Built to Last | Tucker Brown

On this episode of The Ashley B. Cash Show, we're bringing the ranch to the classroom — and everywhere else. Tucker Brown is a sixth-generation rancher and steward of the R.A. Brown Ranch in Throckmorton, Texas — a family operation dating all the way back to 1895 — and he's proof that some of the most valuable real-world skills aren't taught in a textbook. From raising elite cattle genetics and Quarter Horses to earning millions of views a month on TikTok and Instagram, Tucker has built a life rooted in hard work, legacy, and purpose. In this conversation, we dig into the lessons ranching teaches that no classroom can fully prepare you for — resilience, responsibility, stewardship, and what it truly means to show up every single day. Whether you're just starting out or decades into your journey, Tucker's story is a reminder that the most important education happens with real world skills.

About The Ashley B. Cash Show: The Ashley B. Cash Show features conversations with education leaders, policy experts, parents, teachers and reform advocates who are working to transform K-12 education. Host Ashley B. Cash brings her perspective as both a parent and business owner to explore systemic education issues and practical solutions for creating better outcomes for students, families, and communities.

About Ashley:  As both a mother and business owner, Ashley brings a unique dual perspective to education reform advocacy, driven by her desire for better educational outcomes for future generations and informed by her firsthand experience with the skills gap facing employers today. Her passion for transforming K-12 education stems from witnessing the real-world consequences of educational failures and recognizing the critical need for a system that prepares students for diverse career pathways, not just college. Through this podcast, Ashley champions solutions including aptitude-based education tracks, expanded school choice, practical skills integration, and alternative career pathways that align with students' individual strengths and interests.

Follow @AshleyBCashOfficial on Instagram & @Ashley Bowes Cash on Facebook.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome back to the Ashley B Cash Show. I'm Ashley, and I'm super excited today because I am in Throckmorton, Texas. And my guest is a sixth-generation Texan. His name is Tucker Brown, and he is part of the R.A. Brown ranching family. And it is a family operation that dates all the way back to 1895. The ranch is known today for its elite cattle genetics, producing around 800 bulls a year, along with a proud quarter horse heritage that's been part of the family for generations. Tucker pursued his education, earning a degree in natural resources ecology from Lubbock Christian University and attended the Ranch Management Certification from Texas Christian University. Named the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's Advocate of the Year in 2022, Tucker has built a social media following of hundreds of thousands of people, earning millions of views a month on TikTok and Instagram by telling the story of modern ranching in a way that's entertaining, honest, and generally connecting agriculture to the rest of the world. He's spoken on stages across the country, appeared on Vanity Fair's Experts Review Series in New York City, and recently launched the Registered Ranching Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Tucker, welcome to the show. Man, you did your homework. Look at that. Holy cow. Thank you so much for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Yeah, I'm super excited to be in Throckmorton today. We stopped at the ranch on our way here and uh took a little picture with your sign.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Oh, good. Yeah. Good.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

So uh, you know, I come from a ranching family as well. Um my family's uh owned the turkey truck ranch up in North Texas. Uh I'm a sixth generation rancher, um, and my boy my kids are the seventh, and I'm really proud that we're still involved in in the ranching community.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Yeah, isn't that special?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

It's so it's so special.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Even in even outside of agriculture, there's not many family businesses that go back six or seven generations. Yeah. And like that is the the older I've gotten, the more I've gotten to realize or like how thankful I am for those that came before me that made it of possible for me to get here. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

We're so lucky.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Yeah. I mean it's it's it's it's amazing. And uh like obviously it's a um a bar is set so high because of how how those b before us have done it, but uh like what a what a culture to be able to step into and and be a part of.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

I know. When I'm at the ranch, um, and unfortunately, unlike you, I don't get to be on it every day, but when I'm when I'm there, I just think, oh my gosh, my great great grandmother may have walked right where I'm walking right now, right? And to think about the things that they went through, like my great great-great-grandparents literally dug a hole into the side of a bluff and made that their home. And eventually they had two rooms in this dugout and had 17 children. The same man and woman had 17 children in a two-room dugout to think of the things that they went through. There, there, and I go there now to that little, and there's just a little bit of it left. There's a little piece of wood that was the front, and just it's kind of caved in, and there's just a little bit. But I took my kids there and took a picture inside of it one day, and we it all four, all five of us could barely squeeze in it. But um, and I think there wasn't water. I mean, it was a long walk. Uh it really you had to go horseback to get to water. And I just think of the things that they had to go through, the grit that they had to have. And then I think to myself, I wonder if they were coming across the plains and they dropped off this plateau and the wagon broke. Like, is that why they ended up here?

