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Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
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David Schuler--Showcasing Morrill County and Nebraska to the World
In this episode we head to the wide-open spaces of Morrill County Nebraska to meet a new generation of ag leader who’s making his mark in more ways than one. Our guest, David Schuler, is a young farmer, rancher, and entrepreneur at Schuler Red Angus, where tradition runs deep—but innovation is always welcome. From raising high-quality cattle to navigating the business side of agriculture, David blends hard-earned, hands-on experience with a forward-looking vision for the industry. In this conversation, we’ll talk about how he’s building a brand around quality genetics, how his innovative "cattle art" has gone viral and why his one word for Nebraska is "opportunity."
Nebraska. Today we head to the white open spaces of Western Nebraska to meet a member of the next generation of ag leaders, someone who's already making an impact in more ways than one. Our guest is David Schuler, a young farmer, rancher, and entrepreneur at Schuller Red Angus, where tradition runs deep, but innovation is always welcome. Also joining us is Spencer Hartman, an attorney at Remballeti, and a leader in its ag practice group. David? Spencer, thanks for joining us. So, David, give our folks a little background on yourself. What's your history?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I am a third generation Red Angus seed stock producer on our family's ranch, Shuler Red Angus. We just gave birth to the fourth generation. My wife and I welcomed Laney Shuler into the world uh a month ago. So we're looking forward to keeping the ranch in the family for years to come. Uh the ranch has been our family since the 1950s. We've run Red Angus cattle since the 1980s. Uh dad was a sophomore, I think, in college when we had our first bull sale here on the ranch and have had a bull sale ever since. I've been back on the ranch since I graduated the University of Nebraska since uh 2019, which was fun to have COVID being the first years of my life on the ranch, which is nowhere better to Yeah. Well, nowhere better than Western Nebraska to live a bubonic plague. Didn't get much out here, which I which I loved.
SPEAKER_04:Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:If you need any advice, I have three I I raised three daughters, so if you need any advice, feel free to give me a call. And also if you need a place to hide when she gets older, uh head my way. So Morrill County. What's the license plate prefix for Morrill County? 64. So we keep track of those. We're going to do this podcast until we have a guest on from all 93 counties. So I think you're our first Morrill County guest, so thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00:Good, good. Glad I'm the first.
SPEAKER_04:So both you and Spencer have a strong FFA background, including serving as state officers. Give our listeners a little idea as to what that was like and what you learned from it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I was thinking about that earlier today. Uh I guess that'd have been 2015, 2016 for me. Spencer is a couple of years before me, and that's where I guess we became friends and through the through college and such. But we basically would be the faces of a student-led agricultural organization that most of your listeners will know FFA, where in the classroom you learn about agricultural basics and knowledge, and then the FSA proponent was basically the club, the organization that you would uh prove that in competitions or in speaking events or demonstrations. Obviously, have a state convention in Lincoln where the blue jackets swarm the hay market. And uh as a state officer, you would travel to chapters, um, roughly 30 to 40 chapters, put about 20,000 miles on your personal vehicle, and basically promote it, do workshops, leadership events, redevelopment opportunities, and connections in the business that uh give back to FFA. Just a really cool uh overarching uh relationship with the education department. Um we're very lucky to have it here in Nebraska with FFA. And I got to travel and see a lot of Nebraska. My region was south central Nebraska, so communities like Blue Hill, Red Cloud, Holdridge, uh McCool Junction, those those were my area. And I saw a lot of corn, a lot of soy gains, and a lot of flat ground, uh, which was different from where I'm from in Western Nebraska, but it was uh uh a great intro to my college career of visiting a lot of Nebraska communities, uh really forced myself into places I haven't been, and now I I love visiting time on and time on again.
