#236 – Giovana Benitez – Keeping the Ranch and Faith!
Wow! This conversation was incredibly powerful and inspiring to me. Giovana and her father faced hardships that most people will never experience, including the loss of family and nearly losing the ranch. Through it all, Giovana grew in her faith in God, and today,...
#236 – Giovana Benitez – Keeping the Ranch and Faith!
Wow! This conversation was incredibly powerful and inspiring to me. Giovana and her father faced hardships that most people will never experience, including the loss of family and nearly losing the ranch. Through it all, Giovana grew in her faith in God, and today, both she and the ranch are...
#235 – Seth Pratt – Generational Ranching in Idaho
Seth Pratt shares his family’s story of building their business over multiple generations and the investments they’ve made to add value to their animals by owning them through finish and holding a share in the cooperative that markets the meat. We also discuss his...
#234 – Rusty Lee – Grazing Grain Milo
Rusty Lee is a University Extension Specialist with the University of Missouri, as well as a farmer and rancher with extensive experience in grazing grain milo. In this episode, he shares valuable tips and considerations for using grain milo to reduce winter feed...
#233 – Chris and Lyndsey – Solar Grazing
In this episode, I speak with Chris Moore and Lyndsey Smith, from Shady Creek Lamb Co., who share their innovative approach to sheep farming through solar grazing. They discuss their backgrounds in agriculture, the challenges of transitioning from cattle to sheep, and...
#232 – Keith Olsen – Low Input Crop and Cattle Farming
Keith Olsen is passionate about low-input, regenerative agriculture and is exploring both approaches on his own operation in southeast Minnesota. We discuss how he’s working to improve both his land and his bottom line through these enterprises—and much more....
#231 – Sam Fryer – Ranching, Podcasting, and Working!
Sam Fryer has an incredible story. He shares how he made the decision to step away from the family farm and strike out on his own in order to preserve family relationships. We talk about the process of building his operation independently, as well as his thoughts on...
#230 – Jacob Gilley – Enterprise Analysis, Real Estate, and More
There’s a lot of great insight in this conversation with Jacob Gilley. We talk about his path to farming, his decision to leave his off-farm job, and the many enterprises he’s been involved with. We also spend time diving into his record-keeping strategy and approach...
#229 – Ben Minden – Training Cowboys and Buying a Business
Ben Minden is the founder and president of Bear Hug Cattle Company, a non-profit organization that trains retiring military members on the basics required to work in the cattle industry in the West. In the second part of our conversation, Ben shares his unique...
#228 – Drew Bruner – Going All in on Sheep
Drew Bruner shares why, in today’s market, he chose to shift away from stockers and focus entirely on sheep. He discusses both his permanent flock and his stocker ewe flock experiment for this year. Drew dives into the key challenges of sheep production, how he...
#227 – Matthew Menke – Risk vs. Reward, Leverage, & Knowing Your Business
Matthew Menke shares his powerful story of turning down what many would consider a dream opportunity—taking over a family business—because he couldn’t make it work profitably. Instead, he built an ag business from the ground up and eventually returned to farming and...
#226 – Randal Breen – From Living in a Shed to Full Time Farmer
Randal Breen shares his incredible story of building a farm from the ground up. Today, he operates on over 650 acres and direct markets meat and eggs to local individuals and wholesale accounts. One powerful example of the strong relationship he has with his community...
#225 – Alex McKiernan – Car Wrecks Can’t Stop This Family!
Alex McKiernan and his wife have built a diverse and thriving farm and ranch business that began with direct-to-consumer vegetable production through a CSA. Over time, it has grown into a large ranching operation that includes custom grazing, goat production for weed...
#224 – Caleb Smith – Switching from Dairy to Sheep
Caleb Smith has taken a unique path into agriculture. He had the opportunity to take on a 40-year land lease from a non-profit, which allowed him to build a dairy farm from scratch. In this episode, he shares that story, along with his recent transition from the dairy...
About the Ranching Returns Podcast
On this podcast, we talk to farmers and ranchers who are leading the industry in so many ways. We’ll discuss the various returns they get from ranching, including, of course, the significant financial returns, but also returns to their land resources and ultimately the amazing lifestyle. That might be the most important return ranching can offer!
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The status quo beef industry’s incessant selection for more frame, more growth and more milk has created tall, slab-sided, flat-muscled, hard-keeping bulls that resemble solid-colored Holstein steers. Where's the BEEF? Pharo Cattle Company® has thick, easy-fleshing, heavy-muscled bulls that can BEEF-UP your cattle, as well as your profits. We’re not going to cheat you on pounds. We’re just gonna put those pounds in a different package – a package with extra...