inside South Florida Ranching: Florida Crackers Ft: Hyatt Kempher

When most people think of Florida, they picture beaches, theme parks, and big cities—but there's another side of the Sunshine State that few people ever see.

In Episode 77 of Registered Ranching, we sit down with  Hyatt Kempher to explore the rich history and traditions of South Florida ranching. From working cattle through the Everglades to preserving generations of cowboy heritage, Hyatt Kempher shares what life is really like on one of Florida's historic ranches.

We discuss the challenges of raising cattle in South Florida's unique environment, the importance of land stewardship, family legacy, wildlife, and why Florida's cattle industry has played such an important role in American agriculture for generations.

If you enjoy ranching, cattle production, cowboy culture, horses, or the outdoors, this episode offers an inside look at a lifestyle that continues to thrive far beyond the beaches.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

What family name was that?

SPEAKER_02 0:17

You remember? I believe the Basses. The Bass. Basses. So way, way back. So that would be the Parton side and then the Basses. So from there. So Henry O'Parton married a bass. And Henry O'Parton would be my great-great-grandfather.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

So And he was in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Yep, he brought he had the first registered Brahmin herd in the state of Florida.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Really?

unknown 0:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

I didn't know that. I'm pretty sure it was. If not, B first, he was one of the first. And y'all kept that. Have you kept registered herd since then, the family? Yep, they all our stuff goes back to his.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

He had a bull called Emperor. So that was his kind of claim to fame, was old Emperor.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Was it the same, is it at the same spot there near St. Cloud or Deer Park?

SPEAKER_02 1:02

It would have been in St. Cloud, yep. It's all houses there now on that part of the ranch where he used to live at, you know, but uh yeah, all right there St. Cloud Cassimme, what they call part and settlement area. So that's changed a little bit since then. Yeah, it's all Puerto Ricans now. I hate to say it that way, but it's I think uh Simi St. Cloud is the largest Puerto Rican community in the country. It is.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

In the country?

SPEAKER_02 1:27

In the country, I'm pretty sure. Um I think it surpassed New York with how many, how large the Puerto Rican population is there now. So they have turned cow pasture into to houses.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

I was talking to Clint Rawlison earlier, and he was he was talking about how whenever he'd uh whenever he was working on that family ranch. Purdy's, I believe, down there. It's a JB ranch, I think. And he's like, we we'd be driving home and I'd tell my kids, like, yeah, I remember gathering the last cow off of that house out of that neighborhood that's now a neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

I tried to say that the other day. I was riding down the road with my buddy. I said, Yeah, I wasn't part of the last, we cleaned the last cows out of both sides of the road right here. It's nothing but like head high pal meadows, and it was a wreck, and we trailed cattle and trailed cattle, and like at both times it was like two. The dogs finally would bay, and we'd finally got them caught, and he's like, Well, no, you didn't, because there's a cow right there. Somebody else had put cows right at they're still developing, but somebody else fenced a little bit off and put some in there. I said, Well, dang dumb. I can't say that I still can say it on that side, but I can't the other now. So that was a heck of a day.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yeah, doing did you have to make whenever you were gathering those, did you have to make like more than one round to get those?

SPEAKER_02 2:48

So I didn't go in on the original clean out. I went on the second one. The first one they were in there with a helicopter. Oh. But uh, and they found something, and it's not a real big track, but it's right in the middle of town, and it's rough, rough, and uh just big palmetto country. And uh they'd missed two heads on each side. And the first time we went in, it wasn't that big a deal that they were still in there, but the construction company ripped the fence out on the highway, and uh there was one or two of those on one of them cows was on the shoulder of the road, and that boy that boy that had the cows in there is an attorney, and liability was scaring him to death. He slept out there on the side of the road that night, and uh we went in there the next day and we hunted one little stretch out and then we split up, and me and him stayed together, and they were longhorn cows. Really?

SPEAKER_00 3:46

I can't say I've ever seen a longhorn cow in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

And these were bighorns because I struggled to get her caught. We've uh we finally found one of them, and she was gentle, but uh, she was in some pines, and you couldn't even hardly swing your rope in there anyway, and then you couldn't get it around her big horns, and I finally caught her by a foot. She was gentle, she held right up, but I finally got her by a foot and snubbed her off to a tree. Well, we started calling everybody else, and like, hey, we got one, you know, any luck on the next one. About that time we heard the dogs jump. And uh old boy, he's got a really nice mail dog, and uh he jumped her, and uh the race was on. Then I finally got to him and got, I have a pretty good jet too, and we got her in on that race, and it was like running a deer. I mean, we were an hour and a half later.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

I think from when because I think my dog was in there for an hour and they'd run her for like 20 minutes before I got in on the race, and uh we overheated his dog. I don't know how his dog lived. He almost overheated and died on us, and I I had a tracking collar on my jib, and uh that cow had broke and uh she'd ran and I said, That's it. I said, I'm going to catch my dog while I was looking on my garmin, and I could see she'd stopped. I'm like, well, she's got her stopped. I said, I'll try her one more time, but if this cow breaks one more time, I'm calling my dog out. Well, I get up there, and that cow finally, for the first time, would stay held up. She'd, you know, she'd hold. And uh, normally she saw you, she'd break and break and break and run and run. She finally held up, and uh I got up there and finally got her loop pitched up there. And I had her by, it was sitting there and it was kind of over her nose, but it wasn't over there yet. And about that time, one of my buddies that was there, he came to us and I said, Hey Tommy, hold on. I said, Right around that other way, so when you ride Timmy, she'll run into it. So I snared her and I caught her, and luckily we were right by some water, and we got that cow caught, and I was able to give him the cow, and I went and watered my dog and saved her. But that was scary. If we about lost two good dogs, yeah. And good dogs are hard to come by. That's a good dog's worth more than a good horse.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

So whenever you're working, whenever you're working with those dogs, are you and you're hunting those cows? Do you let the dogs go and you're just waiting, or are you trying to follow them?

SPEAKER_02 6:20

It depends, you know. If you can stay with them in trail, yeah, it's best. That way they don't get too far out ahead of you. Uh-huh. But sometimes it doesn't matter. You just gotta, if you hit sign, they just gotta go. So what kind of dogs are you? They're just cur dogs. They're kind of like these dogs that I've got, and it's been hard to keep it going, but um, they're this this line of dogs have been in my family for forever. So y'all been breeding them and brewing them? Generations, yeah. So all my they go back to like the original parting dogs, so that'd be my dad's uh, my dad's mom side of the family, and we've had the same line of dogs ever, I mean, right on, so they all they all go right back to them.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

So that's wild. You think that's uh that's just kind of the like super cracking.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah. Especially when especially when you're trailing and hunting cattle, and like sure enough, because that's almost it's getting to be a lost art. You know, there's a lot of Florida is improved pasture. Now there's not near as many big rough places. And then even then, rough enough place where the cattle don't, you know, a lot of times you get after them, they'll go bunch up in the corner or something. You know, these cows are broken, they get handled so much more now. And but, you know, where you have to go and actually put a dog in a track and find the cow and catch it, or pin it. Pin it if you can, you know, you don't want to have to rope it if you don't have to, but when you're cleaning out or or catching wild cattle, you know, putting on a sign and then have a dog that can find them, and then that's got enough heart to stay with it, not quit you. Yeah. So especially through that heat. Yeah, it's hard. You know what you got real quick. You go jump a bunch of wild stuff, and uh yeah, you'll know what you got because them good ones will stay with them, but it's there's a lot of dogs that ain't gonna keep up with them.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

