The Superior Advantage Episode 73 w/ Trent Stewart

Episode 73 brings you straight into the heart of the livestock industry with Superior Livestock Auction and special guest auctioneer Trent Stewart.

In this episode, we dive into what really happens behind the mic at some of the largest cattle auctions in the country, how technology is changing the game for ranchers and buyers, and what it takes to build a career in the fast-paced world of livestock marketing. Trent shares his journey into auctioneering, the pressure of the auction block, and the stories you never hear from the stands.

Whether you’re in the cattle business, grew up around it, or just want a behind-the-scenes look at how America’s beef supply moves from ranch to market, this one hits home.

Tune in for stories, insight, and a real look at the Superior advantage in the livestock world.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

We're gonna keep the ring in the family and the family in the ring. Ladies and gentlemen, we're saddled up for episode number 71. It's a registered ranch and podcast live in Throckmorton, Texas. And if you've ever been to the awesome of the great American fast food of Throckmorton, then you're just right across the road from where we are at the uh Mitchell's Mercantile. If you haven't been in here, um pretty cool store. But I want to introduce our guest today, who's brought to you by Superior. Go to superior livestock.com. It is the superior way to sell cattle. Would I dare say that right?

SPEAKER_04 0:53

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah, say that right? Awesome. Well, Trent Stewart, welcome to the Registered Ranching Podcast and back to Throckmorton, Texas.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Well, Tucker Brown, hello, and thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Man, what uh how about the uh Mitchell's? It's pretty cool, huh?

SPEAKER_04 1:06

Oh, yeah, this is a heck of a nice store.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Yeah, to having Throckmorton has been handy. Been handy. Perfect for now. I don't have the excuse of that I have to go out of town to get a gift for my wife or my brother. Now I'd now there's always something to get here. Um, but yeah, so superior. Um this episode brought to you by superior. We've sold cattle on superior. A lot of our customers sell cattle through superior. You've been working with superior for a number of years. What'd you say? 25?

SPEAKER_04 1:40

It'd be real close to that. I think I started as a representative in 2000.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

In 2000. So I'll yeah, 25, 26 years. Uh but Trent, I've really got to know you more the past few years from sitting on the block with you at our bull sales, which is always I mean, always fun for me. And also, I remember sitting up there the first time, and uh I didn't realize how set up I was for success to have you and Doke and to to help me as y'all were auctioneering.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Yeah, well, you got a great leader too. He's no stranger to the mic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Donald's pretty proficient at what he does. Yeah, Donald knows what he's doing behind that mic.

SPEAKER_04 2:23

Yeah, but it is good to work with Doc Lambert. He's a a heck of a colleague and a wonderful auctioneer, and I'm real lucky to be there on that auction block as many years as I have been, yeah, and you've got such a great program. It's it's fun to sell your cattle on sale day, but it's even more fun to sell your customers' cattle as you're as we get through the year.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Yeah, that you're one of the only few folks that really get to see both sides of that. I mean, you're you're seeing the seed stock, you're seeing the bull owners and then your the bull buyers, a lot of then you're seeing their calves. You probably see their calves more than a lot of seed stock producers.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Yeah, I'm real there's a lot of gratification in in being in that position. So I get to I get to sell the genetics to them when they're making their, you know, they're selecting their genetics um really at ground level, and then six months later be able to sell the KOs and be able to tell the story is what I am really proud about, or which you know, I find a lot of satisfaction in that. Because, hey, I I know that they're buying this lineage, you know, or or they're buying growth bulls, or they're buying maternal, you know, genetics, or you know, or or high carcass bulls, and and I can I can relay that message going down the road with spurier livestock through the summers or in my own livestock market in in Madras, Oregon. But to be able to tell that story for those customers, because that's that's really they're selling the cattle, we're just providing a service. So I feel very, very fortunate to be able to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, I've never thought really about that from your perspective of uh how much that could help you sell uh sell a guy's cattle, their calves. Because you've seen the bulls, you've you you know if they're I mean you've known a lot of the bull producers, and then you've probably been to their place and been able to see what they're about. And I've never I've never put that together.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Yeah, yeah, it's great. Every every outfit's different too in the way they do things. But it's certainly, you know, very, very inspiring to see the amount of uh capital that's been invested in our industry by a lot of men and women that made a lot of wealth in other um, you know, doing other things in their life, and then they make a substantial investment and making our cowherd better. Yeah, that's it's pretty pretty neat to be able to go to all these different outfits, and whether it's like yours that you're what five generations, or is it deeper that number six, six generations, and to keep it all together and all in the family, just kind of like your motto, it that's pretty cool stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah, I mean, what an honor to be a part of. And but also a story that doesn't get told that often, which is why I love being able to do this. And like being able to sit down with guys like you who are seeing the whole rest of the country and who uh did you fly in from Oregon today or where were you at?

SPEAKER_04 5:12

No, I uh came down to a rep training seminar for Superior on I came in Tuesday, it was there Wednesday, and we spent the day with some new aspiring reps for superior livestock and some old ones too, and spreading the word and trying to lend you know some advice and and just pave the road a little bit for everybody. I mean, because we all learn something from somebody every day. And then yesterday we had a sale, and then I'm here with you today, and I will go back to Oregon tomorrow. Whoo, that's a lot of moving around. Yeah, but the life of an auctioneer, you're I'm kind of like a gypsy, and everything and most of us are.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

So that's funny. So I've I've got um for those that don't know Trent Stewart, I've got a few uh a few things that would describe you. Uh I know you as an auctioneer. Uh you're uh an auctioneer for for us, and for how long have you been auctioneering at our place?

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Boy, I knew you'd ask me that, and I want to say maybe 10 years. Wow, has it been that long? It'd be my guess. Maybe not, but if it's not, it's close to that.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

I mean, it's all since I've been paying attention to who's selling them. Like you've always been there, so I didn't know how long it had been. You know, when I was 20, I really wasn't too worried about who was.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

Yeah, I can remember coming out. Um, I had met your father in Winnemucca one year, and then I'd seen him at different you know, venues in our industry, and always talked, you know, at different sales and and so forth about his new guys' program. And then one day I just uh I had an extra day in Fort Worth, and I just called him and said, You got time to visit? And so I drove up Throckmorton and we'd bounced around the pickup, looked at cattle, and had a nice visit. And he said, Anytime you're coming back through Throckmorton, you're more than welcome to stop by and and uh and visit, or we'll put you up. And and uh about six months later he called and said, How would you like to come be part of our program? So that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah, it was cool. Uh so yeah, auctioneer, uh superior rep, which I just learned today. I don't know how I didn't know that you were a rep, also, because I yeah, I just thought you were auctioneering, doing the auctioneer for it, which is great. Um, livestock market owner, you already mentioned that in Oregon. Where at in Oregon?

SPEAKER_04 7:25

It's in Madras, Oregon. Madras, Oregon. Right in central Oregon. So we're on the east side of the Cascades. Oregon's a really diverse state. So I mean, we've got rainforest that everybody you know thinks of, yeah, being Oregon, the great big trees and all that logging. Um, but you got the coast over there, and then you go through a mountain range that's anywhere from seven to eleven, twelve thousand feet, and then you get in the high desert, and we exist around three thousand feet, and we go as high as close to five, but it's very arid, you know. We don't get somewhere around 10 inches of annual rainfall. Wow, maybe upwards towards 14 at the very most. So it's very similar to Wyoming, Idaho, um, Colorado.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah, not many people think of that. I don't. I don't think of that when I think of Oregon.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Yeah, no, it's pretty the high desert, you know, and it kind of touches the Great Basin, and you know, there's some great cattlemen and women that are out there as well, and some super cattle. So we're lucky. We know our cattle are fairly pretty popular on the east side of the state.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

How cool is that? Yeah, we have uh my I guess cousin-in-law's living up there in the Jordan Valley. Oh, yeah, no, I know him well. Uh-huh. I figured I figured you would. Um, but yeah, Nikki Gurren and sh him showing me the pictures of the of all those canyons and stuff that's rolling through. And then majestic. Oh my goodness. It's crazy. I was like, it's big country.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

It is big country. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yep. Uh, but uh also a family man, been married 25 years, got two kids. Yes, yes, sir. Uh so it's an honor to have you here today. And with all of the traveling, all the traveling that you get to do, I I kind of want to get into what is what cattle are making customers money today. What uh are making ranchers money. I mean, it's a great time to be selling cattle.

