Inside South Florida Ranching: Cattle, Swamps & Cowboy Tradition | Ep. 76

When most people think of Florida, they picture beaches and theme parks—but hidden deep in the Everglades is one of America's oldest and toughest ranching traditions.

In Episode 76 of Registered Ranching, we sit down with Clint Raulerson to discuss what it's really like ranching in South Florida. From moving cattle through swamps and wetlands to preserving generations of cowboy heritage, Clint shares the unique challenges and rewards of raising cattle in one of the most demanding environments in the country.

We dive into Florida cracker cowboy history, horseback cattle work, land stewardship, wildlife, the Everglades ecosystem, and why South Florida ranching is unlike anywhere else in the United States.

Whether you're a rancher, outdoorsman, cowboy, or simply fascinated by the hidden side of agriculture, this episode offers a rare look into a way of life that few people ever get to experience.

In this episode:

• South Florida ranching traditions
• Life in the Florida Everglades
• Florida Cracker Cowboy heritage
• Working cattle through swamps and wetlands
• Horses, cow dogs, and ranch life
• Wildlife and land management
• Multi-generational ranching
• The future of Florida's cattle industry

🎙️ Subscribe to Registered Ranching for weekly conversations with ranchers, cattle producers, industry leaders, and the people shaping the future of agriculture.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Making sure I'm in the picture. Bingo.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

Bingo. Clint Rollish. Tucker Brown.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Welcome to the Registered Ranging Podcast.

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Thanks, sir. We've talked about doing it for a while.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I know. Finally got together. You know, the couple hundred, maybe thousand miles of difference in Texas may cause a may have been a piece of that. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. But Clint Rollish in a couple ways. I wrote down a couple ways that I would describe you. And you can correct me or you can correct me. Or add to it or take away from it.

SPEAKER_05 0:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Girl dad. Girl dad. Girl dad. Five of them. And that's why we're that's why we get along.

SPEAKER_05 0:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Five of them. Five of them. Rancher, cowboy, cowboy poet, leader. What would you add or take away? Faithful. Faithful.

SPEAKER_04 1:04

Faithful. Christian had that one in there. Christian. You know. Always proud of that part.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

And um I I really try on the leadership side. So that's a that's a big thing for me. Thank you for putting that in there.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah, of course. Well, I mean, I've always thought that. It I mean, we probably would have met here. We probably would have met in Marco the first time, huh?

SPEAKER_04 1:26

First time, yes. Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Eight years ago or something.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Been been a while.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

But you've lifelong maybe grew up in Florida. I'm not I'm gonna say lifelong Florida.

SPEAKER_04 1:38

Grew up ranched about uh I grew up on a ranch about 50 miles from here, actually. Fifty miles.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

I didn't know it was this far south.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Yeah, right about 50 miles uh northeast. Yeah. And uh right on the north edge of the Everglades. Swamp country, Cypress country. Yeah. If uh you're not from Florida, picture South Louisiana. That's what it, you know, if if people had been there, it's what it's a lot like. Uh grew up right in that area, family owned or didn't own, but we owned the cattle, at least about 80,000 acres from the government, and then the government pushed all the cattle off and we had to go elsewhere.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

What uh well I want to talk about Florida Cattlemans. This is where we get to do the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

Absolutely welcome and welcome to sunny Florida.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

I just it's hard to complain.

SPEAKER_04 2:26

It is on the beaches in Bordeaux. You bet.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

But why what is it about Florida Cattle? Florida Cattlemans is different than any other convention that I've been to.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Yep. Why why I think I think the biggest reason is family. Yeah. Is you know, as long as it's been here or you know, you moved to Orlando for a few years. This is family vacation for a lot of people. While dad comes or mom comes and does business, the rest of the family vacations, your family's here with you this week. Same thing, yeah. They're not going to meetings. No way. They're on the beach. My wife's at the pool. So but I think I think the way that Florida Cattlemans ties the family into it so much, you know, they have the dummy roping contest, the junior cattlemans, and all that tied to it. Where you've been to them and I've been to them, you know, other other conventions are business. Bunch of guys like us, we get there, we go to meetings, we sit down, maybe have a cocktail at night when you're done and visit, but there's not the everything else that goes around it. And I think where where Florida Cattlemans is at really welcomes that family part. And I think they uh the organization has really built it around that and they continue to build it that way.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Yeah, and they do a good job of it.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

Yes, they do.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Because I I try not to miss this one.

SPEAKER_04 3:48

A lot of people do.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

I think I've missed it once in the past eight years.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

And no matter where you go around the country, people, you know, who if they've been here, yeah, they love it. And if they haven't been here, they've heard about it and they want to come.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

And and if you haven't been here, I encourage you to. Because uh you'd be surprised at how many people you even though you think you wouldn't know anyone. Oh wow. If you're in the cattle business at all, you're gonna know you bet somebody. Whether you're in allied industry, cattle industry, even horse industry.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

You bet it is. And you know, like you and I are both, you know, involved in the horse and the cattle industry, and this is where we connect for a week with people, you know, that I might not see them but once a year and it be and it's here. Convention friends. Convention friends is what I like to do. Yeah, that's exactly right. But uh it's always a great week, it's a great way to a week to catch up. I bring my staff, my family comes, and it's for my staff, it's networking where they're on the ranch or in the office and dialed in all the time. And I may get to, you know, travel and and see people at functions, but they don't so much. So when I'm in an office or in in a meeting and I talk about, you know, meeting with Tucker Brown, you know, I saw Tucker Brown at Throckmorton or I, you know, or at this bull sale or whatever, when I want them to be able to connect with that too. So them coming here and going to meetings and seeing things like that is is important, I think, for our staff.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Well, I think Florida does a good job of that too, because even those guys that may not have a family are still trying to make it here.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

You bet.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Florida does do a good job of making it fun, which brings in people, you bet.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

But still doing all the business, it's doing business and it's making connections. You know, our business is about relationships. Yeah, oh very much. You know, we've all got cattle. Yeah. It's about the relationships we build that that push those cattle, whether it's in the seed stock business or the commercial business. And uh, you know, and all the other things that are involved here uh are amazing. Um my grandson's gonna come to the trade show uh with me this week, and for him, he's a very brilliant young man and not necessarily the cowboy type, but there's so many avenues in our industry that you can walk through that trade show and see so many ways to be connected to the industry through, you know, one career or another that you know, and it's anything from engineering to biomechanical engineering and you know, and all the biology and sciences that are involved. So there's there's a lot of different ways for people to to get into this industry, and we need that. We need those people.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Well, I forgot to mention, and I kind of want to back up, that uh you're uh you've ranched at a number of places, and not always in Florida. No, but right now you're with the Seminole tribe.

SPEAKER_04 6:31

Yes, I am.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

And uh so for some that may be a little confusing. Like, what do you mean you're with the Seminole tribe? How how can you would you jump, how would you describe that?

SPEAKER_04 6:40

Uh Seminole uh tribe is you know, if you want to look at it, they're the longest people in the cattle industry in this country.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

Uh so Ponce Leon came here in 1513, had cattle, they ran him out in a few years, and uh the cattle that he brought over, the the Seminoles started, you know, they used them first.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

And where did he come from? He came from Spain. Spain, it was a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 7:05

He was a Spanish explorer. And uh he came here, brought cattle, brought horses, uh, the Andalusian horse, and the cattle are of some Andalusian descent. So the uh that's where the cracker cow came comes from, who's you know, to me, she's the she's the long horn of Florida. You know, she could handle she could handle our conditions, she she could, you know, survive here. So the some of the Seminole tribal members uh started gathering those cattle and kind of keeping those cattle, they use them for food and they use them for trade, and then it just built through the years. And then in the 1930s, they decided to build a a program. So during the Dust Bowl, they uh shipped cattle in from New Mexico, West Texas, New Mexico, and those cattle were the original main herd of what we we're at now. Wow, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Well, I remember I got to I got to tour it a little bit with uh Alex Johns whenever he was over there. And it was it was really neat because it is I mean there from the way I understood it, there were a number of ranchers, what I I feel like he said like 50 to 70.

SPEAKER_04 8:15

63.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Okay. 63 different ranchers that are managing those herds. And I'm at the time he was talking about how they had recently switched to using EIDs on those cattle and figuring out that helped them figure out which ranchers were actually raising the cattle that were doing the best.