I don't blame them. I'd be in trouble trying to chase down cows.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Hey, that's fun though. It gets uh gets your butt pumping. Yeah, I can I got tickled the other day. I caught a little bull, he weighed about eight or nine hundred, and uh I run up there and I gave myself a great shot, but he's a real kind of wide horn, flat horn bull, and and uh I didn't quite get him caught. I just missed, and he got on the fight and was trying to hook me. And next thing you know, my dog went up there and caught him by the nose and pulled him down, and I almost stepped off and just tailed him and tied him right on the ground, but it was so hot I didn't want to tie him down. I wanted to tie him up to a tree, so I still had to get him caught and get him back up and then snatch him up to a tree and time the tree, but that was good shit to me because I mean I wish my roping was better. It would have been awesome if I could have gone up there and put a super loop on him or something, but I miss bigger than crap, but that gum, it was good to me when that dog pulled him down. Yeah, like proud dad moment.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Yeah, heck yeah, baby. Yeah. How many dogs do you run at a time? You were talking about one earlier.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

I like to run two. If I have two good ones. Really one, if I got a really good one, all you need's one. And if it all everything's like it's supposed to be. There's, you know, obviously certain circumstances when you need more, but man, if I'm on a crew and I need more than two, something's wrong. Either I don't have the dogs that I need or the cattle are dumb.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Yeah, yeah. So and uh I've uh yeah, I did a podcast with your cousin, Parker, and now he's back at I guess he's in Mississippi, Alabama.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

He's at our place in Alabama. Alabama. So we bought the old Cow Creek Brangus place up there, and we now have a registered Charlet herd up there, about a hundred cows, and a commercial cow calf operation.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

I didn't know the shards were over there.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Yep, that's where our new Charlet herd has been put together right there.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

And you kind of get to you kind of get to work all over the state.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Doing some day working and some cow catching and yeah, so I've you know, between my own personal stuff up in the panhandle with my cousin, um, when I was in school in Gainesville, we used to work the Gainesville area a lot. And now I mainly stay in Osceola County, but I was down here in um what would you call that? Um La Belle, basically, area the other day. Working a big rough, big rough place. It was like a twenty thousand acre place and like 200 head of cows.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Why?

SPEAKER_02 11:03

It's just a big rough place, yeah. It was a state lease and it's all native and uh great big old big old rough place. And uh cleaning it out? No, we were just working. Oh, just we were just working the cows for him. So uh yeah, he sold some calves and I just went for the first two days we gathered, but it was pretty cool. I had one of my best friends who was with me down there, and uh we made a gather that morning, and uh my good dogs were out of commission, and I was kind of making do with some crap, and uh we'd missed a handful of cows. Well, we went back that afternoon and we found two little bunches, me and him did in the truck, and they'd found another big group that they'd uh we'd missed, and uh kind of the main crew went and got them, and me and my buddy we hopped in the truck and we went and got lucky they were near a fence, and uh we went and bunched them up and put them on the trailer and hauled them back to the pins. We were still, it saved us about six or eight miles of riding. Wow. And uh we pulled in, we passed them with our second load of all that stuff that we'd pinned. They were still about a mile from the crevice, and we pulled in and turned them loose and were sitting there waiting on them at the bins when they got in there. They were tired and wore out, and we hadn't rode like a maybe a mile, you know, and they'd been riding four miles, like they probably rode six or eight miles from where they had to go and to come back, and uh yeah, we might have put a mile on ours.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

But and when you're uh when you're working those calves, do a lot uh I mean, guys in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, I mean, all over, everybody loves to drag. But what does that look like in Florida as far as culture and man?

SPEAKER_02 12:51

You know, we're running a lot smaller crews. So, you know, that's kind of a big rough lease deal, but and a lot of them, like those bigger, rough leases, you know, them guys, they they'll pull them calves off once or twice a year, and they'll have a long breeding season, and um because they're not really the best places, you're not gonna have as as big a cat, you're not gonna wean as good a calf and not gonna have management on it. Yeah, and it's harder to get your cowbread, so you know they'll sometimes just leave the bull year-round and just if there's some baby calves, they'll cut them and turn them back loose. But you know, they'll sell bull calves at the market a lot of deals, they're not putting them together. But you know, most of the time a big crew is six or eight guys here, and it's nothing to take four or five guys and work 200 pairs by lunch.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

So well, you'd have to get two dang hot.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah, even in the winter time, though, I mean, we'll do that. So, and that'll either be in a hydraulic calf table or a squeeze chute. So, um, you know, Brandon's never really been a thing here. The old timers they used to all leg them by hand, just put them in a small pen and catch them by hand and throw them. And um, we got to get in on a little bit of that when we were kids. I still know how, and and I like it every now and then you gotta have something for sport, but uh um, but yeah, now like a WW calf table, you can haul butt. But I mean, four guys, it's nothing to like you go over to Deserette, they're right across the street. So certain times of year, I got some friends that manage some units, run some units over there, and I'll go help my buddies on their deal. And you know, we'll take four or five guys, and especially on like a heifer unit, like a first kef heifer unit. So them heifers don't go down the chute as well. But we'll run them in and part them down the down a straight chute. And we'll part the heifers off, we'll part the dries off, we'll part the calves off, steer heifer, the cows one way, and then the dries another way, roll them back around, work the cows, weigh the calves, then bring them in and work the calves, and it's you can work 200 by lunchtime with four or five guys and not be tired at the end of it. And then when you get the chute, you're gonna give at two or three shots, an implant, maybe a drench, and a brand, an earmark, and castrating on the bull calves. You can't do all that on the ground. To me, I'd I'd be it you it would be a nightmare, so to do all that. So by being able to have a station to do that, you can really throw through in a hurry. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

That's fun.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Uh and you can do it in like a silence or two in a or in a big squeeze. You gotta let the calves get a little bigger. You can cut them, them calves standing. But like that uh that hydraulic WW calf table, uh, you'll cut them, you it will flip, but it's best if you can cut them standing, you can roll through them in a hurry. You just have a hook to hold that leg back? So no, they that squeeze away it's so tight right there, they won't hardly kick at all. They can't really kick you. Because it's a big squeeze that comes in kind of on their shoulder, right behind the shoulder. Yeah. And we'll have a knife, we won't cut them with a pocket knife. It we got basically, there's an old boy down here that builds it's like a tag knife, but it's made out of a piece of aluminum and it uses carpet blades for the deal, and you can change those carpet blades out. And it's I know some boys that have cut their finger, but you don't hardly, you're not cutting the calf.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Um, you're just getting sacked and the cods. So it's a lot safer.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Is uh Rocky Mountain oysters as popular here as they are at home?

