Interview with AAA Board Candidate, Brooke Miller

This episode captures an informal yet engaging conversation between hosts and their guest, Brooke Miller, who discusses his candidacy for the American Angus Association Board. Brooke shares his background in the Angus cattle breeding, medical practice, and advocacy work, emphasizing the need for transparency, member input, and accurate data in the Association. The dialogue also touches on practical aspect of cattle breeding, like EPD accuracy and genomic data ownership, while highlighting Brooke's commitment to integrity and open communication.

Transcript

0:02

But is that a, is that a John Deere green accent wall behind you? Yeah, that uh, where are you? What are you doing? That snake room. It's snake room. That guy. Welcome everybody green. It stinks in there. Welcome everybody. Busty in there, doesn't it? Yeah. Does it? It smells like Axe boggy spray and it dirty sauce. It smells like a teenage boys room. I'll tell you what else. It smells like Rolos and Almond Joys, and you're eating all his freaky candy. Little sucker's been holding out on me. Oh my gosh. He's been going to the store without you and picking up candy and then hiding it in his room. Yeah. Look, I mean, what is this? What's a stash? We got some Christmas Hershey kisses from Christmas. Does he have any Starburst in there or only chocolate? No. No. Starburst. Mya, will you go get me a Starburst? Milo's down here. Myla down here. Are you gonna, are you guys gonna welcome people to around the chute? Oh, you pushed record a long time ago. Sweet. No, I will tell you that accent wall is sweet though. Somebody put some time into paint in that bedroom. Nate do that or is that an Amy deal? I know you ain't doing that. No. There's no way you can that. And then he's got, he's got tractors up on the wall there and he's got tractors on the wall back there is shady brick logo I just saw. Yeah, it's Does Nate make his bed every day? No. When I came in here, I said I, Amy wanted me to do it in the record in here, so she kind of pulled his bed up a little bit so it didn't look like a slob. I will say you need to plumb that, um, either CO2 or smoke detector back in because he will not be notified if there's smoke or that thing will start beeping. I'm here to tell you if, if I don't come in here and wake him up. He ain't gonna wake up. Have y'all seen those? Oh man. Okay. I'm not going there. Those memes on Instagram with the smoke detectors, I'm not going there. But no, I haven't. I haven't seen'em, but I think if anyone's seen'em, they're gonna laugh at the phone. My room was not that cool when I was Nate's age. I will tell you that right now. Do you know what I had on my, well, when I was Nate's age, I don't know that I spent much time in my room. Can see those. But when I was, oh, there's his toys. Those are those like real sophisticated Legos that comes with like 3000 pieces and little screws. Oh. And it's just something for him to do, you know, screws and trying to put stuff together and disassemble it and make it work and reassemble it. He likes stuff like that. Yeah, that's that's awesome. Absolutely awesome. He's, he's got like a mechanical, he's mechanically brained, which I wish I was more like that. My dad is that way. So if I break something, he loves the idea of getting to fix it. Like, did y did y'all see where the, we had to hold chopper disassembled? Yeah. Oh my gosh. I didn't follow up though. I mean, what, what was the deal there? The stupid bearing went out and you had to disassemble half the thing just to get to the bearing. How do you get the bearing on something that big? Do you have to like put it in liquid nitrogen to shrink it or No, we just, it slid right on. We clean the shaft up. It slid right on. Oh, so it's not pressed, sealed in or anything like that? No. Huh? No. It slides on it and you put a little locking collar on it locks it to the shaft. How about me talking about pressed on bearings, like I know what I'm talking about. I was just thinking And the li and the liquid nitrogen Liquid. What do, yeah, what do you do? Put that in the freezer for a little bit. Yeah. We put it in the freezer for a minute. You've never heard that? You've never heard that? Yes, I've seen it, yes. I've just seen it in videos. I've never seen anybody actually do it. Well, I didn't do this research on Instagram reels is not what I'm saying. Like. The machine shop who does stuff for us has told us they've done things like that before. I don't know. Those guys could lie to me too, I guess. Sure. They did. That's funny. So what else? You guys been doing this, Vince? You've been packing silage, you've been harvesting? I've been packing silage. We finally got all that done. Got the pit covered today. So now we have a year's worth of feed in there. We have, uh. We've been weaning calves. I actually kicked the heifers out today and I let the bulls go over in the heifer pen to clean up some of their feed that they didn't. They had a bunch of hay shook out in there that the heifers didn't eat. Um, but I kicked them out to some grass today, just a little bit ago, and hopefully when we get done recording and a right over there, they're all still in the pasture. Let me ask you this. Yeah, because I got time because Corbin just stuffed his mouth full of some Starburst, I think. And so those take a while to get down. Um, what percentage of fellow ranchers in your area put up their own silage? Oh, nobody. Nobody. Um, what do you call my area? I mean, like the, in my county? No, no, no, no. In your region. Like, oh. Um, there are some guys that go around and chop it for folks. Traveling, um, you know those guys that may start in Texas and end up in North Dakota at the end of the season, right? There's a few guys that do that. I don't think they're as extreme as, um, those custom harvesters that go from Texas to North Dakota. Um, but I do think they do it in small areas. Like I know meeting had a, a guy from like two counties over come do his and his neighbors. Um. When do his me and paint, he planted some corn too? Or is he making hay each? Yeah. No, the, uh, corn, this is his first time trying it. Um, there are a few little farmers around that do it, you know, they've done it for 20 years or, well, probably 50 years. But, um, there's not a lot of folks that do it. So now how many Southeastern type people do any sort of farming? I see like Randall, oh, there's lot. Randall's got a lot a day job too. Yeah. And he's farming a little bit as well, right? Yeah. He plants a lot of seasonal grasses and makes his own hay. He'll plant a lot of seasonal like, um, warm weather stuff and then he rotational grazes a lot. And then, um. And then he makes all his own hay and stuff. I've got a, maybe tomorrow I'm gonna go, uh, chop some for a neighbor and then I'll have a couple of neighbors come throughout the winter, like every other day and get a, a couple of scoops of silage. They'll feed it and come back and get some more. And then, um, there was two guys that do feeder calves. They'll buy young feeder calves and they, uh. They have their own little pits and we fill their pits up while we're chopping too. So, so the reason I asked you that is out here, I would bet you 90% of my commercial customers buy bulls from us. They either have a day job and cows, or just cows. I mean, we're talking don't even own a, a tractor one, right? Don't farm anything. Some of the coastal guys, um. If they get a big pop of forage, they'll just cut it and leave it in windrows, and then they'll kind of fence those cows off in different sections over there. Oh, that's cool. That's cool. Yeah, and and it'll stay nice enough. It'll even get,'cause it's kind of coastal, it'll get kind of a black tinge to it on some spots, but then the cows scrape away and it's all good. Underneath. It's like it gets a little crust almost or something. Yeah. But I would say 85, 90% of our people never farm, never do anything. They go buy hay if they need to. See, that's done. I mean, they don't even have a tractor. No. Like how do they put their hay out? They have grass. Do you load it? Do like you, you buy? I would say during the drought of 14. 