SPEAKER_04:If I'm not mistaken, your wife may have a foot or two in FFA. Uh, what does she do?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, she's the agricultural instructor, essay advisor for Bridgeport. So I got really lucky. Uh one that uh uh Waverly native thought West Nebraska was alright and came out and lived with me. And and and we when we got married, and uh the job in Bridgeport opened up at the exact same time. So she's been teaching there now for three years. She taught in Crawford for two years. Um she was also a state of say officer a year after me. So uh I don't stray away from the state as much. Um most of my most of my friends and my wife are are state officers, so that's uh just normal for me. But yeah, she she loves it. She actually took Laney to work today uh trying to get some in-service, get the temporary sub planned out so we can uh have a little more parental leave here on the first part of the fall.
SPEAKER_04:You mentioned the interesting topography of Morrill County. Uh I until recently, last decade or so, had not spent a lot of time in Morrill County. Describe for our listeners, assume they've never been to Morrill County, what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I could have a lot of fun with this. Uh so basically it's the place in Nebraska where you go to visit, but you don't live. Uh you got your sand hills in the north part of it, basically the gateway to the sand hills of Nebraska on the northeast side. And then when you go southwest, you get into hard sandstone, uh hard grass country where our ranch is located. Um you get a mix of thorn and slivers uh near the rivers in the valleys, but you're mostly looking at the foothills of the high plains and sandstone monuments such as Chimney Rock, Corehouse and Galehouse Rock, Roundhouse Rock. Um, like I said, you're gonna go visit those things, but you're not gonna live here if you're uh anywhere you know east of the Mississippi River because it takes a little bit more to make a living. Uh the cost of living is cheap, but we also uh know that we have to have grit to live where we do.
SPEAKER_04:So Chimney Rock is a landmark of Nebraska. I think most people understand that. How how far are is some of your ranch properties from Chimney Rock?
SPEAKER_00:Well, fun fact, I grew up with Chimney Rock outside my window. Oh, seriously? Basically every day. I I thought that was normal. I didn't know how lucky I had it until I went to college and realized that people don't have those beautiful views all the time. Um but now on the ranch, we have our own point, Lang's Point, a prominent landmark as well, that I get to see every day now, too. So Jimmy Rock is just was part of my life and didn't realize how special it was until uh uh when people asked where I was from, I would just say, you know, Jimmy Rock, and then then that would uh allow them now where I lived anyway. So uh it gets kind of busy in the summer uh with uh tourists and campers and such. And then they just redid through some COVID funding a huge walkway in front of it now that's all paved, so you can go on walks, take your bike on, and actually looks like a state uh park now, which is pretty cool. I I actually knew the family who homesteaded it, the journals, um, and then they gifted that land and that rock to the state to put into a historical preservative society. So that's that was uh it's good cattle ground that they definitely uh got a pavement on now, but I think it's for the better.
SPEAKER_02:Is there anywhere you can see uh wagon ruts uh running through there still, David?
SPEAKER_00:There is a couple spots that they you know point at and say, hey, this is where the wagon ruts are. I guess I'll have to take their word for it. But yeah, there's still go ahead.
SPEAKER_04:Now, what's the biggest rattlesnake you've uh encountered and had to dispose of?
SPEAKER_00:Uh today or how about ever? Oh geez. Uh so I'm trying to make a clock. Uh so the rattles, every time they shed their skin, they gain another rattle. And I have I'm trying to make a clock of, you know, so if there's six rattles, that'd be six o'clock, and then you take or clock glue those onto the the hands of the clock. Uh I have all but one, uh, one or two rattles, because those are the hardest to find, and then they're also the most poisonous and dangerous, so they try not to find those. Um, but I've had a couple that are 13 and 14, which I don't know where I'm going to put those on the clock. So those are those are some old dogs that have found uh found a barn with a good mice, and they sit out for I don't know, seven or eight years. So uh but this year I've killed a 12 and an 11. So we've got the clock finished up, but it's been a good year for rattlesnakes for some reason.
SPEAKER_04:The biggest rattlesnake I've ever seen was in Morrill County, and uh uh rest assured he was on the black top and uh he did not live out the day. Um but even though he wasn't harming me at that point, I'm just like, I don't think I want you living anymore.
