't I don't know enough to speak to it but it
seemed like it was pretty negligible from the research
that I did. But like I said, I'm just I'm a
Rancher. I'm not really a scientist.
Well, I think defaulting to as natural process as possible with
as few of interventions, as possible makes the most sense,
and it sounds like your cattle are pretty much as close to wild
animals as they can be and wild forage and living as a wild
animal would for the most part. So, I think, You're pretty dang
close to home base there. Well we're trying man and we're
just like rib really focused on the we're very excited to and
really grateful to buy nutrient food and those folks to to get
to provide that data for us. Because we felt like we've been
told that our meat taste difference and it's like it was
really just validating to say, okay?
Yeah, we are, we are doing something different and so now
we're just trying to really grow, you know, grow larger
Direct consumer business and it's challenging.
It's very it's very expensive but you know FedEx is very
expensive to ship meat but you know there's there are folks
that really value that you know and then you know going into
next you know 2023 is we're just really in the planning stages to
take this are grazing are grazing management to the next
level and just really scale up, you know, this this grazing and
You know, as a Rancher, you know, your your most important
things like Do no harm. I mean, that should be, that
should be every ranchers. Mantra is Do no harm like we're
a steward to the land. We're here to take care of it,
you're just going to die. So you're basically you're
borrowing it from your kids. So don't totally trash it.
So that they've got something that they can be productive
with. And that's the difference
between commodity commodity agriculture in this chemical
approach and regenerative agriculture.
You know it's like we've got 500 irrigated Acres out here that we
put up kind of polyculture fields.
There's No Mono crops. We're just always planting new
stuff and really getting into it but we didn't put any we put on
zero fertilizers and we don't spray any any pesticides on it.
And what we're really trying to do is grow, grow more grass with
less inputs which you really make sense.
Yeah you know because it's like 20 23 in the input costs have
gone through the roof. Oof you know, tractor go buy a
tractor tire or, you know, a tube agrees, we didn't know what
a tube, the tube agrees cost money.
It was like, you know, it's so small.
You didn't even pay attention to it and then it all of a sudden
one day it was like $7 you're like holy smokes.
Like don't waste the grease and Diesel costs and so we're like
let's quit using fertilizer and let's try to build the by.
Let's build the biology let's get that back to a healthy
biological soils and let's let the bacteria.
Rhea, mind the Mind amino acids and create, you know, nitrogen
on its own. You know, there's different,
there's nine different sources of nitrogen, one of them is
urea, which is commercial commercial, fertilizer that
they, you know, use propane and fuel to create the rest of them,
are all they're naturally occurring.
If you have the healthy biology to break those downs and
enabling those ecosystems, I mean, they they say that
there's, you know there's as much There's more life in a
handful of Health biologically healthy soil.
Then there is an all all terrestrial life above ground.
I mean, it's basically, it's like the stars but in Reverse it
is like kind of a crazy thing. Craig, try to rape wrap your
wrap your head around, but you know, it just it makes sense.
Like people were Grace raising food way before, you know, it
came in a jug and there was an application.
No, I just I go back to this the chemicals, man.
I think these chemicals, I think it's going to be the we're going
to look back. He who knows?
With a lot of us are already waking looking back and
regretting it. But I think the masses will look
back and be like man that we blew it.
You look at like their studies down there, on the Mississippi
like the last 60 miles of the Mississippi.
And you look at the prevalence of like cancer and sicknesses
and because that's basically like that's the toilet, you
know? As you flush all this Farm drown
in the the bread belt of America, it just goes right down
through there. And I mean and the numbers don't
lie like something's going on, ya know, 100% agreement.
I think he were absolutely on the right track and I feel like
you having this Steward of the land mentality and playing the
long game is absolutely Paramount and I'm hopeful that
more Farmers ranchers and just Everyday, People, start taking,
you know, that approach. Do you feel like there's Many
other ranchers. In the Wyoming area that are
kind of moving in this direction of regenerative agriculture or,
is that kind of just not even in there, not even in their view?
No, it's 100% happening. I mean, it's so optimistic just
to see more, the conversation is had more and more.
And you know, if you were to look at the pendulum and say
which direction is it swinging? That's, that's the direction.
Good, the majority, we're it. That's the way that is going to
be the future of Agriculture because See the other way.
It's like, it's not sustainable, we can't keep, we can't keep
extracting, you know? And that is all that commodity
agriculture is it's just take, take take you know, it's dump
fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides on and it just it's
all take. Well, nature is not take that.
There's always a give we have to give back you looking at the
commodity Agriculture and all 100% of the cop.
Of the input costs are put into the Harvest, you know?
And there's nothing there's nothing left and thought we were
I was raised that way you know you'd look out in your field and
you're like oh man, we sure left a lot of grass out there and
it's like man, the bugs got to eat and so really as a beef
Rancher and that's what we're striving for.
Is that beef Rancher? Really?
What we should all be looking at is you want to be the best soil
managers. Like that's that's the endgame
we need to be better. Soil managers.