SPEAKER_05 3:53

They stayed, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

But um, and and yet I then I think about how far we've come and the things that generations between the initial family and us, the things they went through, the things that they thought were hard, right? Like my great-grandfather once said the most important thing that had happened in his lifetime, it wasn't air conditioning, it wasn't cars. He said it was the screen, like screen, like the window screen. Wow. Because that's the first time they could get airflow and keep bugs out. Oh, you know, and so just the perspective. Yeah, different.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Very different.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Now, um, your family's been doing this for a long time. They've been doing it really, really, really well. I mean, your ranch is is very successful, and it's you've been able to keep all your family members involved, which doesn't always happen. And I when I passed the sign, and I'm assuming it's to an ode to your grandmother, Peggy, and it said um she kept the family in the ranch.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Yeah, we have a saying um in my, I believe it was my grandmother that came up with it that uh all the decisions we make are to help us keep the ranch in the family and the family in the ranch. And we know about whether it's whether it's been um we know someone who's gone through it, through it, or you have gone through it, uh, whether that's losing a ranch or losing a family member or both, yeah. Because of the passing down of the ranch.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Uh or the the politics that go in with working with family, right? It's not easy.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

No.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

And so that that was their goal. And now that uh looking back on who Rob and Peggy were, my grandparents being the fourth generation of who they were, being the best pair, it was Rob that kept the ranch in the family, but it was absolutely Peggy that kept the family in the ranch and kept us together. And yeah, that it was a definitely a tip of the hat to her for all she's done for us.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Yeah, and I'm sorry, I know that you've lost both of them in this last year, your grandmother fairly recently, and uh I'm sorry for that.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

They're they were so special, but and well respected in the industry everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

And what an honor to for me to be able to say I learned from them and got to stay, you know, be a grandson to them. Like what an honor to be able to say that.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And it is really hard, and I think in any of the viewers out there, even if they aren't ranch owners, they know how hard it is to start a business. I mean, it's a ranch, but it's a business, right? It's what it's what supports the family. And um they know how hard that is, and then to think that y'all have kept it in the family for um six, seven generations, and um that's saying a lot about the people who've come before and and today.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

Right. Yeah, and I'm I'm so thankful for that my grandparents and I I obviously didn't know the ones before them, but but my grandparents had that vision, and so it helped us take the emotion out of the decisions we made as much as with the emotion can grow working with family. You know, you go straight to the throat. When my brother makes me mad, I don't beat around the bush, I just go straight for the throat.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

And likewise with family, uh other family members, but uh more extended as you get to the sixth and seventh generation, the family gets extended.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

It does, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

It's cousins and aunts and uncles, and we have the same problem in our ranch. Um, you know, my grandmother's generation, there were three, my mother's generation, there are 11. And then when you come down to my generation, they're 29. 29. It's a lot of personalities and a lot of varying viewpoints, yes, and also a lot of different needs and wants and desires, and all of that, like that's bad in business, like regular business when you're not related, but when you add that motions of family, it just makes it harder.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

It is difficult, but it's also what built our country.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Oh, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

The the industry and that lifestyle and the passing of that down is what made the United States what it is. And being one of the last, you know, whenever folks say that there's no culture in the United States, it's because they haven't got off the highway and seen the Turkey Track Ranch and seen the Brown Ranch and the families that are working it. And I truly believe that.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