SPEAKER_00:We have a rule that we're never too busy to uh kill a rattlesnake. So that's kind of the mantra.
SPEAKER_04:Do you believe in the old tradition of cutting off the head and burying it?
SPEAKER_00:Well, yes, obviously. You would uh cut the head off, you bury it, and then the the second most important thing is you throw the dead buddy off the road so the next guy doesn't stop because he thinks he's gonna be able to get it. Yeah, correct. That happens too. But yeah, that's very important to bury the head. You don't want to have any any problems in the future of stepping on it.
SPEAKER_02:So speaking of uh never being too busy, I know that you and your family are very busy with your operation. Give us a little the innovation and techniques uh maybe that you guys are deploying on your ranch and and what makes you guys special.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for asking. Uh I I love any chance I can to share what we're doing and and and uh I I get the best views and and the best job in the world every day. So getting to share that and what we do to allow our ranch to continue on the future and our customers' future is is the most important part. So like I said, we we sell around 160 red Angus and the red Angus Central bulls a year uh at our out of sale. We sell 200 overall throughout the year. If you have problems with your bulls or or need more uh bull power, we always have some available, as well as fall bread heifers commercially available as well, trying to sell our genetics and and with 40 now years of of decision making on our genetics, AI and uh replacements and such, uh, we have this good genetic pool that I hope our customers trust ourselves with uh to help their own herds. And my main goal as a SeasOC producer is those commercial producers who have their family ranches who want to see their bottom dollar increase, to see their efficiency increase. And I have to ask myself the question what do I do to help their financial being so the ranch can move on to their children and their next generations? So, what can I do more than just them trusting us with our genetics beyond the ultrasounding on the on the ribeye areas on our bulls or semen testing or uh genetic markers that we could always are trying to be on the front end of? Uh I'm part of a bigger plan with a couple other seed stock producers across the Midwest. We we like to say that around 10 to 20 percent of the seed stock Angus red angus cattle that we can have our foot uh footprint on to uh basically you know strengthen numbers. So we're going to, as our ranch and other ranches across the Midwest, we're going to these SP 500 companies and say, here is our genetics, here is the ribeye areas, the marbling, the great tasting steak that we've always been able to uh to give to our customers in the in the freezer, in the freezers at big grocery stores. But what we're gonna do is create a market chain that our customers can get grab value from. So for one, we go to these companies and we say we have, let's say, X amount of steers on feed that we're only going to sell to you for a market price. And two, you're gonna get the story of these producers that know that they take care of their animals, they give them the best nutrition possible from pasture plate to consumption to consumption, the best possible life. And people want that. They're going to pay more for that story and for that quality of meat. And we're in a very interesting spot in our in our industry as a whole, that the more prime steaks we put out at restaurants and in freezers and big stores, the more our customers want it. You know, it used to usually, you know, it would be a uh it's like a squeeze almost where we can't produce enough. Even at these high prices, we cannot produce enough uh prime rib-by steaks. So we're on these producers creating this market chain for these S ⁇ P 500 companies that they that they can share our story with, that have the pounds that they can put their foot on, and then that money will then go in a market to our customers who sell steers at the Olala auction barn or in Sugar Valley Stockyards in Scotts Bluff or Torrington Livestock Market. That's where we need to see the increase in money to those cats. And if I can do that for my customers, then I know that I'm I'm doing things right. You know, it's it's not about my bottom dollar, it's about the bottom dollars of my customers who are buying my bulls and heifers. So that was a little bit more than you probably wanted, but that's that's kind of what goes I wake up thinking about and go to bed thinking about right now in our industry and our ranch, what we're trying to do.
SPEAKER_04:What is your set date for your bull sale every year?
SPEAKER_00:We always have our bull sale on the fourth Thursday in March, uh, ever since its conception. Uh and yeah, so that'd been 44 years now coming up this next year.