12 4, 12 through 14 probably changed a lot of things and guys started feeding big bales because it was so much cheaper. But they would buy like little, um, skid steers or something like that and they could put those up. Um, and then they could dig post holes or whatever they had to with them. Right. But most of our guys, up until 12 or 14 that I knew of, they were feeding all small bales, like 85, 90, uh, to a hundred pound bales of hay that you hand stacked on pickups and would just go feed cows. Wow. That is like some archaic stuff. Yeah, even big and no rounds, nothing round. Even big squares are cool because you can flake'em off Exactly Like you go buy it and they'll put it on your truck and you can them off. How come? Uh, which, I mean, I understand why, why square barrels aren't a bigger deal here where we live because our hay quality's not that good. But you would think that there would be more people putting up square bills. But it seems like most everything around here is round. Those big square bailers are very expensive. We actually, Nate and I actually talked about maybe doing that. Um, but, and then you gotta be able to handle'em, that's a whole nother deal. Like you gotta have a, a little bit different set of forks and stuff and Yeah, you do with a taller deal so that you can pick up more than one at once. Yeah. And then like when you go to feed them, we have a bunch of, uh, in fence row hay feeders. And they're square. And I think you could get'em in there, but you would have to do some finagling to turn the bale long ways to shove it up in there and then be able to get all the strings off of them, then it wouldn't be, then it doesn't really make sense. Well, and then like with those feeders or round hay feeders, I mean, you're gonna throw a big square bale in a round feeder that don't make a lot of sense either. And um, now I can get the square peg in the round hole. But it's not gonna be just, it's not gonna be just rock. No. So that, that drought made guys out here feed enough hay that they started. They were competing. The smaller bales were competing with the hobby farmers and the horse hay. And so you couldn't get it cheap enough. Whereas the big bales were competing more with dairies and off quality hay that didn't make dairies. And so you could get it a lot cheaper and those guys started feeding that, you know. But it's funny for me to talk about, I mean, this endeavor of everyone always feeding cows in California is relatively new when I was a kid. Like we're talking. 200 cow deal that you buy three tons or three semi-loads of hay a year, and most of it gets fed to horses and bulls. I mean, they don't, they don't feed, they feed to check the cows and put out some salt, maybe first calf heifers to get'em a little bit gentle or something like that. But this climate out here, um, is very, very challenging in some respects, but very, very. Easy to run cattle comparatively to other regions. I mean, we don't get the pop of grass like in North Dakota, South Dakota, but we don't get the winter, you know? Yeah. So I think that part of the reason why you're able to do that in California is that you don't have the extreme temperature changes, right? Like whenever it's, whenever it's 15 degrees, those cows burn a lot of energy just trying to stay warm. So that's when we burn through, like most of our feed we burn through whenever it's cold, so like, yeah. If the weather's really bad, well that's when it's most important for us to be out there feeding. And for us to be, and it's really three or four days, the cattle kind of know what's going on. And so three or four days before you've got a big winter storm, you'll notice that they'll be an uptick in intake.'cause they can kind of, I don't know if it's their bodies or just mother nature, they, they know it's coming, so they start putting down a little more feed. And, um, but I think that's the difference between here in California is the, are you guys. You do have the weather, but it's not as extreme in each direction. Yeah, and the microclimate I'm in is different than all of California too. I mean, a lot of the California is like what I have, but if you go to the Northeast, they'd mimic more of Nevada or something where it's, it's high desert, and they would have turnout, you know, March, April, may, they'd still winter those cows outside, but they gotta feed'em just like you guys. I mean, yeah, if they don't feed, they don't get what's there. And there's probably some guys in Tennessee that operate that way too. But I would guess their cattle get pretty. Tough looking at times. Yeah. Corbin, what about your guy? Have you, has he chopped silage yet? Don't he bring it to you? Don't he bring it to you now? Or does you just do it as you feed it? The, so the silage deal for me is, is if I can feed hay. Yeah. If I, if we've got enough feed, it's so much easier. And like if feed, but if, if corn's eight to, to not feed silage. Yeah. If, if, if corn's$8 a bushel, well then, then I gotta buy silage. But when, when, when feed prices are kind of down, I can just buy mixed feed, um, and get it trucked in. And then if I've got plenty of hay, um, I can get, so I like to, but I like to have the option to do both. Right. If, if, if things get really tough, I like to be able to say, call a guy. Um, which I'll have to call him early on and say, Hey, I'm gonna need some sage this year. Go ahead and get it on the books and get it trucked in. But Right. But that's what's unique about where I'm at is, is if I want something like si, if I want silage or if I want, um, and just many things that I gotta get it trucked in. Like we just, it just doesn't grow in our climate. I now, I have thought about planting some wheat. Uh, we just failed. Across the road from my house, and I thought about planting that back in some wheat. And I, I might need some, uh, direction on that to graze for grazing. Uh, it, I, I could, I would be open to both. Um, I could graze it, but if it, obviously if it stayed dry enough and I could wrap it, uh, I would think about that too. Right. It's a good, it's a good feed. Yeah. Yeah. The, and it's all comes down to moisture. And in the right fall of the year, it's. It's hit or miss. Normally we get our fall rains, but then it gets so dang wet that you wouldn't even, who knows? It's, it's be, it'd be a crap shoot. Right. But, uh, yeah. What did you do, Vince? Did you wait till it got hot to wean? No, we had, um. We had a week, a freak deal, co cool front come through and we were like in the upper nineties and it brought us down to the low to mid eighties. And I said, yeah, let's go for it. And so we did and we weaned them Friday we, we did do two groups, two small groups, Thursday evening. Last Thursday and then Friday morning early we got a, the big group up and get them and another little bitty group of six and then, uh, got all that situated and then Amy and I left and went to the Tennessee Angus Field Day. Ooh, that's awesome. Uh, yeah. Did that turn out being as much fun as you thought it was gonna be? Um, it was actually the biggest and best to my knowledge, field day that Tennessee's ever had. I mean, ZWT knocked it outta the park. They had 18 different states and Canada came. Can we just give a round of applause to Will for setting all that up? Hell yeah. That's right. That's him and him and his wife, uh, Elizabeth did a lot too. Um, she, she did a lot of the finer details, I think, and yeah, will, did the bulk, I mean, like, dude, they had gift bags, they had bouncy houses for little kids. Did you get a gift bag? I did. What was in there? I did, uh, there was a c like I could have put, if I had some shady Brook stuff and I wanted to put it in the bag, I could have, I was probably, could have had it around the shoot sticker. Those, I was supposed to do the stickers and I forgot. I'm terrible at this. Do you know, uh, in regards to the stickers? So Lucy just came in here about 30 minutes ago and she was like. Cor, where did Myla get an around the shoot sticker? Because she stuck it on her. She undid it and stuck it on her sister's dresser. So we've got an, we've, we've got a bumper sticker on uh, Millie's furniture in there, so That's awesome. My knows what's up. She does. She knew what she was doing. I don't know where she went. She was driving nuts. Mini Hey, so I saw on Instagram or on Facebook or something, a giant ear tag. What was that about? I don't you? I don't know. I missed a lot of it. Like I didn't get to listen to the panel. There were several different panels. Um, I didn't get to listen to those because I was given tours. I asked Wilson if what I could do to help, and he said, if you could do some of the tours that would free me up. I said, absolutely. Show me, tell me what I'm doing and show me where I'm going. And um, so he had a pen of et cat. Dude, you should have seen all these blue blood calves that he had up there. 1508. Oh man. Is that his number? No. 1508, no. Yeah, 1508. Yeah. That was his number because I was like, I saw that on a couple calves somebody sent me and I said, oh, those, those, those look pretty good. And they said, oh, those are blue bloods. Yeah, he had pastures full of them. And then there was a bunch of'em that I liked a lot and I didn't know what they were or what turned out they were blue bloods as well. Yeah, they used a couple different SI codes there for blue blood. He uses, it depends on who wakes up and tags those calves that day. Sometimes it just has a number and there's no SI dam, but they have a tag in their ears. Absolutely, absolutely. So, no, and then he had his donors on display. He had vendors there. Um, when I say I gave a tour, like I was doing a lot in rangers, like just a couple people, three or three people here and there, but then, um, I went out in front. They brought two wagon loads of people out there, and then I spoke with them for just a minute and told'em what all we were, do you know where we were at? It was et calves that were born in January, February. Um, kind of what the SIS and stuff were, and it was, it was really pretty awesome. Like it, and it was perfect because it was spread out. It wasn't all wadded up in a little tight area. The day was awesome. I mean, I think it was maybe 80. Maybe dang and overcast all day looked like it was gonna rain any minute. The whole day. It was never hot. It never did hot. It did about three o'clock and that's when it was over. And it kind of made everybody leave