#293 – Blake and Ida Jane Allen – Building a First-Gen Ranch
Blake and Ida Jane Allen share their journey into ranching, starting with a commercial cow/calf operation, transitioning to stocker growing, and eventually returning to cow/calf while building a direct-to-consumer meat business that complements their lifestyle and...
#293 – Blake and Ida Jane Allen – Building a First-Gen Ranch
Blake and Ida Jane Allen share their journey into ranching, starting with a commercial cow/calf operation, transitioning to stocker growing, and eventually returning to cow/calf while building a direct-to-consumer meat business that complements their lifestyle and operation goals. Today, they are...
#281 – Todd Churchill – The Business of Ranching
Todd Churchill has an incredible résumé, including active participation in farming and ranching, helping build one of the largest meat marketing companies, and serving as a fractional CFO for numerous food and agriculture companies. We discuss his story, why...
#280 – Joe Gardiner – Cover Crops for Farm and Ranch Profitability
Joe Gardiner shares his awesome story of getting started in farming, experiencing early success, and then learning the hard way about the volatility and unpredictability of commodity markets. We discuss his journey of learning about cover crops and regenerative...
#279 – Michael Detweiler – Cows and Water Buffalo on a Missouri Ranch
Michael Detweiler manages a 4,000-acre Missouri ranch where cattle, water buffalo, sound grazing management, and cover crops are used to improve their rocky soil. We discuss his journey to managing the ranch, as well as the faith and hope he has found in Jesus after...
#278 – Grant Harder – Sell/Buy Marketing Success
Grant Harder shares his journey as a multi-generational rancher building his own first-generation ranch from the ground up and making a living from his ranching business. We discuss how he grew the business, his focus on stockmanship, and his approach to managing...
#277 – Hayden & Taylor Sievers – Lifestyle by Design
Hayden and Taylor Sievers are working together to create the lifestyle they want. We discuss the changes they’ve made over the years and the goals they’re still working toward. They also share their plans to transition toward a more grazing-based farm in row-crop...
#276 – Cory and Jennilee Bird – How Virtual Fence Improved Their Ranch
Cory and Jennilee Bird ranch with Cory's family in Montana, operating on a mix of public and deeded land. They discuss their diverse operations and management practices and share in-depth insights into their experience using Nofence virtual fence collars to manage...
#275 – Glenn Elzinga – Building Alderspring Ranch
It’s important not just to look at successful ranches when learning how to build one, but to understand how they became successful. Today, we dive into Glenn Elzinga’s story of building Alderspring Ranch from just 6 cows on 60 acres into what it is today — one of the...
#274 – Jarod Kiggans – Creative Financing as a First-Gen Rancher
After 270+ episodes, there aren’t too many times I hear an idea I haven’t heard before. But in this episode, Jarod shares how he came up with creative financing strategies to purchase his first line of equipment, his first cows, and his first piece of land. This is an...
#273 – Michael Mendel – Finding Success in a Diverse, Multi-Family Farm
Michael Mendel shares how his family emphasized an early transition of farm ownership to the next generation and discusses the many different enterprises they run and how they work together. We also discuss his spring and fall cow herds, heifer development and calving...
#272 – Kit Pharo – Kit Addresses Low-Input Critics
Kit responds to comments and questions from podcast clips. Here are just a few of the topics we discuss: Maternal vs. terminal selection Applying pressure in heifer development What is the ideal cow size? The effect of calving season on lifestyle and profitability...
#271 – Dylan Enger – Growing a Family Ranch
Dylan Enger shares how he and his brother returned home to ranch with their uncle. We discuss them adding new enterprises and maintaining full-time off-ranch jobs, which left more money in the business for reinvestment and expansion! Switch to Audio-Only Don't Miss...
#270 – Tristen Miller – Building Businesses and a Farm
Tristen Miller quickly realized he didn’t want to work for anyone else. He and his wife have been building their own cattle operation while also developing several other businesses. He shares how he got into custom spraying, trucking, started a feed company, and grew...
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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Good Foundation
If a cow or a bull has bad feet, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the animal looks like – and it doesn’t matter what the pedigree or EPDs look like. A cow or bull must have a good foundation to stand on to stay in production for more than just a few years. Unfortunately… foot problems seem to be rapidly increasing across the nation and around the world. That’s why Pharo Cattle Company® takes time to evaluate and score foot structure on every bull we sell. That’s...