No, and um, you know, I mentioned to you earlier, my husband and I are really involved with the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas, and we are because I think this ranching way of life is so critically important to the history of our country, but it's and I want people to understand it's critical to the future of our country and really the world, because it's where everybody gets their food. And um, we recently um gave a leading gift for the um the Ranch Life Learning Center, which is interactive. You can do things in by hand, like they'll bring a cow that you can milk, or you can play with different things that are really involved in ranching. You can go and feel the different grains and different things like that, but it's also digital, right? So we're trying to blend the history with the new. And um, we did that because it's amazing to me how many people don't know where their steak comes from. So true, you know, or their corn or whatever, right? Their their potatoes. And they really think it comes from the shelf in a grocery store, and you're like, we can't have people thinking that because they need to understand why ranching and farming are important. Of course, you know, but one of the things that I've been really impressed about with the R.A. Brown ranch is that you guys have taken the heritage and you've kept the really good things, and then you're also bringing being very innovative and bringing in new practices to really take it to the next level and keep it growing. Um, let's talk a little bit about the different things that you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Yeah, the I think a part of the reason we are that way is uh my grandparents made the brown rule, and that is that you have to leave, you have to leave the ranch for two years after you graduate high school. And uh you can't, I mean, you're always welcome home as a you know a child of the family, but you can't work full-time at the ranch. And uh if you do, you can come back if there's a job open or if you bring a business back to the ranch to grow it. Okay. And I think that's made us a bus a family of entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_04 10:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Because each generation and each family member is trying to bring something back to be able to grow the ranch rather than to shrink it.

SPEAKER_04 10:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

And because we're, you know, when that next generation comes back with new ideas, allowing them to, allowing them to try that or to bring that to grow the ranch. And it also kind of has made us a family that's not afraid to fail.

SPEAKER_04 10:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Because it seems like every one of those, every like the first one always fails, it seems um, but we're not afraid to fail. So that really drives us to be able to find it what's working and where can I, where can I have my part in this ranch? Like, am I RA Brown ranch? Yes, but I want Tucker Brown's piece that is mine.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

To say you did this.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Right. That it's not just the because of my family that I am where I am, but I help do this and I start this and I run this, and that gives each family member a piece of a piece of the pie.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah, and a piece of owning that thing. Of course, some ownership. Not not dollar-wise necessarily, but but being able to say this was mine.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

Right, exactly. And I think that's helped us a lot.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

And uh it's also helped us use new technologies because when somebody does bring this business in, this new business idea with this new technology, say virtual fence, um, I can increase our grazing, I can better utilize our grazing using this invisible virtual fence to where we can put more cattle on here, allowing for more calves, more beef per acre.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Yeah. And I think the virtual fence, like one of the things I'm working on with my husband with wanting to do the virtual fence, is I want to do more consolidated grazing, like where I force the cattle into smaller areas. Well, it would be way too costly to go and put up barbed wire fence in all those places, right? But the virtual fence allows you to force them there. Cause I've been studying like how do we get better, better uh grasses back, right? And one of the ways is you you've got to get rid of the bad stuff. Well, the cattle go in, they eat the good stuff, right? And they leave the weeds and the sage and the all the stuff that they don't want, and then it overgrows the grass a little bit the next time, unless you're forcing it down. Right. But if you can force them into those more restrictive areas where they have to at least step on and crush down the bad stuff while they're eating the good, I think over time it will give you better grasses.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

That's just so true. And we believe fullheartedly in that, and that's why we've invested in it and we use it and some we use a lot of other technologies too. Um, we use artificial insemination, which isn't a new technology, but we use embryo transfer, um, in vitro fertilization. We're we're actually doing um, we call them OPUs, ovum pickups on our cows today, which means we can pull the oocyte out of the ovary before it's even released by the ovary.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

And we can breed that with the best bull that's available that's more efficient on grass, that grows better beef, more marble, better females, all of those things. Um, and then put that into a surrogate mother so that we're mass producing the very best animals.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

So you're literally picking, okay, we want this egg from the this particular female because she has the best bloodlines and she's got the best confirmation, and then we're gonna do the same thing and pick the best bowl, and we're gonna mix those together and we're gonna implant it into a cow that is a good cow, but maybe doesn't have those same great qualities.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

Exactly. Maybe not elite. Yeah, you know, maybe she maybe she is a good mother. Yeah, and uh and that's important. It absolutely important. Yeah, and she she has to be a good mother, but she may not have the best growth, or she may not have the best udder that I want to be passing down to the the rest of my herd. So those are technologies that are helping us make better decisions, and you know, a cow can have one calf a year, but now we're able to have our very best cows have 10, 20, 30 calves a year, yeah, and really increasing the efficiency of our herd.

unknown 13:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

When we're losing a thousand acres a day in Texas, I know, from a thousand acres of grazing land a day in Texas, we've got to become more efficient. Absolutely. You know, we're trying to do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

