Building A Local Beef Brand From Ranch To Retail with Garrett and Megan Foote

We trace how a ranch family in Curry County built a vertically integrated beef business, from wheat pasture yearlings to a fresh meat counter known for prime cuts, green chile brats, and face-to-face service. We compare grocery and direct beef, tackle pricing myths, and share what’s next, including USDA inspection and expanded local delivery.

• Family ranch roots and multi-state cow-calf, stocker, and feeding operations
• COVID catalyst for direct-to-consumer sales and retail launch
• Managing inventory, grades, and the ground beef challenge
• Customer education on antibiotics, hormones, and grass versus grain finishing
• Why grocery beef is safe and why food choice matters
• Building a premium, service-first butcher shop with specialty items
• Genetics, Simmental and Speckle Park trials to lift marbling and yield
• USDA inspection plans to unlock shipping and wholesale flexibility
• Hiring for character, training skills, and growing community ties
• Practical advice on risk, resilience, and saying no

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Transcript

Meet Megan And Garrett Foote

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome back to another episode of Behind the Burger. I'm Caroline Romo, uh the executive director of the New Mexico Beef Council. And I am here with Megan and Garrett Foot, um, over here in Clovis or near Clovis, um, Curry County at least, right? I got the right county. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Texaco is the address. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Okay, that's what I was thinking. And then as I was driving, we kind of uh my phone suddenly said I was an hour late, and that made me a little nervous.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

But yeah, we bounced back and forth here pretty regularly.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Yeah, yeah. I thought about that. I thought, should I have asked? No, surely they they would have known I'd I would have made that mistake. Uh so well, cool. Well, thank you guys for for having me and um and thank you for uh yeah being willing to do a podcast. You guys want to introduce yourself first and kind of talk about your background and we'll go from there.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Absolutely. So I'm Megan Foote. Um, I run the meat side of our business, so the retail and wholesale uh beef side. And as far as background, um, I my background is actually in ag communications and marketing. Um, so I worked for a small crisis communications firm for several years before we started this business back in, I think we launched it in 2020, like fall of 2020. So it's kind of an interesting time to enter into this space. And I'm sure we'll get into more of that later. But I handle the meat side and then Garrett handles the live cattle side of the business.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yep, I'm uh Megan's husband, Garrett Foote. Um, I grew up here in Texaco, New Mexico, and we've uh we've moved back to our family operation, which is primarily uh a stalker cattle operation and a uh farming operation here in eastern New Mexico and West Texas predominantly. Um I went to uh went to school at Texas Tech and graduated with an animal science degree and uh then decided to stay there and go to law school and uh practice law in Amarillo for about a year and then moved back and we've been back here since 2019, yeah. And uh just doing the same, yeah,

Ranch Roots And Diverse Operations

SPEAKER_01 2:12

farming, um running stock of cattle, and we have a cow calf operation and just kind of keep growing in those avenues.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

So you guys, so a marketer and a and a lawyer, that probably actually helps you in business, both of those backgrounds, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Yes, respectively. I think you know, I think Garrett's background in laws helps him as they grow the business and in making you know strategic decisions, even though he's not practicing day-to-day. I think that's been you know hugely beneficial as he's come back. And then on my side of things, when we started the meat business, it was really handy to have that skill set in my pocket because we were able to keep overhead cost really low. When I quit my job and we dove into starting this, um, you know, we didn't have to outsource and pay for somebody to do a website for us or social media campaigns and things like that as we were trying to kind of build up some brand awareness around the business. So that was really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Yeah, I think on the attorney side, yeah, mostly uh I tell people I a lot of times I forget um that I'm an attorney until somebody brings it up or we're sitting there talking about background or or something just because as I'm not really thinking about uh legal stuff most of the day, but I think it it does end up changing your mindset a little bit. I guess just seeing enough ways that things can go wrong. Um kind of gives you a mindset of, hey, maybe we need to do this a little bit differently and maybe prevent some issues on down the road. So yeah, it's been it's been good. It's been good.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

I think it's really helpful too on like the you know, land contracts and partnership, the the boring paperwork side of things, I guess I would say.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, I still use it occasionally for yeah, land, land documents, leases, um, just different contracts and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

And you don't not have to pay somebody to do that. Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

I mean you pay for what you get, you know. Yeah. Cheap attorney.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Oh well, I think that's neat. And it's neat too that you guys kind of went and and tried and did other things, but still the the cattle business brought you back, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Right. Yeah. Um our family moved here, I think originally it was on my dad's side back in the 70s. Um, and then my dad and my uncle moved here in the 80s and helped run the family operation here and been here ever since. So it's it's where I grew up. They both all of our family came from from Oklahoma and then came to New Mexico.

Wheat Pasture, Seasonality, And Grazing

SPEAKER_02 4:32

So you want to tell me kind of more, so you've you know covered the history, but talk about the operation.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

So yeah, we're primarily um a stalker cattle operation. We um our big goal is we we buy cattle in, weighing between three and six fifty mostly, and we grow those cattle and and then market those as yearlings. Um the steers weigh in you know between 850 and and nine typically, or can typically be a little bit lighter sometimes, and then heifers from 750 to 800 pounds. Um our primary goal with those is grazing them on wheat pasture. So we farm right here in eastern New Mexico and in West Texas, and uh so we graze a lot of our own wheat, um, but we also lease up a bunch of pasture from people in the area that we've been doing stuff, some that we've been doing stuff for a long time, and and some that's new every year. We're constantly trying to find new lease pastures and and people to run cattle with. Um so that's a primary part of our business and what we've done for a long time. We also um feed out some cattle in the feed yards um in West Texas and up into Kansas and in Oklahoma as well, and that's something that we've kind of added to increasingly over the last few years. I'd say a larger percentage of our inventory we've retained a certain amount of of ownership of going into the feed yard, and so that's been an area that we've grown quite a bit in. And then the last two years we've really grown on the cow-calf side. We've been running some some cows here in in New Mexico, but recently we've uh we ended up leasing a property out in Florida and we run some cows out there. Um we run some cows in in Georgia as well and Mississippi and Oklahoma. So we're kind of more spread out. We've always been fairly spread out, but with the on the cow calf side, we just kind of keep looking for opportunities and places to run run cows, and we've added a lot of um cows that we run in this area as well in New Mexico and and Texas. So it's that's been a pretty cool place to expand, especially given the uh current market um for calves.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

So right, good time. It's a good expansion period. Um well that's neat. Well, what about so you kind of talk about the the wheat pastures and the you know that's kind of the primary thing, I think you said. Um is that pretty seasonal? And I guess is it is it I mean different, I'm assuming maybe even different seasonality now that you've got Florida and Georgia and all of that.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

But so yeah, to kind of touch on that, yeah, we we uh we primarily start planting our wheat like in like late August, early September. Um and you know, we're typically on on that wheat depending on the weather. We're we're lucky here that we have, you know, we have dry land farm ground, but we also have irrigation. Um so we are able, even in dry years, to at least have some wheat. It may not look as as good as other years. This year was a a great um start to the year. We had a tremendous amount of rain up front and then it shut off. And as you were driving in, you probably saw how rough it looks and dry around. It went from like the best year to one of the worst. And so um, yeah, it's seasonal. Typically, we're we're coming off the wheat um the end of May or first of June. And then what we do with part of our farm ground the rest of the time is we do uh we plant hay grazer mostly and we kind of rotate around where we plant hay grazer at. And we have some grow yards uh here as well that we raise feed for um for starting the cattle and the pens. And and then we a lot of those cattle during the summer we will run out on grass and stuff as well. And so, yeah, season's pre-seasonal. And then, yeah, what is cool about you know, talking about Florida and these other cow calf operations is being able to bring those calves back uh to our operation, just kind of it's allowed us to really vertically integrate where we can start off with the the mama cow and the bull and and uh raise a calf and then bring that calf back and run it through our stocker operation. And then we have options on whether to to sell them um at that point or retain ownership to the feed yard. And that's been a been a pretty fun part of it that we've gotten into.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