a little, you know, instead of lingering around so they could get things cleaned up and, and put away. And that was a great day. It was a great day. It looked to me like you spent a lot of time with Old Bob there, old Bobby. How Mr. Whitaker is is one of, uh. It was one of the gifts of the world. So how, how was, how was hanging out with Robert? Listen, we had at, at the end when it was, when it was, um, all over before we left, um, Robert said, um, well, I think I'm gonna go. I said, all right. He said, have you seen Tony or Will? I can't, I can't interpret his voice, but he said, have you seen Tony or Will? And I said, well, I'm actually gonna go find Will right now. Uh, he had a few calves that he wanted to show me outta some stuff that wasn't in the tour. Yeah. Some, some other stuff. So he said, well, I'll just go with you. I know that's not what Bob sounds like, but that's the best I got. And uh, so we went and then he had. Scott Boris and Ryan Dorn with him. So we all piled in this ranger That was way overloaded. With my big butt in there and like, Hey, everyone else needs to sit on the other side. Vince on the right. No, I got in the middle. I got in the middle. Yeah. You gotta keep the, uh, center of gravity. Right. You know, and I gotten on wheel's side. We could have flipped over. There was a couple of places we went. There was kind of steep. Um, but no, we had a, we had a ball and uh, Robert was just having a big time and just, you know, being another one of the guys and, um. No, we had a, we had a good, good trip. A really good trip. That's fun. Me, me and Amy actually got away for a day or two and went on up to the mountains and wandered around and Gatlinburg and just you Nice to get away for a day, Orly. Yeah. But no, they did top notch. I, I, I highly, I think there was over 400, 4 50 people there. That's a lot of people's. A lot of people, I mean 18 states, did they feed that many people? Yes. I cannot imagine feeding 450 ribeye sandwiches. And banana pudding. The banana pudding was pretty good. I ain't gonna lie. Did you, did you have some? I did. I should have had two, but I did not. Oh. And Amy and I judged the mooing contest. Oh. Oh. That's what our dude, that's not fair. Missed out. We got missed out on the last one. Yeah, because, because we had a movie. So you We had a movie. Yeah. Was Amy and another lady, I don't remember the other girl's name. Was there anyone that's like, okay, be honest. Was there anyone that's as good as me? Corbin, yours was terrible. Whatever. Not these kids were like eight and under and they were blowing you away. Well that's'cause they, they're more like cows than I am. They little crazy, crazy kid. One, this one little boy came up there and she stuck the mic in his face and he just put his head down. He froze. Like he was, I think he started getting scared. I can imagine. Uh, okay, let's move on. Because like, I feel like he was fixing to have a meltdown, but he got, he got stage fright. I feel like he could have won the whole deal had he not gotten stage fright. I just got that vibe from him, you know, have, have you energy. He had that more energy. Do you remember? Uh, I don't remember which state fair it is, but they have a, uh, husband calling contest that it's, it's these older women who, they sit there and they call their husbands and they're like, go through these calls of how they get their attention. It is hilarious. They're like, Bob, Bob, come on. Bob Seen that clip of Seinfeld when they're in the restaurant and um, oh, what's the guy's name? The weird guy, Kramer. Yeah. Kramer's trying to get the attention of the waitress and he is slapping the table and then he is going. Have you ever seen that? No. It's hilarious. And then, and then she comes, she turns and looks at him and, uh, he tells Jerry, he is like, see, told you I could get her attention. That show is interesting because there's moments where it's so funny, but then you can watch like three episodes in a row and you. This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Well, it was the, you know, the whole premise of it was, it was a show about absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yeah. Yeah. No plot, no nothing, no plot. Just kind of like this show. I said Exactly. That's the tie in. So we both did a pretty good job of, uh, connecting, you know, Hey, but I have a tie in because the new editing, it's like a editing software Amy uses, took out the mo. The last episode. It was the it. I think it was that same deal that was messing up my audio with the fan or whatever when it flattens it out. Yeah, like it thought it was background noises. Oh no. Well, I won. I'm sure I won. You won. You didn't do anything. Well, there's no, you think I need to, I've got the fan on right now. Do you think it's blocking out everything I say right now? No. No, no, it's fine. It's fine. It is. I had to turn my fan off. Anybody want to guess what the temperature it is in the house when we got home from church? I don't have to guess. I just dunno how you do it. I don't know how you sit in an 82 degree room with no air flow. You wanna know what's crazy? I just came in from checking heifers before we press play, and it felt cool. Like, I was like, man, it feels kind of chilly in here. It is blazing outside right now. Chilly. It's hot. It's so chilly. What's the, what's the temperature out there? Um, I think that, I think it's. My, my wife's car is dark, so I don't know Corbin, but it said 104 coming home from church. Jesus. And, and on the irrigated where those heifers are, Calvin. I mean, you gotta figure, it's just like the humidity's. Insane, right? It's irrigated. Yeah.'cause it's, yeah. Oh yeah. So it, it is just nasty out there. It's suffocating. But anyways, I wanna encourage the listeners don't even look at the Weather channel. It's gonna say like, 94 Corbin. It's, it's wrong. It's wrong. S It's 92. It's 92 here. It says it's 100 where you're at, Joe, and it feels, feels like, yeah, I guarantee you it feels like like 204, two. Oh, it's hundred. Okay, so here it is, 95 and feels like 1 0 8. Yeah, I'm the coolest of all. I know that's weird. I'm like 80, 86 and 92. Yeah, those mild winters in 86 and 92. So you think about this, your house is, is less than 20 degrees cooler than it is outside. Mine is more than 20 degrees cooler than it is outside. No, because it's actually a hundred and it's 18 degrees Joe. The ratio, I dunno. I dunno what These headphones have got me sweating in here like it's. 70. It's probably'cause you keep eating all that candy. You've eaten like six pounds of rolos since we've been on here. Is that box. I wish I'd have never looked in that stupid bag.'cause now I can't quit eating them. Oh my gosh. They're so good though. I know. They're so good. Thank you. Thank you for to the listeners though, for all the feedback of our last episode. I can't even remember what it was called. What was our last episode about? Lots of positive feedback though. I think it was, it was called The Grind or something. It was, was I there? It not called The Grind. It was definitely not called to Grind. That's a new app. You have the Grind Edge. What gets your blood pumping? Grinder? Grinder. Using Grinder Getting, I gotta, oh my God, I Pain grinder. Not the Grinder app. There you go. I'm not that good of weld. Tall, dark, and handsome. I'm not that good of a welder. I mean, sirs uh, go back and listen to that episode. Listeners, if you want any quality feedback. Corbin's g Corbin. Um,'cause we have a lot to cover on this episode. We've been talking for about 25, 30 minutes, right? Just kind of some banter leading. You guys confess forward through, Hey, did you guys notice, by the way, on Spotify now they automatically put us in chapters. No. Have you seen that? No. That's cool. Yeah, they sort us by chapters and so it's kind of cool. It doesn't. It doesn't get us completely accurate, but for our listeners, if you're like, man, I'm tired of hearing Joe just talk and talk, or, I'm tired of Corbin screwing off, or Nobody's ever tired of Vince for some reason, everybody loves him, but you can go through the chapters. Yeah. Like, what do you mean? Nobody's ever tired of Vince? Whatever. Because look at the Amy. Amy is tired of Vince. I mean, I guarantee that if you look at the delegate voting list, you can tell who is favored. Most of of anyone look at all the votes Vince got in that deal. Isn't that crazy? Well, uh, not, not to take away from any of my fellow delegates, but I'm just saying there's a lot of good folks in Tennessee that weren't on that list. Oh, absolutely. That's the first thing I thought when I saw California is that I was an alternate and I was like, man, there's so many good people that are on here and there's some good people. You go through the delegate list of what we've got. Um, coming up in the convention, I see a lot of really, really, really cool people. I absolutely do some really smart people, talented people. Um, there's some programs I don't know about and then there's some more that's kind of more of the same. I think, but, um, it'll be interesting to see. I'm most excited. I think, uh, I can't remember. I, I'm gonna give Corbin the credit just'cause he's the millennial that needs the padding. But, um, what, aren't you a millennial? You're a millennial. Are you