SPEAKER_04 9:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Uh historic highs, you've been able to see cattle all across the country, repping a lot of cattle. What are what are you seeing? What are some points that you're seeing as a sales rep that's helping people sell their calves?

SPEAKER_04 9:28

Well, the British breeds are selling very, very well, as long as there's some British base to the cattle, and I understand that they have to be acclimated to your country. I mean, you are witness to a lot of really extreme heat and humidity, and the cattle need to be maybe crossbred in certain portions of the region. Um, but I would say British base, now whether you cross that with a continental um of cementol or Charlet, um as long as we keep plenty of carcass marin cattle and good functional cows, um, you know, it works for the rancher, and I think number one, that makes them money, uh, which eat because you have to have that functional cow first, and I don't appreciate it acquire here, but as far as a marketer goes, just a very high quality grade of meat. I sat in on a oh, a meat scientist uh meeting uh with a very big grocery chain and some pack packers, and when we went through, we've been trying to achieve a higher carcass grade, you know, in the cattle is choice or prime. And if you look at where we were, I don't know, 20 years ago we were at 60% choice, and now we're over 80.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

And I think the news story will probably be we're 80% prime, maybe 10 years from now, the way that it's going. Um, because there's some some you know British Angus outfits that have an exceptional amount of marbling in them. I know you're very close to one out of Kansas. Yeah, yeah. They're lending doing, you know, putting a lot of carcass in the cattle. Um, and I I just I these packers recognized when we went through COVID, I guess is what I'm getting at. That when they couldn't take the you know that high-end meat to the restaurants and sell it because everybody was shut down, they started selling it in the grocery stores. And they realized that there was this huge palate, I mean, for um this high-grading beef. They developed a great palate for it and wanted prime and were willing to pay for it. And so at that point, it's like that was the turning point that they told me that all of a sudden, you know, we can sell this, and this is what people are gonna demand. The the select carcasses were no longer, you know, leaner and healthier, and you know, it's and there's a lot less of them now, and so the select and choice spread is very, very tight just because we have almost eliminated them, and you know, with exception of the grind. Sure, you know, purely because of supply and demand, you're saying on that. Yeah, and there just isn't we we've just impressed or it um improved the quality grade so much that there's lesser and lesser select carcasses. Yeah. And if you look at like feeding cattle, April used to be the high in the fat market. Now it's May and June. And we're in the middle of May and we're selling fats for 226, I think. Yeah. 225 or 6, and that's straight up. I mean, and the grid will take them higher than that, probably, or some of these formulas. But um it's it it's just we've getting gotten to a spot that we're feeding the cattle longer because we want to get the grade out of them, and so that's pushed a lot of these high performance calves into June and even July now. And so that that's becoming a new high for the you know, this great the best genetics that are out there.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, yeah. They can take that extra those extra days and keep gaining weight. Yeah. Wow. That is we we started putting a pencil to it the other day of trying to buy. I mean, we sell uh I sell about 80 head a year of fats for halves and holes. Oh wow. We are that's a lot of meat. It's it's been growing quite a bit. I mean, been doing it for since COVID, but it just took me, you know, six years to get to where I could really start it with three head, uh, did a hundred last year, and looking at doing like eighty to ninety this year. And I'd love to do more, but I don't I don't know. Tried to put the pencil to it the other day to buy some cattle and feed them, and I was like, man, I don't that scares me.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

Oh, these cattle cost a lot right now. They do. They just yeah, a fortune. It's quite an investment. What are you what's your uh label called?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Uh just RA brown ranch beef. Yeah, we'd I just sell it halves and holes straight from the processor. The customer picks it up, and most of it's out of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. I don't ship it. Um mostly because I don't want to be, well, it's kind of hard to ship out of Throckmorton because it's gotta go one day to Abilene and set and then it ships out. So it's just I can't count on it. Right. But uh yeah, when I'm shipping four thousand dollars worth of beef, I can't. I can't let US you know postal service can't I can't count on them to get that done. Yeah, oh it's gone. Oh wait, we found it. You want it three weeks later? No. Yeah, don't go postal. Yeah. So we but the beef deal's been fun, and I I I like it since COVID that people have been more interested to know where their meat's coming from. Uh which I think's been good for the consumer because whenever you know they've heard a lot of things of some scary things like is hor are hormones good or I hear they're bad. Yeah. And kind of gives us the opportunity to share on the light the truth that what we do is safe and science, you know, based on science and the safety of it, you know, have the safest beef in the world. And whether it comes from the grocery store, whether it comes from that processor that you pick it up at for me, like it's gonna be safe.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Well, we're lucky to have USDA grading system. Exactly. Yes. And it's very thorough. It is, isn't it? Yeah, we're very, very fortunate for that. I I love that. I you start thinking of what they do in other countries, and I become much more thankful for the safety of our food.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Real quick.

SPEAKER_04 15:32

Yeah, you want to feel safe about what you're eating, but also as an industry to make sure that they're doing their job so we don't we don't have to combat any bad news. Right. That way, or we got our hands on it right away, too, if there's anything that comes up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah, food, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

It's interesting. I always on social media I'll get some hate sometimes whenever I post, whether it's about using uh whether it's about breeding cows, using artificial insemination, or transferring embryos, or putting in a Ralgro in the year or something uh about how bad it is. But the fear of the unknown has just been in our consumer because they hadn't been a pe hadn't been a part of it.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

Right. Well, they go to the grocery store. Exactly. They don't get to see the whole story, and so it's great. I think they want to know the whole story. I agree. You know, but if they just yeah, let's let's let them think. Yeah, you know, kind of try to educate and say, hey, this is it's everything we're doing trying to do is not only great for the animals, but great for human consumption too.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah, I think it goes back to what I mean, I know it does, just for for what you were saying of how much more choice in prime beef that we have that our that our customers like that. No, I hadn't you said um uh that during COVID they found out a lot more that our consumer will buy that at the grocery store. I had I didn't know that, that that timeline or that COVID kind of did that in the grocery store.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 17:00

Yeah, almost by mistake.

unknown 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Whoa, this is what they want. And they're willing to pay for it. And they're and they'll pay for it. Even at all-time highs. Well, yeah, at all-time highs. Back then there was a lot of government subsidies going on too to try, you know, that maybe afforded them or some people, some it didn't matter, but hey, yeah, I'll try it, you know, I'll spend a little extra money. But um, I'm glad that they developed a palate for it one way or the other. So, and then we come into a super tight supply chain because so much of the ranching industry industry had been starved out, or got, you know, it we got older and older and older. I mean, the average age is 64 or 65 or what have you, and the kids who grew up in it struggled. I mean, it was it wasn't a real lucrative business for a long time. It was just kind of like uh poverty with a view for a lot of people, you know, good way to put it. And so um it was it's good to see, you know, it get so much better, you know, monetarily. Yeah. It's to incentivize a younger generation, but just so many people got out. And in our country, there's a lot, they do things up there, like in that great basin and stuff, um, like kind of an old Spanish way, and or very traditional, I guess, methods in the ranching industry. And a lot of that artwork has started to go by the wayside, and a lot of these you know younger generations didn't learn how to do it and learn how to calf heifers out and so forth. I mean, there's a select few like the folks that you're related to up there that are are really good at it, but boy, anybody in between um to build this cowherd in a big hurry, I guess is what I'm getting at, is gonna be a challenge, I think. Difficult.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

So yeah, I I can see why. And then we have, well, you you probably or you don't have to worry about it in Oregon, but the threat of the screw worm being down here and already kind of having a shortage of labor, that if that were something to become endemic, that that labor shortage would get even harder to to work with. What uh but back to the I I want to get into the marketing of those cattle. I feel like marketing is I mean, I'm as a marketer myself, I see the value in marketing much more than I ever have before, especially in cattle. And my dad, you probably heard him say it over and over again that um not marketing your product is like winking at a girl in the dark and nobody knows what's going on but you. And that's like his favorite thing to say. He thinks it's hilarious. I do too. And you can use it. But he yeah, he always likes he's like, You you can have the best bulls in the world, you can have the best calves in the world. But if you just take them to the sale barn and don't market them and don't tell them what you've done, what the genetics are, how much they've gained, yes, you know, what what to expect. 100%, then it then it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_04 19:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

And I think Superior does a great job of of market, even though most ranchers aren't marketers themselves, but Superior does a good job of doing that for them, of guys like you who are representing them and knowing those cattle and knowing what could add value to them. And how to I mean Superior is not new at doing that. They've had, what'd you say, started in the started in 1987.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