So absolutely. And I mean you said vertical integration, so then we have to go to the to the end result, right? So you guys have have uh you know gone both directions in that

From COVID Shock To Direct Sales

SPEAKER_02 8:55

by by going to the cow calf and then also uh selling meat direct to consumers. Yep. Uh so so maybe the background of that, you said um started it in 2020, fall of 2020, which I think now I've heard of a few people did it kind of out of necessity or out of realization that there was a need, right? There was demand for local uh beef, there was demand for uh there was there was you know um processing uh delays and problems with that because of of COVID and all that. So yeah, tell me tell me about that and and how that's kind of evolved.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah, so I think that Garrett said we moved back in 2019. 2020 had I was still working um for the crisis communications firm that I had been with, and we were in the midst of a lot of crises for several different clients as you know, the world was shutting down. And in that time, or I guess prior to that, when we moved back in 2019, we had kind of, you know, Garrett was coming back with the focus of helping his dad grow 10-foot cattle. Um, and so it was getting to the point, you know, there was an inflection point there where Garrett had to come back or he was gonna have to hire more people on, and that meant, you know, a smaller piece of the pie for us later on if we wanted to come back. So we came back and his focus was on his dad's business, but we wanted to find a way to kind of diversify our income, was something that you know we were doing independently. And so we had kind of tossed around the idea of doing, you know, direct-to-consumer meets. There were some people, it was kind of starting to become big. Um, then fast forward to COVID, COVID hit. They had always sold whole and half beaves forever, um, but a handful a year, I would say it was not a ton. Um, so I was working my communications job, and then Garrett calls me one day and he's like, Hey, can you make like a social media post, like put a graphic together pushing these? Because we've been getting a ton of calls for whole and half beef orders. Um, and then that just continued to grow as grocery store shelves were not being replenished and people were out of stuff. There was also um, we were seeing a big an increasing interest on the consumer side of people like feeling less comfortable about shopping in the grocery store, unfortunately, and then feeling like, okay, we've got to know where our food is coming from. Um, and so there was that interest on top of supply and demand issues that we were fielding a bunch of these calls. And one thing that, you know, we had talked about was for every 10 calls that you got, you might have sold one whole or half beef. But there were people who maybe they weren't ready to invest financially in that much meat or they didn't have the space for it, but they would have bought, you know, 10, 15, 20 pounds. And so we were like, well, maybe now's the time to kind of get this rolling and we'll start selling, you know, individual cuts. Um, and the more we started looking at that, we decided, well, we're just if we're gonna do it, we're really gonna do it and we're gonna dive off into it. So I quit my job.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

You're drinking wine, I think.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yes, probably great ideas come. Yeah. Had a little bit of liquid courage to decide, hey, you know, we've we've been talking about this. We can keep talking about it or we can just do it. And so um, we went ahead. I like I said, I quit my job, built the website, got some stuff going on, you know, on the back side of the business. Um, fortunate for him being an attorney, he got all the legal stuff together, and so we got all the paperwork lined out, um, and then officially launched in the fall of 2020. And so when we started, we we were selling through the website. It was COVID, you could do contactless pickup, we would ship our meat all over the country. Um, and then I would also, we had a little cargo trailer that we rigged up with freezers and lights and a little cooler and heater in there. And I would pull that into town and sell meat on the side of the road two days a week. Um, so people could pre-order and pick it up from this little trailer, or they could come and shop off of the trailer. Um, so we did that for, I did that for about two years and went to some farmers markets and different events in New Mexico and Texas and Oklahoma. And so through that process, we were able to build up a steady customer base here

Launching The Retail Butcher Shop

SPEAKER_00 13:07

locally, especially. Um, and we hit a point where we started to plateau a little bit and we had to decide, okay, like, you know, it me sitting on the road selling meat was not something I wanted to do long term. So we had to decide of like, are we gonna do this? Are we gonna hire somebody else and just, you know, keep it as is? Or do we want to continue to see, you know, what opportunities there are in growing the business? Um, and for us, the the biggest hang up was the fact that we were selling frozen meat. So we were getting our beef processed at a USDA facility and they were um going through and processing and fabbing out individual retail cuts, vacuum sealing them and freezing them. Um and so we were selling them that way, but we'd have a lot of people that would come in that are like, oh, you know, I want to buy some rambis, but I wanted them for dinner in an hour. Um, or they maybe wanted what we had, but they wanted the cut portion differently or cut prepared differently. And so there were little things where it was starting to be like, ah, you know, we're we're kind of missing the mark on what our customers are wanting. Um, and so that was when we we decided, okay, we're we've been steadily busy enough. I think there's an opportunity for us to come in and fill a gap. And another thing that we noticed too, and as our customer base was growing, was that there was a surprising amount of people in our area in Clovis and Curry County that were driving to Lubbock and Amarillo, and some people that were consistently going all the way to Midland, Texas, because they felt like that was, you know, they had to leave here in order to get like a high quality prime quality grade product. Um, and so we were like, okay, that gave us a little more confidence in feeling like there's a niche market here that we can come in and fill the gap on while keeping those dollars here within our local economy and not losing them to Texas. Um, so that gave us a little bit of confidence in going ahead and taking the risk and diving off. And in 2022, we I think in November of 2022, pretty close to Thanksgiving. I remember that distinctly of like we're we're we launched our retail store right before like a big holiday rest. Started off with a bank. Oh yeah. Yeah. And and mind you, like neither one of us necessarily have a meat background. Um, so you know, cattle and and and ag, but and coming in knowing and about beef and eating a lot of beef and having a lot of personal preferences, but it's a whole different ballgame when you're talking about, you know, the meat science side of things and even retail specifically. Um, so big learning curve there. But fortunately, you know, we had a really great team of people to be able to tap into. And we we went to school at tech and Garrett judged on the livestock team. And um we had a lot of friends that went through the meats program at Texas Tech too. And so we've had a lot of um, we've got a great network, I think, of people that we've been able to tap into that have been really helpful in kind of growing that business and and avoiding some mistakes, but being able to fix things and mitigate pretty quickly whenever we do run into problems. Um, but yeah, the retail side's been great. So we we opened up the fresh retail store in 2022, started offering our homegrown beef on the counter fresh. We've got a team of butchers that'll slice, dice, cut, prepare anything any way you want it, whether it's one pound, a hundred pounds. Um, we've got all the machinery and everything to do that. And so that's been, I think, one of the big draws outside of not only are we offering a different product, being able to offer local fresh beef just right off the meat counter. Um, I think one thing that also draws customers in, especially like an older generation, is the customer service aspect of having them being able to walk in the store and feel like they've got, you know, their guy, their butcher that knows exactly how they want something cut and they come in every week and they've got a personal relationship with them, which I think we're starting to see less and less of that in the big box stores that are doing away with their meat counter and they've just got shelves full of, you know, pre-packaged, pre-cut products. Um, so that that more intimate customer um relationship, I think, is is another big draw for the business. But um, so we offer our beef, we source in other premium beef cuts as well because we'll run out of a lot of things. So we're really transparent whenever we put stuff out of this is premium source product or this is our homegrown stuff. We have customers that come in that are, you know, they only want to buy our homegrown beef and we're like, great, here's what we've got today that's available. Um, and then we have other people that come in, they're like, we just want, we trust you guys and we want a really great quality steak. Um, and so we try to, you know, make sure that we've got enough of everything so that we're meeting customers' demands. Um, and then we sell a little bit of chicken, we bring in um a prime pork product