SPEAKER_04 8:34

Right. And um you you're absolutely right, and I'll I'll back up on that a little bit. Yes, we have 63 cattle owners that operate under an umbrella. Yeah, we run them under a program, uh, and it works really well. But the EID program is something that Alex introduced when he was here, and I'm in Alex's position now. Alex moved up in the tribe to to a different position, so I'm here with that. And uh the our EID program is uh is our base. That it really kind of pushes everything we do. Every cow, when she walks through the chute, scanned every calf that leaves is scan is uh tagged. And what that lets us do is be able to track because on the calf side, it lets us track our steers all the way through. And on the cow side is tracking reproduction, uh, medical protocols, any health issues that we have, and it also tracks you know performance in in within our in our separate herds.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, I remember him saying how um maybe at one time whenever all those calves would sell, they would just split the earnings between those guys, and it wouldn't be who did the best and who did the worst. It was just like here's the average. And so really the guys who got the premiums may have been the guys who weren't doing everything they could to add value. Absolutely. And then the guys raising the best cattle were getting discounted.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

Anytime you have a conglomerate or anything like that, you have certain people that do more, certain people that don't quite do as much. Of course. And for that, they did. They would bring all the calves in, sort them by weights, and then uh each owner would get paid by how many calves they brought in. And when he changed it to an individual weight. So we weigh every calf individual. That calf is individual case in individual weights. Wow. So we uh and I won't talk about numbers, but we will scan that calf. He goes into a load lot, and we have seven different load lots that'll go in at one time. So you're splitting those cattle into seven different groups? Seven different groups. Okay. So when it pops up, our girl on the computer she'll say small heifer, small steers, medium, big, and then so that's how they sort, and then we have a cutback pin. So it's six ways apart, and then a cutback pin. And then just for ones that don't make the truck, right? Okay, so and then what that does, not only does it, you know, everyone gets paid for every cap they bring individually and not on an average. So and also what that does, it lets us send really uniform loads out. Oh, very because we are in tight windows on our weights. And when we send these loads out, they are a you know, they're called carbon copies of each other. And that's what we want to do. No, you're not initial data. Exactly. Exactly. And uh that pops up on the screen, what do you weigh? She puts me one what slot, and then it goes into that load lot, and she's got a list of or uh on the bottom first screen, got all of her loads.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Wow. Well, I think two things there. Uh I think beef does it ever since they started doing that value-added programs rather than just a commodity market.

SPEAKER_05 11:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

That that encouraged people to make better cattle because then they would get paid for it rather than getting discounted to the average for making the best cattle. And the I don't think people realize how much Y'all's place uses all of that technology. And then I don't I think there's some guys that don't realize there's there that it's there.

SPEAKER_04 12:04

I do too. I I I I really think that there's a lot of guy, a lot of people that don't understand it, and they, you know, on the cowboy side of things, you know, you think, oh man, it's just more work, and it's you know, and you see you know that with what you guys do. You know, you're on the data side. I've I've been with your dad and saw his computer screen at his breakfast table. So it's it's the biggest spreadsheet I've ever seen. So uh, but yeah, and for for us to be able to keep that data and you know, and all the stuff was started before I I went there. I I don't want to take any credit, but it's just maintaining it and trying to improve on what was what was built.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

And uh, you know, we're operating under some new technology now, under some new software with TELUS International, and um they are they they've been great to work with, and we're really excited about the future of that.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Interesting. Do you have any do you have any glimpses of what that future technology might look like?

SPEAKER_04 13:01

I think it's gonna look really good on so it it lets us really record and uh be accurate on our accounting side and uh our you know our bill accruals for our cattle owners and and everything we do with that. So I th I think that's gonna be the biggest part of it. It's so far has been outstanding on the record keeping side, on the reproduction side, and uh on health side. So we're and it's very efficient. And um, you know, uh, and you you know, your country gets really hot, our country gets really hot. We have to be efficient, we have to be efficient, you know, when we have when that cow comes in the shoot and uh be able to make sure that we're getting everything done in a timely manner and getting her out of there and still being able to do it the right way. So the I think this is really gonna help us on that.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

That's exciting.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

Yeah, it is exciting. That's exciting. It is it is exciting. And I and I for me, I looked at the way we can take it forward where you know, and and um looking at some embryo transfer and some things like that this coming year. So we're we're pretty excited.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Well, I know we so we talked about the Seminole Tribe. Some of the other places you've been, some of the other jobs you've had, I just want to touch on that because I know you were moot you left Florida and went to Kansas for a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 14:16

I did, I did. A little bit different. Yeah, absolutely. My background is here. Um, you know, just kind of run through it as fast as I can. But um started managing ranches when I was 23 years old, wasn't ready. Commercial ranches, commercial ranches in in the central part of the state. Grew up, you know, on ranches here and was you know the son of a uh a cowman, and you know, my family goes back five generations in the cow business in Florida, so it's all been you know cowboys and you know, and that's all I ever wanted to do. So got my first uh management form position uh when I was 23. Like I said, I wasn't ready for it, but I hit the ground running, went at it as hard as I could, messed a lot of stuff up, got a few things right, but but learned from it. So then went to work for the Schofield family and managed their place for 21 years. And uh that was this that was the second management position I had after I'd went and cowboyed and rodeoed for a while, and then uh the the Schofields gave me autonomy and they let me uh do genetic things and work on the genetic side and building a herd of cattle, and that was really important to me. And over the years we were able to really change that herd, and it was a learning process, and you know, it's like anything else. We do some things wrong, we learn from them, we come back, but it was huge for me. And then during COVID, uh that ranch was a generational ranch, and I could kind of see things going the way that it was gonna sell, and uh I got an opportunity to move to northwest Kansas, and you know, I'd always I I figured I was pretty fair at doing things here and figured I was a pretty good cowman, but I wanted to go learn it from the other end. I had started going out there years ago and learning about the feed yard side and what happened to our cattle when we sent them there because in Florida we're we're pigeonholed and you know, we are a cow calf state. We don't really wean calves, we do we wean our heifers, and there's a few people that wean some calves, but but you know, all of our lives we raise a calf to that 550-600-pound mark, put him on a truck, and we don't worry about him again. Somebody else owns him at that time, but he goes a long ways away. He does, he goes a long ways away. So I always wanted to learn more about it, and moving to Kansas was my opportunity to do that. Moved out there, and I, you know, I moved out there March 23rd of 2020. I left here and it was 85 degrees. And when I pulled in out there 30 hours later and unloaded my horses, who had already lost their winter hair in Florida. They don't grow much anyway, but they'd already lost their winter hair. So when I unloaded my horses, it was 18 degrees. And uh my old gray horse was standing there shaking in the hallway of the bar, and he just turned around and looked at me, and I know he was thinking, What in the world have you done? Where did you bring me? So hit the ground running. They they that place hadn't had a manager or foreman on it, and I was fortunate enough I worked for a next gen cattle company and Derek Thompson, and he gave me total autonomy, but it was a big learning curve for me on the feed side, you know, and I was did have the the the good fortune to work with some great nutritionists, uh, but we grew all our own feed, so I had to learn the farming side, which never done here. So learned the farming side, the the feed side, and a lot of the more everything was driven towards working on genetics. So he gave me gave me the freedom, and he had already bought cattle when I went there, but he gave me the freedom to buy more. So we had genetics out of everywhere from West Virginia on some uh balancer cattle to we bought some beefmaster cattle out of uh Nevada. We had some red Angus cattle out of Oklahoma and some red Angus cattle out of Wyoming. And then we had some uh I bought some Brangus cattle out of Florida, and then I bought some more beefmaster heifers out of Florida. So we were able to develop and work on genetics, and as you know, Nextion's a seed stock company like you guys with with multiple breeds, so I was able to tinker with those, do a lot of AI work and things like that. So it was all a learning curve, and then uh the drought got us, yeah, you know, beat us up for you know, we had eight inches of rain in two and a half years. And uh, but I saw every I got to see everything in Kansas from a 400,000 acre, the paradise fire that killed 4,000 head of cattle. Yep. And uh got to see that it was started a half mile from my house, just blessings took it away from us. It did burn some country we had, but uh that was you know devastating and you know got to see the got to see the good in people though through that. And uh so from that, you know, from the fire and the drought and flood and freeze, I saw everything from 30 below to you know 120 degrees. So it was it was all such a learning experience, but I really think God put me in that situation to build me into the the cowman that I am and then also set me up for this position I'm in now. Yeah, because as I got to come back home, yeah. As you know, I was I was a day away from accepting a position with some really good friends of mine in North Texas at Throgmort. And you know, and your family was so good to me, and I I appreciate the time I got to spend there riding with you guys and and then spending time there, and then you know that getting that call, as you know, not everybody knows, but on I was heading down to visit with uh you guys on Friday morning, yeah, and I was gonna accept the position that it had graciously been offered to me, and got a call Thursday afternoon and from from the Seminole tribe, and they asked me if I'd ever wanted to come back to Florida and the chance to come back home. I came down and visited with your mom and dad and and you and uh and your brother, and you know, I was everyone was so gracious, you know, because I I felt like you know they wanted me, you guys wanted me there. Yeah, but you understood how important home was and and it was it was a blessing to be able to go through that so smoothly. And then came back here.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Here you are.

SPEAKER_04 20:44

So here I am, here I am. So back to the beaches. Big circle. Big circle. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

You'd uh get plenty of miles on a young horse that way.