a Gen Z Corbin? We talked about this episode. You're a millennial four years older than me. I know, I know. You just act old. I know. I feel old, but, um, I think people voted for me'cause I have a charming smile. I think it's'cause they saw you on the grinder. No, it's the grinder. It's the grinder. Okay. It's probably a calendar somewhere. Uh, Mr. January. But no, Corbin had the, I think it was Corbin or we all had kind of the idea of, of doing these interviews of director candidates. Um. If we know that you're a director candidate, we're gonna try to reach out to you, but we aren't begging people to come on here. You gotta reach out to us a little bit. Corman, how many reservations do you have and, and what do you have planned? And then you guys want to, are you ready to kind of wrap up and tee up this segment that we're gonna do? Just so the listeners, I, I'll not confuse it. I guess I'll go back and say, this is Sunday, we're recording a little intro together, like we do on most Sundays. Um, that's when we do most of our recordings, but. In order to coordinate some of these board candidates, they maybe does, they have some conflict on a Sunday or on a Monday. And so Tuesday afternoon we will be interviewing two board candidates. But I think we're good to, to wrap this little segment and Corbin, why don't you give us an intro into the whole, what the next few episodes around the shoot are gonna look like. So, uh. It'd be too late for me to mention now, but we posted on our Facebook page, uh, asking some questions what people kind of wanted to hear from their board members. So what we'll do is we're going to apply some of these questions to, to some potential board members and just see where they stand. Um. In general right now, I think the candidates that we have are pretty one-sided as far as the way they're gonna think. So hopefully we get some, hopefully we get some dollar meth people to, to reach out to us and, and say they want to come on. But right now, um, it just kind of seems like it, it's people that we're gonna want to hear from. So for our first episode, we're gonna have Kelly Albrecht and Brooke Miller. Um, they're both, uh, Brooke is from Virginia. He's a doctor there. And then Kelly runs cows in Wauk, Oklahoma, which is right in my backyard about 30 minutes away. So, um, they're both really good candidates and I think everyone's gonna really like to hear from them. Uh, and I can't wait to hear what they have to say. Uh, I know that, uh, having talked to both of them, that they have some really good opinions and some good, good advice for direction. For, and Vince, uh, why don't you share what our, when we were bannering around about this, what's, what's our goal like, I mean, and then I'll share mine too, but what was our goal here? We going to, we aren't gonna grill'em a bunch of questions or anything. No, I, I think, I think we just wanna let'em, let'em get out and say, you know, give them, give their little, give a little bio about themselves, not a 45 minute. Deal about, you know, they've been doing this when they were three, they got hit by a train or whatever it might be, but. Just a little bio and what they would like to see the Angus Association look like versus how it looks now. Some things that they would hope to try to change. And, um, you know, Corbin, I don't, you said it, you thought it might have been a little too late. I don't think it's too late for folks to put those questions'cause there'll be more candidates. Come on. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, and we got, we got a lot of response too. Yeah. Before we came on, Amy said there was already a lot of. Questions on there. Yeah. Um, a lot of response, like people ask, this is what I'd like to hear. That's what I'd like to hear. So, but I mean, that's, that's my goal for people just to get to know him a little bit better. What do you think, Joe? Because I didn't know any of these. I, I knew Albert A. Little bit. I knew Logan Sampson a little bit. Um. Yeah, I guess we should mention that, but I really didn't. Logan, Logan will be on a later episode of Mr. Groom. Yep. Right? Is that his, yeah, Mr. Groom. And then there was one other one who was the other? Brian Palmer. Brian Palmer. Yeah. Brian Palmer. So we've got those five that are locked in and I would sure love to get, um, as many, as many candidates as we, as we can. We have until November to get these, these interviews out and, and, yeah. And we don't even know yet if any of the incumbents are gonna try to run again. Right. And if they wanna come on, they're more than welcome to come on too. Um, or anybody else. Yeah. And you said, uh, what are my goals if you're$4 meth? I wanna hear that like the, the goal of this platform is to just find out the truth, right? And to, to be able to tell our listeners, you know, when you spend some time, I learned this. Um, we aren't trying to be Joe Rogan. We aren't trying to be Theo Vaughn. We're just trying to be around the shoot here. But I learned from watching those guys with the presidential race and stuff, with those longer form just visits with people. And I'm not saying we're talking to'em for an hour. You get to know who the people are. Right. You can bs some answers and some crap for a question and answer for 15, 20 minutes. But if you just dig in and visit with some people, you figure out if you're comfortable with the people, if you're not comfortable with the people. And, and I honestly think that that's what we need. We need more comfortability with the people we're electing to represent us, um, and these associations because then I think you get more member feedback. Um, and so this is a real opportunity to Vince's point about the incumbents. If there are incumbents running, I'd love to get to know them too. I don't even know who those five will be. I don't either. And chances are, gentlemen, by the time this episode airs there, there is a chance that it'll be out in the journal. Don't they usually put little bios out in the journal of who's running? Yeah, but I don't get the journal. So what do I do then? Well, somebody will send it to us. Somebody will send it to me. I mean, it should be online. Like the delegate deal was, I would think the And I would guess so too. And can we just point out how. The delegate deal is so odd. It's so odd. It's so weird that in 2025, if you're on the delegate list as an alternate, you have to go. There's people that live 12 hour plane ride away from Kansas City, Missouri, but yet we've all gotta make our way to Kansas City, Missouri. It, it just seems interesting that, that this is still the way we're doing things whenever. You and I, you, the three of us talk every single week and we see each other on a video. Uh, it just seems like we're not using the resources that we have available to make this better. It just seems like we're, except for, you know, accepting grants. I mean, we're doing that for, for research, but as far as moving forward with the technology we have to make our association more user friendly. Like, I don't know, it's just. No Corbin. I, I think that's fair because I think we just learned, and I, I already had my little confession of where I failed, um, you know. Nominate yourself. If you wanna instill change, you better nominate yourself.'cause you better get on Ensure. Or if you don't feel comfortable, call someone from your state and say, nominate me. Are you interested? I'll nominate you. But make sure you get yourself on the printed list. I think it's important to nominate other people too.'cause I think, you know, up until this year, I've just kind of put, put it to the side, like I don't care. I don't know those people that are running. I don't need to know them. They're not like me. They're not running, they're not doing this like I'm doing it, so I don't need to be, I just can stay out of it. Maybe they ought to say, you can vote for yourself and one other person, and if you wanna vote for yourself, then you're in. And if you want to vote for another person to put them on the ballot, they should let you instead of just giving you one. I also think that, uh, that's interesting. I also think that there's a, there's a. Uh, former board members have an unfair advantage to where it's almost like they have that seat automatically. Yeah. So it, it just seems like we've got, almost like the US government, we've got career politicians sitting as delegates, like that needs to change. That guy's 75 years old and he's been in the middle of this for 50 years. Like, can we move on to someone that's younger and that has a, a mind for, for moving in a direction that's not the same way we're going. I think that's the hope. I think. I hope that over the next, I don't know, it's probably gonna take us a month to work through all these episodes and podcast timeline, and so maybe you get some people who are willing to try some different things on that board. And I do think, I mean, this current board man, they've gotta be so tone deaf to not take some of these suggestions. I still feel like, I know people will argue with me and that's okay. They're gonna do some changes on their own no matter what happens. I, I think they have to, I gotta believe in the good in people, right? They're gonna do something. See, no. I don't even think so. I don't think so, Joe, you