Customer Service And Product Mix

SPEAKER_00 18:00

that's really popular. We're, I think, the only retailer within 500 miles that offers that. We fly in fresh seafood one week out of the month. Um, it's caught and shipped overnight out of Florida. So that's that's a big draw that brings people in from, you know, other towns and they come for the seafood, but they buy a little bit of beef and other stuff too, which is great. Um, we've got seasoning sauces, home and gift items. We make our own in-house sausage and brats. Those are really popular. We've got a lot of um New Mexico green chili added products, a lot of marinated meats and things like that that are really popular, some specialty items. We try to come up with unique stuff that um you can't get anywhere else in town. That's kind of our focus. Is is we're more of a um premium niche market where you know we'll bring in a case of of random things like you know, chicken feed or um I brought in gator and duck and things like that that most people wouldn't expect to be able to find in a little town.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah. We like to eat good, so whatever we sell, I mean, that's kind of the motto, is something that we would be able to do.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Yeah, we we don't really yeah, like our our focus is on bringing in high quality stuff. Um, you know, and if it's not something that wouldn't meet the standards of stuff that we would want to eat or serve our families, it's not gonna be something that we're offering in the store.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Yeah, well, I I think that's exactly why people want to support a family business, right? Is is that care that you put into it. And then, and then even, you know, no matter rancher that sells to consumers or not, you want to know that that their family's eating that beef too, or that that product too. That's a really special, special part of it. Well, um, I feel like you we've we've covered so much already. I'm I'm excited. But we uh talk about what's your biggest, not to be negative, but either side of the business, what's one of the biggest challenges that you guys face?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

I'll let you kick off that one.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

I would say uh oh, I don't know. I've thought about this, you know, some days it feels like there's uh a lot of challenges. Um, but uh like as far as the biggest challenge I would say is as we've grown and kind of diversified and done the vertical integration that we've talked about is just trying to figure out how to to manage all of that and you know make sure that we're doing a great job in every every sector of that. And then a lot of it does start with having uh really good people that that work with us and work for us. And so that's really what we've put a lot of focus on. It's just when you're growing, you're really trying to, you know, develop that and try to get it to a spot to where where it needs to be. Our biggest problem is about the time we get close to that, we add on again. And so we just always stay uh a little bit uncomfortable. But overall, um, I would say that's probably the biggest struggle that I I go through.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Yeah, there's just I think on his side of the bed, like you know, from my perspective, looking at what they do, there's so many moving parts all the time, being in so many different um, you know, areas of the industry and and having to focus on different partnerships and cattle turned out every. There's just, I mean, there truly is the opportunity for something to go wrong every minute of the day. Um, so it's just managing a lot of little fires while, you know, trying to not let it slow you down from growing and continuing to do what you do.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

You're trying to stay organized and just, you know, you have a I think I feel feel like there'd probably be a lot of people that would agree with this. It's hard to uh, you know, as you grow, you have to hand more stuff off to other people. And sometimes even though they're well qualified to do it, it's it's difficult to uh make yourself do that. And so I'm constantly constantly in my mind, like, it's okay, let you know, let them do that. And so that's that's probably the biggest that was what comes to mind, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

And I think that's a lot with like any business, like not even just in the cattle industry or the meat industry. I think that's those are like growing pains for any small business and for entrepreneurs and and on our side of the business, on the retail meat side. I mean, I think it's kind of a lot of the same, like a small business. There's there's always something going wrong, and so you gotta, you know, start your day just knowing there's gonna be problems, we're gonna get through it. Um, but I think thinking about it from A big big picture. It's the challenges that we've faced on the meat side have been different in each season that we've been in and as the business has grown. And so early on, like inventory management was really difficult because as you're trying to grow your business and kill more cattle, for anybody that does that, you know, you know, you have a substantial amount of ground beef every time you slaughter one head in comparison to the amount of tenderloin and ribeye and all of those, you know, premium middle meats that most people who are coming in and wanting to spend a little bit of extra money on when they're buying homegrown meat, they're willing to do that on those cuts, a little less enticed to pay more per pound for ground beef. Um, and so you end up with a lot of that inventory, and you can't justify continuing to kill more cattle to meet the demand of your middle meats and just have all that ground beef stack up. And so that was a problem early on that we had had to solve for. And I think that's when I talk to a lot of other people who have started direct consumer meat businesses, that's usually kind of the make or break point, is they get to a point where they just aren't able

Real Talk On Pricing And Margins

SPEAKER_00 23:38

to move all of their inventory. And so we've been really fortunate when we started the retail side of the store and we've got the cut room and all of the different machinery, we're able to kind of look and say, okay, we're really long on this product this month or this week, what else can we do with it to market it? How can we add seasoning to it, marinate it? And so having our own facility allows us to do that. Whereas, you know, if you're just getting it processed, packaged, and frozen through someone else, you don't have the flexibility. If people aren't interested in that product in that season, it's a lot more difficult to move. Um, so we've managed through that. A challenge that we're facing right now, I think as we have grown, we've got our shop set up. And I think that early on when we were just online and just, you know, selling out of the trailer and and just starting off, people still associated us with more of like a specialty product. Whereas now I think we're almost seen a little bit more as like another grocery store in town. And so with that, um, while I think people do appreciate, you know, the products that we offer, being able to get, you know, good quality products and have a variety of different options, they're not getting other places. There still is the expectation of a price competitiveness with all of the big grocery stores that are just a couple of blocks up the road. Um, and so that's something that's been really challenging, especially, you know, with where the economy's been this last year and beef prices have continued to go up. And so um I think that's a challenge that we work through and it's hard because, you know, when customers come in and are complaining about, you know, prices, that hits me, my, you know, my customers, we feel bad. We we're not, you know, trying to price gouge anybody, but you know, our margins are as thin as they ever have been. But we're competing with, you know, Albertsons down the street who can discount something because they're, you know, they can discount their meat pretty heavily just to draw people into the store because they know they're gonna buy a lot of other stuff. Um, and so we get that all the time of, you know, they're selling 99 cent briskets up the road. And I'm like, we would if we could, but we can't, we wouldn't be in business. Um, so that's that's kind of been a big current struggle of figuring out, you know, making smart decisions for the business, not you know, hurting our margins, but still trying to stay competitive too and and keep product moving.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

I would say uh yeah, I don't I don't blame them for for press jumping around. It's just uh yeah, that it's just that is the difficult part of uh of the direct to consumer side is your expenses are much higher than you know than the than the packers when they pack pack meat. And so your margins are thinner when you try to compete, which not I get it. That's that's what we're that's our challenge to have to get through.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

And so I mean, and and what what really stinks is you know for us, we're cherry picking out of our, you know, the Garrett mentioned that we retain ownership in some of the feed yards, but we also keep some back that we feed and finish out here in the grand scheme of things and the number of cattle that we're moving and selling. It's a small number that gets funneled into the store. Um, but we're cherry picking, you know, trying to cherry pick good cattle that we think are gonna grade well. However, sometimes, you know, some of those cattle are still coming in choice or low choice. And whether those carcasses are select, choice, or prime, we have the same amount of cost in the cattle, the feed, and the processing cost. And so the big guys are doing it for pennies on the dollar, whereas our processing costs are substantially higher. Um, and so, you know, we've got a much higher break-even, but I've got a discount, you know, select or choice product or find some other way to move it and to do something with it because our target market and the people that are coming in and shopping with us, they're primarily looking for like a prime or a high trice quality steak. Um, so we've got to get really creative on how do we, you know, not lose money on those other products, but find some other ways to move them so that we're not just having to turn it into ground beef and just sell it at our break-even. And so that's a that's a constant struggle.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

I get to hear about it at home if I pick out a select. I just say that there's your livestock.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