87. Yeah, out of brush, Colorado. There was there was uh Jim Odle and Buddy Jefferson Buddy was from down here, he's uh out of Amarillo, and I believe that he owned the livestock market there in Amarillo. Uh they got together, but and and Jim owned the the livestock market in Brush, Colorado, one of them. There was one of two. And they had consigned a set of cattle out of Kremlin, Colorado, and they came to the market, and then Jim sold them to a customer that was the bought the heifers back to for some heifer retention, and he took them right back to Kremlin. And so the neighboring place, uh same town basically, uh, after they had made this this hall clear to brush, and then right back up there, and he he told himself, there has got to be a better way. And that's where the idea of video marketing started, at least for superior livestock. Uh-huh. Then he got together with Buddy Jeffers. Uh, later on, a gentleman named John McKinley became a partner as well, but they went on a mission to go find the men and women that were handling the most cattle that were out there and the very the most successful uh marketers or brokers in the industry and put together uh a rep base, representative base that was second to none. And they had this this brand new innovative tool that you know that was lower stress on cattle, and they could bring so many more buyers together and really were kind of replacing an order buyer with a representative because that's a representative. Job to show up at the ranch and then put together an alike set of steers or heifers that are the same commodity that a livestock market order buyer would do, you know, buying them 20 or 40 at a time, you know, with limited swing weight and they're all like kind of alike kind and so forth. And they started seeing these magnificent receipts, you know, and it became very, very popular. It was all for forward delivery, whether it was next week or you know, six months down the road. But I think the very first sale that they had was in Br or in uh it was in Denver at Teddy's, uh, which was uh a hotel that was there, and it was uh what is now known as the bell ringer sale that we have right at the turn turn of the year. That was when they I believe had their first one, and they had I think Jim told me around 20,000 cattle, and he was absolutely scared to death. And last year Superior sold 1.7 million.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Wow. So it was a pretty good business plan. Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say so. Yeah, what an opportunity. And I didn't realize it had been around that long. Uh um, what do you think is kept? Would Superior have been kind of the the the main one pushing the video uh sales, like kind of the main company doing that?

SPEAKER_04 23:17

Yeah, I mean there's a lot of there was a few videos even kind of starting at the exact same time as that inception. I mean, it was and some of them became over and became part of Superior, and then there were some that went on and and stayed competitors and they're still there today. But Superior had a broader base, they had two offices, one in Brush, Colorado, and they had one in Fort Worth in the stockyards. And Jim had always told me that they needed to have a northern presence and they needed to have a southern presence to be able to relate with their customers, and so they wanted to have an office in both locations. Since then, it's been through um, I believe, two different owners, and then National Livestock Corporation at Oklahoma City purchased them. And what was neat about that is they're s deeply rooted in the industry. They um they're very, very solvent, and they've probably the oldest livestock clearing firm in the United States, and so their reach is very broad, and the investors in it, and I think there's you know, there's 30 or something, but they're all in agriculture. So the investors are all in livestock production or very close to it. So it's a really neat company, um, and we're in very safe hands, as you all know. You you handle a a a business that is producing or going through this much revenue right now, the capital-wise, it's crazy. Crazy. And to sell that many cattle, it's pretty important that you're with something that's well vested and just super solvent. And and uh, you know, there's been great relations with the Bank of Colorado for forever and ever, and they were also in the feeding industry uh that is you know helped build uh superior livestock and relationships like with the Dinsdale family, and and we're just so fortunate to connect all the dots, you know, whatever we're doing. But this is a real big business, as you well know, but a very small world.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

It is. Yeah, it is. Uh there's you you kind of already mentioned it about the relationship part, uh, but how the the cattle industry, I mean in the bull business, I know it's a people like to buy from people they know and that they trust. And would it be the same way? We don't sell as many commercial calves. Um would it be the same way in selling those commercial cattle? Exact same way.

SPEAKER_04 25:55

It's a people business. You know, they're the ones selling the cattle, we're just providing a service. And so you're gonna do business with who you like or you trust, which on that point I've always admired uh the fact that in your case, in a seed stock setting, that you've got customers that show up. I mean, how gratifying. What bulls do I need to buy, Tucker? What what bulls, Donald, do I need to invest in? What's the the hottest, what's gonna fit my outfit the best? And have that much faith and trust. This ranch could be six, seven generations deep, and it's everything to there all that faith for you to tell them what genetics to use, that is pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Yeah, it's not something we take lightly. Yeah, you know, it means a lot to us if they're doing that, if they put that much faith in the future of their herd that we know how much people love their cows.

SPEAKER_04 26:46

Yeah, and that's why I value your relationship and if if with Superior, and if you can endorse Superior, you know, to that customer that believes so much in you, yeah, that helps us a lot too. Yeah. And we sell a lot of cattle uh that are sired by R.A.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Brown bulls. Yeah, that's the I think that's where the win-win-win comes from. The we uh what's the right word? We have a sticker or a stamp, whenever those calves, RAB genetics, come on. Yep. Um on superior.

SPEAKER_04 27:16

SPG is what they call it. SPG. Yeah, superior progressive genetics. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

And so when they sell their calves, your logo comes up. Yeah. Our logo comes up and and our hope is that if our customers can make more money, they see the value in the genetics that they're investing in. So we love connecting them to to reps like you with superior, because you know what the genetics are doing, you've seen the bulls, you've now you've seen millions of the cattle, probably. Yeah, probably. Probably. It's been good. Millions of the cattle, and so if we can do that, if we can get them to a to to some to a a marketer who knows the value of those calves and can clearly communicate that to the buyers, that's a win for us, it's a win for our cu our bull customer, and then it's a win for superior. And the win-win-win.

SPEAKER_04 28:08

Yeah, I feel like that's kind of my mission. You know we always try to find out what what we're supposed to do here on earth. And for me, it was adding value. If I can if I can bridge the gap, you know, and and take that message for customers, because I love the livestock industry and especially cow calf production, but I feed quite a few cattle too. I've got that gambling problem of locking cattle up or playing with the CME and I need to quit because it's so volatile. But um, you know, these corporate feeders, they have such a massive job to do. If they've got a seven or eight hundred thousand head capacity yard, or you know, or they turn them two and a half times, you know, a year. And and if you're if your job is to procure that many cattle, you don't have time to sit down and study every value-added program, every uh pedigree that's out there. And so when I make a speech on an auction block, and it always needs to be believable, you tell them what they are. You know, don't don't over try to oversell a set of cattle, ever. You know, if they're legit, tell them they're legit, and that reputation will follow you. And when I start talking about a set of cattle, because they know I sell a lot of bull sales, I've been fortunate to be involved with the seed stock industry and and and do both. And when I start bragging on a set of cattle on the block, I see them, they'll look look up and stare right at me, and here comes a bid. And they just they're willing to take that that leap of faith if it's an extra four or five bucks a hundred, or maybe it's ten, I don't know, or maybe it's just fifty cents to take somebody out because they believe that okay, he's been there, done that, he's been to you know, Brown's program down there, and he's got his eyes on on the bulls, knows what he's been buying. You know, it's not it's legit. And so that's very gratifying to me. That trust they have in you to do that. Because they they can't, they have 48 seconds to make a decision. You know, that's kind of our we shoot for on our average lot. 48 seconds. Yeah, wow when we're going through the cattle. It's some of these great big sales. So I mean they can't, that's a big daunting task for them to procure that many cattle. So we want to help before we can.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Yeah, what an opportunity to be the guy to help both sides, you know, the buyer and the you're hopefully you're the good guy to both of them.

SPEAKER_04 30:33

Yeah, you you asked me at the forefront of this, um, you know, what's the hardest thing, or you know, what's the tip one of the toughest things that you do? Yeah, yeah. Trying to make both people happy. Both of them. Yeah, especially in a tougher market, you know. Right now they've been making money, and you know, the cow calf guy's making money and the Irland guy's making money, so it's a lot easier. But boy, when you get in a little bit more of a stale market, whoo, at a you being an auctioneer can you feel a little bit like gumby.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

I can see that. Yeah, I can see that. So I could see that at a couple bull sales too. Because I remember if I mean I I remember a handful of after the bull sale was over, we kind of look at each other and like, man, that that kind of hurt. It wasn't very fun. But customers are happy, you know, being able to get those bulls for cheaper than we thought we were gonna sell them for. And uh yeah, what a what a tight line you gotta walk.

SPEAKER_04 31:29

Always think about the next year. You know, it's residual business, your customers are lifelong, you know, partners.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Is that something you talk to your uh the your customers about if you're selling their cattle? In which regard? In uh Michael and I, we always call it the long game.