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Yes and no. I know some boys that really like them. I don't really care for them. Yeah. But uh I know some boys that like to save them.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

I can't say I'm the guy that's trying to put one on the on the fire and eat it that, you know, while I'm there. I'm not that guy.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

I heard a story one time um some guys were um kept throwing them on a piece of tin as they were cutting them and they were letting them pop. Well then they all got like galvanized poisoning from the tin. And the them cods getting on the tin like that. Like, well, that makes sense. I'm glad I wasn't part of that, but that sounded terrible.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

That would be terrible, yeah. Uh but you would you've uh I know you've ranched in Florida a lot, and but uh you've you've been to Texas. Didn't you go to uh um Cowens? Or was that Will?

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Will did his internship at Cowens. We came, I've been to Texas a few times, but I've never worked out there. Yeah. So we've got our place, we had that place in Mississippi now in Alabama, and I've been up there and worked around some of those guys some, but uh is the culture very different from even though it's still the same ownership as the culture of the people different as far as the crew from Mississippi to Oh, it's completely different up there. Them guys are on a whole different, I mean, most of them guys hadn't ever seen more than a couple hundred head on one operation, so they don't understand what it's like to go to a multi-thousand head operation and then how how much different that is for how that conditions you, you know. So yeah, for like the day help we've used out there and um and some of those guys that work out there, and they may work a lot of cattle. I'm not saying that they don't, but you know, they're working a few here and a few there, and you know, they may they may mess around and get a week in one place, and that's a big place, and I'm not taking anything away from that. But man, go work a thousand head a week at the same place for four weeks in a row.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah, yeah, you figure out Yeah, there's not much of that in the southeast besides Florida, I feel like.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

No, I don't know where it's at. So yeah, I don't know where it's at. But yeah, it's nothing to down here. If you're busy day working, it's nothing to work a thousand head a week. You know, a good if you're busy, you're working ten to twenty thousand head a year multiple times. So depends on, you know, some people revax, some people don't, some people ship, or some people preg test, some people don't. So, I mean, if you, you know, Mark and Brand, revaccinate, ship, and then preg check, that's four different times down the chute that you gotta bring those cows. So on some of those places that might hinder you, you may only work 10,000, see 10,000 this year, but I I know there was a year or two. I tried to figure it up, and it was every bit of 15,000 that we'd worked on some of them crews that I'd been on, and that's a lot of freaking cows. That is a lot of cows. It's hard to remember 15,000 cows.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

I don't know if you would know the number or not, but uh where Florida stands as far as cattle numbers.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

I think I just saw they just said ninth. They had I think we just passed Kentucky. We just uh they had something in the opening general session. I think they said ninth. Ninth. So I think that's where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

That's a lot of cattle for a little place.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Yeah, especially with development closing in on us.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah, I know everything. That's more of what I meant. Like with how much land and native pasture that Florida has lost due to that development. Still a ton of cattle.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

And what's sad is the citrus industry has just gone to crap. I remember when I was little when we still had good groves everywhere, orange groves, beautiful groves, and it's rare to even see an orange grove, let alone a healthy one anymore. But there's a lot of people putting cattle in those old groves now. And they suck. Do they knock down those trees or do they sometimes yes, sometimes no? Um, the beds are can be terrible to ride across because it's like up and down, up and down. And so if you're on a sand hill, you know that's not as bad, but you get in some of these lower countries and they're you bog your horse down if you cross and they're gonna, you know, pick your crossings and bog your horse down, and that's no fun. You get the bogging for very long and it gets old. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

I don't really have to worry about that very much.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

No, I imagine not. But we don't have to worry about horseshoes either.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

No, yeah, that's nice. Yeah, I didn't think about that. Uh what is on on the day working side? Or seasonal work or whatever, uh at home. I mean you could be you could get paid from like 150 to 250 if you did at the real high paying places a day. What does that look like in Florida?

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Uh 200 minimum. Yeah. I we're trying to get it. This five dollar diesel's kicking our butts. Oh, yeah, I bet. Five and a half. was really tough. And you're not making any money at 200. I mean, cows are at an all-time high. I like 225 to 250. And if I can get a hauling gig too on top of it, that makes it like hauling cattle. Yeah, I think I got a bought a 24-footer the other day trailer. So, you know, I may catch me a load to the market every now and then or haul, move, help move different places, you know, if cattle got to move. But uh yeah, it would be nice if we could get up to two and a quarter, two and a half. It would make it a lot easier. I mean just because this diesel goes back down, I'm not going to complain as much about 200, but uh wish it has it's down, I think I saw 450 coming down here. Yep. So that's way, way better. And it can, I don't mind back go back 350 would be even better. Yeah I was making pretty decent money at 200 with 350 diesel. So that wasn't terrible but yeah we can't I mean I it would have I can't do 150 175 I mean because if I go help somebody for 150 175 somebody else I probably told somebody else no and they'll give me 200 two and a quarter or more.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

So on those uh a lot of the guys at home that do a lot of day work they'll they'll kind of have their hands similar to how you just said you do some hauling and the a lot of those guys will have their hands in different irons in the fire doing some leather work or doing training some horses.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Yeah what would that look like for you I've always got a horse for sale so I'm always working I try and sell one or two a year. Quarter horses cracker half in I rode crackers forever cracker costs stuff and and for someone who doesn't know what a cracker was because I didn't until I came down here. That's right. Well the crackers are the horses the Spanish brought down and then what the you know the pioneering settlers have kept up and they're tough God they're tough and if you get a good one they're as good as you'll ever have but you gotta go the consistency is not there and there's just so fewer people breeding for them anymore.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

And I break probably two or three colts a year for myself or me and my dad I'll help my dad break his and uh so I've gone to I'm quarter man now. I got quarter horses I've just sold my last cracker I think I've got one half blood mare that's probably the best mare I've ever had and I'm raising colts out of her but uh yeah no more cracker colts for me because it takes different on those cracker horses. Man it takes two or three times the amount of days to get them broke as a good quarter horse does. Just being a little wild. Like if you've got a good quarter horse with the right mind that wants to please you 30 days which you can do in 30 days sometimes takes 45 to 90 days with some crackers just because it takes that much more for them to give in to you.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

They're just I don't they're tougher. Yeah I mean they're they're tougher but they're tougher to break to aren't they smaller? Tend to be they tend to be smaller, yep. And r like a good half blood is great but yeah I just assume the resale value on a great horse, especially a cracker is not there. So I'd rather sell horses for I mean you're hardly gonna sell one of those for over 10,000. So I'd rather I'd rather sell them a liar. So I've been getting colts out of Texas. Oh and then here and there. So I get them from I've been getting some for I think the oldest batch or five year olds has been getting them from Laramie Stewart. Yeah out there. So she just I didn't know that. Yeah Laramie's been take hooking us up so I had a really nice marriage. She's a four year old and uh she wasn't a superstar but I got along with her I didn't fight with her she was tough she could go every day big motor dang she could fly. She broke my frickin collarbone back in September we wrecked out hit a bull hole running wide open but uh hit a what now? A bull hole.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Bull hole just from them digging it yeah from digging or something I was like man I'm about to learn something there.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

No just a bull very bull bend digging and she wrecked out but she hung her foot in the paw and through the bob wire the other day and and uh it was a little bit swollen and I got the vet to come look at it and but I was a little too late and it got infected and the her tendon sheath got infected and I'm just trying to save her where I can breed her. I know I'll never get right here again. It's pretty bad. She's three-legged and just trying to keep her alive because I struggle to find ones that I really get along with and they're worth a lot when you're not fighting.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

How old do you like to sell them at? Or is it kind of different on every one?