SPEAKER_04 20:52

That you uh absolutely on that kind of round. Take the outside circle.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah, I could see. Did uh what part of Kansas would you say might have humbled you the most? Which experience or learning curve or the probably uh sickness.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Cattle sickness.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

Cattle sickness. Because in Florida we don't deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:16

We don't have respiratory issues here. It's just something that there's no dust. It's something we don't have to deal with. So there, you know, uh right there at my house around a background and yard that where we would backgrounded all of our own calves forcing them to the feedlot. Also to, you know, winter sickness and calves, you know. When I first went there, the the calving season started January 1, and I was blown away. I was like, why are we calving January 1 in in North Kansas? I I mean it's you know it's zero degrees and below. And then so I was able to to shift that, and by the time I left there, we didn't have a calf before March 1st.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

And that that really helped us. But you know, went through some I went through a time where we had scours across the ranch and I was literally horseback daylight to dark with a jug of water, boluses, and everything else I could carry.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Use some sulfur boluses.

SPEAKER_04 22:17

Sulver boluses and things like that. We you know, I was out of rope calves, but when you know some of them you doctor as much as you can, as you know, and you still lose them, and that that hurts you. It hurts you as a person that's very humbling. It makes you lay awake at night and wonder what you're doing wrong. And then, you know, you talk to everybody else in the in the region and they're going through the same thing, but it doesn't make you feel any better. You still want to try to, you know, get there. 30 below um at calving, like it was my second calving season there, was extremely humbling. Uh I didn't sleep for two weeks, but you were uh in a side-by-side at night or on horse during the day, and you were looking for calves that you know you could pick up freezing to the ground. The placenta would freeze over the top of them when she had him. Yep. Before she could lick him off. So we, you know, unfortunately, you know, we only lost a few, but we were able to get most of them saved that that were born there in the in that time frame. So, you know, it that kind of stuff, the weather is the most humbling thing there because it'll it'll beat you up.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Have you had any have you had any uh guys work for you that had the like one of the opposite experiences, like coming from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas to Florida?

SPEAKER_04 23:38

I've had a couple come down here. Um not not since I've been back, but earlier on we had some guys come here and it's just all the water in the summertime, you know, and where I was at at that time was really rocky country. So it'd be, you know, six inches of dirt on top of rocks. And then so in the summertime it'd get wet, muddy on top of rocks. So it's pretty dangerous, you know, riding in it and cattle horses slipping, and it's just hard, and it's hard, hard on you. Humidity is uh pretty rough on everybody, you know. There's there's a there's a saying that the humidity is so bad in Florida that um you just get mad for no reason. You walk that's what it is. You walk outside and you're just mad for no reason because you break a sweat. So uh so most of them don't like to stay here. Yeah, and it's understandable. This is this country is not for everybody. It it's it's hard. But what I tell people, Tucker, it doesn't matter if it's where you're from or where I was from in Kansas, and I spent a few days in Nevada on a big ranch out there, and around Jackpot, Nevada, and doesn't matter where that is, and I always tell people there's really good cowboys everywhere. If you look around, there's really good cowboys. Doesn't matter if it's in Texas, Nevada, Kansas, or Florida, anywhere you look, there's good ones, there's bad ones everywhere. Every place has its challenges, you know. And in, you know, in your country, you know, you're talking about drought and hard country and rocky country, and you know, trying to keep cattle fed and taken care of, and and Kansas the same way here, it's water. And then right now we've been in a we've been in a drought for you know for about eight months, and it's pretty hard. Yeah, it's pretty hard.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

You know, and it's I heard like recently it's kind of slowed, eased out.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

It's helped a little bit. We've had a little bit of rain to help us, but our ground is so porous here that when it is dry, it's dry. And you know, and uh it sounds like yeah, and it goes quick. And so this winter we had more cold weather further south than we've had maybe in my life. More cold days, more freeze days, uh frost. And then so that set us up. The thing about Florida is we normally don't feed cattle that much. I probably feed cattle more than anybody just because of my background and learning more about feeding cattle. But it As far as like a winter supplement or yeah, well, we always winter supplement, but I fed cattle a little bit more this winter. Okay, and because we lost all of our grass early, yeah, and then we went into this drought, so nothing was growing. So it was, you know, am I gonna just kind of limp by with some supplement or am I gonna feed them, get them bred back, and and get them taken care of? So it hit our feed budgets pretty hard, you know, but it has been it's been tough, but we've gotten through it and we'll be fine. It's just, you know, because it can go from that extreme to knee deep water in just a few weeks.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Wow. Well, this uh leads me to one of my favorite segments of the podcast. Okay. It's called the Bedrock Tough Question. Bedrock truck beds are the truck beds that we use at the ranch, made there in Texas. And uh there, I'm actually getting a new one put on my dually, I think, this week. And I got my first new truck since being home. All right. Took me nine years. But I finally got my first my first new truck at the ranch. And uh I've had a bedrock truck bed on mine for a while, and so not having one, I'm like, guys, I gotta get to get another one. So working with bedrock's been awesome. They're getting one on this week. And so because of that, we're gonna talk about being tough. What is the toughest thing about ranching in South Florida?

SPEAKER_04 27:24

Weather. Weather, weather, rain, heat, rain. Uh you know, we can I tell people that it's nothing to, of course, I spend my time in an office these days, but you know, when you're horseback and you go out and saddle your horse at 4 30 in the morning, feed and saddle, it's nothing to go back and change shirts because you're soaking wet. The humidity is through the roof. Yeah. It'll, you know, we're you'll be, we don't, we'll have a few days over 100, but most of ours is in the 90s. But the problem with that 90s is there's 90% humidity to go with it a lot of days. And so it's early mornings. Get as much done as you can before it gets over, you know, too hot. But weather is the toughest, you know. The country's the country is it's hard, but it's not it's not impossible. The weather is what beats people up, you know, the heat and the heat moisture. It's tough on the animals. Absolutely. Absolutely. People have to understand here. So when they come here, our cattle aren't, you know, they'll be a lot, say, while they got a cap on their side, they'll look pretty thin. But she's hard. You know, she's hard and she's tough. Uh they can't carry that weight through the s through the through the heat. Yeah, you know. So they'll be a little thinner. They're like us. They, you know, that that heat pulls it off of them. Yeah. So I could probably use a little more heat then.

SPEAKER_01 28:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:53

Me too. Spend too much time in the office these days. But I think that's it. I I think weather, you know, it's no matter where your cowboy is tough.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:04

It's a tough way to make a living. But it's a passion and it's a love. And we all love it. We we love the cattle, we love the horses. And uh I love the country. And I've I've gotten the I've gotten the good fortune, as you talked about, of of being different places. And I love the country in Kansas. I loved your place. Uh Nevada was beautiful, you know, it was so big and broad out there where where I was at. And you know, and spending time in those places, and the central part of the state here has changed so much since I lived there, but uh when I lived up there was a lot of big country. And for me, the the love of the country, the love of the cattle, you know, outweighs outweighs the hard days.

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Well, that was one of my next questions. You you talked about Florida changing a lot, and you would have seen I feel like a most there's been more, maybe I'm wrong. My thought is that there's been more change in Florida over the past 30 years than before.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

Absolutely. But I tell my kids and I drive by places every day going from my house to the office where I gathered cattle, and now it's housetops or concrete or solar fields. Uh it's it's a shame. And and you know, for people in our industry, uh I'm uh I'm the opposite of you know, progress, I guess, because I hate progress, you know, for for their terms on progress. My progress is is building our cow herd and and feeding the feeding the world. But uh the you know, I heard this phrase one time that the concrete is the final crop.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah, I heard uh you know Hunter Horn actually told me that.

SPEAKER_04 30:52

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

And I love that. I use that whenever I go talk somewhere and talk about it. That's the final crop. What's coming is like uh yeah, he said uh he said concrete's the final crop planted.

SPEAKER_04 31:02

It is.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

And I was like, that is so true.

SPEAKER_04 31:04

It is because nothing else is coming behind it. And it is sad. It is extremely sad because I look at the country that I grew up in, and now, you know, I have eight grandchildren, and they they have no idea. So I'll get them in the car with me. Sometimes we'll be going somewhere. I'm like, see all that? See that housing development? Yeah, that used to be a pasture. We we gathered it this way, and you know, and one place uh up on the river in Lowell, I I I roped the final bull that was on that ranch. Really? Yep, he had gone off down next to the river, and uh I roped him down there. We had it, it took us a while to get him up out of there, but it was the last animal, you know, last bovine that walks back country. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Last cattle on place.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

Yeah, and that was that's been a few years ago, but it's uh when you drive around and you're a native here, it can be pretty sad.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Well, I've always loved the saying that Pat uh I maybe I just heard it from Pat more than anybody else, Durden. But he said um he said he said it's the cows that keep Florida green. Yeah. Because everything else is taking it away.

SPEAKER_04 32:15

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

And I love I thought that was so true too.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Cows keep Florida green. And I thought that was I thought that was a catchy phrase when he put it together. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

Yeah, and then you start talking a little bit about politics and how that goes into there, and then again, that's true too.