SPEAKER_04 31:48

Yes, oh yes. For sure. Always the long game. Uh-huh. Always try to, you know, make make people as happy as we can. Just provide that service and make sure that they know that we're trying. And if there's an adjustment to be made, try to make it as fast as possible. I think that's very, very important. Never let anything drag. And if there's anything that needs to be cleaned up, we clean it up just almost right away.

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Yeah. For for folks who might who have never sold with Superior, uh, who might be on the fence about it, what are some of those things that Superior does that can help folks market those cattle?

SPEAKER_04 32:25

Well, their value-added programs are good. They started originally in the 90s with some vaccination programs back 34, back 45, we've all heard about that, back 24, and actually, you know, earmarked certain protocols for background in calves or preconditioning the calves. And that added a lot of value to start with because you know, as the cattle industry, you know, there's bugs and drugs, and as things move, and you know, things mutate all the time, and there's always new, you know, challenges out there health-wise, yeah, with cattle. And so they they incorporated that, and then they got into, like you said, some natural programs. Uh I can remember Coleman natural beef years and years ago, starting then with Myers doing a lot of business, and that kind of you know, the evolution went on into non, of course, you know, that was non-hormone treated cattle anyway, but no antibiotics either. All of those things uh are make still to this day making a big difference, you know. But I I would say, you know, non-hormone treated or the natural cattle, or you know, we've had gap programs, now they've got a new one called RAISEWL, which is just like not just like I shouldn't say that, it's a competitor to Gap, but interesting, like Gap 4, but it is connected to some new meat sales. Um it's a and there's some new labels that are accepting RAISW, and so that's kind of brand new, be a competitor to Gap 4, and we're seeing some extra value in those cattle. So, and then of course, now there's a lot of seed stock operations that are supporting their customers and buying their calves back. I know you are one of them now with sustainable beef. Yes, and congratulations and I thank you. Yeah, to me, that has really revolutionized our industry because I've been an auctioneer since 1994 and a livestock market owner since 99, and have been marketing for most of my life, and it was tough for a long time to get a lot of leverage uh in you know, whether you're selling calves or in the fat cattle world. And since those things started happening, and there's establishments that if you were investing in their genetics and they were coming back and supporting you, started blowing the lid right off of the sales because they knew which customers that they needed the most, yeah, and or their calves, I should say, that they knew were gonna perform, and they were willing to give a big premium over maybe a corporate yard. Yep. I mean, you know, at that time. And then all of a sudden the corporate yards are left short of cattle, and they're like, okay, we're gonna have to really venture out. I mean, for instance, I knew yards that just were like just nothing but black cattle. That's all we can have is just black agus cattle. And then they got they got so high that then they were like, okay, we're gonna try these red Angus cattle. And then they're like, Wow, these red aggregate fed their heads off. This is incredible. And so find me more of these red cattle, but I want them out of this program, you know, and to be able to see that interesting, is been really pretty neat for me because it's been leaps and bounds easier in the last 10 years than it was in the first 20 of my career.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

And you think some and part of that being the buyback programs, yes, with some more competition and without question. Yeah. Do you think any of the DNA testing has had anything to do with that?

SPEAKER_04 36:02

Yes, it that's slow to come to fruition, and I don't know why, because it's really not that expensive. Right. You know, why we're not doing, you know, testing our heifers to find out, you know, just how good they are. I mean, just or not good. I like to be, you know, I like phenotype a lot because I grew up in a sale, a livestock market, and I grew up looking at bulls. I mean, when I go to bull sale, I like to try to look at everyone because I got to sell everyone.

unknown 36:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:27

And so phenotypically, and then I cross-reference and go through my book where a lot of people go through their book and you know, they're being efficient with their time and they find the ones that have the EPD profiles that they that they like, and then they go look at the bull and see structurally how they're fit. But I think to add that other extra component of DNA, super important. And I mean, just a light speed changes. And and for like $20 right now, I think, on a heifer, I think I'm maybe it was $30.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

But yeah, um, there are some well, I mean, we're being we're one of them that will kind of subsidize that purchase of DNA testing. And I know there's some other other uh programs out there that'll do the same, uh which I th I think is a good thing, because then it really puts the seed stock producers' feet to the fire. And being like, hey, we'll we believe in our genetics enough that we will help you pay for that DNA test so you can see that it's you know which cattle are performing. Is it ours? Is it some other genetics that you're using? Uh but thank thankfully for my dad and my granddad and the phenomenal work they've been able to do with the genetics we have, like we're super proud of and and honored to be trusted by people enough to do those DNA tests and figure out how they're gonna produce or how those heifers are gonna do or what to expect on those steers, which I you know our hope is that that gets to you so that you can say, look, here's the DNA. Look at the these are how these are expected to perform, which I think is cool.

SPEAKER_04 38:05

Yeah, and superior is gonna endorse all those things. You know, when they come to the table, they're constantly trying to add value. And I know that uh DNA right now is like right on the hot seat right now. Going into the summer, we'll see more of it. But getting these buyers interested and believing in it is gonna be the next challenge and proving it.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

And and so, because everything's market driven. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 38:28

So we need to make sure there's a premium. Of course, you know, of course. Well, you said something, this goes to one of my favorite segments of the podcast. Um you said the uh this is gonna lead us to the hot seat. Hot seat brought to you by Ag Gear. Ag Gears, I've been working with Ag Ag Gears, I've been working with Ag Gear for five years now, maybe? Four, at least four. Um but love the shirts, pretty much all I wear. Uh you can get a 15% discount, go online on uh Ag Gear store and use code Tucker Brown. All caps, no space, 15% off. Got jackets and stuff too, jackets, um t-shirts, everything. But you're gonna get to leave today if you make it through the hot seat. You get to leave with your very own Ag Gear shirt.

SPEAKER_04 39:12

It's a test.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Yeah, it's a test. I hope I get one. I need one of those. Oh, what was that TV show where um Who Wants to be a Millionaire where they would where the lights would come down and it would this music would play. I need something like that. Uh pressure. Yeah, so um who is uh one cattleman you'd love to sit down and have dinner with one?

SPEAKER_04 39:44

I don't think I could you can go three or group. Uh boy, I've that's that's tough. I don't want to leave anybody out. But there's always some that's why the hot system they're a lot of fun to be around. I got a colleague. Uh Jim Davis is always so much fun that works for Spears, one of their leading reps. Um, but Ralph Wade is great. We've got a great friend named Dave Thompson on the West Coast. I love to enjoy dinner with. There's just there's so many people that you can visit with.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Tom Hennessy, I mean, there's lots of fun people that we work with. What are some of the biggest misconceptions um cow calf guys may have about marketing their cattle?

SPEAKER_04 40:26

You know, I think if you're asking me where the most money may be lost, or if we can go there, I not selling them at auction, and I know I'm an auctioneer, and that's my train of thought. I mean, it's stamped into me, but I have witnessed more money left on the table by selling them early, trying to avoid a commission. That commission always gets paid. Yeah, I mean, the the cattle bring way more, you know, you know, than enough to pay the commission. And so it's great insurance policy. I don't care where you sell them. I mean, you just pick whoever you like working with the most, the most progressive uh marketing firm, uh, but sell them at auction because everyone's value system is different. And I I start calves all the time, and it's like, I wonder what these things are worth. And you know, uh, let's see, 600-pound steer today for 60, and they bring $5, you know, or $495. It's like, whoa, $35 or $40 a hundred off. Whoops. But some crazy stuff's going on. So make sure you sell them at auction.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

What are um oh, here's a good one. How important are health protocols um when selling?

SPEAKER_04 41:38

They're huge. Two series, two rounds of modified live vaccine. That's what they like. Yeah, and Spear has really been an advocate of that, really pushed that. That's what our buyers want, you know, for efficacy and it it sincerely lowers morbidity and mortality, and they just almost demand it. If we get a set of calves that has not had a modified live vaccine, they're usually 15 or 20 cents back. Unless they come off a desert outfit and they're light calves and smaller sales, and somebody just has to have some grass cattle, and then they might, you know, bring closer to the market. But usually there's a very big discount if they don't.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

So if they didn't have those vaccines on a six-weight, what would that dollar per head value be difference if they're 15 cents back?

SPEAKER_04 42:27

Yeah, I would say $100 a head. Wow. Probably. So yeah, for five dollars, I think I'd be filling up a syringe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Put up put up the energy to get them in twice, you know, and do it. Mike, if I told you you could spend five dollars and get a hundred back, would you do it?

unknown 42:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

You do it? Okay. If you said no, I was gonna worry about you. I'll worry about you anyway, Mike. But uh what's uh what's one thing smaller producers could do tomorrow to add value?