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Uh it depends on how much I like them. You know I've sell a lot of four and five year old horses. Yeah. Don't keep them very long if I'd I've been select you know trying to get mares and build my mare band up so I think I've bred I bred two mares of my own this year um try for three next year and that'll be about right that way.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

No way. I think is it auto auto but just turned off on it.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Yeah I bred two mares of my own this year I'm gonna try for three that way I can break that many. I can break two or three a year. That's not too hard to be your own that are mine and I don't have to buy them. So if I can break two or three of my own and if I need to sell a yearlin if I get too many and get backlogged I can sell sell a yearlin or a two year old or something and and have something that's worth something that and uh but yeah. Has the horse market been as good uh changed in a good way at home in the past yeah we're not selling the same horses that y'all are selling money wise um but has it been uh I mean has the value of those horses gone up? Yeah yeah yeah I mean I mean a good horse it's not hard to make a horse bring 10,000 and if you can raise him and have a good place to raise him and I can make money at 10,000 on some horses you know so I can it's worth my while to you know support my habit. Yeah help me a little bit so it supports my habit I like them dang things too much. I got I think I counted up the other day I've got more than anybody else in the family. I think I got nine head of my own yeah and I only think there's three mares so they're out I've got three at my house only one of which is broke and then I got three babies got married yeah and I just got married yeah I sold a horse to buy a ring so that worked out good yeah I had a budget there sold another horse to go on the honeymoon that was that worked out nice and you still got nine yeah I still got nine head horses I got plenty now I just gotta get them broke I've got a two-year-old I just started um I just bought a stud the other day a little three year old stud colt and I don't know that he's gonna be what I want but you're gonna keep him a stud? I'm gonna break him as one anyway. I'm gonna break him he's out of some nice horses I know uh know the horses he's out of and know the people that have rode them and they brag on him. So you know what he if he something that I can breed my mares to and save me a little bit money on a stud fee at least this first year that'll be great if not I'll just have a nice gilding. So I I wouldn't have kept him a stud if I'd have had him as a yerlin but since he's already three years old and ready to break we can I'll try him. Give him a try.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Well what's that like having I mean you're training horses and going day working different places. How do you manage riding young horses going to a place maybe riding a young horse that needs some days but going to a place that needs you to be handy enough to get the job done.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

So I'm pushing my horses hard. I um I probably push them too hard because you know priority number one is get your job done. So I'm just trying to get them there as quick as I can to where I can do my job. Now I'm still cognizant of the horse and you know their best interest is in mine but you know there's some shortcuts I'm gonna take to get the job done that the horse is just going to figure out. Yeah may not quite be ready for but we're may not be yeah we're gonna get there. We're gonna throw them throw them in the fire you know and and uh when you go to a new place I'm like if I go to a new place I'm obviously going to bring a good one to start with but if you know you kind of feel out where you're at and most people are very good about letting you eyes your colts. I mean you need to be where you can hold your hole but as long as you got him going pretty decent most most people don't mind bringing a colt.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

I remember being a kid having a it was a guy's a guy brought a friend and his friend had a colt and he was on day like 30 something getting him outside and we held some cows up in a corner and he was just like sorry I'm on a colt and we're like what do we hire you for? Yeah what do you we didn't just pay you to come ride your horse around.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Yeah 30 days I mean I push one harder than I need to but 30 days I I feel pretty comfortable as long as it's a good horse and I've got 30 days of riding and it's something that is working with me that I'm getting along with that's you know doing what it's supposed to I feel pretty confident at 30 days I can at least hold my hole in a reputable situation.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

You made a good point too that like this was this guy's first time to our place. Yeah and had this colt. Yeah and yeah and you were like I'll go into a first place I'm gonna bring a one I know I can get the job done on.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Yeah I may only ride it the very first day and I may spend the rest of the week on a colt but the first day I'm gonna bring a good one. Just because you don't know what you're showing up for.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

You can what kind of catt you know what kind of cattle are they how wild are they?

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Yeah yeah and then especially if it's somebody like a nice place like a good family or something like oh I get it somewhere you not that you have to go but you get to go like I would take it like for y'all I would get to come help y'all so I'm going to bring a good one and at least you know try and try and do right by y'all you know so yeah what does that look like I mean you can't just walk outside and say hey y'all I'm ready to go day work so I graduated University of Florida in 2020. I was 21 years old. Dang you old yeah COVID year COVID wrecked my senior semester I remember that's another story we're not getting into that but uh um so when we got done with that we graduated in May by that time my dad and uncle they got a nice lease down the road it was like a 300 head lease so I moved out there and started taking care of that. I know we spent the first month me and one of my buddies we spent the first month where every single day we rolled up slick wire it was broken up into like two to ten acre paddocks with hot wire and we rolled up slick wire every day for a month straight. And uh God I hate it. It's it was terrible and uh it wasn't the hardest work but it's just we broke a lot of stuff it learning pains and there'd be wire buried. Anyway it was miserable but I got that straightened out and I was taking care of that for dad and it kind of slowed started taking care of itself and then I started day working full time then and uh and it was slow to start with you know you kind of have to ask favors to start with and uh and kind of beg some people you know oh can I please come and whatnot and uh they always paid I never had to go anywhere where I didn't get paid or got paid less they always you know you got paid plenty of you but I was competent too by by then so it wasn't I wasn't a at a disservice because I mean since we were able to go since we were six eight years old we went every day every summer you know we rode every day with the cow crews so we we're competent and uh so it was slow the first year or two you kind of get in with a you know it can be kind of clickish you know so if you can get into a crew that goes that stays real busy where they kind of bring you along with them that helps um so you're the friend they're bring they that they bring kinda yeah or just or like an extrahead yeah we got an yeah so if you can kind of get in with some of those that helps and uh so did that and then took a few odd and end jobs here and there I went tried to go work for Lykes Brothers then I broke my leg in the wild cow milking. You and Will me and my cousin Will yeah we were three weeks in or I had worked for Lykes Brothers for three weeks I was like the number two man on the cow crew I was uh be called the lead cowboy is what they call it so I was the there was a riding foreman and then me and I had like four or five guys underneath me and uh yeah I was there for three weeks and um we're at hometown ranch rodeo and there was about a two-hour rain delay right before the wild cow milking so we're right in the middle of the rodeo and we were sucking that rodeo so bad and when in my mindset we're going out with the bang last event the cow milking and it's not like y'all do where you gotta rope it it's just put a halter on her out of the buck and shoot and mug her. Oh so you're not horseback at all you're no you got a hole yeah and uh well I don't know what Will was thinking she came out of there and we were on her left side so he could mug her with his right arm. Well I don't know what Will was thinking I was on the end of the rope he was mugging and her buddy Jody was milking Flipflop Jody Flip Flop Jody old Jody Camp Mr. Western Horseman he made the cover of Western Horseman did he really? Yeah he's riding Florida Cowboy Cracker Cowboy and Shapps uh on the front cover of Western Horseman riding Palomina I'll be dang yeah so but anyway I pulled a cow out and uh Will for some reason went around to the other side and tried to mug her with his left arm well when he did that he got tangled all up in the rope and the cow comes up and cow kicks him and hits him right in the side of the knee buckles his knee I forget what all he had a more soft tissue broke one bone and some soft tissue damage blew him out he rolled up I turned the cow and she got away from me and uh we went after for some reason we thought we were going to catch her all that liquid encouragement we were going to catch her on the other end of the arena when we run down there trying to catch them and this there was a girl in there for some reason and uh she comes right between me and Jody and the cow comes to us and we stepped out of the way well she never moved wham smokes her she gets up unfazed. Well by this time I'm getting winded and I get my cow hemmed up in the corner and she looked at me and I'm like I knew she was fixing to come hook me. Well she looked at me and I knew she's about to catch me I'm like well I'm just gonna mug her when she comes to hook me. Well that worked out great. Well she came to me I threw my arm around her neck and I grabbed a hole well she had a head of steam and I was standing flat footed. Well she took me off her feet off my feet and was dragging me and when she did my feet went underneath her and her back foot come up and stomped my leg and broke my tibia and amphibia. Both of them right above my ankle yeah so I have two plates and 11 screws. I bet you love that what was funny was our was the two drunk guys in the ER when uh that night covered in dirt. Oh yeah because y'all would have been nastily yeah it was nasty yeah the two drunk guys in the emergency room cutting up you know we were still feeling no pain when we got there I remember we were the only time that was really bad um we got in the back of my mom's like explore or SUV or whatever and um there's a bridge right there with the St. John's on 192 and it's and it's got a bunch of lumps in it. That was so bad. Did you feel all those? Oh yeah every time and it was rocking me in the back of that I was just laying in the back and oh that was painful. But I learned morphine was great it it solves a lot of problems when you're in a lot of pain.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