SPEAKER_04 32:28

Like cows are what but we have you know, and and it's people like Pat and you and uh say anyone that that's an advocate for what we do, you know, that that advocacy thing is huge because if we don't get out there, I don't do as much stuff on social media as I did for a long time, just basically because of my position, and there's some privacy stuff that we you know we try to make sure that we respect and we stay under. But the being able to advocate for our industry is huge because we're so small, you know, we're we're widespread. But I always use this phrase. We're we're nationwide, we're even worldwide, you've been or you know, across into other countries with this, but we're a really small community of people when you look at it. You know, are you they say two percent? Yeah of yeah, well, agriculture is two percent. I think you know ranchers are gonna be a lot smaller than that. So we can but in our industry, I feel like I can pick up a telephone any day in any part of the country and make a phone call and be able to get whatever I need to get done. And same with you. You know, people around the country. So I think that's really important. So we need those advocates to keep pushing for what we do.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Yeah, it's hard to it's hard for me to blame as I have uh gotten off the ranch more and going to DC and traveling, traveling a little bit more. Um has me in towns more, has me flying more, and now I can tell why people don't ever see it.

SPEAKER_05 34:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Because then they fly from Dallas to Miami.

SPEAKER_05 34:12

They don't drive through it.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

They don't drive through it.

SPEAKER_05 34:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

And they never so it doesn't they don't get to see it.

SPEAKER_05 34:17

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

But uh are you noticing the anything similar? Uh because at home since COVID, since people kind of got locked up, I feel like. Uh and maybe want to learn more about their food. It seems like folks around home are wanting to know, maybe are being drawn to the cowboy a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 34:38

I think there I think there's several factors that go into that. Okay. I do. I I do think COVID had a big part to do with it. People started looking for their local rancher to buy beef from. We see more and more of that, you know, and I I think it's great. You know, I I don't buy into the whole fact that we've got to go buy beef, every the whole country can go buy beef from your local rancher. It doesn't work, it doesn't work that way, so I don't buy into that. But I think that's been, I think COVID was a part of it. And I do think I'm not there's a lot of BS for lack of a better phrase to the the the Yellowstone. I call it the Yellowstone effect, you know. Uh a lot of stuff on there is we've all watched baby calves don't get pulled and get up and run away. And uh we don't bring bulls out of the woods like that. But but I do think that that has kind of been an eye-opener on the land side. Uh to a lot of people, they look at it, you know, they're trying to go in and develop and build this community and this airport on that while they're while the rancher is fighting it. And I I do think that's brought some light to what we all go to. Some awareness. Yeah, some awareness. Yeah, I do think that's been a part of it. Uh, you know, I know that it's made our cowboy hats get more expensive and our boots get more expensive, you know, but uh, but there's some there's some positives that come out of it. And I uh I I I think the I think the recognition from people on that has been a positive.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

I hope I I hope it is. I do too. Because I've I think people knowing more about where the food comes from. And uh I I say it all the time that if we don't tell our story, somebody else will, and that that's been happening.

SPEAKER_04 36:28

Absolutely. It goes back to that advocacy thing. Yeah, advocacy, because I know like my dad, he's 82, cowman all his life, cowboy. For him to the only social media or anything like that he's gonna see is maybe look at my mom's Facebook and check on the grandkids. Uh-huh. But that's gonna be it. He, you know, and I know your family was probably the same way back before your dad and you, but it was let us do our job, leave us alone. We're gonna produce a product and we're gonna send it out. It's hard work, we don't want to be messed with. Don't mess with me while I'm working. You know, I tell a story that, you know, I I published a book in 2016 and I was looking for pictures of my grandfather, who was a renowned cowman, looking for pictures of him, and I've had a few, but I couldn't find a picture of him horseback. There was not a picture anywhere, and never did find one. So that's one reason that I started welcoming photographers and things like that, because for one thing, you know, the thought process was different at that time. So they were working, they didn't have time to take pictures. And don't pull out a camera, of course they didn't have like we do, but don't it focused on the job. Yeah, it was all about the job. It was all about you know, getting there in the morning, doing your job, working really hard, and then getting done for the day and going home to your family. And I think so those things are I think I think it's really important that you know people like yourself and me, and I think we all have to advocate to a point.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

Well, and I'd also somebody kind of changed or changed my perspective on my thoughts on that as well. It's like why didn't they do anything or why do they think it's bad that we advocate? And I had one guy he was like, Well, they didn't have any threats. I say any, they didn't have the threats that we have today. Like it wasn't a threat because people did know where their food came from. It wasn't a threat because people had an idea of the challenges that they faced or what it meant to not get rain.

SPEAKER_05 38:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Or get too much rain.

SPEAKER_05 38:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Uh and now it's just not the case. The context has changed.

SPEAKER_04 38:54

The whole context has changed, and I I think that's really important what you just said because you said that the last 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:02

So they were before that. They didn't have the they didn't have the development factors and all the growth.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Right.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

You know, uh, I'm not sure what the number is right now, but I know three, four years ago, it was a thousand people a day that were moving to the state of Florida. There has to be a place for them. So that's where land values go too high for a rancher. Yeah. Or on the generational ranches, they see, you know, the young kids see the opportunities and the money, and they sell them out, and they end up being a housing development or a shopping center or a strip mall. And that's that's what's you know taking our land away. You know, we talk about our, and I know you and I have talked about it, we talked about it some at NCBA on the you know, the the cattle markets and where they're at and what the cattle and the national cattle inventory has, you know, dictated some of this. Well, the herd's not going to rebuild in Florida to what it was 30 years ago. It can't because there's not enough land. We are producing more beef on less land, yeah. As I've heard you talk about, and I've I've talked about it, you know, uh a lot. We are producing better cattle, more beef on less land. We are able to do that, and it's fantastic. But there's still a limit to that. We still have to have land to do it, and there's just less of it. So the cattle inventory, the herd, is not gonna rebuild here in our state to what it was. In other states, I think it's got some possibilities. I think if they do open up some of the federal lands and allow some things like that to happen, that's gonna help. But I don't know if it's ever gonna get there because of the generational things and the fact that people are keeping heifers to maintain, maybe. But one thing with this market, your call cows are high, your heifers are high, your steers are high. Pretty easy to sell. Pretty easy to sell. Pretty easy to sell them.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Yeah, there's a number of guys uh at the Texas Southwest Cattle Razor Summer Meeting that they were talking about in their region in kind of South Texas, Southeast Texas screwworm talk. Uh, that a lot of the Southeast guys where those farms are smaller, maybe a little more similar to North Florida, where those farms and ranches are a lot smaller and the cow herd sizes are smaller, that they're they're like I think this is at an all-time high in the market. I can cash out and I don't have to worry about the screw worm. I don't have to worry about what was the other bug? Mealybug. I don't have to worry about the mealybug, which I want to talk about also. Uh but that opportunity looks pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

That that option looks pretty good. It does. People can live, you know, if they've got a herd, you know, paid off, they can look at an early retirement with the way prices are now. You know, but because looking at a hundred head of cows with, you know, a four thousand dollar market you know, on a cow, that's pretty big money to put in the bank and live on for a while. So I think I think that's I think that's definitely, you know, uh a part of it too.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

Well the I mean we said we w we already said screw arm and mealybug, so let's let's go there. The last place that uh had the screw arm besides Texas was the Florida Keys back in 2016.

SPEAKER_05 42:29

2016.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

2016. I'm surprised that that I didn't that that wasn't bigger news.

SPEAKER_04 42:35

I from what I understand it was only one or two animals, but it was it got it went away very fast. We heard about it here, put up everybody's, you know, alert, everybody's um shields, and then it was gone. Then we didn't hear anything else about it, you know, until we started hearing it, hearing about it moved north, you know, through Mexico and working towards you guys.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:59

And uh, you know, it was a big issue here back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

Yeah, it would have been.

SPEAKER_04 43:05

It was huge. At the same time, it was bad in in in your country, it was bad here.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

And then and kind of similar to South Texas, with all of the brush and the swamp country that you have, it's almost impossible to see every animal.

SPEAKER_04 43:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

And all the fly, I mean, this is fly right heaven.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

It is fly heaven because it's never cold, it's never cold, it's hot, it's wet, and they they can live year-round. And just as in you know, South Texas, wildlife. Yeah, it's deer, the feral hog. Heck, we can't get rid of the feral hog uh problem anyway. I I mean, much less with him carrying a uh screw worm around. So all of those things factor in every, you know, as they say, every warm-blooded animal. So I'm I'm hoping they get this new facility up and blasting these. Flies out of there, you know, these sterile flies out of there as fast as they can.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

Does your dad remember did he doctor screw arms?

SPEAKER_04 44:06

Yes, he did.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Did he have any stories or anything you remember to do?

SPEAKER_04 44:09

Just the the fact that, you know, we use cow dogs and uh the fact that back in those days they couldn't use them, you know, because couldn't use cow dogs. Nothing that would bite a cow. Oh, because of screw. Because of the screw. Exactly. So it caused more challenges gathering cattle in the swampy country. So so if they did have, if they some of the guys that used dogs would put muzzles on them and where they couldn't bite. So the the stories of the I can't even remember the name of it, but the black tar that they had to carry around. They'd scrape the flies or the screw worms out of the wound and kill them and then smear that in the wound. It was supposed to keep them out. Uh but it was I think it was steady horseback, you know, it was it was long, hard days and hard times, you know, back then.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

And what is the I'm very unknowledgeable about the mealy. Mealybug?