SPEAKER_04:So Morrill County's a fairly dry county compared to eastern Nebraska. What are the conditions like this year?
SPEAKER_00:You know, I think most of the states are doing a lot better. We're I we're always pretty glass half full. No pun intended when it comes to water. It seems like uh someone said the other day, we would live in a desert if it if we weren't under uh freezing snow conditions eight months of the year, which is probably true. Uh we're looking at around 10 inches on the ranch, and that's fine. We can live off that. We can get to 14, that's probably historically average. Um, I grew up in a drought for geez 10, 20 years, so I I never really saw that. But our land's used to it. We our our grasses and our and the and the cellulose that our cows live off of, that basically grows for only a few months of the year in May and June, and the rest of the year it dies off and and basically waits around for next year. So I I I think we're all right. You know, it's it's it's just a never-ending glass, half-empty kind of escapade.
SPEAKER_02:Speaking of uh your customers and your bull sale, I've been in your uh sale barn. Uh why don't you tell us a little bit about the decor in there and uh where the furthest uh furthest customer is represented from in there?
SPEAKER_00:Just basically people come to the sale, they want a piece of the ranch. They want a they want an experience. So we want to share where our ranch has been and where we're going. So on those walls, there's fly nets instead of chemicals on cattle. We would use fly nets on cattle and horses uh who are pulling oxen, who are working the land to keep the keep the flies off of them. And those fly nets came from my grandfather's or great-grandfather's still word Kimball, still have the tags on them. I think they're like three dollars a piece. And then there's also a whole team of TAC for mules who would plow the land. Um the where our ranch came from, Olson ranch is in Banner County, um, where my great-grandfather made a stake for a claim. They had 16 teams of horses to work the land, and we have one of those uh full team of tack on the wall. Uh but basically just shares like the history of the ranch. You know, I I can go into that deeper here in a second, but want to share that we've been doing this a long time.
SPEAKER_02:What do your customers leave uh their mark on that barn when they come?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so they get to put their mark on with a brand, and there's a whole wall of brands. Uh let's say bought a bull or heifer or genetics, uh, they brand the wall. We we then label it with their name underneath it, and they can be a part of the basically put their stamp on on our wall and and be a part of it.
SPEAKER_04:Give us the history on the ranch.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. So uh this is my favorite part is learning about this history of the ranch. We have been on the land since the 1950s from my great-grandfather, uh, but but but in the 1880s, uh family of brother-in-laws, Guy Lang and Hank Rayton, who were gold prospectors in California, would go around the tip of South America to California and back to New York City. And one time they went across uh the plains and stopped in Sydney, which was probably just a railroad town or start of a railroad town, and they were told about some land north of there that would be good cattle rangeland with no no other buyers. You can run the run the cows there, no barbed wire, uh, if you can make it. So they quit doing the uh the gold cleaning industry and they they were businessmen and started the the ranch. Between North Platte and Laramie, Wyoming, it was the first ranch settled in the panhandle. So that was a a huge endeavor for them. They built a log house that still stands to this day underneath Langs Point, and uh it's probably 160 feet long, and it's got like eight rooms in it all in a row, and that's where they would bunk the cowboys who would work the land, built a barn that still stands today that's on the headquarters, and basically ran cattle on the creek there. And if you controlled the water, which that's where the water started for the for the ranch, and then it ended near the little village of Reddington now, which named after him obviously, they controlled that. So they'd run on 30 to 40,000 acres of just free range. And they'd raise horses as well, um, but probably more famous for helping with their friend Buffalo Bill Cody, who wanted to start up a Wild West show because people in the eastern part of the United States wanted to see, you know, the whole circumstances and uh show of cowboying. So in Chicago, they had their first show outside the fairgrounds because it was too expensive to do in the fairgrounds, so they just rented their own spot outside of town during the Chicago fair, and they helped finance Buffalo Bills Cody's first show as a friend uh friendly thing to do, and they used horses off this ranch to make that happen. And at like two to three cents at the gate fee, after a couple shows, they paid it all off, and then the rest of history, Buffalo Bill Cody started having his shows all over. Um, but it all started with Guiling and Hank Reddington helping the friend out, which is really cool history. I always thought that was a wise tale, but we find more and more history all the time talking about that.