Yeah, your livestock judging buddies will get would be if you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

My butchers are always really quick to come to his defense though, and they'll they'll text me a picture and they'll like, man, this load of cattle that we get, or this load of beef that we just got in, tell Garrett he did a great job. They're like, I'm sure you don't tell him that enough. And I'm like, I will make sure to give him props tonight.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah, that swells my head up. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

That's great. Well, I think I think one of the takeaways that that you said is that being comfortable, uh being uncomfortable, right? That's I think sound business business advice and and uh goes through through uh anything. Um I've definitely heard that before, but it's still hard to do. Yes. Um and then yeah, it with the pricing and and the cuts and all that, I think the last podcast, the joke was somebody called and said, Can't you just run it through the ribeye machine? And so having to explain that no, we can't. If you buy a whole animal, that's you're getting you know different cuts and different things. You can't you can't get it. We my husband and I were even talking about if you buy a quarter of beef, it's it's hard. You don't, I mean, how many ribeys are you getting? Not very many, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:59

It's a lot of ground beef.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Yeah, it's a lot of ground beef. And so, uh, anyways, that's that's yeah. I always love when I get those calls.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

I I want to buy a half a beef, but I want it all in ribeyes and just a little bit of ground beef. And I'm like, keep pushing. Yeah. Usually I'm like, okay, you know, we'll we'll work out some other deals for you. Tell me how many pounds of you know, ribeye you're really looking to get. We'll we'll figure out some bulk discounts and some other options, but that's just not possible.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

But that has been that has been pretty cool with the store too, is you know, that people that aren't don't necessarily know that or aren't ex haven't been exposed to that prior, then now they can come into the store and and talk with somebody directly and like and show them on a chart like here's how much, you know, here's where the rib eyes come from, here's how much you're gonna get off of that, and here's you know, here's why you get so much hamburger meat if you do order a whole or a half beef. So that's been I think that's pretty neat too.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Yeah. Yeah, and a significant amount of advocacy

Education, Myths, And Food Choice

SPEAKER_02 29:53

that you're doing for the beef industry, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Absolutely. And I I think that's a been another big draw, you know, as people are have, you know, learned that we're there. And you know, it's crazy because we've been open for, you know, three years now, um, going on four years. And we still have a lot of local people that drive, and our business has increased by like 30% month to month, which has been, you know, crazy and really gratifying and neat to see. But there's still so many people that are like, I drive past you every day and I didn't know you were here. Um, but they're so excited to be able to come in and know exactly where um the food that they're buying is coming from and to have access to us to be able to ask those questions. And I'm not in the store quite as much as what I used to, um, but we're super transparent. My employees, you know, are pretty knowledgeable about what we do and how we operate. But I also am like, you know, give them my email, give them my phone number. I'm happy to answer any questions directly. And so we get a lot of, you know, I think the normal stuff that you would expect as far as myths and things that that are out there online, stuff that people have seen on social media. Um, and so I would say like some of the top concerns or things that people are coming in can asking about um when they're wanting to buy direct from a producer are um, you know, conventional versus grass fed. That's a big hot topic, um, antibiotic usage, hormone usage. And then I would say number one out of all three of those is um, you know, what are you feeding them? What are they getting fed? There's I can't tell you how many people, and I haven't seen this particular video, but I've heard enough people reference it that there's some video on Facebook where um cattle are being fed like basically recycled trash. And I'm like, I that sounds like AI or it's something in a different country. Like I can assure you, there would be no instance where that would make sense for a producer to want to do that. Um, because at the end of the day, it's in our best interest to make sure that, you know, we're meeting their needs nutritionally, um, you know, that we're treating them humanely, that when it comes to from like a doctoring perspective, when it comes to antibiotics or anything that we're giving them, you know, those things are expensive. And so people will come in and say, you know, are these, is this meat, has it been pumped full of antibiotics? And so I'm like, you know, antibiotics are really expensive. We're we're, you know, that's not something, it doesn't make sense for us to do that, but just, you know, the our protocol here is just like, you know, if your kids were sick and they need it, you know, we're gonna give them antibiotics or or or treat them as opposed to the alternative of taking the risk and letting them die. Um, but there are, you know, protocols that, you know, withdrawal periods and things that we make sure that we're exceeding that so that there's nothing that gets transferred into the meat. Um, and and that's I think just a common misconception too. I think people have this interpretation that meat is pumped full of antibiotics when, you know, there legally there isn't allowed to be meat or antibiotics in meat that goes on any shelves, whether that's the grocery store shelves or something that, you know, a producer is selling, you know, direct to a consumer on their own. And so I think having the opportunity to sit down and explain those things in a way where we're not like trying to force our product. So going back to the conventional versus grass-fed, we sell pasture-raised grain-finished beef. Um, and I think a lot of times something that I've learned over the last several years is from the consumer standpoint, when they hear homegrown or locally raised, their mind automatically goes to, oh, it must be 100% grass-fed. Like they they associate the two. Um, and so I'm always very transparent and very quick to be like, nope, that, you know, this is this is how, you know, we do things on our operation. Here's what we feed them. It's, you know, a lot of products that are sourced in the area. Um, we've got a nutritionist, and I'm Garrett can go a little more in depth on that on the actual feeding side, but we've got a nutritionist that's, you know, formulating a ration. It's, you know, there's a lot of stuff that we're farming and growing, so we know exactly what they're getting fed. Um, and usually as I'm breaking that down, and then we have copies of, you know, some of the studies that universities have done on, you know, the advantages of grass-fed versus conventional and and really breaking down the nutritional differences between the two. Usually when I share that information, then we we let them know, like, hey, okay, so here's what we have to offer. If you're interested in maybe trying it out, great, you know, we'd love to have you as a customer. We'd love for you to try our products. If not, I'm more than happy to give you some business cards or get you in contact with some other producers who do offer 100% grass-finished, grass-fed and finished beef. Um, but sometimes you have like, you know, seniors, for example, is I would say one demographic that comes in a lot that's like telling me that I just went to a doctor's appointment and they recommended that I go on 100% grass-fed. A lot of times, 100% grass-fed and finished beef is not accessible or affordable for everybody. And so we'll work with them of, you know, kind of trying to figure out I'm I'm not a nutritionist or a doctor by any means, but um, you know, trying to help them find some things that fit within their budget that are still, you know, lean or meet the nutritional needs that they're looking for. And I think at the end of the day, a lot of that is is balance too. Um, but getting back to the root of your question, I think once we have the opportunity to kind of present them with some of the facts and different options and do it in a way where it's not like we're shoving our agenda down their throat. We're just letting them know of like, hey, here's here's what we actually do, so that it's not, you know, something that they learned off of social media. Um most of the time they appreciate that. And I would say 99% of the time, they're usually open to shopping with us. And those are typically the customers when we take the time to really educate them and answer their questions. I found that those are the guys that come are coming and shopping with us two or three days out of the week. Like they are very, very loyal customers. Occasionally we'll have, you know, the 1% that's like, ah, you know, I'd still really like to explore the option of, you know, getting something that's um, you know, never been given antibiotics or that's 100% grass-fed, and we're more than happy to put them in contact with other producers, whether they're in the area or a little further off that can get them what they need.

unknown 36:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

And I think it builds a sense of trust too.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Yeah. I think uh another point that we always really try to make is you know, you shouldn't like coming to us if you're coming to us for the service that we provide or some of the products that we provide, that's awesome. We encourage you to do it, but don't come in out of fear that what you're going and buying at the grocery store isn't safe, um, because it is. And it's I mean, we live in the probably the the safest food country in that's a way of putting it in the world.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Yes, our our food system.