I for I'd forgotten because I remember I didn't know about it until I came here after that.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Yeah we were crippled up yeah I think yeah we would did it we were crippled here I think yeah but y'all were yeah because that would have been in like April or May and this is June so we've still been crippled so anyway that took three months to recover and likes called me said hey you know since it was an off the job incident and you just started we're gonna have to move on well fair enough so I come back home started day working again took a full-time job running a purebred operation and uh purebred and commercial calf I was there about eight months before I had enough of that and uh it's a little different isn't it yeah and it was a great job yeah and I liked it it was 300 head it brand purebred brangus and then another about 1800 head of commercial and we did a lot of great things and finally got where I just couldn't see eye to eye with the with the donors and we decided to split ways and and I think I'm better for it and like now I'm and now I've been day working since I think that's been two or three years ago that I left there I think.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

What do you like or did what did you like about the purebred stuff? Because I know y'all do some of it at home but well I like the challenge of it.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

So that place you know they've been doing things a certain way for 30 years. They pin them with a four wheeler and they hadn't seen a horse or a dog in 30 years. Gotcha. So um just the challenge of breaking them cows down where you could handle them again they were pretty they were the worst cows I've ever handled in my life. I'd rather go pin wild stuff than what than have to do that again. Wow so the challenge was great um you know there was some production stuff that we really got to improve on in the commercial side and I wasn't there long enough to really put my touch on the purebred deal I kind of had a vision of what I wanted to do and I thought uh I think I could have done some really cool things but you know moved on and whatever but it was pretty cool what we we really improved we had the highest winning weight like beat their highest winning weight by 75 pounds on the commercial Kevs the very first year. Identified kind of some of the other you know stuff that was costing them money. Yeah so so that was nice and then moved on from there been day working since and then now I'm trying to do do my own thing too so gotta remember talking about that earlier talking about some maybe some yearlins or some Yeah so we got a handful of starting a commercial cow herd um trying to sell a few bread heifers and then you know contract graze some some yearlings so you know got to try at some point in time.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

They do yeah being being involved in a family uh like you and I would be kind of similar on that being involved in family in a family ranch that is invested in the state and in the state organizations and and in the rest of the family too you've been coming to FCA for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Yeah I don't remember the last time you know I've been gone yeah I think there was a time or two when I was a baby but I've been coming for yeah over 20 years. This was the first year I was thinking got married and like well I may not go this year and my step or my uncle would be the is the president right now Rick Moyer and he's going out and got to be here to support him. So didn't really have a choice. Back to here we are dang back to the beach.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Come back to Marco back to the beach so well I think Florida does a good job and I talked to Clint about this too a little bit but I think Florida does such a good job of making it to where it was possible for you to for you and a whole lot of others to be able to come as a kid and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

Oh yeah man we used to have so much fun out there playing as kids I remember how old were you when you first started coming? I remember your brother came. Yeah Lanham came when he was in junior high. Yeah but I I was I was like I think I was 18 the first time I came how old's Lanham now I'm trying to remember I told him something when he came the first 29ish two years older than me. I can remember I remember I had some real smart comment that I told him when he was a kid and I heard I shake my head at it now. He needs made fun of I probably I told him there wasn't no real cowboys in Texas I think you went back and told your dad like who is this guy?

SPEAKER_03 43:37

What what does he mean there's no real cowboys in Texas?

SPEAKER_00 43:41

Good figure I told that in Lanham yeah I remember coming back uh or coming to Florida for the first time and we met uh Parker was the first person I met dad's like we're going to this place it's you know family place six fifth sixth generation I remember pulling up not having an idea About Florida Cowboys ranching. Nothing. No anything. And so I remember pulling up and Parker and his dad walk out, and I was just like, they look just like every other family rancher.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

Yeah, I think we'd been working cows that morning. That's when y'all came to eat lunch with us, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 44:18

And that's when I knew that we were gonna be alright. Yeah. Like I mean, I've been.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

Fed you pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Granny cooked good that way.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

Yeah, Granny cooked real good. I remember having uh like just trying to figure out what this Florida ranch is about. How do you ranch with palm trees right there? And then there's a gator right over there. How do you do that? You know, dealing with all that. And then I remember going, I remember going to eat lunch, and she was like, You want some sweet tea? And I was like, you know what? We're gonna be just fine. I could, I'd be just fine right here.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

That is the worst part about day working instead of staying at home and working for the family, is I get to choose my own schedule, and scheduling's always great. You know, I get to do what I want, but Granny still cooks as old as she is. She still cooks for the crew pretty often. And her sweet tea, I don't care. Somebody else's sweet tea might be. Her sweet tea, but somebody else may be great, but that's the best sweet tea, in my opinion, that there is, is at her house. It's the best. And then you can't beat her cooking, especially she'll, oh God, I can't tell you how many times she'd have a frickin' three or a frickin' nine-course meal for lunch, and then we gotta go back and push calves. Push Kevs out.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Oh God, terrible. I think we had some like chicken fried steak and some green beans and uh sweet tea.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

This is rice and gravy. This is my kind of place. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you can't beat her cooking at all. Yeah, that's the worst part about not being working at the house every day is missing her cooking.