might, you might be right. The ball's in their court right now, and I don't mean to hammer on'em, but man, it's been real quiet out st out of, uh, St. Joe. I haven't heard anything. Well there, and I'm not even talking, I'm not even necessarily talking about the board on this. Everyone el, everyone that's getting paid a lot of money to, to do a job there that they're not doing their job. I'm sorry, you're not doing your job. I don't feel like I know anything. I can't refute that. So, sorry. Yeah, I mean, they can hate me all at once. It's, it's do better. Do your job. I I I It's too bad that, that, that can't be refuted, um, to be honest with you.'cause you're right Corbin. Um, I still wanna stay optimistic though that they'll tweak something in the process. And I think that getting a few people that are different, just little different voices in there who are strong personalities, I think that, um, you know, the diversity of thought, some of that stuff, the thoughts just need to be brought up and they aren't thought when everybody thinks the same way. Well, and then there's another thing that, that, that I would challenge anyone that's wanting to run for, uh, a board position, a board position, a board member position, you cannot be scared to be the opposition. You cannot be scared to have an opposite opinion of your peers. You have to be able to, you have to have the stones, for lack of a better term to disagree. You have to, but then you, the group thinks a thing. Then you don't get unanimous. Decision. Sorry, that's, that's, that's life. Well, yeah. You know, a lot of this problem goes back to transparency and they do not wanna be transparent. But before, I mean, there's been, there's been lots of folks asking questions from what I hear, I, I wasn't one of the ones asking the questions. There's been lots of folks asking questions about the contract of this methane hub deal, this methane deal, and to my knowledge, nobody has received it. They won't give it to anybody. No. And if that's true, that's all hearsay. If that's true, what do they have to hide? Why? Why would you not just let that be public knowledge? There's a lot of things that I feel like everything should be in a, in a, in the age. I feel like we're in the age of transparency where you can't hide things risk and things are being hidden from me. And this is a breed mem, uh, uh, a breed registry. It's not, we're supposed to own this dang thing. It's a breed registry member owned. We're not making nukes. We're not got doing top secret military stuff. It's a read registry. What are we hiding? But y'all are gonna really enjoy Kelly's interview because we, me and he and I talked about this for a little bit, and, uh, y'all are gonna really enjoy what he, he has to say about it. So, um. I'm gonna enjoy it, Corbin, because, um, I have not talked to any of the candidates specifically about what their thoughts are. I will say in full disclosure, uh, Logan called me early on before he was even announcing and just ran some stuff by me and then asked what I thought of his bio. And Brooke has been, um. Had a very, very direct line of communication with me. We talked about a lot of things, um, from, he called me when he heard that I was on a panel and, and, um, you know. We, Brooke and I have a good relationship I think, so I'm excited to hear what these guys have to say. And I've talked to Robert back in the five bar x, uh, chat, online forum, days, or advantage cattle service maybe. That's crazy. It was, um, talked to Robert back in those days and always really appreciated his worldview of, of membership, governance, um, and how he thinks about things that way. So, Corbin Juano to Vince, are you good to wrap this and let Corbin tee up the next segment? Yeah. All right, Corman, go ahead and just lead us in, uh, to our exciting board member interviews. Well fir folks, first up, we've got, uh, somebody that, that you're gonna really enjoy getting to know Brooke Miller from Virginia. A lot of you have heard from, from him before, but he has some very interesting perspectives, some very interesting points of view. Um, a very sharp guy that that's very worldly and, and knows a lot of things about a lot of things. and he's our first guest ever. Right? Ever, ever. Which is fitting because I think on that other podcast we were on, he was either the first or second guest. He was first we ever had. Yeah. This is our first guest ever. So, um, uh, without further ado, let's, let's invite Brooke in. Well, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate this, this opportunity to, uh. Uh, hopefully address, uh, the membership and let them get to know me. But, uh, I really appreciate the opportunity. Um, I'm a small town guy. I grew up in a small town called Washington, Virginia. Um, probably one of the most least populated counties in, in the state of Virginia. Um, I was born into cattle. I was born into Angus cattle. Um, I've been raised in Angus cattle ever since I can remember. Uh, we, our family started out with a commercial. Set of cows, mostly Angus cows. And we transitioned and moved into, uh, purebred cattle in the, you know, late fifties, early sixties. Um, and. You know, some of my fondest memories are, are traveling the country with my father and my grandfather, um, looking at different herds and, uh, and you know, learning when I was a young man and continuing to learn. My wife and I, uh, own Ginger Hill Angus. Um, we are third generation, or I am third generation cattle breeder. Um. We have an annual sale every year, a bull sail and a female sale every year. Um, we are very much focused on the commercial cow calf industry and trying to raise cattle that are, uh, profitable for our customers that, that are in the commercial cow calf interest cur, commercial cow calf, uh, producers. I have a very diversified life. Uh, I grew up in Washington, Virginia. I went to Virginia Tech and. I was on the livestock judging team, but majored in biology and went to University of Virginia Medical School and graduated from medical school in 1986. Finished, completed my family practice residency in 8 19 89, and now have, you know, including my last two years of clinical experience in medical school. I have over 40 years of. Experience in clinical medicine as well. I'm very active in advocacy, both in the cattle business and on the medical freedom front. I'm a board member of the American Conservative Union. I'm a a founding member of the United States Cattlemen's Association. I'm the immediate past president of the United United States Cattlemen's Associa Association, and I'm very much in tune with. What's, what's going on nationally and globally and how it affects, uh, you know, not only medicine, but how it affects ranch farmers and ranchers. And I've been a strong advocate for farmers and ranchers and improving the profitability of farming and ranching in this country because I think it's the backbone of, of our nation, our food supply. And I think it's a critical national security issue. United States Cattlemen's Association is, is a member driven organization, completely decentralized. Our members pretty much vote on all of our policy, and I'm a decentralized guy. I, I think if you study history and you look at, whether it's governments or whatever, when you start having centralized control of an entire industry, it's, it's doomed to failure. And nobody, uh, better to decide what is best for you other than the the individual person themselves. So that's a little bit about me and what I'm all about. I'm a very, I'm a, I'm a religious person, believe in Jesus Christ. That helps guide me. I've been through a lot of tough situations over the last four years through the COVID Pandemic. I was working for a large healthcare corporation and I felt they were trying to make me do things and make decisions that weren't in the best interest of my patients. And so I, you know, so there were some questions on people wanting to know if I would be able to make the tough decisions. If it wasn't popular, and it certainly wasn't popular then with the powers that be in the medical industry, but I, I was one of those physicians that stood up for our patients and treated them. And did what was be in their best interest. And eventually I get ended up getting fired, but that was fine because I landed on my feet. My wife and I own and operate Miller Family Health and Wellness here in Washington, Virginia, and that's sort of the dream, dream come true for us as well. So I'm a guy that wants to hear from other people to get their points of view. To help, it helps shape my point of view. I won't always agree with people, but I do wanna know what their point of view is and where they're coming from. So if elected to the board of, of the American Angus Association, I certainly would encourage people to contact me if they have a problem or an issue and listen to their point of view. So, Brooke, I got a question for you. Sorry to cut you off, but I think this is incredibly interesting. I mean, we're gonna run this around the shoot style, like we kind of give you a little monologue in the beginning almost, but let's just have a conversation getting to know you. Um, I think, I think our listeners will really resonate with that. As you're talking, I'm comparing and contrasting kind of your two