And I think um a lot of some of the viewers may understand this because they've know something about ranching or they live in a rural area and hear it, but um, I I just want to take a second and point that out. I mentioned before how important ranching and farming are to maintaining our country and having national security, and losing a thousand acres a day is detrimental to every person in the United States because we're losing the ability to have more cattle. We've we've got the smallest herd size for beef that we've had since like the 1950s, I believe. Yes, and um we are you're also seeing that same thing happen in farming, like we're losing it every because for the average person who's sticking with just the historical ranching practices, there's no money to be made in it, really, very little. And so we've got to start doing what your family is doing, and I think of your family as a leader in this, um, really starting to turn to new practices and and being innovative and using technology to to make it better and more economic economically friendly for farmers and ranchers. So thank y'all for that. But let's talk about some other things that you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 15:13

Yeah, and I, you know, some folks say um we don't want to do it, or that's the way we've always done it. Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

You know, those I hear that all the time from farmers and ranchers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Oh, I'm like, oh and we we love so we do, we look at it a little different way. We do want to do what our granddad did. Like we love doing what our granddad did, and he was using the best tractor available. He was using the breed that would make him that would be best for business. Yes. He was using um, he was using the most up-to-date science and EPDs.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

The most innovative he could for the time.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

For the time. And we don't want to do the exact practices my granddad did, but we do want to have the same vision that my granddad did to help get us to where we are.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

And so we do, like that's our saying of, or one of our sayings of like, hey, let's do what granddad did.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

And uh and then apply the like find the new things that are the most innovative, but apply the values, the morals, the ethics, the the same drive and desire that he had and keep the good things. Like that's what I tell people all the time. I'm like, just because you bring in something new that's more innovative doesn't mean that you don't keep the good things, right? So right. You can keep the heritage, you can keep the history, you can keep all those things, but be more innovative.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

And we find ourselves at our best at the ranch when we're able to blend technology and tradition together. Because so many times in our industry, the tradition suppresses our success rather than helps us succeed. In a in a business that loves tradition, right? In an industry in agriculture that loves tradition, um, it's heartbreaking to see that suppress success. And so we find ourselves at our best when we mix the two. When we have uh some really great horses that we've trained to go get our cow herd that's got virtual fences on them to bring back and do our ovum pickup. Right. That's the trend, that's the combining of the technology to help us do our best. We're doing some other things too. Um social media is is a been a big one as the last four or five years that we've really jumped into.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

And and you're kind of the star of that right now, but I know some other family members have been contributing as well. And that it's obviously one of the things I think that you brought back. Yeah, you know, and I mean you've got a history for years now of you know, sports broadcasting, and and now you're doing the social media and now you got the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 17:30

And yeah, I have a lot of fun with media, and and social media just kind of helped me combine my two passions together of media and ranching. And I've you know, both my parents are national FFA presidents, and they are very great speakers and very good communicators. And in a world that's so hungry for good communication, we have very few communicators.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Um, and uh so I've really found my niche in in following that footpath of being a good communicator and seeing where it takes me. And like I've I've always loved sports, and um I I I played it for a year in college and loved it, and when I when I got out of it, I was like, how can I stay involved? And I loved media, so I've been doing sports broadcasting for 13 years and um called games in Cowboy Stadium and in the Alamo Dome, and it's taken me incredible places. And then when I came back to the ranch, I just didn't really have that to that itch of my my passion. But social media helped me combine those two together. And now I just get to share what I like. I have the best job in the world. Yeah, everybody loves to talk about their cows. And now I just get to on social media.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Well, and you're doing it in such an amazing way, like um, that it's drawing more than just the ranchers to you, right? Because you're doing it with humor and with, you know, practical jokes and and and it's really helping the industry as a whole, I believe, because you're getting the messaging out about what's happening on ranches and how it can impact just the everyday person living in Dallas or Chicago, right? And so I thank you for that because we need that. Um, but I I also see you just having a lot of fun doing it.