SPEAKER_04 43:03

Uh I would just buy the very best bulls that you can afford. You know, even if you you know formed a partnership with somebody, you know, to buy some really good bulls, vaccinate, try to tighten up your cabin windows if you can. Um if you're gonna wean them, uh do it and do it right. Make sure that you do it for honestly 60 days. You know, we say 45 is kind of a legal wean, but 60 or even better, cattle change so much as you well know.

unknown 43:32

Right.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

You know, they kind of work look their worst or most stressed out at day 30, you know, especially in stressful times of the year. If you're weaning in October in our country, October. Yeah, exactly. Dead calf month. Yeah, national dead calf month. Um, so I would say all those things. Um, you know, you could do third party verification too and try to add some extra value, you know, making them natural or an HTC, and if you know, and then you could commingle some cattle and maybe pool. Some cattle together and sell them on the video. So I own a livestock market, but uh I'm here for spirit livestock. So I'm gonna you can co-mangle them, put them in a pool, put them on the video.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

There you go. Um, if you could give a young rancher advice um or a ran uh a young man, young woman wanting to get into ranching, what would that advice be?

SPEAKER_04 44:23

I would hitch your wagon to an outfit that was very, very successful and do learn as much as you could, you know. From another ranch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I would. You know, in anything, even like auctioneering. I I wish that I had started, well, I I kind of did with Superior and hitched my wagon to them and stayed close to them and learned a lot. But if I had just stayed with, you know, just one firm, my my advice would would be just learn as much as you can from somebody that you admire a lot and that's very successful and and just never ever give up.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

What did that look like for you whenever you started auctioneering for um superior? Who were a couple of those guys that you got to hitch on to and learn from?

SPEAKER_04 45:01

Well, Ralph Wade, I went to two schools. I went to a school in the Missouri Auction School in Kansas City, and they gave me some fundamentals and I developed a bid chant. And then I became friends. I had a really good friend named Dave Thompson. Dave Thompson and Jim Pennington were partners in the Famosa livestock market, and they were superior representatives right when Superior started. And I had developed a good relationship with them, and a colleague of theirs, or actually the gentleman that had kind of raised them in the business, or at least Dave, was his name Skinner Hardy. Skinner Hardy is an old purebred uh auctioneer, shouldn't say old, but he uh had done it for a really, really long time. And for those of you, there's I'm sure there's some that that know who I am talking about, the gentleman I'm talking about, he's a phenomenal auctioneer, probably one of the best salesmen I've ever been around in my life. And he could open a sale and make you so excited to be part of it, you couldn't stand it. You couldn't wait till the for the bull walked through the door. And he was he could give public address, it was so inspiring. He sold a lot of Hereford cattle. Um, and he sold a lot of cattle, he sold John Wayne's sale, but he also owned the livestock uh market in Famosa, California, the Western Stockman's market, and he put on an auction school. And he said, Trent, I'd like to invite you to come down to our first school. And so, by all means, Skinner, because he was my my idol. And and it was Skinner Hardy, it's Bob Tallman, it was Max Oliveira, it was Jim Pennington, and I think Lee Pitts was there as well.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

I didn't know Bob Tallman did a uh Did you say an auctioneer? It was an auctioneer school? Yeah, it was an auctioneer school. I did not know he did an auctioneer school.

SPEAKER_04 46:47

Yeah, it was hilarious. I mean, I I got I got down there and Jim Pennington said, Hey, would you run out to the airport in Bakersfield to pick up Bob Tallman? Well, heck yeah, pick up Bob Tallman. I am on my way. So I get up there and I pull in there, and here's Bob Tallman. He's he's on the sidewalk there in front of the airport, in front of the terminal, and he's got a white t-shirt on and he's got a cigarette burning and a backpack. And he's I said, I'm here to get you, Mr. Tallman. He says, All right, perfect. And I said, Do we need to go get your bag? And he said, I'm packed. And it was for a week with a backpack.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

It was in his backpack, I'll never forget it. So one of a kind.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

Yeah, yeah, but he was a great teacher, and and uh boy, for public address, I learned a lot in a very short period of time, you know, and auction schools are a week long, but they're really a lifetime. I mean, you learn more sitting on the auction block.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

Sure, I can see that. It's gotta be I mean, getting hooked on to superior um what'd you say you got with them in 2000? You started auctioneering in 94.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

Yes, I went to auction school in 94, came back in 95, worked around um the Madras livestock market for a while, a few years, and then I went and worked for a gentleman named Dennis Arnson at Intermountain Livestock in LaGrand, Oregon. And worked the country for him, driving around consigning cattle as representative for for Intermountain Livestock, and he threw me up there and and had me start selling big strings of you know cattle. That's a very successful livestock market in our country. And um, that's really I got thrown in the hot seat, you know, just grab that mic and let's go.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:36

And so I started developing a lot of the relationships that I have today, uh, clear back then, and doing business with a lot of the same firms and men and women today that I was selling cattle to when I was um 25 years old or earlier than that, 23, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Wow. So that's so neat. The differences in sales have to be interesting. Like from here to where Donald Brown wants to say a word, from what I understand, he talks a lot behind the mic. Oh he's good at it. He is he's he adds a lot of value doing it. Yeah, then but I know I've been to a couple of the gardener sales, and Mark, you know, he doesn't want to say a word. Yeah, he just silence. Yeah, let the bulls sell. Yep. What are what are some of those other differences you've seen at some at some sales?

SPEAKER_04 49:27

I think you just nailed it. I mean, you know, I've sell I sell sales with 80 head of bulls, and I sell sales that have nearly 800. And I I know owners that like to talk, and some of them they don't want to say a thing and they're super just like want to be quiet, and you do your job, and and uh I'll do mine. I've already done mine for the year, you know, they just kind of feel that way.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

I mean, everybody's different. Already prepped them. Huh. That's interesting. I don't I don't get to make it as many to as many sales as I probably should, but you know, I enjoy the two we do. Well it's great, it's like a social event to get everybody together. I think oh sometimes I like to think that uh Rob and Peggy started making it that just so like selfish is the wrong word, but like they were so Peggy was such a social person that and I think that's where I get it from too, is that um like hey, if I'm if we're gonna have this, like let's have some fun too.

SPEAKER_04 50:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Bring in some bring in the people and have some good food. Right.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

Well, people relax too more, you know, when it's it's not so rigid. Sure. That's one thing I've realized as an auctioneer. I always try to be real professional. Maybe sometimes just a tad bit too rigid. And the the older I get and the more that I've done it, the more relaxed I get, and I've got confidence in what I see in the sale ring. And I think that you know, people, people have more confidence in me, and and they they like you just to be you. You know, let's have some fun together today. It's a great industry, we're all in it together. So you're you're helping we're helping uh each other survive in this business. Yeah. And so I'm having more fun now than I ever have had. Oh, how cool is that. Yeah, for sure. And and more and and and that doesn't necessarily mean that I've had more sales than I've ever had, but it's just I'm having more fun doing them now at my age than I ever have before. And I just love the network of people. And you talk about what influences were out there. I talked about Skinner Hardy, but but I've got colleagues like Rick Machado that I learned things from, and he works for Western, you know, a competitor.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:46

You know, because we grew up kind of auctioneering in the exact same era. And think there's things that I I like that he does, you know, that I've picked up. And and maybe I am fortunate enough to do that for somebody else, too. But um, Doke, you know, I learned things from Doc Lambert, this colleague right here that's worked for you guys for a long time. But Justin Holmberg, I mean, it's it's we all learn something from from each other, and everyone has a different way of doing it. Just try to take just a little bit from everybody and then make your own deal.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

Yeah, sure. Yeah, I love that kind of surrounding yourself with those guys you want to be like.

SPEAKER_04 52:20

Yeah, I mean, Ralph Wade, who's huge, you know, he's inspiration of mine and teacher. He revolutionized the bid chant for so many people. Really? And to this day, we're better friends than we are colleagues now. I mean, it's it's it's equal, if not better. We're just super close friends. But I mean, that guy is a legend. Yeah. You know, and he started with Superior shortly after it it started, and he's still there. Very dedicated to the company. And he's 80, I think, I think Ralph's 81 years old, and he's put in eight hours yesterday selling cattle. Wow. Yeah, and strong as ever.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Does that get I mean, as a as a guy who counts I count on my voice, does does that is that a muscle that you have to train or that gets gets tired and needs rest?