SPEAKER_04 45:06

Mealybug. So we all are too. So that's one thing about being here this week at convention. It's it's a big subject. So mealybug is a fly they have in East Texas and some out. Uh I talked to somebody in Fredericksburg this week, so a little bit south and west. Yep. Uh, but it's a little white, waxy looking bug that gets in grass and sugar cane, which we also grow sugar cane, a lot of sugar cane in Florida, and it sucks the sap out, from what I understand. Leaves a leaves a waxy uh substance on the plant, and you can see it start to first it's a yellowing and then blackening of the grass and then gone.

SPEAKER_01 45:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 45:56

They say it knocks out big places in the in the pastures. We haven't found it on any of our ranches yet. There are some places in our area that have found it, and uh, so we're monitoring and we're looking and uh here this week to learn more about it. That right now there's not a there's not a labeled spray for pasture. Uh there's some labeled sprays for for sugar cane, but they they don't seem to be as effective as they as we would like them to be. And from what I understand, in when like in cold times or uh dormant times, that this bug can burrow and live up to three feet underground where you can't get to him. So it's a problem. Texas hasn't been able to do anything with it, uh, and we're it's a it's a big worry for us right now, although our you know, we are on alert on the screw worm, it's we are keeping an eye on that every day. But right now this mealybug is a big threat to our to our pastures and you know our forage base.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Yeah. Do they know I don't know what, I mean, it just made me think of it, what brought the screw worm back in 2016?

SPEAKER_04 47:09

No. No. They uh, you know, there were some thoughts on it that maybe, you know, something that was shipped over here, maybe a a dog or whatever that was shipped over here that you know came from overseas was it. But I never heard anything definite on it. I mean that would have had to come from like Cuba or somewhere down there, which is a very possible possible thing, you know, because not only, you know, uh the other place for illegals to come in is South Florida. Yeah, you know, and uh and you know, we deal with it too. Possibility. Possibility, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

That's interesting. Well the I kind of want to get back to talking about the cracker cow because I feel like the I feel like the Florida Floridians, Florida ranchers, are use more crossbreeding than any other place in the States and are more willing uh like love the Bramer cross. She works here.

SPEAKER_04 48:11

She works here. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

But did was there a time where you got to see like maybe some more British cattle come in, like more people try that as Angus cattle got so much more popular? Did you see any wet like web and flow of that?

SPEAKER_04 48:26

Back in back in the 80s, I saw uh late 80s. I saw a big influx of the Angus bull and it it hurt people pretty bad here. Um, you know, we see the black cattle sell on the market, you know, most people here at that time sold through the sale barns. There wasn't a lot of contract calves other than some private treaty stuff. So back in the 80s, you would see people, you know, go heavy Angus on their on their bull side. Well, where that was good on the first cross because we'd, you know, they were on heavy Bramer cattle. So on, but then as you continued that, that cow got smaller. Her she got a little bit less bone in her, you know, it the the cross weakened as it went.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

A little softer, probably.

SPEAKER_04 49:13

A little softer, a little softer. So then we ended up, you know, they ended up with some pretty fine bone cattle that, you know, as you know, that first cross is your best cross. Yeah, you know, F1 is is where you want to be. But, you know, as it trickles down the line, you lose some heterosis and things like that. So breeding kind of uh fertility went, uh cow size kind of dropped off. So then people had to start scrambling back the other way. And it's always for for me a balance. You know, we use some uh we use some Brangus bulls, we use some beef master bulls, but also run some Charlie bulls. And uh I'd love being able to tinker with those genetics and bring those Charlie Charlie genetics back into some of that stuff that's a little closer to that F1, and we can really produce some good calves at that point.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Yeah, that that seems to uh like I wish more people had some type of management plan or breeding plan like that because it does require more management. It does. And separation of your F1s from your F2s or circulating that breed and which bull goes with it. That's some management. And uh I uh you know, I had somebody tell me the other day that that I had never thought about before was that screw worm, the one of the bad things, even though it was still better than having screw worm, but getting rid of screw worm also got rid of a ton of management practices.

SPEAKER_04 50:40

You're not in your cattle as much.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

Right. Not in your and then it allowed you to be like, I think I'm just gonna stay here. Yeah. I think I can check them this weekend.

SPEAKER_05 50:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Or uh and I never thought about that, that uh the people that have the opportunity to have the cattle and let them be cows because you don't have to worry about screw bar. Absolutely. I never thought about that.

SPEAKER_04 51:04

I think it I think it does a lot of things. So you know, my being able to move to Kansas and see some things that a little well a lot, a lot different management practices was really important because as you talk to feed a lot people and background and people that buy cattle out of Florida. You know, it's always been the thing. These Florida cattle are wild. Well, these Florida cattle don't get handled as much as, say, when I was in Kansas, you know, we tagged every cab. So every morning your horseback, you're the same way. And you're in them, your horseback, you're in these cattle, you're in them on foot, you're in them, you know, whether it's on a side-by-side or or horseback. And the other thing in the winter time, we have to feed. So you're in them with a feed truck, and those cattle are coming to feed every day, and it settles them. I was, you know, as I said, I had some autonomy there, and we bought some cattle out of Florida, and I bought some Brangus cattle, which are, you know, they're normally a little bit uh they're temperamental and and different. Within a year under a program in Kansas where we were in them every day, we were horseback, on foot, feed truck, those cattle fit right in with the you know, the cattle that were from there. And so that was a that was a bigger eye-opener.

SPEAKER_00 52:26

So maybe more regional difference or environmental differences.

SPEAKER_04 52:28

It's environmental and regional, uh, it is in management, you know, and it's not that people are bad managers here, but the cow takes care of herself so they don't have to be in the screw worm and this mealybug where you have to look at your pastures and you have to really monitor is gonna bring back some of that, and it's gonna, you know, it's gonna weed out, uh, I think it's gonna weed out people that don't want to really put in that extra extra work and be in those cattle.

SPEAKER_00 52:53

What so what is the through all the management that you do and crossbreeding, what is the calf that you are trying to produce? Whenever that calf sells, what is that?

SPEAKER_04 53:05

Okay, so for us here, we're I'm always looking to build a cow. I I'm a I'm a maternal guy, I want that cow. For me, our I've always said that our our females should always be worth more than our steers. And you know, as we sell them on a feeder market, that it's not that way. So I want to produce a female that's gonna be not only, you know, something that I feel like I can keep and build our herd with, but I want to build something that's marketable as a female.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

As a breeding cycle, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:39

And I I that I think if we continue, nobody ever asked me if I was a steer guy. They asked me if you're a cow man.

SPEAKER_03 53:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:46

We're we're cow people, yeah. And we have to build a cow. You guys are the same way in what you do because you have to build that cow to be able to put that right seedstock bowl with her and produce an embryo that you need. So it it's that's the way it goes. But for as far as marketability, really try to do that. I'm a pounds of beef guy. Um, I I I like to grade well, and we are we we do our our uh uh grading and feeding has been good over the last few years, and I think it didn't start with just me, it started with Alex on maybe make paying attention to that, you know, uh ribeye, IMF, stuff like that that we need to. And we are upper mid to upper 80s on our uh choice and better. So uh but yeah, it's good. We're not gonna be 92 to 95, we're just not we're because we don't carry that. But to have those numbers is pretty good and still be able to produce that female. So for me, I want to produce something with some bone and make sure that we are putting putting a calf on the ground that's gonna be able to, I call it capacity. Give me the capacity to grow him and put pounds on a truck. The least number of calves I got to put on the truck means the more trucks I can load. And I think that's I think I've always focused on that and making sure that we can put that kind of calf on the ground.

SPEAKER_00 55:04

And do those those will just head to central part of the states?

SPEAKER_04 55:08

Yep, central part of the states, North Tech, usually the panhandle of Texas, and southwest Kansas.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Uh well this oh, I forgot to mention that you did some rodeo stuff.

SPEAKER_05 55:22

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

I forgot to mention how did I forget to mention that?

SPEAKER_04 55:26

You did some clowning. I was a I was a PRCA bullfighter in uh through the 90s. Did you ride at all before that? I rode when I was young. Yeah, rode bareback horses and bulls when I was young. Wow uh then I was just good enough to not make any money and and but keep going. Uh got an opportunity in the early 90s, uh kind of out of the blue. It was kind of a freak thing. I showed up at a at a uh bull riding, was entered into bull riding. And I've always went to the practice pen and you know helped out with the guys. And the producer walked by me and said, Hey, my bullfighter didn't show up. He said, I've seen you in the practice pen. Can you step out there? And I said, Heck no. I said, Those things will kill you. He said, Well, I'll pay you, and he said, and I'll pay your entry fees. And I said, Okay, so they run my bull in the front, and uh I I ended up winning second in the bull riding and then stepped out there and fought bulls and he paid me and I made more, he paid me more than my second place winnings were. And I'm like, you know what? And I kind of had fun. So it kind of took off from there, ended up getting an opportunity and getting into the PRCA, working, working some outstanding rodeos, and and uh build a career through that. But just like the cow business, the rodeo business was connections for me. I still have people that I, you know, am in touch with and uh because rodeo world is tied to the you know the cow business in a lot of ways. It is so the road my my time in in the PRCA and doing the things I'd done, you know, was fortunate enough to be elected to the Southeastern Circuit Finals four times and uh got to work some you know big rodeos and you know, and I tell people it's it it's pretty cool because I look at guys that are retired now that are on podcasts and stuff, and and I rodeoed with those guys and it's good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

Yeah, did you have a stage name or was it?