SPEAKER_03 19:09

I really do. I thank you for the kind words because I I do really have a lot of fun with it. I've stumbled into this so-called influencing role uh of of social media, and I I just started it making videos making fun of my dad. Like that's really where it started was just making fun of my dad in a loving way, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Um Hey, by the way, those people on the ranch, we like to rib each other. That's that's our entertainment. It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

That's the way that's how we say I love you. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Yeah. Um, I'm gonna use a dirty word here, so we may need to bleep it out. But my husband and I joke around, you know, he's really involved with Texas Tech University, and for years he was involved, but he wasn't on the Board of Regents, and they just call him Clay before. And now that he's on the beat on the Board of Regents, they want to call him Regent Cash. And he's like, No, that is not my name. He's like, You can call me Clay or you can call me asshole. That's what my wife calls me. And then I have to respond back, and I'm like, I don't call you asshole, I call you asshole.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

Make that clear.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

But it is a term of endearment.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

That's so true. Um, and that's how it started was just by riveting, you know, make kind of making fun of my dad. And um the you you already mentioned it. There's a the this generation now that's beginning to buy food is at least two generations removed from the ranch, and probably more like three, yeah, removed from the farm and ranch. And so the fear of the unknown is real, and COVID kind of caused that because once uh for the first time ever, there were some empty shelves. And the thought of like, wait a minute, if I don't buy what I normally do, where does this food come from? And what is this impossible beef? Or what is this um chicken in a bag that I've never bought? Where does it come from? And why does it say antibiotic free? Does the other one have a bunch of antibiotic? The fear of the unknown is real.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Well, and I think everything that Bill Gates is doing too is making that more so. I mean, it scares me to think that I'm gonna eat meat that's full of bugs, or that I'm gonna eat chicken that was grown in a vat that was started with cancer cells. Like, I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Yeah, that does not sound appetizing.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

No, I don't want that.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

Right. And so the the fear of the unknown is real, and so really all I've had to do is open the gates. Like, I don't want to say, let me educate you. Like, that's not that well, okay, no. This is what everybody else is gonna say. And when really I just want to be able to connect with people and show them that hey, my daughter goes to school and I have a little one that stays up way too late and cries at night, and my wife yells at me to go get it on the third time, and then I go out to ranch. Like we are not so different. Just because you live in Dallas and I live in Throckmorton, we are not so different.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

No. And I think too, sometimes, I mean, you see it on the national news that they will say, Oh, well, you know, it's a rancher or oh, it's a farmer. And they think that we're so far out there and we're so far removed when is from what is that. Actually happening in the world. And we're not.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

And especially now that we have, you know, we can get things on social media that like in you can watch news 24 hours a day. We're not removed. We just have chosen what I consider a better life. Right. I mean, like Clay and I with our kids, we lived in Dallas for a period of time with his corporate job. And the second that we had the opportunity to come back to Lubbock, Texas, which is not that far, I mean, it's kind of far from Throckmorton, but it's three hours as the crow flies, right? Um, but I mean, in in West Texas, that's just a hop, skip, and a jump. It's not very far. Um, you know, I was so grateful to get back and be able to raise my kids where there's still a sense of community and people still care about each other. And yet I flew to Dallas and back yesterday, right, to go do a little bit of business. And so I can get where I need to be, but I get to have live in a place where the people still care more.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

And be closer to the things I love, which is going out to the ranch and you know, working the cattle, riding the horses, uh fishing, you know, whatever. Yeah, you know, hunting, whatever. And um, I'm so grateful to be able to do that. Now you mentioned something just a second ago. You said, I'm not gonna educate people, but you are in your own way, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:20

It just um but I never want to bring, I never want to come to someone like a professor or like a political stance of like, you're wrong, let me educate you. Yeah, because once that that's like a negative connotation that we feel of like, yeah, what do you think you're better than I am or something? And so I just want to open the gates, and that's what I've I like to use the word edutainment, um, of like entertaining someone so much that they learn along the way. Yeah, that's that's my perfect storm of creating a video about what I'm doing at the ranch.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

Yeah. Well, and obviously education is an area that I'm very, very concerned about. Um we obviously in my a lot of my viewers know this, but there are we are failing on every metric in our K through 12 education system right now. And I don't believe it's the fault of the teachers um or even the administrators. I rather I think the system is broken. But one of the interesting things I see when it comes to farming and ranching is a lot of people think, oh, well, you don't need to be educated, right? You can just quit school, not even finish high school, and you can go be a farmer and rancher. And you can, you can do it and and with a lot of grit and tenacity and perseverance, you can do anything. And and it does take those things in farming and ranching, but I think never has it been more important today that we in ag have an education because of what's happening, the innovation that needs to happen, so true, the technology. Let's talk a little bit about that and what your thoughts are there.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Yeah, the on the education side, um, I always think it's important to like for for us to be involved, especially very locally. Like, because if we can get our locals, if we can all build our piece of the wall, then the wall gets built.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