SPEAKER_01 36:54

And you know, ninety-nine percent of the cattle that we run go through the or more, you know, go through the general population and go through the the grocery stores. And so we never want to advocate that um you know come to us out of out of fear. And I think a lot of the meat companies that are doing direct consumer do a great job of uh of that.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Absolutely.

Why Grocery Beef Is Safe Too

SPEAKER_02 37:15

I think my favorite thing is that we live in a country, we live in a time, and and a lot of people are able to have food choice, right? We can make food choices. You can you can do that, and that's usually a a luxury or or a thing that means you have the means or the time or everything to do that. And so absolutely we support food choice in in all ways. Um and you know, you were talking about the the leaner cuts or the things one of our our dietitian on on staff talks about if it says round or loin in the name, that that's actually considered USDA lean. And I I think you even told me that at the at the store. So so there's you know food choices, and then the more informed you are, and and it's so cool that you guys are willing to take the time and take the risk of that business and and and tell people and inform people, and not in a way of of you know, elitism or or anything like that. It's just here's the facts, here's what we know, here's what we do. And uh yeah, I mean that's exactly why it's cool that you guys are on the podcast. That's the the goal, right? We want to we wanna talk about what what's going on and the truth out there because we don't want them to get information from that one Facebook video.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Yeah, right. Well, and I think there's there's been a lot, and this isn't recent. I mean, I feel like this has been an issue for the last like 10 years, but so much labeling confusion on food products, um, not just meat, but just food products in general. And so it there's just, I feel like so much noise out there that it's really hard, you know. I I think as producers and people in the ag industry, we it can sometimes get defensive and feel like we're like constantly being attacked. Um, but when you think about it from the consumer standpoint, there's so much noise out there that they're having to sift through. And especially now with AI and stuff online, it's like what's what's real, what's not. Um, and so I think it it's just a matter of us being patient and and you know, trying to get the message out there, but not do it in a forceful way, and and be really smart about, you know, how we're advocating for what we do. Because to Garrett's point of, you know, majority, and I would say that we're not the only ones in that same situation that um also happen to sell direct to consumer. I would say most people who are selling their own meat, majority of the cattle that they're raising are probably not going into their meat business. They still have to market it through other avenues. So, you know, to fearmonger people into, you know, oh, if you if you want to feel good about what you're feeling, feeding your family, buy directly from a farmer or rancher, which without saying it kind of leads people to believe, oh, it's not safe to go shop from the grocery store or buy something from one of the big packers, when that's really what, you know, keeps the lights on and food on the table for most farmers and ranchers. Um, so it's you know, our the way we've approached it since we started the business is what's good for the beef industry as a whole is good for us in our our little direct-to-consumer business. Um, and and keeping that perspective, I think, has built a lot of consumer and and customer trust and loyalty.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Oh, yeah. Very well said. And and um I just always try and reiterate the best way to support a a rancher or or a farmer is uh well, specifically ranching and and the cattle industry to to support the cattle industry is buy beef where you are. Yes. If that's at the farmer's market, great. If that's you know, direct to consumer, awesome. But if it's at the grocery store, great. Yeah, that's wonderful. We want we want beef in your cart. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

If you're buying at the grocery store, you're still helping your local farmers and ranchers.

SPEAKER_02 40:53

Absolutely. You're helping build demand, you're helping, you know, like you said, 90% of their the product is going there. And then even just ordering beef at the at the restaurants, too, right? Um, we've even started to do some you know restaurant features in New Mexico because buying beef where you are is an important part of our industry. Absolutely. Um, and uh that's that's probably what drives me since I work for the industry. I I joked that I I work for all of you guys, but it's not a joke, it's true. And if you see me eating out, you'll I will be ordering beef. If you catch me not ordering beef, I am stressed, right? That'd be a bad look. That'd be a really bad look, right? No, and it and it is it's just the best way to support a rancher is just to order beef. And and uh however you do that, it's it's uh again, we live in a place and and uh and a world where we can choose, so we love that. What's something you guys are excited about right now in the business?

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Uh I've thought about this quite a bit since uh we me and Megan were talking about it last night. Um you know, I always get I've gotten really excited about

Growth, Genetics, And New Breeds

SPEAKER_01 41:53

the the cow calf side of things that we've dove into. And we and we dove into it pretty pretty hard. I mean, um, you know, increased our numbers a bunch. So at first it felt like the the floodgates were were coming on us, but like it's been it's been cool. I love pulling up to uh to a pasture and seeing uh a bunch of baby calves on the ground and running around and and so I've I've thoroughly enjoyed enjoyed that. I started buying uh Cimental bred heifers about a year ago. It kind of started uh one of our um our managers his his kids show and so uh and you know me and Megan, we both judge livestock, and so I've you know always had a uh I just like looking at high quality livestock, I guess, from that standpoint. And so um I bought bought an open heifer and uh they went and they went and showed it and then brought her back and bred her. And then as I'm looking at these sales, I start buying uh bred females, and then we started calving them out, and then then I started buying embryos and putting together, setting up recips, and just kind of just like anything else we do, I guess, just kind of dove in headfirst and started figuring it out. And I've been really excited um about that. That's kind of my favorite thing to do right before dark is to go pull through and look at some of those uh those cows and some of those babies that have hit the ground so far. So I've I've really enjoyed that. That's a little kind of a hobby that's uh a depreciable asset.

SPEAKER_02 43:20

So that's good.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

Yeah, well, and it ties in nicely to everything else.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

Well, and it's and it's a tangible asset, right? You can see the genetics, you know, going to the to the baby, right? You see, you see a calf and you see, oh my gosh, look, that's exactly what I was hoping for. Yeah. Sometimes when we talk about genetics on the podcast, uh on on the clips and stuff, people get a little nervous about that and it sounds scary. And so I always kind of try and take a second now and say that genetics just means we're we're breeding better animals, right? We're breeding for whether it be the the climate or the environment that they're gonna live in, or breeding for the cuts that are that that we want to get, or the marbling, or the you know, prime versus choice and and select and all that. So I always want to take a second and say that genetics isn't doesn't have to be scary. And even my my original analogy is that it's like when we had the doodle dogs, right? So that you can have a hypoallergenic animal that's not scary. It's reading different animals together.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Yeah, it's kinda like the like the NFL giraffe, like they run a forty and you get the speed and you know, they have the and the jump height and everything that everybody does. Like it's kind of what we have on on cattle. There's a set of EPDs or, you know, a list of genetics and uh again I say that word but like you know basically kind of gives you a projection of you know what that what you think that animal is going to produce and I guess that'd be the best way I could yeah no that's perfectly the data that I think helps make helps you to make long term decisions for your operation.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Yeah um well and you didn't touch on the speckled park. Are we leaving that out intentionally? This is another little interesting avenue and hobby that he's really been diving into pretty heavily lately as I'm seeing credit card charges in Canada pop up quite often.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

Yeah so about a year ago I or less than a year ago I'm not very deep into it. We just had our first little calf crop hit the ground and I don't have very many of them but um there's speckle park cattle um I think it ties in pretty cool back to the uh meat company and kind of that vertical integration to where you know a speckle park uh animal is one that from what the studies and stuff I've seen and from the podcast I've listened to um and then I have fed out a couple of them before for a neighbor um but they're very high yielding high um quality grade combination cattle um they have kind of a a disposition and kind of a a look to them other than their color that would I would say is similar to like Angus cattle um but they can I mean they look wild colored I mean most people think when they drive by that you know that we're running uh Longhorn Cross or something so I've been wanting to put some out in front of my dad's house as

USDA Inspection Plans And Wholesale

SPEAKER_01 46:05

so he gets a bunch of phone calls but um but it's it's that's been cool. I have I dove into a bunch of podcasts and kind of just decided hey I'm just gonna start buying a few of these and then see if there's any juice to the juice to the squeeze so I started trying it. So we'll see how it goes. I I wasn't going to mention it because I'm kind of uncertain how it's gonna go work.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

But it's I mean that's something that is exciting because we're you know it's fun and it's it's gonna be interesting to see when whenever we get to cycle them through the meat business on you know how they grade and if that's something that you know might be a sustainable avenue for us as we're looking you know to be fully vertically integrated.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Trying to do like a high percentage of prime you know prime carcasses and I feel like some of what I've seen is almost you know it's not like Wagyu status, but it'd be like an in-between definitely that high prime quality which is really interesting.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

That's exciting that is really fun well what's exciting on on your side do you think?