SPEAKER_04 57:25

Nope, I was just me. I was I was just me. Uh, you know, I uh just kind of really relied on my abilities and uh I did after when I retired from fighting bulls, I was I had done some comedy work and and worked the barrel a little bit and was asked if I'd stay in the PRC and and be a barrel man. And I I tried it for for a few months and it just wasn't my thing. I I like to be out on my feet moving around. And I had a young family, kind of like you are now, and it was time for me. Uh my girls were starting to play ball and things like that, and I needed to be home on weekends. When I decided to retire, I'd been I was in Atlanta and worked a performance on a Saturday night and got finished with the performance, washed my makeup off my face, and was a little bit beat up. I'd gotten I took a pretty bad hook in that weekend, and my oldest daughter had a softball game in Tampa, Florida on Sunday morning at eight o'clock. And I needed to be there. So I left Atlanta that night after the rodeo and I drove until it took me until like four o'clock in the morning. And I didn't want to wake the girls up. They were in the hotel, didn't want to wake the girls up, so I just pulled up in front of the hotel, laid my seat back, went to sleep. And I woke up and the sun was coming through my window, and I looked out the window, and I looked at that hotel, and I'm like, you know what? It's time to be a dad. And uh so that was that was in early 2000. I finished out that year and kind of I'd let everybody know that that was gonna be it. So walked away.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

Oh my dang.

SPEAKER_04 59:05

Yep. What a fun little It was outside.

SPEAKER_00 59:09

Did you do it?

SPEAKER_04 59:10

I fought bulls for 10 years. 10 years. Yeah. Eight years in the PRCA, but I fought bulls for 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 59:15

And you had to do some ranching while you were doing it.

SPEAKER_04 59:17

I was working every day. Yeah. Matter of fact, uh my dad, who worked for the Seminole tribe, he he didn't know that. Yeah, he managed one of their one of their operations for 25 years.

SPEAKER_00 59:27

Like one of the 63?

SPEAKER_04 59:28

No. Okay. He worked on the board side on the on the on the outside side. So he worked on the board side, he managed one of their places for 25 years, and uh he actually retired from the tribe. So I was I was dayworking for him, and I, you know, I was dayworking around at that time. So I'd I'd work three or four days a week and leave on a Thursday or Friday morning and then fly or drive to wherever I had to go and get to work. Wow. But uh had a lot of fun. My body tells me it tells on me a little bit these days. I you know broke everything from my uh neck to uh you know ribs, both legs. Yeah, so been beat up a little bit, but it's all good.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:09

Feel a pain when a rain's coming with the rain. 2000 right there.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

You bet, you bet. You bet, but got to see some cool things and meet some great people.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna change where we're going a little bit. It's one of my favorite segments of the podcast. It's called the Finolio Boot. I wear Fenolio Boots, they're a uh family that have been making and selling boots for a long time. They're in there in Texas and they're in Fort Worth stockyards. So if you ever go to the stockyards, or you can buy online, but use discount code Tucker Brown, all caps, no space, get you a discount.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:45

You got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

Um but what about ranching or ag in general? I'll leave it pretty open. What would you give the boot? What would you kick out? What would I kick out? What would you kick out? Culture, practices, uh breeds of cattle.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:07

Well, there are a few of those. Wow. If if I had to kick out something, it would be the opportunity for foreign entities and large corporate entities to buy ranches. That would be my thing. Now I I work for I work for we are a corporation, but it's a tribe. It's a little different. But you know, uh Bill Gates, these guys, they you know, those kind of guys that want to that want to buy this land, and you know, the the other thing would be is people who buy ranch land and turn it into hunting properties and get cattle off of it. Because they can say what they want to cattle make it better hunting ground.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:08

I firmly believe it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

You can make them make it worse.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:11

You can make absolutely you can overdo it and make them make it worse.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:15

But they absolutely make it better.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:17

You bet. You bet. They open up those trails that you need opened up, they they keep things, you know, down. So uh for me it'd be those couple things, the corporate entity and the guy that buys the buys the land to just take all the cattle off it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

And Throckworn, we're close enough to Dallas that we have we do get quite a bit of that. And it's all in, you know, they have a 320 or 640 or something like that. And then it's like eight years, and then they're like, this grass is just too tall, I can't see my deer.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

Or it's just too tall. These weeds are just getting in the way, and I need to mow it. And I'm like, I got a mower for you. I absolutely can get anywhere, it never gets stuck. You bet. Uh never have to change its oil. It fertilizes your ground by itself and even self-replicates. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:08

You bet it does. It's yeah. It's regenerating.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

But but but it has opened up some opportunities because whenever I do, we do have a few places where we get to graze six to seven months of the year for basically free. Yeah. Because they just want it mowed.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:26

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:28

Not that it's a good thing that those guys keep coming and buying and kicking them off, but I'm just trying to take advantage of the opportunities that arise. That's a good one. Brought to you by Finelio Boots. Check them out.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:38

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:39

I love them. Uh what does the uh as we're get kind of getting towards the end here, what does the future of Florida ranching look like? We talked about some of the challenges of people coming in, um, some policies changing. Do you have an idea of what might be coming?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:59

Thankful for the uh oh gosh, I can't think of the name of it right now, but environment environmental easements and uh the the Lands Act where people can put these environmental easements to protect their land.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:13

Uh oh, like uh Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:18

Oh, it's all conservation.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:20

Uh yeah, put it into a conservation easement.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:22

It's a conservation easement. So for I think that is really gonna protect, you know, a lot of our a lot of our lands. It'll always be here. It'll get smaller, but it'll always be here. And I I think it um those things are gonna keep it thriving in a lot of places. There are, you know, there I think there'll always be an opportunity because there are places where they can't develop, you know. And you know, our wetlands, our wetlands um are protected, and a lot of those wetlands are low country that we graze in the in the winter and the spring when it's dry, and then we're off of them through the summer when it's wet and wildlife thrives, and I think those kind of things are gonna protect us to a point.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:08

Well, that's good. I know we've talked about a couple things that were kind of bad, yeah. But uh I don't think ranching's going away.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:16

Ranching's not going away, it's gonna be here. It's you know, it's survived. Uh people you'll hear them say, Oh, that way of life is a thing of the past, and we're still kicking. They've been saying that for a long time. Yeah, and we're we're still kicking, but what we do and what we've found, and I know you have too, and we've talked a lot about it actually, um, around it, is we adapt to you know, our the our industry adapts to what's around it and you know, whether it's being able to adapt genetically or adapt to types of land that we are using now that weren't used you know in the past. And uh different kinds of grasses we can plant to produce more on. Smaller properties and things like that. Our the people will continue to keep this going and it's not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:07

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

No, there the I get kind of beat up with the statement of I mean, the average age of the rancher is 62 and there's nobody to take it over. And I'm like, well, I bet if you leave, somebody's coming.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:22

Somebody's coming. You think it's just gonna sit there? It ain't gonna sit there. Somebody's gonna see an opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:26

You know, and they might not do it just like you did, you know, but there's gonna be an opportunity for for young people. And I think I think what you do, and you know, um anybody that you know advocates and is part of that, and we've said that word a lot, and I know it's probably use it too much, but the advocacy is huge, and for us to continue to put this out to young people, make them want to come back to it. So this is you know, and I know it happened in your country, it's happened in this country, you know, or you know, when I say country, I mean state, you know, area. But so when I was a young man, my teens, and and older than that, people were raising their kids, but they wanted them to go to town, get an education, and be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, whatever you could be, because this ranch in life, you know, it's just hard and it's and it's uh it's it's not very lucrative and and and these things, so they push their kids to do these things. So the kids did.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:32

Well, they didn't come back. A lot of them didn't come back. And then so then when it, you know, whether it's death or retirement for for those older people, you talk about those 62 and above. So when it's death or retirement, those kids who are now living in town, instead of living in Throckmorton, they're living in Dallas Fort Worth. And this time sell. So it goes to, you know, whatever. So I I think that that has been a factor. But I think now it's turning around a little bit, where people are saying, hey, come back to the ranch. And then COVID, I think, helped that a lot, you know, as bad as it was, you know, lost my mother to co in COVID, but uh, but as bad as COVID was, it kind of brought that vision back to say, hey, maybe we need to get back out there. Yeah, because in here, we can't buy toilet paper. There are no eggs, you know. Let's get back out there where we can have some chickens or you know, and stuff like that. I know that's a you know, uh going down a rabbit hole, but uh I do think that that that was a was a factor in it. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:46

I totally agree. Yeah, more Throckmorton's population grew during COVID because people were leaving Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and being like, I think I'm gonna go there. Yeah, you do want to go there. Well, now we get to move to the Clint Rawlerson show.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:02