SPEAKER_00 45:48

But do you have to do that? I still go by every now and then. You sneak in just in time for lunch.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Every now and then. I'll get off early, and if I if I can time it right, I'll slip in there every now and then. Go hang out anyway.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

Is the oh, another good question on the on the day working side. A lot of guys in in Texas, they like to be done at noon. Like they like to get their lunch, get their check, and head out. Would it be similar here?

SPEAKER_02 46:13

If I can be done by noon, I'm happier for it. Yeah. I'm not gonna quit you at noon. I mean, there's several places, you know, you still may go to five or six. But you know, yeah. Well, you know, it's part of it too, though. But uh, yeah, we try and get done by no my biggest thing on the day, don't drag me out for no reason. Let's get our stuff done. We'll be here as long as we need to be. Don't hold us. That's what really aggravates me is like, oh, you can't leave yet because it's only 10 o'clock and we're done. You we gotta sit around and talk for two hours before you're allowed to leave. Gotcha. Well, I could go get another, go work. I might go pin somebody else's cows this afternoon. I may go home and get on a colt. I may go do something with my own cows. I may I can find something else to do. Right. Go take a nap and you know, or something, you know, because something. I can find something to do. I don't have to sit around and talk all day. But if we need to be there all day, I don't know. That's fine. That don't bother me none. As long as there's something to do. As long as there's something to do. Yeah, let's not be dragging it out. Let's be efficient here and get what needs to be done and we'll get done go home. Just because just because you don't want to go home and see your wife doesn't mean I don't want to go home to see mine.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

Great point.

SPEAKER_02 47:34

I know some people like that.

SPEAKER_01 47:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

I bet it's interesting because I've not that I've only worked for my family. I've worked at a few other places too, but you get to work for a number of people, like a lot of people in a year. Oh yeah. Different types of like you said, one place you were at only use four wheelers and the cows are wild.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

And yeah, luckily that one of those places.

SPEAKER_00 47:57

I bet all of those different. I bet it's pretty fun. I'm sure some of them aren't, but I bet it's pretty cool to see all those different types of ways people do it.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Man, you get to learn so much. I've learned so much from day working. I remember, so when we graduated college, our dads told us, you know, you gotta go work somewhere else for a year before you come back to work for the family, and they wanted a full-time deal. And I did the full-time thing, but I've learned more from day working and not only what to do, but stuff what not to do. And I've learned so much from seeing so many different operations and actually talking to the managers and the owners and having an educated conversation with them, and you know, ask them why they do stuff, and you know, ask them the you can ask them about money, you know, like does how does that pay for itself, you know? Why why do you do this? And I've picked up a lot, you know, and just in skills in my trade, and then, you know, in management, management stuff. So yeah, I like to think I'm pretty blessed for for having this now. So it's a lot of work, it's tough, it's hard on you.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

But now you've been kind of doing that building your day work network for how long now? Like it sounds like a good one now.

SPEAKER_02 49:21

Five or six years, yeah. It's finally come on. I used to uh really line up far in advance, like as far out as I could, you know, a couple months out and have my days filled in and always miss out on the little fun places, two or three days here of like maybe go rope some stuff. Yeah, or like uh just really nice stuff. Yeah, I love that stuff. Heck yeah, if I can go rope something, and like I don't want to just go rope something, rope something, but if there's some wild stuff that doesn't come depends, slicks and stuff, heck yeah, I'm all about it. Mm-hmm. I'm all about it. So, but like and go see some of like those big places. You know, it may be uh like some of these big state pieces are you know they may only be in there for two or three days. And uh if you got a whole week lined up, you can't always you keep backing out on obligations, you're not gonna get called back. So I try and stay dependable. If I say I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna be there. I try not to cancel on. I don't very remember very many times I've ever had to cancel other. Remember I had to cancel when I broke my collarbone a while back this fall, and that killed me. I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry guys, I still want to go. There was a couple deals there that I'd never got to go to that I'd always wanted to, and I had to I had to yeah, that I wanted to go to, and yeah, and I had the back out on, so that sucked. But uh, but yeah, now I've just been kind of taking it as it goes. Like I'm like a month, month and a half out, is all I'm booked right now. And so and it's been so much nicer. So and I got enough stuff going on, so if I don't get a day here and there, it's not you got some stuff to fill it with.

SPEAKER_00 50:59

Yeah. What would you tell the like you just graduating, getting out to go do some day work? What would it like uh what would you tell yourself now? Like if you were to go back and talk to just graduated Hyatt, what would what would you tell them about the day working deal?

SPEAKER_02 51:20

Uh you probably don't know as much as you think you do. It's something that I would have needed to hear, but uh go. Go see as much as you can. Go, go see it. You only you're only gonna get to do this once, so go see as much of it as you can. Yeah, I've got to see. I've got to cover a lot of country and I feel blessed for that. So it's cool. Got to see some really cool places.

SPEAKER_00 51:43

Do you see, or what do you see as far as young guys trying to kind of get into your trade? You seeing more, you see less?

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Uh you know, about my age, it kind of hit a lull. There's some guys down south that are my age that are coming in, but like right in my area, you know, Osceola County area kind of bravard, there's not many guys that are my age, uh, you know, mid to late 20s, early 30s. Um, but there's a bunch of these kids that are 18, 20, 16-year-olds that are really stepping up and doing good. And uh it's sometimes it's hard to believe, you know, you got on the frickin' same crew as a 16-year-old making the same money as you are, and you gotta drive his ass to work. But I get it out of him when he gets there. I'm gonna give him the crappy job.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

You're right. I've earned it at the end of the day. I drove you here with this five and a half dollar diesel.