SPEAKER_04:So despite a very rich tradition and history on the ranch, you're also very innovative. You've mentioned a couple of those things, but I recently came across a story involving some test plots you're doing relative to cheat grass. One, can you explain what cheatgrass is? Something I didn't learn about until the past decade, and two, what you're doing uh to try and address it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Uh again, our our ranch has always prided itself on being on the front end of technology, not afraid to try new things. And um on that same note, we were the first folks in Morrill County to have a pivot back in the the sixties and seventies. So it's it's always, you know, so simple to us now, but back then to pull water out of the ground and put it in a circle, that uh that was that was a huge undertaking. Um, and that continues on today with this cheatgrass study. So cheat grass is um my wife is gonna kill me for not knowing the actual name of cheat grass, but basically this grass in Western Nebraska, Western panhandle, loves our small window for rain and then it dies immediately. Unlike the first day of June, it just knows like a Christmas cactus. And it has no nutritional value to the cattle, it's a huge fire problem and gets in the calves' eyes so easily with all the seeds it has in its head, has no use to a farmer rancher whatsoever. And it's from Eurasia. Um I think our our land is pretty similar to uh near like uh Turkey area, and it just came over here, it's uh not a native species, and they finally figured out a this product called Redrubera, uh made by Enview, of the ability to allow that seed to be dormant for five years when we spray it in the fall and allow the native grasses to come back in and repopulate that ground. And as long as you have some native grasses underneath that cheat grass swath that is suffocating it, um, it'll be able to to um live again, basically. So where we've done some sprays in our pastures, it looks like there's a runaway in the middle of our pasture where it's still green here in now August, where the cheat grass around it that wasn't sprayed, it looks terrible because it just has no value to the rangeland and the cattle can't graze it. And the cows will find themselves laying down on that green grass, eating that green grass, almost to an issue where they're almost putting too much pressure on it because they're just so thankful you're not have cheat grass underneath their hooves. So we're trying to, you know, uh educate folks in our area, putting on workshops on our ranch, sharing this data. We want our our neighbors and our customers to see this, and it's it's roughly$60 an acre, but they're we're still working with government relations to make funding available through cost share projects to cut that in half. And I and Wyoming's doing an incredible job with this, where I mean the governor even says this is this is the best thing that Wyoming's doing right now is this rejuvener product to get this invasive species out of it. So we're hoping we can get that going here in Nebraska too.
SPEAKER_04:Let's boomerang back a little bit to tradition. I assume you do a spring branding. How many folks does that take to make it happen?
SPEAKER_00:You want to come out?
SPEAKER_04:I do. You know, I've I've actually never been to a a branding, even though I serve as legal counsel to the Nebraska Brand Committee. I've never actually been to a branding.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we got that should be that should be mandatory. Correct. Yeah, we'll take all the help we can get. We we take the the Saturday after the bull sale in March when everyone's helping with the bull sale. We don't let them go home that weekend, we put them to work as well. So if we get 20 to 25 people, we rope and drag um to the to the fire and and brand about 400, 500 calves that weekend, and then a month later we'll do that again. Uh so a lot of fun getting all those people out there. A little hectic at times, but uh obviously, you know, if you're not if you don't do it right, if you don't do the wrestling numbers right, they chap you like they do in Texas. So we'll get you taught up, Mark. You'll do it, you'll do a good job.