lives and how they're wove together by your faith. Maybe explain. How you tie together your profession as a family practice doctor, and then also raising Angus cattle, how they have their similarities, how they share challenges and things like that. They're both full-time jobs that's very similar. Both of'em, uh, are, are a lot of work. Um, you know, I just love what I do. Um, all right. Pretty much don't have much, if any, free time. We don't watch any tv. I love being out in the pasture, taking care of cattle, but I also love talking to people and, and taking care of people. And, um, you know, I feel, and I felt this way for a long time, that we as beef producers produce the healthiest, safest, and most nutritious food on the planet. And I fought that battle for a long time. With a lot of people in the medical community and now it seems to be coming around. Uh, so, you know, I I, I'm a beef producer and I believe in what I do and I walk the walk as far as my patients go. I try to show them how to be healthy. By example, and beef is a big central part of my diet. So I guess, uh, I look at it as a health food and I certainly promote it to everybody that comes in my office. I don't know if that's the answer you were looking for. No, no, it's fine. I think it's all pertinent. I think, you know, I, I search for truth both in medicine and in the cattle business, and I try to find my own way and I try to look at, uh, look at the big picture and I have, uh, the faith in myself and faith in Jesus Christ. That he will, he will guide me and help me make, uh, those tough decisions. I think having those values is something that's great and, and it's something that, uh, we've kind of longed for from our board members. We wanna see that, you know, that what you are personally and what things mean to you. Um, so we kind of know what your values are. How do you incorporate those values into what the American Inc Association has been doing and, and what does that path forward need to look like? I mean, I mean, we can go as far into the mistakes they've made or, or the things for the future that, that we can do to prevent mistakes. Well, I think you have to be true to yourself and you have to be truthful what in whatever situation that you're, you're dealing with. And you have to be open and transparent and you have to be confident in yourself and what you're doing enough to be open and transparent with everybody. And I think that's the biggest, uh. Problem that I hear amongst breeders or the biggest gripe that they have is, is there's, there's really a lack of transparency and there's a lack of input, uh, from the average breeder. And, um, uh, I want to try to heal that divide and, and, um, make it so it's not that way to strengthen our association. We already have the greatest breed of, uh, cattle. In the history of the world, uh, the Angus breed we're number one. I want to keep it number one, but if you look at, uh, you sort of draw a parallel between what's happening in the United States. Um, it's no secret that up until recently farming and ranching has been not very profitable and we've been losing farming farms and ranches, uh, at a alarming rate. And we currently have those as of Jan, uh, July one, according to USDA statistics, we have the smallest national cow herd ever on record. And that's really alarming to me. And, um, that's probably why our, our prices are so good right now, but. Uh, the reason for the smallest cow herd on record is that it's been so unprofitable. We have, uh, severe concentration. Uh, in the meek packing industry, which has destroyed competition and it's destroyed competition so much that we now have a shortage of cattle and we have become a net importer of beef in this country. And that's, that's very alarming and that's a national security issue as far as I'm concerned. You look at the American Angus Association, our membership peaked in 2005, and then we've sort of been on a steady decline ever since. We've lost about 12,000 members since 2005, and we are registering 50,000 fewer, uh, animals in the American Angus Association, uh, currently. So that tells me that, you know, it's mirroring uh, the profitability of the average Angus beater breeder is mirroring what's happening all across America, um, in the c commercial cow calf business and in the feedlot business. Um. So, I know I'm rambling now, but those are things that are very important to me that I think as a breed association we should be involved in. Because if we're not, we're not gonna have anybody to sell our seed stock to. Uh, if we, so Brooke, you, uh, you mentioned one that everybody wants to know, and I've said, uh, about transparency. It's an easy choice to make. It's hard to put into practice, um, because it's a choice made every day. How do we improve the transparency and increase member input? We have to want to do it for the first thing, and there's, if there's a will, there's a way. So we have to want to do it. And, and I, I, that's one of the things that I'm running on is to, in increase transparency, um, I think one thing that we do is we make the board meetings, we, we, we make them available online. We, we stream'em online. Um, that's way they can see what is being discussed and there are no surprises three months later when they find out that the board made a decision that they may or may not be happy with. So that keeps, uh, the membership much more engaged. I think currently we have a huge apathy in our membership because they feel like they are disenfranchised and they feel like they do not have any input and they do not feel like, uh. The board members are listening to them too often. I get somebody telling me, yeah, they, they call their board member and then they just say, oh yes, just trust us. We know what we're doing. And that's a big no-no. Um, and you know, and my. Track record as President of the United States Cattlemen's Association. I think, uh, our, our membership and our openness in our board meetings and, uh, the fact that our members select our policy is a good example of what I stand for and what I would like to achieve if elected to, uh, the board of the American Angus Association. So, with such a diverse membership, Brooke, how do we choose the things that are. In AAA's wheelhouse and the things that shouldn't be in AAA's wheel wheelhouse? Well, I, I am a decentralized guy. Okay. I've already talked about that. And I think the breeders, the breeders of this breed should control the direction that the breed goes, and that should be based on the commercial cow calf, uh, rancher. I think unfortunately the American Ag Association has done a gr, fortunately they've done a lot of very, very good things, but unfortunately, they've morphed into, uh, an organization that I think controls the breed and controls the breeding program. Uh, people feel like they must do this or do that based on. The programs that they have come up with, the EPDs that they have come up with, I think there needs to be more transparency in what it is involved in producing those EPDs. I think we need to go back to more empiric data, uh, more actual phenotypic data and empiric data, and if, and if we have scientific data than it needs to be verified in a, in a blinded situation. Um, we, we rely too much, I think, on formulas and assumptions and not enough on empiric data. So I would like to improve the accuracy of the EPD system. Um, I think we probably have too many EPDs right now. I don't think we need any more, and I definitely don't think we need a methane EPD. I think we need to improve the accuracy of the EPD, so the cattle match the numbers and the numbers match the cattle. We also have to, I think, improve our data and our adjustments. I live in a different environment than you do. Everybody in here, Vince and I, I live in a similar environment. We have. He's the only one I really know, knows what I'm talking about when he talks about fescue pasture. Um, but you can bring a lot of really good cattle into the state of Virginia and state of Tennessee where there's fescue, paddle pasture and they don't look real good. But, um, our adjustment factors I think are way off and I think they should look at the data from each, um, region and each management system and each calving season and come up with more of a, uh, an adjustment factor on birth weight. You know, age of dam adjustment factor. Just a little story, a personal story about us when, you know, about 25 years ago we switched from a, a spring calving herd to a fall calving herd. And we fed our cows some corn silage, uh, through the winter. Um, but those calves were 150, 200 pounds heavier. Uh, those spring Calvin caves were ca caves were, uh, 250 pounds heavier. But what we did see is we saw about 80% of our 2-year-old heifers would ratio above 100. We switched to a fall Calvin program. About 40, 30 to 40% of the females would ratio above 100 when we took the silage away from'em and we just went to a strict grass and hay operation, about 20% of the 2-year-old females or less. Ratio a hundred or above and about 80% of the mature cows do. So that's a glaring thing there, that, that really skews. Uh, I think our, the accuracy of our EPDs, because we have, uh, age of dam adjustment factors that is one size fits all and, uh, we should work really hard to try to. Uh, get as a accurate