SPEAKER_02 52:37

Yeah, carpool a little bit, but yeah, these kids are coming up and they're doing good. So it's nice. Nice that we're getting getting some help because there's a lot of the old guys that are falling out. You know, they just can't go anymore. Right.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

So Yeah, that well, that's what I wanted that I thought that might be the case, that it had taken you a while to build up this network and it has, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

And now I got a lot of people that'll call me and and stay busy enough. So without having to go out and beg for it, which is nice. It's nice when it just comes.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

And that's what I wish I knew when I was younger was that like it's it's gonna take, it's not just gonna take one year to have the whatever you want, whether it was a podcast or whether it was the a beef business or a hunting business, or that it was gonna take me like five to really get it going.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

Yeah, with this new cow deal I've got, I've I've gotten into my savings pretty good, and I need I can't not work as much as I could. I was comfortable enough where, you know, if I need to take a week off, I can go do whatever I want to for a week, it wasn't that big a deal. Where now it's not quite as easy to do that, but I'll tell you what's been cool is there's been several times where I didn't know what I was gonna do the next week or have time coming up and pray about it a little bit, phone ring the next day. I mean the next day or later that day. So I can't that's happened multiple times. So that's cool. Yeah.

unknown 54:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

And I times ain't tough for me at all. I ain't saying they are, but I want to stay busy. I don't want to be sitting around the house. I want to be making money, I don't want to be losing money. Right. There's been multiple times like dad gum, I need need to find something nobody's called, and who do I call? Start thinking about it, and the next day pray about it a little bit and and the next day have something. So that's pretty awesome. Every time. You just gotta can't be too proud to ask sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

That's neat. Well, you what is uh do you have any wrecks that are like your the ones that you remember most, or maybe it was a wreck that you don't remember, because I I've seen a few of those. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

I had some good ones. Uh I remember this when we were just there. There's a ranch there in St. Cloud, and uh we just gathered up pasture the other day, so it's fresh on my mind. And every time we go in it during bull gathering, revaking bull gather, we always have to rope the same bull every year. For some reason, he always puts his same bull, 1056 is his number, and he always hangs up in the same spot. We always gotta go back and rope him. I remember the very first year I helped this place, four or five years ago we roped him, and last year we went to go back and rope him. And uh and they told me about him before I started coming, where they always roped him. We're always in the same spot. And uh, we'd roped a bull that morning. We'd gathered a bunch of cows that morning, threw them in the lane, and we left two or three people pinning the cows, and we went and four or five of us went and uh caught another bull. And I was riding a colt that day, and I could have caught the bull on him, but I didn't want to, and uh didn't have to. So they caught the first one. All went good. I went and got the truck loaded. I said, hey guys, we'll get this next one. There's five of us. I'll just stay in the truck and I'll tie my colt up right here and I'll uh I'll drive the truck, and that way when y'all get him caught, I'll be there so we ain't jacking around. Well, boss man runs up there and puts it on him and ropes him deep. Well, I saw him, he tightened his girt beforehand, but I guess not enough. And it pulled his saddle up on his it pulled his saddle up on his horse's neck, and he's hanging in there, but he can't really do nothing with it. He's just riding his horse. He can't really do nothing with the bull. Is he tied on? He's tied on, yeah. And uh a couple other people threw at him. Um, you know Chris Cox, the horse trainer? His brother Gene is the older brother Gene works with. He's like 60 years old. He's got one leg that's longer than another, and he doesn't get around very well. He's got bad knees and stuff, and uh he's a fat guy. I'll tell him that. And uh when Gene ropes the bull and gets on with him, and Gene dallied off. Well, somehow Gene's horse got over the rope, and his horse goes to bucking. Well, he pitches his rope, loses his rope, nobody else can get thrown on boss man and screaming, hollering, help, help! And I'm sitting in the truck watching the whole thing thinking, why am I not videoing this? And uh, well, Gene, after he lost his rope, nobody else could throw.

SPEAKER_03 57:29

Gene jumps off his horse. Just think of a six-year-old fat man that's just waddling, runs the rope down, picks the rope up, picks, throws it straight in there, starts hollering at somebody to come dally off. Let's go. Grab his rope.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

One boy my age, one of my cousins came up there and he grabbed the rope and dallied off. And uh, about this time they were heading into some thick woods. So I kick the truck and drive, and I come in there sideways, and my cousin's rope finally come tight right as my I pulled the trailer right in front of the bull. The bull damn near hit the trailer, and they we got the bull stopped and loaded. But can you talk about our boss man?

SPEAKER_03 58:08

His eyes were big and mighty, he was scrambling now. He was hollering for hate.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

He stayed on, yeah. And I was, oh damn, I was laughing so hard in the truck. It was good to me, and I just got a front row street.

SPEAKER_03 58:21

You did, you did, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:23

It was good.

SPEAKER_00 58:25

Have you had any that you've gotten into? Well, I guess besides breaking a collarbone and having a thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:34

Oh, I'm tied off. Tied off. Now when we get to snatching that big stuff on the trailer, I like to pop my hard and fast off when we're uh when you're snatching something on the trailer. But yeah, I'm gonna I'm a rope tied off. So I'm not real good at I can dally a little bit, but uh I'm better off just letting it come tight on the horn. But I've got to rope. There's a place um in that area that's known for having a bunch of wild cattle, and uh I've got to rope a few pretty good-sized bulls out there. I caught one out there that's like 1,200, big pretty black white face, speckled lineback all the way down. He was wild looking and got to catch him. Got to catch another one. We caught a bull one time. That place is in the middle of a bunch of lakes and big old marsh and stuff and big hammocks and stuff. And uh we were making around and we call kind of come together in one spot. They call it the hole in the wall. It's a there it's around the edge of a big lake, and there's a big line of cypress the whole way down the south side of the lake, and there's one opening in it, and it's about a hundred yards wide, and they call it the hole in the wall, the hole in the wall of the cypress. And we all come together right there. Well, uh, from the one side they got there ahead of us, and they'd seen a little bull. He probably ended up weighing about 900. And uh he got them, they got the main bunch of cows stopped with the dogs, but the bull pulled out ahead of them, and uh, and we were coming from the other way, so they gave us a heads up, said, hey, be looking for him. And uh, so we're coming along, and my dog went in there and found him and bait him to start with. And uh at first we were just gonna try and bump him. He was mammied up with them cows, we're just gonna bump him out there to the lake and or bump him out to them cows on the edge of the lake. And uh we got jacking with them cows that were with him were wanting to be dumb, and the first one, she went pulled out, she split off from the bunch. Run right past the cows, run into the lake. We called the dogs off, put the dogs back in there. Second cow, same thing, into the lake. Third cow, same thing, into the lake. And then apparently it was the bull F and dogs were struggling to find him. Finally they jumped him again. And uh I'd slipped around the outside at that point in time, trying to get back around, and I see him come out, and here he comes, just like the other one, straight towards the lake. And uh, I was riding that mare from Laramie, and she can maltley fly, or could. And uh I parted that bull off the lake and laid the bravar reins down, and we were wide open, running just as fast as we could right down the edge of the lake. She came up there and bumped him on the ass, and I freaking slicked him right there, running wide open down the lake like that, and then all come tight, and the old bull turned around, and that was freaking. Almighty having my blood pumping. That was fun. And uh we drove the cows back up there to him, and we probably could have got a truck in there, but it was hard, so we snatched that bull down, and uh we cut a hole in his nose and tied his nose to his foot, and we turned him loose with the cows, and we drove him with the cows for a mile. Wow. Yeah, and he never tried tried to run him.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

With his rope to his foot.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:50

With a rope to his foot.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

I mean, with his nose to his foot.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:52

Yeah, yeah, nose tied to his foot, kind of a little bit snug, so he couldn't pick his head up, run off. So it was pulling on him down, and he stayed mammied with them cows. And it finally got wrapped up around his foot. About the time we got back to where the truck was parked, so then we just snatched him on the trailer then. But we drove him like a mile like that, and he was like a Hurford-looking. I hadn't heard of that. Flat horn bull. Uh-huh. I guess some Aussie trick, I guess. That was a Gene Cox special right there. Yeah. Got to work with some pretty, pretty cool guys. There was an Yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:20