Because then, if you can get that right, everything
afterwards is better your beefs about.
Your cows are healthier, your beings better, you have hired
higher nutrient, dense, beef, which means you're going to have
higher, you know, healthier people.
And it's proven that if you, if you the more nutrient-dense
Foods, people eat, like, that's directly linked to higher human
cognition, is like what, what is the cost of having a bad idea?
You know, what is the cost of not solving?
I'm the problem. So at all costs, we should
definitely try to be, you know, increased brain cognition, like
it's kind of a complicated world.
We can, we can solve some problems, but I really think
that, you know, it's much more challenging if you're eating
garbage. You know, if you're eating
highly processed, you know, chemical Laden foods like good
luck getting any sort of clarity in your mind, you get some
clarity in your mind and then you just like you solve some
problems. So I think It's, I think it's
interesting. I think it's really important.
I think it's interesting how it come all ties together.
And I think one of the biggest arguments not necessarily
against this but it's just like in in spite of this, like, like
is that sustainable to support our population size, you know,
as a species like that, that question gets thrown around a
lot when people talking about global warming and food supply
etc, etc. And I feel like regardless,
Regardless of the answer, the response should be, what
certainly better than what we're currently doing.
So it's move in that direction as best we can but even if we
looked at it from a sustainability factor, I think I
don't think that it's unfeasible.
I feel like it's totally within reason.
I mean there's a lot of land that simply cannot be used from
an agricultural standpoint like if there's to the grades to
steep the elevations too high what not but it would be
perfectly suitable for Grazing animals.
And I feel like if you were to rotate that in a way it most
certainly could be a possible Outlet.
Yeah, I agree with you. 100 percent ninety.
People have talked about this. I've heard this.
Same question is regenerative? Agriculture is regenerative
protein, scalable regenerative? Protein production and I would
have to say yet. Heck, yeah, it is like we've
already done it. Yeah.
Well, we didn't, we screwed it up, but it's like the Bison
right there was 60 million bison.
Re-run operating. And that was a, that's his
regenerative. As we could get.
But I also think that like I think we could improve on that
with with with the technology that we have and has amazing his
humans. Are we get in there?
We love to split those hairs. If we get in there with the, you
know, a herd of 60 million animals.
And we start splitting those hairs, who knows what the
potential is. I mean, that's the thing we
don't know, all we know is that we're going the wrong direction,
you know, with this this 40-year BLM study.
Any degradation of our ran over rangeland.
We're ruining the water. It's like, we got.
We've got a try, right? Yeah.
There's like, because we're it current day like we're basically
in a race to the bottom, like who can get there.
The, how fast can we get there? And, you know, it's just like,
whoo! Whoo, we made it.
And I got like, I've got a whole bunch of money in my bank
account. Well, guess what?
You're not going to take any of that with you when you're dead.
And then, what do you like, what are you leaving your kids?
It's just like It's a such a silly, it's such a silly
approach. So yeah, I think I think there's
nothing but potential when it comes to the regenerative
movement and just you know that's what that's really what
we're working on is just trying to scale out what we're doing
out here and and see what, what are the impacts?
I mean, we're just, we're getting soiled data this coming
year and doing microbe testing in the soils.
And it's Are you optimistic? Yeah, I really did.
Create, you know, we want to inspire, you know, we sell, we
sell our, we sell our beef online.
And, you know, we tell people all the time, like, don't buy it
from us, go buy it from. Go to your local dude.
Quit don't pay FedEx. Go find somebody that's closer
to you and go B. Go support this guy like I'm
sure he's doing an awesome tour date their their families
probably doing an awesome job you know.
Yeah. And what we want to do is like
it's all about the models like that's what But the problem is
everybody gets caught up in this like old, they're doing a bad
job, they raised GMO. It's like they're doing the best
they can. There's we're all trying to do
the same thing. We're all trying to, you know,
have a pretty happy life. And you know, have some time and
make enough money that we don't have to, you know, lose the farm
to the bank and there's the ranch and and whatever.
But it's like it's the mob, the model that we all get Scott sold
on, that's the problem. And so it's going to take time
to fix that, but we need to support Each other in doing
that. And if we can, you know, share
information and develop new text techniques which are basically
older techniques and share. Thats like, dang, I don't see
why we couldn't do it. You know.
Yeah, get all pointed the same direction now. 100% agree, man.
I feel like that's absolutely the right Cinema.
That certainly the direction where people need to go, I feel
like as a whole the people in you know, this community my
audience, this listenership, they Are all very much so on
that page that we are all trying to prioritize the quality of the
foods that were consuming. Once you start diving into the
quality of the foods, the, the model that you're describing the
one that you're headed towards and striving to perfect that
just makes the most sense. Like it's obvious that a heavily
commoditized beef production at, you know, procedure in which
everything's running on hormones, antibiotics, and
chemicals, and mono, crop. Their coach that just makes no
sense from a nutrient quality. Standpoint and I feel like the
more people place an emphasis and start voting with their
dollars over quality or on quality, that's just going to
gain more and more prevalent. Like this needs to be the
direction, things shift towards, because as you said, the
opposite is certainly not sustainable.