of age of dam adjustment factor as we can, no matter what region we're in, what management system we are, we are in, and the association, I think should, should work to try to level that and, and improve that. Um, did that answer your question? Yeah, I think that was good. That was real good. Um, we're just trying to make sure that I don't get in too much of a conversation. So if you see us looking down, we're texting each other saying, okay, Corman, you go and he's saying, okay, you go. But no, I think you touched on some things we've talked about here on, around the shoot, some, some concerns that I've had. Um, some, uh, it's, it's s well, I don't need to editorialize. This is your interview, but I would say that we have sympathized with a lot of those thoughts in the past, but Corbin's got another one for you that's a little bit different topic in kind of the same vein. Go ahead Corbin. A little bit earlier you mentioned healing, and I think that's something that, uh. Amongst I mentioned what? I'm sorry. I was, you mentioned healing. Healing. Healing. Okay. The three of us have, have kind of talked about that. Like, the way that we're going about things is sometimes, uh, maybe more cantankerous than, than unifying. So, so if you become elected to the board of directors, how do you transmit that healing feeling to the membership to where they feel like they're not, uh, disenfranchised? So, so how do we make everyone feel like. Uh, we're in this together because right now there's this big divide. So how do we get people to come together where we're trying to obtain the same things? Well, I think increasing transparency and, and providing ways for them to pro, provide feedback and also have the staff, uh, and the board members, uh, very sensitive to, uh, their concerns. I know a couple of times I've, I've called in and, and talked to the director of performance programs and voice my concern about the age of dam adjustment factors, and it basically, it was well ratio them separate. I'm, you know, I don't have, I mean, that's, that's not a good answer as far. That's not a, i I find that a very disingenuous. Answer. It's not trying to solve a pro a problem. Um, and so I think we need just need to be more responsive to people when they call in and they talk. I certainly may not always agree with someone, but I will listen to their point of view. I had a call today with someone, uh, on some issues and we probably had a little bit of different point of view, but uh, he explained his position and it made me understand his position a little bit better. And I think, uh, I think that's always a good thing to open up communication and listen to one another even if you don't agree. Uh, but at least listen and, and, and be interested in their, in their experiences because those, their experiences are real and they're their own. And we all have different experiences. Brooke what, uh, you were talking a minute ago about maybe making the EPD system more accurate and maybe not spend quite as much time looking for new EPDs and just work on the system that we have. What are your thoughts on the genomic system and us not being able to own our own data and our own DNAI find it. I find it somewhat of a conflict of interest, to be quite honest, to to have a GI own the data. Uh, we're pretty much if you want to sell semen in this breed. Um, you must do genomic information on your cattle. They force you into that, and then you, you lose control of your own data. So I think that's a conflict of interest. I think they're in it for profit, obviously, and, uh, I, I think they're making a very, very good profit. Uh, personally I think the, uh, the, uh, genomic tests are probably too expensive unless someone can show me why they're not. Uh, but I don't think. A GI should own my data on my animal that I have raised and I have 12, 13, 14, 15 generations of cattle that have grazed the pastures here at Ginger Hill. Um, and in order for, and in order for me to, uh, be able to get genomic information, I have to give away that data and I have to pay'em in order to do so. Exactly. Well. I don't, I agree with exactly what you said and, but that's my, I mean, that's my personal opinion, but do you think that the genomics are as accurate as they lead you to believe? Absolutely not. Not in my cattle. They may be in a certain population of cattle, but breed wise, I think they're not, I think, uh, um. There are lots of breeders can tell you that they have this animal that had EPDs and they set submitted genomics in them. Uh, some of'em go way up, but a lot of'em go way down. And no matter how much phenotypic data they, um, uh, they. Turn in on that bull or that female, they cannot overcome that genomic data. Correct. And the genomic and CPDs, um, I'd like to see, you know, maybe they have it, maybe they don't. But I would like to see the science, uh, that shows that their genomic data is, is ac is actually accurate. Um, and I would like to see some blinded studies done on a diverse population of animals. And then follow'em along and see how accurate their individual performance, uh, and their individual traits match up with what they call the genomic information. And, uh, uh, I think right now, you know, genomics is an extreme as a, as a medical physician and especially being through what we've just been through in, in this pandemic genomics is a very, very complex. And we are just scratching the surface in our understanding of genomics. There are billions of genes. There are genes that turn other genes on and off. There are environmental factors that turn genes on and off. And to think that we can measure a certain finite number of genes and have an accurate. Description of what those animals will do. I think we're not even close to being there, and I don't think we'll be close to being there in my, in my lifetime, um, or anybody's lifetime on this show, to be quite honest. And you guys will probably live a lot longer than I am. Uh, but I don't know. You're pretty healthy. Yeah, I was just thinking I'm the first one to go. But no, I think genomics is a lot more, a lot more, uh, complicated than, than what we are. Uh, what the genomic push try to, uh, lead us to believe. And I think you can look at the cattle and there are too many instances of, of cattle not matching genomics and, and genomics, not matching cattle. So. I think we need to get back more, more back to, uh, phenotypic, uh, data. And again, that's another conflict of interest as far as I'm concerned with a GI, uh, because the genomics, um, influenced the geno, the EPDs so much that everybody feels like. They have to do it right. That's a moneymaking thing for for a GI and, uh, there shouldn't be any conflicts of interest is my, in, in my, my mind. We, we have enough conflicts of interest in this world. We've seen what the conflicts of interest do in, in our bureaucracies, um, uh, especially in medicine and, uh, the CDC and the FDA and how they're tied to the big pharmaceutical companies. So, um, those are my thoughts on that. Brooke, what are some services that the American Angus Association offers that you value as a producer right now? Well, I think, uh, I value their ability to, to keep track of the performance data and the pedigrees. I, I like that they obviously promote Angus genetics through CAB. I think we could improve CAB, uh, but I certainly think it makes in general Angus cattle. More valuable, but unfortunately all the other breeds are copycat breeds now and they're all black. And a lot of them that may or may not be significantly Angus, if they meet the carcass specifications, can certify, can qualify for certified Angus beef. So I think we need to really look at that. And is certified Angus beef, does it need to do some? We do. We need, need to do some changes in certified Angus beef so we can enhance the ability or promote the ability of yours and mine and, and Angus producers all over the country to sell, actually sell Angus bulls to commercial cow calf ranchers, um, and not just, uh, one or two people selling semen to the dairy industry. So I got an interesting one for you and I've, I've caught myself in this situation before. Brooke, talk about fiduciary duty and talk about, you know, I'm sure there was a time at US Cattleman's Association where you were faced with some sort of decision that. What was good for the entity of US Cattleman's Association had some sort of effect on the membership. How do you balance where you fi your fiduciary duty lies, and maybe walk some of our listeners who've never been through a situation like that, um, through navigating that from a, from your perspective. Well, you look at the mission statement and what your, what your purpose is, and then you let your moral values. Um, and your faith guide you and, uh, into making the right correct decision for what you are charged to do. Um, in the case of the United States Cattlemen's Association, our stated mission is to improve the bottom line and the profitability of commercial cow calf ranchers. So everything that we do in the United States Cattle Association has to have that in mind. In the American Angus Association, I feel everything that we do should be for the benefit. Of the breed and the breeders that make up that breed. And you have to have, uh, the moral code and, and a lot of times