SPEAKER_04 53:08

Yes. I didn't think so. I did not think so uh until I was in my late forties.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

Yeah. And then Because I have I haven't found the extent yet, or like I've had a after sale days or an announcing football games or something, been like a little I could feel tired, but I've I've not found that the extent of it, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 53:30

Yeah, dust, ammonia, you know, these guys that are working in these livestock markets, deal three, four, five days a week, cattle coming in. Pretty hard to do, I could see that. You know, but there's just certain things health-wise, uh, that you just need to do to take care of your throat, too, and maybe maybe get a little extra sleep at night. Yeah, you know, and drink a little more water.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

I did tell I didn't know. Um do you know uh Cracker Johnson? I do not. Um he's out of uh he's out of Florida. Okay, and has he does some sales down there, and he's also been uh I think he's been a ringman for us a time or two. You've probably you might have met him once or twice, but he uh he was telling me I can't remember, it was at Florida Cattlemen's, and he was like, Well, no, I can't. I was like, Can I get you a drink? And he was like, No, I can't have one. I've I'm preparing for a sale that was coming up, and he was like, if I have that, like I don't have my the voice I need. And I was like, Whoa, I've never thought of that.

SPEAKER_04 54:28

Oh, yeah. I think that these guys that drink straight scotch or whiskey or bourbon, it it'll take its toll on you. You listen to some of those old auctioneers that have been doing it for a really, really long time that drank a lot of that. Yeah, they got pretty graby voice, pretty graby, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It takes its toll. You don't think so, and then all of a sudden it's there. And I kind of had a little of that myself here to last probably two years, and I kind of decided to take a little bit better care of myself, and it sure makes a difference.

SPEAKER_01 54:53

That's wow. I mean, I guess it's like any other profession, I mean, taking care of what what does the business.

SPEAKER_04 55:00

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and and just traveling so much too, and trying to avoid getting sick. Yeah, that would be hard. It is as as many hands as you gotta shake and yeah, and some say, like, what are you, hypochondriac or whatever? It's like, no, my throat goes away, it costs my family a lot of money. So and I might not get invited back the next year if I miss your sale.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

Oh, so true. I mean, I mean, not that that was not a threat, but like if you do miss that sale, it seems like that could open up the seat. Yeah. For somebody else.

SPEAKER_04 55:32

And you know, most of the guys in our industry go, I'm gonna help you out this year, and I'll believe me, I'm busy next year. They wouldn't do that. But you need never know. Yeah, sure. So you try, we all try really hard to make sure that we are we attend our commitments. I can see that.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Having uh oh, here we go. This is uh we're gonna touch on this again. You kind of touched on it earlier, but uh this is one of my favorite segments. It's called the uh bedrock tough question. Now, bedrock truck beds are what we have on our trucks at the ranch. They're actually making me a new one right now that I'm super excited about. But with them being the toughest truck beds, uh the bedrock, I'm gonna ask you, what is the what is the toughest thing? We already you already said what's the toughest thing about selling selling them is keeping guys happy. Um what's the we'll go, what's the um I want to take it somewhere different. Um what is the toughest thing? Dang, we've already talked about we've talked about a number of things.

SPEAKER_04 56:40

Is it have something to do with auctioneering? Like what step is part of selling or which direction are you going?

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Well, I guess we talked about the the okay, here we did. We did what's the hardest thing about auctioneering? We'll keep it there because we talked about the difference in uh as a superior rep and keeping both sides happy. Yep. Um, but hardest thing for auctioneer.

SPEAKER_04 56:58

I think things are only as big a deal as you make of them. And so when a wheel comes off in the middle of a sale, making sure that nobody else even realizes that there's a problem and you have to just maintain focus, the market because super important. You know, auctions are momentum, so we can't lose any of that momentum that you've taken so long to build, and because it might hurt the next ranch in line, right, when we're selling the cattle. So making sure that it appears like everything's smooth as a ribbon, even if the wheels are coming off, and it might be just like technical stuff that I don't really understand, IT stuff, you know, in that situation, or or you know, a gate came off in the alleyway, you know, and is laying on the ground out there, just trying to keep everything undisturbed. Yeah, and then a lot of times then chaos starts happening, you're on the auction block and you got your clerk talking to the manager and and they're delivering messages back and forth, and they're in each ear, and you're trying to remember where the bid was and how what you're gonna say next, because when you run out of steam, you know, and think the auction process starts to slow down, being able to add one more thing, you know, in value, you I've always got that canned in my mind on every trip that I take. Wow. What am I gonna say about this set of kettle that I know about? I mean, on this pedigree, say so forth. I looked at the big bull black ink, you know, and in the breed type, and I know you know that they've been using this bull, and I know what I'm gonna say while I'm auctioneering and trying to keep two or three guys in the game. Yeah, and so sometimes that gets to be a bit of an overload for an auctioneer. Yeah, yeah. I can see why. So uh and sometimes I just short out and go, where were we at?

SPEAKER_01 58:41

Well, it is a I've been on the block for four years now. This was my fourth sale, I should say. Fourth sale to be on the block. And I feel like I'm just now getting uh I remember the first time I can't remember if it was you or Doke, but somebody there was a there was a bid, but then there was a miscommunication between the two of the ringmen and and it either you or Doke and um y'all were trying to figure out where the bid was, uh-huh. And but y'all just like it never stopped. Yeah. And it kept going. You found that y'all found the bid, and I was like, they messed up and nobody knows it. Yeah, but it was fixed. You there was a mess up, you fixed it, and nobody knew. And and that's what you need to do as well as it's I was just blown away, like, oh my. I was also really proud that I've that I like saw it happen. I was like, oh, I finally know enough to know, or like to to see it, yeah. Which was cool for me, but also so impressed at how smooth, like the the talent it takes to do that, communicate with those guys down on the floor and clean it up. Well, it's organized chaos, really. It was a lot of times.

SPEAKER_04 59:54

That's a great description. Things are going fast. And there's a lot of it like you're fortunate. There's a lot of people who come to your sale and attend it in person. And a lot of times, heck, there's sometimes really a dozen different people trying to bid on the same bull. And so it is a little chaotic, and we really really depend on those, the the ringmen, yeah, you know, that ring crew to to to have that line of communication, you know, in each of their sections. And they're very, very good. Yeah, they're good at their jobs. Mostly they're professionals.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:22

There's an I remember some one time somebody uh it was a part of the ranch and they're like, Do you want to help be a ringman? I was like, No, I did no. Yeah. I don't want to have to, I don't think I could be like I think I could be good at it, but I don't want to do that as a job to where I could get good enough to be good.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:41

Right. Well, it's just gotta it's a comfort level of being there and kind of up in front of everybody, uh-huh trying to communicate with them and defend them too, you know, when when uh that's my bid, you know, nothing. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:52

I love that. Yeah, like uh y'all kind of bickering at each other like no, and they're hollering at you that it was theirs.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:58

Yeah, it's pretty fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

Yeah, it's a good movie to watch. It is, it is. I've I've definitely learned to enjoy it over the last four years, much more now that I can understand the conversation that's happening because it can be intimidating. We have customers who are intimidated by it, uh like buying from an auctioneer and knowing what the price is at and every 48 seconds.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:19

And and how fast that goes.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:21

Yep. Pressure, you know, pressure does sell. I mean, it's a very effective way of doing business. You can get a lot of bulls moved in a single day. And it's you if you look at it, Pat Goggins used to always say, you know, the most the highest commodities or the most valuable commodities that are out there are all sold at auction. Doesn't matter if it's jewels, cattle, really, timber. Yeah. I mean, it real estate. A lot of times the most valuable commodities that are out there are sold all at auction.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:51

Well, this will take me to uh one of my favorite segments of the podcast. If you didn't know, I've got a few favorite segments. This one's brought to you by American Hats. You know anything about them? I do. They make a great hat. That's the hat I wear. They do. I do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:03

I've uh In fact I was there yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Did you go to Best Hat Store? Yeah, I did. Yeah. Ryan. It's all Ryan. It's all Ryan. Uh-huh. So I just got this is my first straw American hat. I got my first straw, my first felt. Uh how long has it been, Mike? A month? We got the hat. Huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

I think almost two.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

Almost two months? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. With uh brought to you by American Hats. And this is where you it gets to become the it gets to become the Trent Stewart show. Oh. You get to become the host. And either, yeah, you get the question or guide where the where the conversation works. How can I paint Tucker in a corner?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:48