SPEAKER_00 46:59

You know the the meat business I feel like year after year we've grown pretty substantially and it's uh we've got a lot of big stuff planned this year and some of it was goals that we had for last year but I'm gonna I'll mention it here to hold myself accountable for it this year. But um we've we're our plans are here in the next couple of months to try to obtain uh USDA inspection in our facility. And so I think when people hear us talk about that they think that we're gonna start killing our own cattle and that's not the case. We still get everything processed at a USDA facility in New Mexico and sometimes in Texas. And then we bring back boxed meat and my guys break it down further. Just the way our facility is set up, we'll continue to do that because we don't have rail space, you know, to bring carcasses in and hang them. But what getting that inspection will allow us to do is it's going to open up more market channels for us. And so we right now anything that we cut in our butcher shop has to be sold out that door because we're under the jurisdiction of the health department. We saw a lot of other stuff wholesale that you know we're either sourcing in that's USDA inspected or it's you know boxed meat coming from our cattle but coming out of a USDA plant. And so we have a lot of different channels which can sometimes make inventory management a bit of a struggle because you have somebody that wants something that needs to be labeled or inspected and it isn't and but you have plenty of it over here but you can't sell it to them legally or you know we run out of stuff online that can be shipped and we can't ship stuff that we cut. And so getting that inspection status in the store will allow us to ship every have more flexibility on the products that we're offering meet um customers on you know the different types of products that they're interested in getting in so like our our green chili added products you know we get a lot of people calling and and sending us emails wanting us to ship that to them all over the country but we can't because that's an in-house product right now. So we'll have the flexibility to ship more we'll be able to work with more restaurant and wholesale customers we sell a lot of stuff to the schools and the food banks through the New Mexico Groan program which has been awesome. That has been a really integral part I think over the last several years in helping us to grow our business but what we try to focus on is we work at we work with a lot of the schools in our area. And so there's a lot of small schools that are looking for smaller pack sizes or they you know need to be a little bit more flexible on schedule and their menu and and things like that. And so we're not always able to to get them what they need because we're having somebody else cut and package it in bulk. And so we'll be able to turn around and do a lot more of that stuff on the fly and meet our customers' needs. And then we've got um a refrigerated van that we bought this last year and we're planning on having um an ordering app. And so you'll be able to order through toast online and we'll deliver to customers in Lubbock and Amarillo. So right now we can't sell or deliver the stuff we do in the store across state lines but once we get that inspection um assuming and hoping that all of that goes through and everything goes good we're we're on the final stages of our HACC plan right now. But um it it's gonna open up a lot more market opportunities and and help us to kind of tap into some different areas which is exciting can be a little bit scary it might be we might be taking too much on but back to that being uncomfortable right yes absolutely we might have to do a follow-up pod to let you know how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 50:39

Yeah yeah sounds good yeah we'll schedule we'll be back um perfect what is a piece of advice that someone's given you that that is worth repeating or something that's kind of driven you I feel like um I'm in a very fortunate situation to where I've gotten to work with my with my dad for you know growing up and then now coming back and working with him quite a bit and so I feel like there's a ton of stuff that he tells me all the time that I you know could probably just start listing stuff out. But also like from my grandparents were were in the business my granddad was in the is is in the cattle business my uncle's on both sides of the family and so I have a lot of um a lot of people and then just people that I've known my whole life that just you know always have these little uh good one-liners I think I was thinking about this but collectively um I would have to say like one of the best pieces of advice that I could probably round up collectively from all those people and that I see from people that are um have been successful and been able to be in this business for a long time is really not and my dad's like a a pro

Hard Lessons, Risk, And Resilience

SPEAKER_01 51:45

at this like not not focusing on the uh the bad things that happen like trying to something bad happens you know get exposed to it learn from it and just quickly move on from it um in order to not keep you from um missing out on an opportunity um and I would say that that's he he would always say something like well I don't know if he ever says it he just says uh I'll tell him about something bad that happened he's like quick to move on because he doesn't want to get too bogged down by it and then uh oh another guy that I think a lot of who's been a good mentor for me his name's uh Ed Wright and a lot of people on this podcast would would know him but he told me uh one day a while back he said they never regretted any decision that he had made because you know one way or the other he learned from it and so that's to me uh something that I have to consciously think about pretty often um to not get too bogged down by the bad things and you know look for more opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

It's a really stressful industry you know to be in and especially with what the market's been doing over the last several years. We came in in a really interesting time I feel like when when Garrett came back and and started really diving into things with his dad of you know between COVID and and ever since then it's there's been a lot of volatility in the markets and you know people having to make you know gut decisions on what they're doing. And so I I think that that that is a really really good one to focus on because you know you you can focus pretty heavily on the negatives and or or focusing on what went wrong and letting that keep you from making risks and in the cattle business you have to be willing to take some risks in order to continue to grow and and make money and and keep doing what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

It's a daily gamble I mean as much as you try to like avoid you know make your chances better it's just a daily gamble anything you do. I mean you have a a rainstorm come through and a lightning strike could get some of your some of your cattle I mean it's just you never know but you have certain things in place that help uh you know alleviate those those bad times or bad things that help and then you know just move on try to make it up on the next deal.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

So something that I've always heard you repeat was I remember your grandpa like when we started the business you would always say that your grandpa had said the best time to go broke is while you're young yeah is is in your 30s. But now I have a different or before your or maybe it was before you were 30 something like that. We we started we started the meat business when we decided that we were gonna you know take a invest substantially in it and get the store going you know I was really nervous about that and carrot's like ah you know grandpa grandpa Lee always said the best time to go broke is in your 30s. So you know then if it doesn't work out we've got some time to shift and recuperate that's not the plan now that I used to hear you say that a lot. Yeah I say it less now but it was a little bit of like you know you've got to be well when you're young you know being willing to to take some risks and and and put it all out there and if it doesn't work it doesn't work but you know it it becomes a lot harder to do that once you start you know building a family and getting more established in certain areas of your life it's you know you kind of get out of that window of willingness to do it and whether it's smart to do it at that stage too. For me on the meat side I just like Garrett I feel like I've had a lot of like really great mentors you know throughout my life in like college and different aspects of the industry and and when I was in the communications field, you know, work got to work with a lot of great people and so I've had you know a culmination of a of a lot of really good insights and input that I you know use to steer the decisions that we're making in the business. But I think as a whole something that I'm really leaning into more so recently at this stage that we're at is um we had a friend that we've done you know different aspects of business with over the years. And about a year in he called me you know just to kind of congratulate and say hey you know a lot of people are talking about you guys um hearing a lot of positive things I've watched you guys grow this from the little trailer on the side of the road to what it is now and like you know super proud just wanted to call and give you a pat on the back that's awesome but um just remember you know and he he had some phrase or one liner that it it was very notable because I remember I wrote it on my my whiteboard in my office for a little while and I can't remember what it was exactly but essentially the gist was was you know you've got to be comfortable with saying no and and turning down opportunities and saying no to things is sometimes the most important thing you can do to protect the success of your business. And when you're starting off any business, I think that's really hard to do. And it's still really hard to do because you get excited about you know when it's your own business and you're an entrepreneur and you build something, you want to say yes to everything, you know, every opportunity for the most part sounds cool and exciting and could be the the the next big thing for you or it could not. And so early on I think there's no way to avoid that like you end up saying yes to everything and spreading yourself really thin and getting out there. And that's part of it of you know one trying to do everything you can to you know pay the bills and and make it make sense financially but then two, you know, you want to kind of figure out you know what's the avenue I really want to focus on. But we're getting to a stage now where I'm really starting to take that advice in and apply it a little bit more about you know there's been some things that we've done in the past or said yes to year after year where we've just got too many irons in the fire or, you know, looking at it on paper, it's not something that you know is adding to the business or it's very profitable or it may be something that you know we're just none of us are really that passionate about and we've got other things that we want to try or focus on. So being comfortable you know kind of bowing out of of some areas or or just outright saying no which for me that's that's hard in general. Oh no you know you want to say yes you want to participate in everything but the reality is you just can't and so learning to to make those decisions wisely and figure figure out what works for you the areas that you want to be in and and kind of riding in those lanes.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Yeah and trust