the faith that, uh, a, a difficult decision. Um. Is gonna be the right decision, even though you may have some negative consequences to yourself. Case in point, when we went through the, uh, pandemic that we just went through, I made a lot of decisions that were the best interest of my patients and from a personal standpoint, uh, in the short term, they harmed me in the long term. They obviously, uh. Repaid me not in monetary, uh, aspect, but in self-respect and and respect from, uh, the people that I was serving. I think I speak for all three of us. When I say it's, it's great to have a, a candidate that is willing to step on on a limb and make decisions that may affect their bottom line. And it may end up costing you money to make some of the decisions you make, but I think that, uh. Brooke's case, I think he's willing to stand on that ground and make that decision even if it's not easy. Thank you, Corbin. I really appreciate that and I agree with you. Uh, I've, I've lived it, um, been there and it's, and it's, and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. You know, to be honest with you, I, I may have shared the, the one really big one that I had that was like that, and in the moment it felt hard for your personal operation. But then wouldn't you say that in the wisdom of time, it's proved to actually not be that hard? It was just that decision that was like a bandaid. But once you got down that road right is right and wrong is wrong. And it was kind of easy at that point. Well, believe me, I struggled with this. It was the most stressful time in my life. In 2020 and 2021 and, um, I, I, I struggle with it and thankfully, um, I have a great wife who supported me and. Help guide me and help keep my mind and, and the conscious straight. And no, it can be a very difficult thing, but in the end, uh, it is so much better to do the right thing than it is something that is self-serving point in time in my life where I don't, I'm, I'm looking, I got more in the mirror than I do in the front. Well, Brooke, I have one that actually, because you cracked it. I'm going to, I'm going to ask, um, obviously you have her blessing because I know what marriage means to you, but what was your wife wife's reply when you told her you were gonna run for the board or when you, you asked her, should I run for the board? However that worked Well. You know, it's, it's funny that you asked that because I was really on the fence and people were calling me, and one day I was feeling one thing. One day I was feeling the next. And uh, you know, not only did I throw it out there to my wife, but I threw it out there to my entire family. Good for you. And she said, you should do it. So it was a group decision. And we made the decision together. And if she had probably told me not to do it, I probably wouldn't have done it. That's awesome. My wife would've said, don't do it. Yeah. But see, seeing that you, you can hear the passion in your voice and you can tell that, um, this means everything to you and your family. And so it's, uh. I'm, I'm proud to have someone that, that it means so much to, but I think Vince had had kind of a last question that, that might kind of help us wrap up. I, we had asked, we had asked lots of folks to maybe ask some questions of what their, what they would like to hear you guys addressed, and one of them was, what are your top three concerns that you have with AAA? And, you know, what would you do to correct them? Uh. Transparency is number one. Yep. Um, feedback and, um, involving the membership in the more, in, in the decision making process, um, a decentralized approach to, um, the direction of the breed, which I think I'm, I'm passionate about decentralization. Um, let the people that are, that are feeding the cows, cutting the hay. Having the cows at midnight, let them make the decisions on which, what, where the breed should go and what are the best, what are the best cattle. Um, those are the two main things. And, and I think, uh, we need to own our own own data and a GI. Sweet. I think that's been a heck of a conversation. Absolutely. Thank you, Brooke. We've been friends since. The interesting thing about Brooke is, is he's kind of a friend from the first time you meet him. Um, so I, I can say that and I'm very thankful. You and I had had some conversations about running, not running, both of us, and, um. It's easier to find excuses to run than it is to find ex or to not run, than it is to find excuses to run. And, um, this is one time where I've said it before, man, we've gotta get a YouTube feed because if you could, if the, if the viewers could have seen your face as you navigated responding to that question about discerning the question with your family. Um. It is interesting. I, I think a lot of people wonder why this cuts so deep, but to a lot of us, this is our retirement. This is our 401k, this is our children's education. This is everything. It's, it's our passion, but it's also our business. Yeah. And, um, I think you did a really nice job for the past half hour of sharing with our listeners about your passion. Listeners. I would encourage you to listen to everyone who will take time to visit with us and, and, um. You know, Brooke mentioned he's from Ginger Hill, Angus. We, uh, we don't need to put out phone numbers here. It's easy to do a Google search and find out how to get ahold of Brooke, but I would encourage you to get ahold of him and ask him some questions. He really is a people person and enjoys visiting with people. Um, and frankly, everyone should be reaching out to every delegate or every, uh, candidate. I would really encourage that. Brooke, one last one though. Uh. Are you gonna be in the journal? Did you get an official, um, like put a bio in the journal and stuff like that? Or where will people see more information on you in print? I, I will be in the journal. Okay. I. Sent in my email to the American ags Association before the deadline. Actually got a phone call from Mark McCulley, uh, making sure that he had my email. I think it went to the junk mail, uh, folder Once. I appreciate you all having me on. I would like to, to say one thing to listeners. Um, I do love talking to people, uh, in, in reality, I'm a little bit shy, uh, when I first meet you and, um. There are a lot of delegates out there that I don't know. There are a lot of members out there that I don't know, but I would encourage you to pick up the phone and gimme a call, uh, to have a discussion if you have any questions. Um. We thought about, okay, do we start calling delegates? Um, and I find that a little bit intrusive. I'm not sure that I would, if I was the delegate, I would want, um, a, a candidate to call me. I'm not sure that I wouldn't want it, but I'm a little bit hesitant if I don't know the delegates to, uh, reach out. Uh, so if anybody is listening here, either member or delegate or alternate. I encourage you, I want to hear from you. Um, I'm not gonna be able to call everybody. I don't feel like that, um, from my personal standpoint, I would think that would be a little bit intrusive, uh, to just start cold, cold calling people. But, uh, I'd, I'd love to hear from you and I'd love to have a discussion with you. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I think, uh, I think that pretty much does it for Brooke. I, I really appreciate you coming on and, and getting and letting. The Angus world get to know you because I think it's important for a candidate to be known and for the people to feel like they can trust someone, they have to hear their voice and they have to be able to put some words behind what they see. And like you can write, read someone's name, you can look, look'em up on Facebook, you can look up their program, but to hear their voice. To hear their, uh, you know, you can hear the emotion in your voice, you can hear, uh, your points of view and everything. I think it's just really important for, for people to hear that. So we really appreciate you coming on and spending time with us, and, uh, we look forward to hear hearing you, hearing from you again, maybe as a board member and maybe not. Thank you. Hope so. All right. But I'll be here regardless of whether I get elected or not. That's right. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks a lot, Brooke. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Brooke. Hey Siri. I got the, Hey, Siri. What does, what does fiduciary mean? So, uh, uh, so we really appreciate everyone for listening this week. Um, we got a couple potential board members that, that decided to come on, um, and, and we're really thankful for them giving us, giving us, uh, their evenings because I know how much of a time and, and they're also gonna give us. So much more than if they get elected to the board of directors. But, uh, we really appreciate everyone for, for hanging with us and listening. And I guess, uh, Vince, what do we say? I bet you know, before I say, take it away, Tim. I bet those guys cannot wait until Joe calls'em with some big words and asking, oh, these questions, they aren't my words. Now that you got elected, what is the super duper. Trooper. I mean, good Lord, Joe, you, Joe, are we gonna start to put together a pool of what animal they'll be riding on the next me. Oh, that's. We will see you next time around the shoot.