SPEAKER_04:You know, uh I read somewhere, kind of an agritourism uh element. Yeah, you're a stereo entrepreneur, so think about this that you could have an Eastern or city folk like myself actually come out. I would pay you to allow me to do that. You get free labor, granted you have to babysit me and make sure I don't do anything stupid, but think about that. That may be another business opportunity for you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'll have to talk to my dad about that. We can probably handle handle one of those at a time, mainly for liability issues. But I think I've pulled specs in the suit too. I've always, always dreamed of uh having the the Nebraska delegation out there for branding because they always want a good photo op and um become pretty close with uh Congressman Smith. So I'd have him out there help me get the crew out there, get Don Bacon on the back legs, and uh then we'll then we'll just uh get Deb Fisher with a hot iron and then we'll be branding Governor Pillen. It'll work out really well.
SPEAKER_04:You know, Senator Ricketts likes throwing on his wife, apparently told him he looks cute and or hot, I think is her word, in a cowboy hat. So you get the cowboy hat on Pete and a horse, he'll be out there too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thanks for that. That's yeah, thanks for that visual. No, that'd be great. No, I just always want to share the ranch, so any chance I can do it, I'm I'm up for it.
SPEAKER_02:Speaking of sharing the ranch, uh maybe one of the things that you've gone most viral with uh in the last few years is your cattle art, uh, something that the uh viewership has uh anticipates every year. Can you tell us a little bit about one, what that is, and and then tell us how you came up with the idea and and where you find your inspiration?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I always wanted to find a way to market the ranch uh that was different than the average way, I guess. And I got a drone for Christmas. I oh jeez, I may have been in high school at the time when I got my first drone. And I always saw photos of people disking art into their farming ground, and I always told myself, even at a very young age, I was gonna make our brand with our cattle uh by putting the feedstuffs that they love to eat on the ground, and then in the shape of our fiddleback brand. So, you know, technology changes, and then we have this drone technology. So I knew exactly from the day I got that drone I was going to create what they say is cattle art. So the first couple years in college, I'd make on Christmas like our brand. Obviously, that was the number one thing I always wanted to do. And it got a little bit of some uh some viral notes, it wasn't anything too special, probably because I wasn't as good of an artist on the first try or so.
SPEAKER_04:Were you married yet?
SPEAKER_00:I I was not. Okay, single as a Pringle, yeah. So I I was I I wanted a way to promote the ranch and share the ranch that was different, and I thought this is the way to do it, so I'll just keep at it. And I would do things like make a heart and on Valentine's Day and then make the ad that said, you know, uh, your cows will love Schuler Bulls, bull sale March 27th, you know, at the ranch and and and try to market that way. And I kept getting a little more following, more and more following. So if I back up a little bit here, I would the cows are on winter stocks when I do this, and they they feed them a silage ration for the nutritional requirements, and they they will just line up in any shape that I want to to feed them in. So when you're feeding a thousand cows on stocks, you can you have some options. I learned I can do about four letters, so I did beef, it's what's for Christmas dinner, uh, on Facebook. Uh, posted that, and Governor Ricketts at the time shared it, uh then governor, on his governor page. And I was like, well, that's pretty cool. Let's uh let's think like this is something unique. I I don't think I I've seen other people try to do it, but I don't I think I I got this here. I I should continue on in this. And then and then COVID hit, obviously, uh, in 2020 and and 2021 Christmas. So every Christmas I post another video. Uh that's when it really took off because I put made a EKG out of the cows, and then a heart in the EKG. And you can also look it up if you want to see what it look like. Oh, I've seen it. I've seen it. Um from yeah, yeah. So on the background, from the backbone of America to the heartbeat of America, we thank you for your service. Those nurses, those doctors, first responders who were going through such such hard times and and and the stresses they had to go through. Um I wanted to note that we are thinking of them. And I posted that video and and post on Christmas, and that just blew up. It was it was shared