People, Culture, And Community

SPEAKER_02 58:00

trust that no right yes of of all that yeah I think uh I think the the risks you guys take and the and the um willingness to spread yourself thin and all that is all a really important part right and I'd really I try and explain to people because um when we're you know at at high schools or colleges and we're trying to explain that that your your margins are thin your risks are high but they do it for for a reason right and and again there's there's like you could find all the negatives right I won't list any negatives necessarily but what does make you keep going why do you take those risks why do you spread yourself then sometimes I wonder we all do we've really asked this question to ourselves a lot.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

I think it I mean I think my dad puts it best is like we do this is because that's what we know how to do and that's what our family's done and that's how we grew up that's how he grew up that's how I grew up and so we just keep pushing forward and I I think we all I think both of us kind of come from a a background where it's like don't back down to to things and like we were talking about earlier if you're uncomfortable that's when you start to feel like well maybe I'm going in the right direction. And uh so I think that's why we keep pushing forward. Sometimes like the expansion part and wanting to push and do more that's I think that's more of an addiction uh than than anything else but it's uh it kind of it's an adrenal like maybe a little bit of an adrenaline rush when you get into something new and it's exciting and getting rolling into it and then there's times you're like golly yeah we bit off quite a bit but then you just I mean it all you always if you just you'll figure it out and I mean you just have the right people to help you and the right people around you and just work through the problem and and get it done.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

Well and I think on the cattle side too I mean I think uh to your point of your dad saying you know it's it's what we do, it's what we've always done it in in it I think the big picture what that encompasses is like generationally they're they've continued to grow and and build off of the business. Um and and and that's what I think we're pushing for now you know we've got a a one year old and um so a lot of the decisions and things you know Garrett getting into the Cimitol side of things and and that's gonna funnel into probably you know a calf crop that she'll be able to show show caps yeah yeah there'll be show caps for her down the road and and and so I think you know on a day to day these decisions are you know continuing to build off of what his dad and and his grandpa and his uncles and everybody has you know built over the years and us continuing to do that and hopefully you know be able to pass that on generationally and there's not not every industry do you talk about that right it comes to family is always brought up on the podcast family is always brought up when you have cattlemen sitting around or or beef industry folks and so I think I think that's really special. There's not a lot there's not every industry is like that to do it for that generational family that family legacy um and uh yeah it's really special yeah I I admire it greatly on our on the meat side I would say you know all of those things like we I would love you know if Scotty when she grows up if she wants to take over the meat business great if she wants to work with dad in the feed yard great if she wants to do something completely different that's you know totally fine too but um for me like one thing that's really gratifying is you know it people will compliment us on you know they love the beef or they love the quality of the product which is great you know that's awesome obviously we we take a lot of those that feedback and those compliments to heart but I think it's the the culmination of everything that we've created at the store between the quality product the whole entire shopping experience when people come in and the customer service and I've loved watching the relationships that my employees have built with people in the community that's in how often I get like texts or calls or messages on Facebook or Google reviews where they're like yeah your meat's great or we love shopping at your store but they'll call out an employee specifically that they just absolutely love the conversations they have with them every week or how well they treat them and and so watching those relationships form and the connections that we're able to build with the community that's been something for me that's been you know really cool as we come off of really busy holiday seasons um it it's that like sense of community you know seeing all of those people come in there and and connect and and so that's been that's been really neat.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:40

Yeah I think it's connected like you know I grew up here and Megan probably knows more people than me in the community now just because she has so many people coming in and sees

Favorite Cuts And Simple Meals

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

their face every single day. And so the community part of it's been really cool because you just get exposed to a lot more people within the community that you're not doing business with necessarily on the cattle side and so I feel like the the community exposure has been has been pretty neat and uh and getting to just meet a lot more people I feel like we're a lot more involved in the community now because of the meat um company it kind of just having a local retail gives you a bigger connection to the community.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:19

So and I mean doesn't our world need more of that right just the word community in general right we just need more of that so that's really absolutely I mean it's funny I laugh because like we even have some people that will just stop in not because they're coming they're like I don't need anything I just hadn't seen you guys in a while and I was just gonna yeah I saw that you're here and I was gonna stop in and say hi and I'm like I love that like by no means do you have to come in and shop. But yeah we you know we love seeing those guys' faces on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:45

Yeah well and I I mean I'm guilty I love an online shopping and a convenience experience and all of that but the more we can be face to face see people and have have a reason to uh that's pretty special that that that store uh adds that adds that community into your lives um I I've stopped in but I've only been I I don't come to Clovis as often as I should um okay so just kind of uh anything

Thanks, Mission, And Where To Learn More

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

else question before I ask you um my last question but yeah is there anything else that that you wanted to add or anything you want people to take away about your business, about the beef industry, just in general were there anything anything you wanted to add?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

I guess I would just say that I don't know if I've touched on it enough is just that the biggest aspect to you know our like how my dad started his business and how we've been able to grow the cattle business is uh just with the people that we do stuff with. I mean it's about finding the right people to to partner on cattle with or run cattle with or and the right people to come to work for you and you know things get a lot easier when you have just good people that care you know helping you out and so I that's a key part of it. And you know back to the uh you know the advice or line that the dad's always said you know is when you're in business is if everybody's um make you know the goal is for everybody involved to be making making money and that makes everything move forward and then that expands upon more business and so and that's just by having good people. You can't you can only get so much done in a day um without having the right people around you. So that would be my biggest thing. And I think that's kind of transcended into the uh meat meat store as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

I mean it has for sure absolutely yeah we've got we've we've had some employees come and go but we've we've had a really strong core team that started with us from the very beginning. Some of them have had experience in the meat industry some of them haven't our focus has always been more so on hiring really good people with you know good character traits, ones that are honest, trustworthy, reliable good people to be around um especially because you know our last name is is on the sign. It um when I made the logo for the meat business I had made the Timfoot cattle logo for Tim when I was in college in my logo design class. So I I stole some I stole the foot font and portion of that so that we're working on a trademark suit. Yeah just just because he had a lot of brand awareness around the cattle side and so we we piggybacked off of that. But um so then that that then puts a lot of pressure on us on how you know how our how the meat business with it being something that you know Garrett and I started on our own you know the decision That we make there could have a trickle down or a whether positive or negative effect on Tim's business as well and and the reputation that he's created, you know, over all of these years. And so we take we don't take that lightly and you know, um try to make good decisions on from the business side of things, but also from the employee side as well, and you know, making sure that we've got people in there that are are representing us well. And I I think we do. We've we've got really really passionate people that are passionate about what they do and and you know, the long-term success of our business. And that is what we wouldn't be able to do it without them by no means.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