The Clint Rollerson show.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:04

And you get to become the host of the Clint Rawlerson show. Lead the conversation, ask a question, whatever you want to do in the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:10

All right, whatever you want to do. All right. I tell you, so uh this is got you know, I got to your dad was talking about this when I was out there, you know, when we were talking about it, move me coming there. The the vents.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

Oh yeah, the virtual fencing.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:28

The virtual fencing.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:30

Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, the another one of those crazy technologies that like five years ago I never it was never on my radar.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:41

Mine either.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:42

Uh but it has allowed us in uh like east of us, there's a lot of folks that are getting more into the rotational grazing and more intensive grazing, resting pastures, which we've we've done for a long time with our ability with little water and uh brush and bigger pastures, it's harder to do that. Uh but we we know if we want to be sustainable, which is one of those words that's overused, that we have to at least continue getting better or stay the same with what we with the ground that we have, with the grass we have and soil. And now with more opportunities like like carbon credits or like we've seen more data, more and more data that some more intensive grazing and resting improves pasture, better grass, better for the cows, better for the pocket. Uh so all of those things we're like, all right, it's time, it's time that we invest in that without shepherding cattle.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:46

Without being out there all the time living with them and shepherding those cattle. What how can we do that? That virtual fence has allowed us to do that from our phone. We are still with those cattle every day, but it is helping us shepherd those cattle, keeping them in locations a little more intensively, or it maybe even more important, keeping them out of locations to let that grass rest. And uh we're now there's more it's changed so much in the last three to four years where there's more competition in this field.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:21

There are a few, there are a few now.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:23

Mm-hmm. And I have competition's a great thing. Because then if you don't improve, you know, your competition is. Absolutely. And now they're making it to there, there are some companies making it to where you can know when a cow comes into heat, you can know when a cow is calvin, you can know how many, how long she's grazing, how long she's resting, um, if she's getting chased by something, like if it were a coyote or a a fire or something like that. And so now we're not only are we getting better grazing, but we have opportunities in the very near future to be able to tell way more about those cattle. And just like the data points you're talking about, the individual data points on your calves, on your cows, improving uh growth, improving your fertility, we're gonna be able to do that without through this, through this, through a collar, without actually having to bring those cattle into the chute to capture that data.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:23

You mentioned that cow coming in heat and being able to pick that up through the that's a that'd be a huge tool in the embryo transfer A hour. Oh man, that's a that's a game changer.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:36

Saving labor.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:37

You bet.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:38

Saving might be able to make that softball game.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:41

Yeah, there you go. So it on the same subject, uh, we also always talk about pros and cons. What would be your cons on it? The cons.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:50

If there are any. Yeah, I think there always are, or at least consequences. Consequences, it does kind of like the screw worm, that it's since it's gone, it gives you that idea that, like, oh, well, I can just ranch from right here. It it gives you that opportunity to say that. We haven't said it yet.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:10

Um there probably have been some times where we've said it on small occasions, but not in our management practices in general. Um and then uh the the learning curve is kind of tough, which I think they're getting better at making it more friendly. But um it's different, so sometimes people don't like different.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:37

Cowboys don't like different, right? I don't blame them. I don't either. I get it when you look at the cow and she's got this big collar around her neck, kind of you know, that that doesn't look great in a painting. No, what's that?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:51

Always the first question that a time tour group comes in, like, that's not a bell. Right. What is that? Yeah. And I was like, well, it's kind of his. Like the bell was used for location and it's interesting to me.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:02

And uh I I think it's I think it's a part of our future in a lot of places, especially where maybe we own these smaller properties like you're talking about, that you know, maybe our hunter has bought them, and then you don't we don't have to go in there and build several miles of fence. We can control the cattle without that extra expense. So I think I think that can can go. So next thing that I kind of wanted to ask you, you know, RA Brown Ranch, you know, hundred and what was it, 105 years old, a few years ago, it's pushing. It's 130. Okay, 130. So tell me um tell me what's new, what's coming down the pipe on the RA Brown side.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:43

Good question. Well, it's changed quite a bit as far as family management since my brother and I both had kids. And uh yeah, as you know, that kind of changes your life. You bet. And with my brother having twin boys that are seven months old and me having three girls, the our both my parents and our priorities have changed as far as what we're doing this weekend.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:10

It's amazing how that works, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:11

Yeah, yeah. Or like there's a now we're trying to make time to where I can make the Wednesday Thanksgiving lunch at like 10:50 in the morning, uh, which we had never had to do. Never had to do before. So we're kind of stepping into a new area, new chapter of of life and management. Uh but it but it's been cool because my brother and I have been able to fall into our positions on where we fit best and where our strengths are. Uh to and we're already talking about generational transfer, we're already having those conversations.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:52

I think that's a great thing to do now rather than down the road. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:56

And uh we're my grandparents were huge believers in that, which we we lost both of them this year, but it's been really cool to see. Obviously, I would love for them to still be here, but I know that they would rather stay where they're at right now, being able to absolutely be because I know they're in heaven, I know what they believe. Uh and so it's been really cool to see that torch pass down from I remember whenever my grandmother died a few months ago, that uh all of our cousins came in and telling stories and stuff, and every time uh every time we would all come in, we would always play poker with granddad. We'd always have a few drinks, we'd always play some poker, and we were like, you know what, we gotta do that. Not for not for us, it's for grandad. For this, we gotta have we gotta have a drink, gotta have, gotta have a um some good food. And and then as we were sitting there talking and we were playing, we'd pass the cards and tell a story about grandmom and granddad. And uh I just remember thinking, like, if we get together again, this is on us now. Like, it's not on grandmom and granddad.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:02

You bet.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:03

Because that's what that's what brought us together. That's right. Was always grandmom and granddad. So I was like, man, the torch has been passed. Like now, if we get together, it's on us. So that's been again, I feel like a lot of the change has been in the family. We're still, I mean, Lanham's raising great horses and winning shows. He just won the world's greatest non-pro over in Arizona. Uh he's getting harder for me to make fun of.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:28

Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. And just for, you know, maybe I'm sure most people that watch your show know, but you know, you're more on the cow side. Yep. And you know, Lanham is he's the horse side of the world, and that's your mom's love, is the horse side. Your dad, your dad's side loves, he loves both sides, but he loves the cow side a little bit more. Uh but but Miss Kelly loves loves the horses. Yeah, that was our big conversation when when her and I were together out there. We'd talk horses because I love horses. As everybody knows the horse business is a is a big you know part of my life. So that was funny. You sold your horse Trump this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:06

I did, yeah, sold Trump.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:08

I as I got uh He went right by me on the bidding pretty fast. I was bidding on him, but he went right by me pretty fast.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:15

He as he went um as I saw the horse before him sell, who I thought was a better horse than Trump in general. Uh a little more, or maybe he was right after, I don't remember. But he was way more uh athletic, a lot quicker, not near as stout, probably couldn't drag as many pounds. I don't know if he would have been good with kids or not, but you know, Trump had it absolutely had his strengths. Um but I just thought that other horse was better and he sold for less, and I was like, uh the power of marketing is real, and I just saw it, and I just I saw it two from one lot to the next, I saw the difference, even though they're in the same sale, one lot away, different horses, same people in front of them, and the horse that I I mean, maybe strength Trump's strengths just happen to be to that person that wanted to pay more, but the marketing is real.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:19

Marketing's real, it it is absolutely real. I I learned it through social media, yeah. Uh, you know, and you know, just like when I did my book, social media all I really have was Facebook at that time. And I did no marketing other than Facebook, and most self-published books sell a couple hundred copies, and we sold 2,000. Wow. Yeah, so it was a bit that so and it was all marketing, yeah. Just putting it out there, people sharing it and it going out there. So marketing is huge, and you know, you being able to put Trump online with your kids and and everything that you did on him, and people saw you, they they knew that horse. Yeah, and you know, uh right along with Tucker Brown. So I I think I think that was a cool deal. And uh, you know, I'm I'm riding everybody that knows me knows that I'm a huge fan of Take a Pick. Yeah, and um I'm riding Take a Pick now that belongs to Dusty Hawley, yeah. Uh that I'm training for him.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:24

And she's that's yeah, that's the Philly that's she's a very nice filly. Like four, three, four. She's three. Three.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:30

Yeah, coming three. She's not quite there yet, but she's coming three. Very nice Philly. She's gonna be a whole lot like her dad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:37

And there's not many of those left now. Yeah, they those youngins anyway.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:40

Yeah, that we need to keep them going. Uh-huh. That's a heck of a string of horses. We love I love those. I I've I've got another, I've got a sixes pick mare that uh is on our brood mare string. So yeah, so she'll be she'll be good down the line.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:54

Well, what uh I forgot to I'm forgotten to ask. Did you get to work with your granddad any?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:01

No, I didn't. He he passed away when I was young.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:04

Okay. Yep. But got to work with your dad, worked on the Seminole tribe, kind of full circle with you coming back. Any uh, and it could be your dad or any other cowboys that you look up to, um, or men and other guys in general. But uh any sayings or any wisdom that they shared with you that you keep pretty close to your heart?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:24

Wow. Somebody said this one time, and I pay attention to it. My my granddad, this one's kind of funny, and uh I there's a couple things, but you know, somebody told my granddad one time, they said, you know, old John down the road, he he ought to be a good hand. He's been around cattle all his life. My granddad said, I drive by the airport every day, I can't even crank an airplane.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:49

I like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:50

I like that that and uh you know it's kind of a life advice thing, you know. My dad, you know, told me one time, he said, not every day's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:02

So true.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:03

It's being able to take the good days and let them carry through the through the days that aren't good. And it doesn't matter is it if you're what your your job is, whether it's you know cowboy riding a horse and you love what you do, you know, absolute love what you do, or if you're like me in an office every day and you know, and dealing more on the corporate side, you're not gonna you're gonna have bad days. Some things aren't gonna go your way, some things are gonna upset you, but it's being able to take that good and be able to just kind of keep pushing forward and and having that goal at the end where you can just keep pushing.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:39

And as a as a man of faith, God-fearing man, do you have any anything you feel led to share or some do a favorite Bible verse or a favorite chapter?