I want to get some really creative answers. Now, I'll have to think on that for a minute, but talk to us about Tucker if you would. You raise several different breeds of cattle you have forever. Um maybe maybe tell us about those red Angus, black Angus, your Sim Angus. I know that you had hotlanders. There's some other breeds, I think, throughout the years. Uh, and maybe a little bit of history on those breeds, and then and then maybe talk to us a little bit about you know, black Angus, red Angus, and what the temperature is at R. A. Brown right now between the two breeds.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:27

I feel I kind of feel like I'm talking to Tom Brady about football at the moment. Like uh the that you would know that better than I. But I wish I'd made his money. Wouldn't that be nice? So, yeah, we've so my dad, he says uh they've he's raised 17 different breeds in his lifetime on the ranch. Wow. For me, it has not been 17, but Rob was a big believer in crossbreeding, and so when he started doing Hereford Brown Swiss, um he wanted more milk and brought in some some dairy type cattle. He used some Cinnapole from the Virgin Islands, he um we've used a little bit of Akush, we've used a little bit of all those 17 breeds have been crosses between a lot of different breeds. But come once we uh the market kind of changed probably around those 80s and 90s when EPDs came out. Uh I guess you got to you got to witness the whole change of it, but from more towards those British breeds and more towards the qual uh carcass quality rather than like a double muscle Belgian blue. Um and it kind of it did kind of take us away from crossbreeding that my granddad loves so much, and now we've got a ton of you know straight Angus or straight reds or um different types of cattle. But yeah, since the 80s, we uh I mean we we follow what the customer wants to buy. And if that's a purple polka dotted cementol, you know, we're gonna try to exactly we're gonna try to breed it. And uh my yeah, dad always likes to say, he's like, I like to raise what my customer likes to buy. You know, and a lot of people in the cattle business raise what they want to raise rather than what their customer wants to buy. Um but the black and reds have been we have both because we believe in both. And of the of the black and red Angus, and they've been separated for so long. And I mean in the US, the American Angus Association is the only Angus Association in the world that will not accept red Angus into it. Uh, you look at uh over in Europe, you look over in Australia, um, they accept both black and red. So we have a little different rules, I guess, than the rest of the world. But they've been separated for so long that now we can cross the black and red Angus and get it's not hybrid vigor and it's not crossbreeding because they're still the same breed, um, but we do get better production. Longer or better fertility, kind of like that what crossbreeding gives us. But black and reds, we believe in them both. We love what Angus can do and how far they've come with carcass and calving ease and uh docility. And then we talked a little bit about it before about how the reds, red females are a hot topic, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:21

Oh boy, they are like on at Superior. Uh-huh. All of us auctioneers vie for pole position or like when we make a change and usually try to make one on a red Angus set of heifers. Really? Yeah, especially in a hot market. You know, people are like heifer retentions going on, they're super fun to sell. You know, it's five dollars a hundred jumps at a time, and they'll outsell the steers by about twenty or thirty bucks a hundred sometimes. And super fun, super fun product to sell.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

Yeah, and I think there's I'm I'm glad that uh you know, there's that under the hide is becoming more important all the time, which I think has helped the red Angus breed because there is that production, there is that marbling, there is that docility, uh heat tolerance. There there is the heat tolerance and the the maternal traits. One one difference I've seen is, or and it's just I don't think there's any data behind this. This is just what I see is that there's a lot of people who will keep a black cow because she's black, and there are not a lot of people who will keep a red cow just because she's red, right? But they keep her because she's she's got a good udder, she's got good feet, she's a good mama. There's a lot of people who's a good point. She's a black cow, her calf's gonna bring more. I don't care if her udder looks like that. So I I think that has helped the maternal traits of the red Angus breed. Yes. Great point.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:46

And I don't know if it's true or not, it's just anecdotal. Well, that's pretty good common sense. Cow common sense.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:55

Uh but yeah. I love the mixture of the two. Some of my favorite you've sold those black red bulls for a long time for us. Still, it it is wild. We've been selling them for over 20 years, and still people are like, what is what is that? A red, black, what? A black, red, who? What color are the calves? It always always brings up so many questions. Seems like you have to be on one team or the other. You're either a red Angus guy or a black Angus guy. But we like them both because they both do good things.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:31

They do. They do do good things, and it's gonna be pretty interesting going down the road now. You know, they're always there's this stigma of can't have carcass and maternal at the same time. Just can't happen. It's not, you know, the guys up north, they were pretty adamant about it. You know, we're gonna we're gonna keep everything in moderation, the carcass figures in moderation, the growth in moderation, because that's the only way we can grow, you know, great feet and legs and maternal and fertile fertility and all that. And now we're starting to see these these cows that can go out there in big country and still get you know bred and and still have calves that were 90% choice or better. And with this infusion of money in this market, I think we're gonna see a lot more of it because they're gonna show up. I when I'm seeing cowboys give twenty thousand dollars for bulls, wow, yeah, they're buying the bulls they want. Yeah. You know, now that is so cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25

Our industry is gonna it's gonna be nuts how good the cows get, I think. I hope so. I hope so. And it's wild to think that we can get so much better because we were already at 85%. I mean, imagine you you just started with superior in 2000 and they told you like, hey, we're gonna be 85% choice plus here pretty soon. Yeah. You know, would you might not have believed it. Well, at the time I wouldn't have known what that meant, probably.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:50

All I wanted to do is sit up there and auctioneer. Just let me sell 'em. Yeah, just let me have that mic.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:57

Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:59

Uh you done with your segment?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:04

Yes. I think so. I didn't come up with any challenging questions for you. I apologize.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:08

The Trent Stewart Show. Yeah, it's over. Too dry. You ought to look into that, the Trent Stewart Show. It's got a good ring to it. Ooh, I don't know. You know enough folks.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:18

I don't know what time of day they'd be good. What time of day? I don't know what time of day it'd be good, Tucker. First thing in the morning or in the evening. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:26

Either way. Um, yeah, but that brought to you by American Hats. Love American Hats and the best hat store. What a cool spot, huh? Really cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:33

That's great service. That's unbelievable. I went in there yesterday. There's 40 people in there. I almost got claustrophobic. They're banging these hats out of there, getting these things shaped up. Like, I just kind of stayed out of the way. And they did literally, I bet you they sold 25 hats in an hour. It's amazing what they do.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:51

Yeah. Great store. Yeah, you gotta go. Footwear stockyards. And they're right by Finolio Boots, who I work with too. Love those guys. So I I get the best of both worlds whenever I go up there right by each other. I get to walk into Fanolio, walk over to Best Hat Store. I feel like they should be in the same building someday.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:09

I haven't been in the boot store. I need to go. I like Finolio.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:13

I didn't spend enough money yesterday. I need to get out of there.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:15

Hey, tomorrow's a new day. So, what does it look like, Superior as a rep? Where do you see superior in the next 10 years?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:27

I think that they'll maintain. I think that the the company is focused on the industry. It is honestly a successful enough company that I don't I I I think that their core values are for successful livestock production. I want to be there for the industry and for their customers. Um you know I think that they're very innovative. The IT uh work that's there and the technology is second to none. So I think they'll just be more efficient. And probably they have the the revenue to um advertise and endorse a lot of programs as good or better than anybody else. So I I think that I think that they do a great job, you know, now, and I think they will continue to do that through they're they're constantly trying to recruit and find new talent every day. And as far as reps, as reps as in the IT work, uh anybody that works in the office, um, promotional things, if they recognize value, they're gonna do their utmost to hire that person. And they're they know and understand they need young people too. So if owning a business, being a business owner myself, I'm in a position now where I really enjoy trying to surround myself with good people, and I think that's what makes you successful. And I think that that is a big part of their mission statement. There is a gentleman named Les Schwab in our country. Um, it was a tire center, phenomenally successful. Hid business plan. There's hundreds of Les Schwab stores in the Northwest. He came to me and he grew up in a logging camp in Mitchell, Oregon. And he said, Trent, he's since deceased, but he's and they've sold the company for a lot of money, is very, very successful. But he said, You make everybody around you successful, and you'll be successful. I've never forgot that. And he said that to me personally. And I think that is a really good mission statement, and I I can I can see that in the reflection out of Superior Livestock in and what they're doing today, trying to incorporate themselves with the best, youngest talent that they can find. And so I'm proud to work for them. Yeah, they've treated me very, very fairly and and well. And I love the way that they promote things. And if you come to them with an idea, they're gonna explore it. And if it's you know, they think that it's gonna add value for the industry, they're gonna go after it and invest in it.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:04