And it's like it's certainly a just race to the bottom and
nobody wants that. Yeah, and I really think that a
lot of that is just propped up by, you know, the companies that
are selling us, this stuff that convinced us of this This model,
you know, they are, they're the ones that are profit, they're
the ones that are making money. Every time we buy the thing, you
know, to help it grow or the thing to kill and it's just, it
doesn't make, doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
So, I think we can just, we can all we can do is, try try to do
better. 100% man. Well, I'm in complete agreement
with you, and that people should find their local farmers and
ranchers and support them directly, but for those that
want to buy their meat from you. Going to buy some as well
because I'm curious to give it a shot where people go to do, then
yes, we've got a website. So it's Carter Country meets.com
and we've got yeah we've got what we really push in.
As we're really pushing our Bighorn box, you know because
you get into you know we started off as a Rancher and we decided
to sell our beef really to try to insulate ourselves from the
commodity market. So you go We've moved from a
Rancher, you're like, I think I'm going to be a businessman
and then you get into business that you learn about margins and
all the stuff and holy smokes, it gets complicated.
You know, Stefan really at the end, the day for us, is we're
like man, it has to be food. Has food consumption has to work
for the farmers and the ranchers.
If it's going to work at all, it has to work for them.
So the most that one of the best things for us is we really try
to push our Bighorn boxes, which is basically, it's a 5, 10 or 20
pound box, that's representative of the cuts that come off of a
whole animal. So we've we've broken it down to
like a tier 1, which is, you know, the really popular.
The ribeye the strip loin New York strips in the tenderloin.
And so the Box represents like 15 or 15 percent of your box is
represented by those cuts and then 35% is represented by the
other awesome Cuts Like skirt steak.
A can culotte and flat irons and brevets and short ribs and then
50% of their box is grinds and so it's really like help
encourage people to, you know, different Meats have new
different nutrients, nutrient densities in them.
So it's more of like a journey around the whole cow and it's
funny we just did a survey as to see what, what our most popular
cut was. And our most popular, most
popular cut to our existing customers is actually Hamburger.
And if you've never had our hamburger when it's it's
something it's an experience in itself.
What about like organ Meats? Have you all seen an uptick in
interest around? We're going to means.
Yeah, yeah, we're seeing we're seeing that.
In fact, we're going to try it, try a new try mixing some of
that in I'm not. I mean, I love, I love heart but
boy it's hard for me to do the liver thing.
Yeah, I didn't like it but I've only only get a hankering for
every once in a while. Yeah, it's tough.
So we're going to we're going to do a grind and we're going to
mix mix that stuff into into our burger and see how that goes.
I've been, I mean if yeah good boy.
And if that really sets, good. I feel like this the keto
carnivore thing like it's not it's not losing momentum, would
you would you say? Yeah I totally agree man.
I've been in the space for I've been doing the diet for like
eight years now, I guess and I've been in the keto space
creating content for, I don't know, six of those years I guess
and I feel like keto probably reached its you know Peak and
like 2018-19 maybe 2017. A Google Trend standpoint.
If you go to Google Trends that's when it's going to have
reached its Zenith and then carnivore kind of came along but
like the overall Foundation of people that are eating this way,
I think that continues to grow and I feel like it's sensible
that it does continue to grow because the in the day a quality
ketogenic well-formulated diets or carnivore diet it's just
simply eating you know solid real food and yeah making animal
based nutrition the foundation of that food.
Makes the most sense from a bioavailability standpoint from
a nutrient density standpoint. So if I was if I was going to
start a meat company I would most certainly be targeting
people in the keto carnivore space so I think you're on the
right track there, for sure. Yeah, well it's really
empowering, you know, having conversations and talking to
real people out there, they're buying our product but to hear
the stories about these individuals that have gotten on
this path and And if he'll like, literally healed, some like
crazy maladies that they've suffered from, its, it makes
sense, you know, it's really, it's really empowering to see.
People just like figuring it out for themselves.
Yeah, yeah, it's like it's just real man.
Like, it's just real people with real life experiences.
They're not, they're striving to get away from that, you know,
Western medicine culture in which the you got to have a pill
or a potion for everything. It's like, well, just simply
Turn to what's worked for us as a species for however long.
It has, I mean like eat real food be active be healthy and
you're going to be all right? Yeah yeah 100%.
So we're speaking the same language for Sherman.
One more time what's the name of your website?
It's a Carter Country meets awesome.
Well I will link that to that are see it's been an absolute
pleasure man. I think you are certainly
fighting the good fight. I think you are on the right
track. I'm certainly excited to see
where it takes you. If there's ever anything I can
do to help spread your message any form or fashion Man, by all
means, let me know. Hey, you're the you're the man.
Robert. I appreciate your time,
appreciate you, man.