SPEAKER_04 1:22:53

Really studying? I I go all over the place on my on Bible verses. It's being faithful, and and my daughter and my son-in-law have a faith-based apparel company, and it's called Unashamed. Wait, faith-based? Christian-based.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:11

What company?

SPEAKER_04 1:23:12

It's called Unashamed. But the you said a faith, faith-based something company. Apparel company. Apparel company. And it's called Unashamed. Yep, he does some pastor work. Uh they both uh are really involved in their church and and you know have very strong faith, and their company's called Unashamed. And I think that is, I think that carries so far because you know, we talked about it, you know, before the podcast, how some people aren't comfortable talking about it. And I think that, you know, as as witnesses, we have to talk about it. Yeah, you know, and it's a walk. It is a it is a walk, and you know, Lord knows I haven't always walked that way. Uh gotten stronger in my faith, and um very, very, you know, I say passionate about it, but unashamed.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:06

Willing to talk about it, you know, and w willing to share that with people. And I think, I think that willingness to share carries carries so much weight because that's what we should be doing, right? We should we should be um it's how we walk and you know, and how we treat people that is that that people look at us and young people look at us, and especially when we're you know, somewhat in the public eye, people look at us and go, you know, maybe that's what I want to be. Or, you know, and uh I never considered myself a role model, but if if that's the way that goes, that's the way that goes. You know, I'd rather be a good one than a bad one. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:46

So well, I've always appreciated your leadership, and uh it seemed it always seems like uh I've heard it said the wisest man in the room is normally the one of the quieter ones. And I always feel like whatever words you have to say typically have some power behind them and never just talking to talk. So I've always appreciated that about you.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:05

Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that very much, you know, and I uh kind of back to something we spoke about earlier, and I've I've said this that people like you are, you know, what's our thing that we talk about in our business so much? Sustainability. And uh young people like you that are advocates and do in content and creators and influencers, if you want to say, that is our not only our how many generations? Six. Six. Okay. I'm five, you're six. So not only the fifth and sixth generation people, but also the first generation young people in the cow business. Yeah, that's sustainability. Our young people are our sustainability. Yes. That that is sustainability 101. You can take it how you can look at everything else we do, but we have to continue to nurture our young people into wanting to be a part of our industry. And I think that's I think it's huge.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:08

Florida Cademans does a pretty good job.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:09

Florida Cademans. Yep, it does. They they really do. Like we said at the beginning, it's it's family. Yeah, and uh, it's built around family, and I think that I think that's where they set themselves apart from like we talked about the the very the very you know business like walk-in, how you doing, shake a hand, go to a meeting, sit down. This throws a lot more at people.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:32

Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:33

Yep, me too.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:34

Do you have a uh we talked about Cowboy Poet, and I didn't ask you this before, but do you have a poem that you would share or that you want to share?

SPEAKER_04 1:26:42

Let me see. So we've talked a lot about some things, and I'm let me grab my phone.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:50

And I'll I will read one. Let's see which one.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:11

Oh, Pat just agreed to do in a podcast too. All right.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:24

This one. So when I was at the Schofield ranch and I could kind of see the writing on the wall that it was gonna sell, and I heard they had people coming in and we're gonna put a contract on it. I got back to my horse barn that night and I was completely kind of just destroyed. You know, I was disgusted. So and you know, my family had been in that area for you know close to a hundred years. Now, well it's closer to a hundred now, but so I sat down in the barn that night and I wrote this poem, and uh I think you'll get it. The sun breaks the horizon this morning, and for two hours he's already been in the saddle. An early start to the day like thousands before, whenever he's tending cattle. An old hen turkey clucks gently from the roofs as if to say good morning, my old friend. A daylight flock of blue winged teal fly over. It's always amazing how they own the wind. His little bay horse steps ever so gently over an old cypress log as across the swamp he hears the croak of a lonely bullfrog. At the edge of a wire grass prairie he stops and watches an old buck deer. His thoughts go back to being a little boy, and just across this same clearing he roped and tied a wild brammer steer. He remembers how he ran his little horse all the way back to the herd to tell his dad and the rest of the cowboys of his prize. How could he ever forget the look of pride in his old daddy's eyes? For a hundred years his family has rode this big range in the glades. He knows it like the back of his old weathered hand, from the tallest pine to the grass he loves every blade. Where big herds of fat cattle once roamed under his watchful eye, and where an abundance of wildlife live right alongside, even eagles in the sky. But today he's hunting just one old outlaw cow that's been left behind. She's a smart old devil, and he knows she'll be plenty hard to find. You see, on this range that his family has worked for so many years, there's no more big herds of cattle. The ranch has been bought by a developer, people in fancy suits and big offices that ain't never seen this ranch and damn sure ain't never set in a saddle. They say they're going to turn it into a neighborhood where people can live and with streets they can drive around. The ranch had to sell the cattle off. They told him he had to move out of the bunkhouse, suggested that he move on into town. It's around midday when he finds the old cow's track, he thinks, dang, it's gonna be a long trip just to get her back. He trails that old cow for at least another mile or two through cypress swamps and palmetto flats to the edge of a big sawgrass slough. When he sees her, she's feeding on some wire grass with no clue that she's been found. He just watches her for a spell and never makes a sound. She's got long, slick ears and no brand on her side. For many a year she's slipped around and found a way to hide. He admires the old bovine for her wily wit and wear. He's the old cowboy and her the outlaw cow, but it's a common bond they share. A love for this range that runs deep in their blood and plumb to their core, and when he drives this old cow out, neither of their kind will walk on this ground forevermore. As he watches the old cow, he can't stop the growing lump in his throat and the water in the corner of his eye, and he takes off his old hat and he looks to his maker in the sky. Says, Lord, I'm just an old cowboy and I've always tried to be a good man. And I know whatever happens here is all in your great plan. But Lord, all my life I've given an honest day. I've always done my job and worked hard during my pay. Lord, I want to thank you for letting me live and work on this land. And you know, Lord, I've always been one to ride for the brand. So Lord, I hope you'll forgive me what I'm gonna do now. I just think on this range, Lord, you need to keep one last cow.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:10

She earned it.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:11

She earned it. She earned it.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:13

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:14

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:15

That's neat.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:16

Yeah. So yeah, you know, it's it's that it's that love of what we do and where we're at. And I I think that in our industry it it it it carries more. Because for me, you know, now that I sit in an office and work in in the corporate world, it's hard to have that feeling sitting inside four walls. So I think about people that don't get to do what we've done in our life, and think about people that are sitting in cubicles or or wherever they're at, and that there's not that vision and that inspiration. The our land and these cattle and horses are have always been my inspiration. They've been my writing inspiration, but everything I I've inspired been inspired to do my whole life.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:06

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:06

So I I think that to me is is probably one of the biggest things about what we do is that absolute love of the land and the cattle. You know, and there's pretty good people in our industry too.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:20

Oh, you dang that you dang right. Yeah, so yeah, you talked about it being a business of people, and it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:28

Because uh reputation follows you everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:30

You bet. Even to the Florida Catalans, even the Florida Calvin's.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:35

Thanks for being on the podcast. Oh, thank you. That was so fun. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:39

We've talked about doing it for a long time. I'm glad we finally got a chance.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:42

Gosh, I know. So if you haven't made it to Florida Cowlowins, do it. Do you still sell the book?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:46

I do. You do? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:48

Tell them about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:48

Just find me on Facebook, uh Clint Rollerson. Clint Rollerson. The book's called Cowboy Legacy. Uh I do have some copies and love to sell them. They just DM you or Yep, they just DM me on Facebook and we can get it done. Sweet. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:02

So you've been listening to the Registered Ranch podcast, give it a five-star review. Uh helps us get the word out and uh doing some more advocacy, and it'll be on to the next one. We gotta get Pat Durden in now.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:14

Yeah, gotta get Durden. We gotta get Durden on here. He's he's awesome. You've got to get some questions from you.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:19

Thanks, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:20

Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. That was fun.