I love that. Very, very gracious and and uh very true, right? Good humans first. Yep. Yeah, if you can find good humans, they'll probably be listening, so it's a good time to drop.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:18

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

No layouts. I need to do that. Don't name names or you might forget one.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:23

I know how much we appreciate them, but they they're they're the glue that keeps everything going for sure. Oh, absolutely. Um and and and allows us to have a little bit of a life too, because we we tend to get too many things going on, and and so sometimes it it's important to be able to step away. But you can't you can't do that if you don't have people that you trust, you know, that are that are competent and and care as much about your business as you do, um, and and that are dependable and and willing to really show up when they say they're going to.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:51

Oh yeah, you can you can teach people uh you know skills, you can teach them how to how to use a computer, you can teach them knife skills, you can teach them, you know, uh whatever feeding skills or anything, but you you can't teach character, right? That comes that comes first.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:06

So character and and work ethic. Yeah, yeah. I think that's that's something that is I I guess I worry about a little bit as you know time goes on generationally. I think it we we've had some really great interns that have come in, but I think there is a little bit of a gap on on the working side as far as you know the generationally what what work means to people. You're starting to sound old when you're saying words like generation.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:33

Saying that golly. Well, we're gonna get cats next week.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:39

I have an intern that came in, they're like, You're a millennial, aren't you? And I'm like, what have I done or said that is like really pinpointed that for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:47

Yeah, I I realize some of our friends aren't millennials, they're younger than us, and I didn't realize how much younger they were. And I'll and we figured out that they're they're the next generation, and I went, Oh, oh, okay. Yep, that's I'm gotten to a certain age.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:03

We were born in the 1900s.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:04

Yeah, exactly, exactly. But no, I think uh I I do have hope when I see young people in agriculture. I do have hope for the next generation in some ways. Like you said, there's some interns and some there's some beef ad ambassadors here in Curry County that are super impressive. I'm hopeful, I'm hopeful.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

And passionate, I think, about uh passionate about the industry, passionate about what they're doing. And and uh we get a lot of young people that come in and work for us, whether it's on the meat cutting side or looking to grow their skill set on like the the business or communication side or marketing um for the summer. They may do like a a during semester internship, but um just how eager they are to learn and ask questions. And that's one thing I always tell them when they come in is like no question is a dumb question. Like, we're so excited to be able to, you know, my guys love sharing their wealth of knowledge on the retail side and and get so excited when somebody is like actually eager to learn and and learn more about that. And I know Garrett feels that way too, whenever on the on the cattle side, whenever they're bringing, you know, young cowboys in and stuff and they're eager to dive in and and learn more about what they're doing on the operation. It's always refreshing and it's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:16

Oh, absolutely. And and it even goes, you know, if we talk about the generational thing of we've gotten further and further away from where our food comes from, right? And so some of those core values that we learned about that families first and that you, you know, we're not eating until the cows eat, or you know, whatever, whatever, whatever the the sayings are, um, that that you know, you you build that work ethic and all of that. And so yeah, it is it is hard sometimes. The further we get away from where our food comes from, the the harder, harder it is to see that. But hopefully perspective. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:49

But that next that next generation will be the one that brings the you know, technologies just continues to grow on the ag side, and it'll be that generate the next generation. I mean, I'd like to think we're kind of tech savvy. I mean, yeah, but I mean I think the next generation will be the ones that really advance the technology in aggressive.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:06

Absolutely. Like just thinking about how far like AI has come in the last couple of years and how whether it's on the ag side or the business side of things, like every every every vendor or person that we work with, whether it's you know, meet suppliers or a point of sale system or accounting systems, it's like everybody every week I feel like I'm getting an email of like, hey, we're beta testing this new AI system. So AI is like in integrated and ingrained in everything that we're doing now. And so I think that's only gonna continue to be the case, but it's happening so much more rapidly than technology has evolved for us, even in the last, you know, five to ten years. We're seeing it change much more quickly in a year to two years.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:50

Absolutely. I I couldn't do my job without at least a little bit of AI. Um, and the artificial intelligence one. We uh yeah, we I'm grateful for modern technology. Grateful for modern technology, I like to say modern medicine and and uh food choice, right? We live in a we live in a great spot where we are to clarify that instead of our thinking a different kind, but I guess I guess our hope is that listeners are are consumers that aren't as familiar, but I think the truth is a lot of a lot of listeners are are in the industry. And so yeah, I think about I I think sometimes my job as the host is to work on those um acronyms. Yeah, but that's not an acronym we have to explain nowadays. It's usually only means one thing to most people.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:32

Yeah, or on both sides of it. Both sides. Yeah, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:37

Honestly, uh yeah, we talked about genetics, right? So well, cool. Well, um, I think uh I appreciate you guys and and talking about all of that. We've covered so many things. My my favorite question is what is your current favorite way to eat beef or a favorite recipe or your favorite cut? Anything, just what's the favorite?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:57

It doesn't have to be the forever favorite, but I love when people ask that because I feel like everybody typically thinks like ribeye, filet, strip, and well, I'm her answer's gonna be bougie on the top. I love bougie. I I love a good ribeye, but I mean, I'm around meat all the time, all day. Um, and so you know, I'm always trying to switch it up and and bring something different home, or or I'll get sick of one thing and get in a season where I want to eat something else. But um one thing that I've been loving a lot right now and that we're selling a ton of in the store are culott steaks. So culott or picania, depending on regionally where you're from. Um, also the known as the top butt sirloin roast. Um it's a really good one. It's got a rich beefy flavor, it's tender, the portion sizes are great. Um, love to just throw those on the grill really quick and uh use some like chimichurry dipping sauce. I love anything vinegar-based. Chimichurry is my favorite. So that's a good one. Um I also really like the sirloin flap or the bevette steaks. Um that's a unique one that we put out. We use it for a lot of different things in the store. It goes into our fajita meat. We cut them into like thin-sliced carna, sata. Those would be two of my favorites.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:10

What else are we uh do we have too much of in the store? Um, I'm pretty sure like a I mean a ribeye on the grill with um seasoning, I guess would be my my go-to, um, my kind of sleeper meal. Um, and one that Megan doesn't really like that I like it this much, but I think it's gonna be great later on as we have more kids. Uh I love hamburger helper. Um I could eat it about seven days out of the week. Um I'm a big fan of it. It heats up just as good.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:43

And when he says he loves hamburger, he loves hamburger helper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

Uh actually it's a great use of ground beef, to be honest. I even like to make my own version of hamburger helper, right? Of just like I have pasta and add beef.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:56

See, I'd be more excited about it if if he was open to it. He loves the brand name.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:02

Yes, hamburger.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:04

Don't get crazy, don't add anything to it, keep it simple.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:08

Don't fix what's what's not broke.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:10

I mean, it's it's lasted generations and decades, but that is that's perfect. I I actually did buy some recently because we were talking to uh someone brought it up the other day, and so I did buy some recently. It's it's a staple, but yeah, it's it's uh um a little different than a a Bavette. Um whatever the opposite of that was your answer, right? Uh uh I digress. Well, um, if there's nothing else, I would just want to say thank you so much for being willing to be on the podcast. And more importantly, thank you for the work you do to help feed the world and to uh you know care for the land and the livestock. It's really important. And and um from from my perspective and from from it should be all of our perspective, just thank you for being willing to take that risk um and being willing to try new things and and uh and then also tell the story. So uh thank you again and thanks for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:07

Thank you for having us eat beef and wreck 'em.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:11

Behind the burger is a podcast produced by the New Mexico Beef Council with the goal of telling the stories of the cattlemen and cattle women of the New Mexico beef industry. Thank you for joining us for today's episode. If you would like more information, please visit nmbeef.com. Whether it be a burger, a steak, or another beef dish, we hope you are enjoying beef at your next meal.