across the world. From I had people commenting on that status from Germany, from Argentina, Brazil, basically all the big cities in America, and they're saying, hey, we see this, thank you to agriculture. You know, you know, we I'm going to go on my night shift for 48 hours through Christmas right now. Thank you for recognizing us. And that kind of hit home because I finally got out of the echo chamber of agriculture and got out to those who I wanted to see it. And uh did some did some media with that with ABC News, and then the next thing you know, it was on ABC News this morning. On Christmas morning, they played it on all their local channels, that article or that news uh I basically just did a call on my way to my in-laws and basically a truck stop in North Platte. And next thing you know, it's being played in New York City, Miami, California. Uh and uh ABC News This Morning plays at like five o'clock in the morning in Mountain Time. But fun fact, the only person I knew that seen it was your dad, Spencer. He texted me at like five in the morning, said, Hey, just saw your your your EKG heart on Catalart on online. So that was on the news. So that that kind of was like, okay, now I'm dedicated. People want this on Christmas, they're excited for it, and I kept it going. So I did an apple for teachers the next year. You know, thank you for your work in this in this trying times of COVID. And obviously my wife is a teacher, so that was near and dear to my heart. People were commenting, his wife must be a teacher, he must be in trouble. He's trying to make up for it. Fun fact, Christy Christy then responded to that that that tweet that went viral and said, actually you did all right, and I got engaged to her like two days after that, and I had the cows spell out yes because I wanted her to know what the cows thought she should say.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:I'll think about it was too many letters. The cows didn't know how to spell all those words.
SPEAKER_04:So, how many practice rounds do you have to do?
SPEAKER_00:I I just I I never I never have to repeat it. I I always get it on the first try. Don't ask me why. But I I I've been able to do it right the first time, God willing, uh, so far on all of them.
SPEAKER_04:So have you done any that you did and you're like, yeah, I'm not using that. You gotta share one, right? No, I think No?
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah. I think I've I've used all of them, I think, that I've I've made. All of them have, like I said, made it out the first try. I I did one for FNBO. That was the most nerve-wracking by the bank that I use. And uh they have the Circle One, obviously, logo, and they came out with the whole crew. Uh that was the first time I guess I I sold it for media, but they had a commercial that played during the Super Bowl uh regionally in the Midwest. And my cows were the main part of that Super Bowl ad, you know, me drawing it, and they had a whole crew out here and got a photo of it. And they came out on a Friday, and the producer said, if you don't get it, we're going home. Like, we're only paid to be out here for three days, and this is the last day we're out here. So uh good luck. And no one had any faith in me. I was like, this is nerve-wracking as hell. And uh anyway, made the shape and I get back to the office, and the video crew was like, We had no faith in you. That was incredible. Like they they they totally thought that was just a whole bunch of baloney, these guys from California that are out here videoing. So that was that was pretty gratifying.
SPEAKER_04:Do you fence the cattle off and then you go out and lay out your shape and then let them run in?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so definitely art form to it. Uh they're waiting for you at the gate, and it's so hard to draw when there's a thousand ants. There's a thousand ants just around your tractor, you can't even see what you're drawing. So I always go in a different gate, and they're all mad at me because obviously I've gone a different way. But the key is to get it all done before they get there. Uh, and uh yeah, from there I've geez, I've I did a baby cradle this last year to share that the ranch was expecting the fourth generation to come on the ranch. Uh that worked out well. And uh I did a present with a with a frost in the middle of it, you know, for the reasons of the season for Christmas. And I made the word joy incursive for Christmas once before. So uh meal of stay, I'm starting to run out of ideas. So if you two have any uh great ideas for this next Christmas, I'm all ears.
SPEAKER_04:Too many letters in Spencer or Rembelto or Ludke. So uh we'll have to come up with something shorter. We could do 93 or R L. Yeah, yeah. Do you always target Christmas? Is Christmas your target for doing the the big one?