That's another good point, too, of like the crews, like the people you got to look work with. Not just the people you got to work with.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:26

Pretty special. There's a guy that just passed the other day. Cancer got him, his name was Matt Arrietta, and uh he's a lot of people's hero, really. He's uh a cowboy's cowboy. He was as cool as they came and as capable as they came. And I got to ride with him, with uh one of his cousins, um, Billy Davis, who's another one, that uh is highly touted, and uh, and got to ride with both of them together, and they got to tell old stories growing up together and catching that stuff and wild living that they used to do back in the day. And man, that was some of the that was probably the best crew I ever worked on right there. That was pretty special.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

What does the perfect day working day look like for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:14

Uh, you know, I want to show up and gather the pasture. You don't I don't want to show up and pin them out of a trap and work them. So, you know, show up and gather the pasture, get to use your dogs a little bit and ride your horse a little bit, and maybe not too big a bunch, go work a hundred head or so and get done by lunchtime and still get to kind of do all the hit all the box, check all the boxes and get you something to eat and go home. I mean, I can't really beat that. Yeah. I want to go gather, I want to go to the woods if I can. I like to take the long round if I can find if I can get to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:49

Yeah, gathering a Florida pasture just blows my mind a little bit. Yeah. I just rode in the Colorado Mountains for the first time. See, that's different. I ain't never done that. I mean either until three weeks ago. That was that was real different. I don't know if I'd want to do it in the snow, but in the summer, beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:09

I got to, we used to source our Charlet bulls all out of Montana, up there next to the Bike Feet Reservation, like 90 miles from Canada. And we became real good friends with them. People we got them. We just quit getting them from them, but uh we got them for 20-something years from up there and real good friends with with the breeder there. And he took us, I was 15, and we got to go ride up in the mountains. Oh, that's cool. Now no cows or anything, but we got to go trail ride up and up in the Rockies up there, and that was pretty neat. And good horses too. They were nice horses that we were riding. His his cow stock, so he was raising a decent amount of horses. Oh, they were more old foundation king bred horses. So they had a lot of size on them too. Yeah. They were some neat horses.

unknown 1:04:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:57

But they weren't, you know, not draft or handcock stuff. They were they were more just kind of old school foundation. We got a few horses from them over the years, a couple and tried them. Um I think he kept the good ones for himself. The ones we got from weren't as good as what he kept. But uh yeah, they were they were cool horses that we got to ride that day. So that was fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:20

That's neat. Well, this is uh one of the segments of the podcast where it gets to become the uh Hyatt Kemper shell. And so you either get to uh ask a question, guide the guide the conversation, or end the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

Well, Tucker, tell me about your favorite Marco memory.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

Oh, oh, favorite Marco memory. Dude. Uh they all well what I love about Marco is that is that everybody's at the same place and you can scatter a little bit. To go like eat or go to somebody's room if you don't want the big party. You can go to one of the bungalows where there's you know 12 people that are hanging instead of 1200. I don't know how many are over there, but plenty. Plenty. Plenty. I don't know. I feel like once the f first time I came here after college probably was my favorite. Just because I You weren't married yet either, were you?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:25

No. I remember that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:27

No, I had uh but I had just started uh but I'd met y'all before, so I knew ya, but it weren't like we were best friends or anything, but y'all were like, Yep, come on.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

And so we ended up. I'd never been at the ocean when it was night, but we went out there when it was dark and came back and burned down the lobby bar and went to dance, and I that was the first time I'd done any type of the dancing in floor is a little different than it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:02

I remember you were all proud of your two-step and had our little dance there, and nobody else could really dance for a danger out there trying to share everybody up with your two-step. Talking all kinds of crap. I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:14

Yeah, I had to do mom and kind. I feel like we were friends enough to talk some crap.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

That was good. That was a good memory. I remember it used to be like I took pride in putting everybody to to bed after those functions. And I was in bed at 11:30 last night, and that was later than I thought I would do. I I have no desire to put the kids to bed anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:36

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm uh I can always count on being pretty short on sleep when it comes to Marco.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

Yeah, this is the best I think I've ever felt waking up was this morning. The next day. Yeah, next day. I I feel like I behaved very well last night. Look at you. Yeah. Just two more, two or three more days to come. Yeah, it hurts a lot more than it used to. I'm sure I'm I'm good for one. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:57

Yeah, I know there were some that were hurting. Whenever I left last night, I know there were some that were hurting.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

Well, you know, the first night in the lobby bar, you never know. Everybody first gets there, somebody isn't thinking about pacing themselves. So there's gonna be somebody that really overdoes it the first night and ruins the whole trip for them.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:16

Yeah, the next night they're like, you know what, I'm not. Yeah. But Devin, I mean, it whenever uh Carly came with me the first time, I just remember like being like belly flop contest.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:30

You did the belly flop contest, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:32

Yeah, I've done the belly flop a few times.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:34

Only because Pat Durden basically insists. And Dusty.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:39

We need to put that on the Tucker Brown Insta page to get the old belly flop competition throwback. Throw Marco throwback, the belly flop competition.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:48

Back when, back when. Oh man. Yeah, that uh yeah, Florida knows how to have a good time. And still get business done because that's where you literally you just came from. Yeah. Was doing your committee meeting and look at you all growing up. Trying to be. Married and on a committee and sleep before midnight.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:10

Now I just gotta remember to go to the meetings.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:12

Yep. Well, dude, thanks for being on pod.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:15

Well, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:17

Two things before we leave. One, advice for uh young cowboys wanting to just young cowboys, trying to get in or already in it and trying to grow.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:30

Man, shut up and listen. Watch, pay attention. You don't, it's your opinion does not matter. Just put your head down and watch everybody else. Especially if you don't have a lot of experience. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't come in there acting like you know something. If all you ever know is how grandpa and dad did it at your little small operation and you think you're gonna go cowboy and go get on a big cruise somewhere, you don't know anything. Just shut up. If you show up with a good, you know, work ethic and mindset, you'll be just fine. But I always it's always tough when the kids come in that yeah don't have a lot of experience and then try to act like they know everything. That can be painful. I've seen some people touching.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:19

I get a little second-hand embarrassment from that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:21

I've seen some people tow some good buttons. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:25

And then uh favorite life advice or Bible verse or chapter or inspiration.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:33

Well, you know, probably life advice is a you know, believe in yourself, because if you don't believe in yourself, nobody else will. So you gotta believe in yourself first if you expect anybody else to.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:44

So very true.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:45

So step out there and try it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:48

So true. Thanks, Dave.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:49

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Hi, Kimper. Appreciate it. Six Gen Rancher. Hopefully I didn't embarrass myself too bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:55

This is great. Good stories, dude. Good stories. That's what it's about. Now we gotta we gotta go to the trade show.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:01

Let's go to the trade show.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:05

Episode 77. 77. 77. Yeah, check out registered ranching.com, get some merch, we'll get it sent your way. Stay classy and ranch on them. Trade show. Let's do it.