Love that. Love that. And I love man, I I wish more people would take advantage of the people business that the the cattle industry is, and getting to know the the reps like yourself or where's uh because they can there's a lot of reps.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:20

There's 480 reps, I think. Wow, and we had 6100 consigners last year. Wow. We feel very, very humbled and gratified to be able to help them merchandise their cattle.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:33

I just I I wish more people would communicate with guys like yourself, the reps. Um because my my uncle who sells his cattle through Superior, he always talks, you know, it maybe a couple months before the sale of like what's selling, what's selling good right now, what can I do to my calves for them to be that top ringer, you know, the that tops the sale. How can I market them between now and then? Do we need to hold off on selling them or do we sell them, you know, in the at the next sale in two weeks?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:05

Uh Rob A.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:07

Mm-hmm. Yep. I I've got to sell his calves. I'm always close by usually. Yeah. You know, the yearlands, you know, when he sells them, but they are a hot commodity there. They're super fun to sell. I love that's a perfect example. I love knowing what he gives for bulls and that can testify that he he literally buys the very front end of your Angus Bulls. Yes, he does. And so it's fun to to tell that story. But yeah, I you know, as busy as we all get, it's so important to be personable and to help these reps. And then you've got this big roster of reps that are out there that it's their job to take care of their customer, and it's so important to do those herd visits and and make them feel important. Because every every consignment is very important, and and we need to cater to that. And it's just as busy as we get, and sometimes when you get you get this busy with 1.7 million cattle that we've sold, it's so important that we still stay real humble and just stay kind of grounded and make sure that we give everybody, like I said, we're providing a service and and it keep it a people business. You know, make sure that they know we care about them.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:18

And I I think that as a as a business owner, not my business, I work with the business, but I I think that that is a huge lesson for all of us that we need to pay attention to. You know, your all your customers, being able to talk to them about you know, their own personal lives too, you know, what's getting them down the road today, you know, what happened yesterday and what are you looking forward to tomorrow? All those things are super important to have that friendship. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:49

Yeah, because uh just like you said, whenever we're looking for that win-win-win. Yeah, when that happens, it makes business more fun. Yeah. You know, it makes life better. Absolutely it does.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:03

Well, life advice? Don't ever give up. Don't ever give up. Yeah, I think that you stay with something and it gets tough and rocky at times. And just if you love something, stick with it. And just just persevere. Everything will work out the way that it's supposed to. But I think I think that by two mottos, never do anything that you couldn't tell your family about. And just never give up. I mean, when you love something, just persevere, and it will come around and pay dividends, I think. It at least it has for me. Because there was times I wanted to, I wanted to quit. You know, you get discouraged auctioneering, or you know, with my business buying that livestock market, it took me a long time to get it paid for. And I'm so glad that I didn't give up now. Because it's been it's good for my family, you know. And I look now, I'm very proud to have a son and a daughter and and a wife of 25 years, and and uh I know there's lots of people out there that can testify that it's not that easy all the time, but if you both just stay stubborn, it'll be okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:13

Oh, that's great. That is great. Well, if there was something that uh what is Peer Your Livestock.com, they can look up the rep or their closest one, or maybe they already know one, but uh summer runs are about to start, huh?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:27

They are, they are. Um boy, they're sneaking up on us fast. We've got a sale coming in the Corn Belt Class. We have a sale every two weeks, just had one yesterday, but Corn Belt Classic is coming up in June, and uh then we'll be followed by, and it's in South Sioux City, Iowa. And that's a neat one because that's one of the only sales that we actually took cattle to the buyers because that's a huge feeding corridor. Yeah, the rest of our sales we went to the sellers, like went in their neighborhood. Yeah, because so the next one's in Steamboat Springs. We have this huge battery of COVIDs out of that region, out of Colorado and surrounding states. And that's a week-long sale, it's one of the biggest sales, too, which started as a vacation for Superior. Jim Odell decided, he got together with some reps, said, Hey, let's just go up and all of us get together and hang out in Steamboat for the weekend. And then they did the next year and said, Well, we have a sale here, and then it turned into 250,000 cattle in a week. Wow. Wow. And so then after that, we go to Winnemucca out to the Great Basin, and I sell a lot of cattle there. The lion's share of the cattle I sell are in Winnemucca and a lot of their contemporary groups around me, you know, in Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and so forth. And then after that, we're gonna go to Sheridan, uh, Wyoming, which is another great spot in the world in the bighorns, and it's a week-long sale. And then that'll pretty much wrap up the summer run and we'll have Labor Day sale in September. But yeah, we're getting ready to get on the road. Yeah, you are. You're going all over.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:59

It's fun, you know. We go to some pretty, pretty great places. Yeah, I may have to ease up to steamboat. Yeah, for the sale. For the sale, of course, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:09

Well, yeah, right. In the fresh air at 10,000 feet or whatever it is. But you should make it to Winnemucca one of these days. I remember your dad showing up out there. Did he? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you go out there and I guarantee probably won't be there because they sell with our competitor, but Skinners will be around. Hey, there you go. The guys that you do business with. Yeah, it's for for the customers.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:29

Yeah. Just need to tell dad.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:31

Yeah, they'd love it. You better tell me commit to it right now, Tucker. There to run it. We need to shake hands. Okay. We want you there if you can make time. It'd mean the world to spur and and your customers in that region. Oh, yeah. It'd be awesome to see you.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:46

That'd be fun. That'd be fun. Mike, we're going on the road.

unknown 1:20:49

We're hitting the road.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:51

Going to Wanamucca. Never been.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:54

It's a quaint little uh desert oasis.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:57

Desert oasis, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:59

Yeah. Cowtown. A mining town. And uh yeah, it's gonna get wild and western out there.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:06

Well, Trent, thanks for coming.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:08

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:09

I mean, I know you flew here just for this, not for anything else. Not for your training you had the other day. This was the core reason why I showed it.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:19

You know, Tucker, I've had the opportunity to work for your dad, and then like you said, in the last four years, you've been on that auction block, and this has been really, really nice to get to know you a little bit better. Yeah, I agreed. Because that's a really busy day, right? It is, yeah. We don't get to talk too much then do it. Exactly. Just enough to be able to laugh a little bit as you were going off and on. And you have a wonderful mother. I loved her book that she puts together, the catalog and the pictures. Wow, that is absolutely Kelly Brown. She's good. You do a great, great job, and you're always so cordial, and you've been a good friend. Isn't she good at that?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:51

She's got some big shoes to fill.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:53

Yes, yes, you do.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:55

My goodness. Well, uh, before you go, and I don't know if this is a taboo question to ask auctioneer or not. Is there a uh like a chant for someone who's inspiring? I'm not inspiring. But if there's someone who's inspiring to be an auctioneer, do you have like a a practice uh what's the right word? Like a practice chant you use that you slow down and use?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:20

Uh yeah, I use bitter now, one dollar bitter down, two dollar bitter down, three dollar bitter down, and just speed it up. And you kind of learn that. And that's a Ralph Wade thing. It makes auctioneering really easy. There's a lot of different ways of going. There's guys that are self-taught that sound outstanding. And then there's, you know, there's there's a lot of us that that helped us, our chant. And then it gets morphed a little bit and you modify it to fit you what you do and make it your own. But that's a that's a really good core chant. But there's so much more to auctioneer than just bid bid calling. I mean, recognize the value and who you're selling them to and who wants which commodity or which kind of bull, and and the value, understand the value difference in one bull versus another, or feeder cattle, and and those speeches, and and maintaining those relationships with buyers. Auctioneers are out there, if you're listening or interested at all. The big chant is literally, in my opinion, maybe 40% of your job. 60% of it is sales, salesmanship, and on and off the block. You have that auction block, maintain those relationships with your buyers.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:28

Find out that kind of keeps popping up, that personal thing. Yeah. Knowing people. Or getting to know people, I should say. Not knowing them, but getting to know people. Yes. Has been for me. That's awesome. So well, where are you off to next?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:42

I'm gonna go home. Heading home. I'm gonna go home. Back to Oregon. It's been four days, yep. And I'm gonna go through an extensive model, and I am gritting my teeth and be in a camp trailer with my bride for six months. You want to test a 25-year-old marriage? Yeah, well, they're tearing this house down to the steps.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:02

Goodness. Yes, hey, what a pleasure it's been. Thanks for coming. Good to get to get to know you a little better, too. Thanks for traveling. But hey, you can listen to the Register Granger podcast. Thanks for tuning in. I need to get to go on together for this. Uh last week.