SPEAKER_00:It seemed well now some people are texting me wondering where it's at, so I uh I have to be ready for it. So yeah, it's people are ready for Christmas, and I know that I could have taken a hold of that. Like when things go trending like they do, uh that's a perfect opportunity for me to like continue on with it. But I knew my place. I knew that ranching was the number one thing and marketing the second, so I decided I'm only gonna do this on Christmas or special occasions, and uh because I think the cows would get tired of me by by June if I kept doing that. But and I yeah, I guess Christmas is when it when it always happens.
SPEAKER_04:I assume people just email you ideas, right?
SPEAKER_00:Uh it's yeah, but they're not good ideas. Yeah, I know I I'm well aware of that.
SPEAKER_04:That that that doesn't surprise me, but uh people are not uh scared to share their thoughts on what you should be doing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I I love it. I I I just tell people that the cows are actually in that shape when they get there with the feed wagon, and I just put the feed in there.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, I They're trained.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Because people ask me, like, how do you do it? I'm like, honestly, the cows let me know where they're where they're at. And the best part is the comment section when those things go viral. So that one had like 40,000 comments of the EKG, and there's like two cows that are out of place. They're like walking over to another plate of grass or something. And the comment section is like zoomed in on that cow that says, we definitely cold that cow this year. Yeah, they not get in line.
SPEAKER_04:So you're really busy, right? You you're running the ranch, you're a new dad, you're a husband. It's my understanding you're pretty active in a number of organizations, including Nebraska Farm Bureau or the Local Farm Bureau. Tell us what other organizations you're involved in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a full-time job uh being a rancher and and making it work. Um part of that is being involved in our community and sharing our name that's out there. I firmly believe that you gotta put out as much as you give in and uh be a part of it on the local level. So the Nebraska Morrill County cattlemen, um the president of the VAT at the moment, got a really good group, uh solid group of folks that continue that on. We're one of the few uh cattle groups that have our own county affiliate. We're really proud of that here in Morrill County and want to continue that. Um the we're full master right now or Masonic Lodge, Camp Clark Lodge here in in uh Morrill County as well in Bridgeport. And uh just I love that fraternal secrets in the organization and and and building myself to be a better man. Uh so that's that's uh near and dear to my heart as well. And then obviously the Nebraska Farm Bureau with the Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee that I just got off of. Um met some really great people and and I want people to know that Shula Ridengus and our family, my dad is on the actual the Nebraska Beef Council at the moment as well. So we we want to be a part of this solution of feeding the world, no matter how that looks, whether that's in our community, in the state, or nationally, we're gonna be a part of it, and we're not going anywhere. Um, and and a big part of that is being involved in our communities.
SPEAKER_04:David, something we ask all of our guests, and you only get one word. What is the one word that to you best describes this great place in which you were born and raised? You currently run Schuler Red Angus, you served as a state FFA officer, you are now a husband as well as a very proud father. What's your one word for Nebraska?
SPEAKER_00:I believe my one word for Nebraska is opportunity from things that we already know, like how rainfall changes so much in our state. The topography, the geology of our state changes. We're not just cornfields, we're not just cattle, we're not just chickens, we're not just metro hubs, we're all of that. And between the desolate areas of the panhandle to the urban areas of Omaha and anywhere in between, you can find your spot. You can find your spot that you want to raise your family in, you can find the political climate that you want to be in, you can find the resources you want to be surrounded with, the communities you want to be surrounded with. And as long as you have the grit to make that happen and the drive, the opportunity to be a good family member, a good community member, and a good person isn't is available here in Nebraska. And I've thought that since my first days of seeing Chimney Rock outside my window, the going to Memorial Stadium for the first time when I was seven or eight years old, seeing the campus to being a state officer and seeing a large part of Nebraska, to now making my claim here in West Nebraska in Morrill County, the opportunity has been there at every step, and I've never had to search for it. It was there at my at my window. And uh that's that's why I believe in it.
SPEAKER_04:David, well said, thank you for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing on Apple or Spotify or wherever it is to get your favorite podcast at. Share it with someone and maybe uh someone who might have some ideas on some catalogs. And please keep on listening as we release a digital episode on Facebook.
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