And so we um just a few years ago, um we were I was involved in helping pass a bond to be able to build our new school that we had. Our last one was built, I think, in the 70s.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

And uh so it was really neat to be that was kind of my first opportunity to be involved as an adult that moved back to Throckmorton in a part of the school. And um, yeah, like I want more than anything for this school for me to want to send my kids to school. Like I I would love that, and to have a place where where they can learn skills, where they can um learn. I I wish I knew so much more about business. Yes. Like I financially and and business smarts, like I did not take those classes or learn that in school like I should have, or maybe I just forgot. Either way.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Either way, they're well, no, your age, you probably didn't learn it because it hasn't been being taught since like the early 2000s. We haven't been teaching financial literacy.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

See, I would love that.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Yeah, but we now are, but we now are.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Well, thank goodness.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

I passed a I helped get a bill passed at the Texas legislature last year that will now require a semester of personal financial literacy for every high school student to graduate, starting with the class of 2030. And so we will be, you know, but it's sad that we didn't for so long because there's a whole 30 years of people that didn't get it. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

I have an applause button that I'm gonna hit right now.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Well, thanks.

SPEAKER_03 26:36

That's a and that's I love that. Um our school actually changed to being more of a uh skill-based teaching. And so we, you know, we have classes for um for welding, we have classes for the wind turbines uh technicians, for vet technician, and trying to allow students to be able to pick those that are training them for uh for a skill. Um and and I love that. I've I've loved that way. I'm so jealous that I didn't have that that opportunity. And in agriculture, we we need those um, like we're using drones now. We're using AI and drones and being like I I have to go learn how to do that or trust someone, hire someone to come do that who is educated on it. And we have phenomenal AI GPSs and tractors that are well, we don't use them at our place because we we don't farm, but the people who we who do help us do our farming have that. And to be able to fix it when it breaks, to be able to know how to use it. Um we need welders to be able to fix what is broken, like all of these skills and AI, like those virtual fences, running the software, being able to put being able to put it on the cow and then pull up the app and work it. Yes, like all of that can be used, I believe, in our education system to help us uh help ranchers make have better tools to make decisions.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

And so this next legislative session we're coming up on, and I'm taking several bills back to the Texas legislature, and one of them is to, you know, we had some great success last session with HB2, which is a bill that put an additional $8.5 billion into our Texas public school system. So it was about $100 billion a year. Um, and we added an $8.5 billion, it's the largest line item in the Texas budget.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Education. But a big part of that, 60% goes to teachers, which every district across the street needs more money for their teachers. And some part of that also was for um them getting basically what is merit-based pay. They call it different, but it's basically merit-based pay, which I think is great because to date, teachers who had the same number of years in teaching were getting the same amount of pay.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

And that's not rather than off of performance.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

That's not our real-world capitalist system at work, right? Um, but it had quite a bit of money in there for trade programs. And I love what you did here, and I wish every single city would do that, where the the industry in that city is working with their school system to make sure that they're graduating students that have the skills needed by the industry, because that's how we keep, especially smaller cities, alive. Yes, right, is keeping the industry going and making sure that you have jobs for those kids who are graduating. And I think that's critically important, and I hope that that's something that school districts will really start doing, not just having them come and like taking their information, but actually acting on it, right? Um, and I'm so glad that you did that. Um, the other thing that I think is really important in is that we graduate these kids with skills um above and beyond just the trade skills, right? Like I think it's sad in Texas, a third of adults are functionally illiterate.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

And um 54% of third graders can't read at a third grade level, and that's so critically important. Most people, I I've said it on several shows now, but I mean, I kind of beaten this horse till till we fix it. Um, is uh if you are not reading at a third grade level by the end of third grade, there is an 80% chance that you will either end up on welfare or in the prison system.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Really? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

And um what a stat. It's a it's a horrible stat. It's a horrible stat. And 54% of kids in Texas are not reading at a third grade level by the end of third grade. Um, and then they use that number from that third grade to determine how many beds we're gonna have in the prison system in the future. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's bad. And um, so like when I say skills-based learning, I'm going all the way back to can they read? Can they write? Can they do basic math? Can they think critically, and can they problem solve? Like if we just graduated them with those skills, then they could go and get their trade degree, right? But I also would love to see us actually getting these kids their trade license in high school and not having every single one of them have to take chemistry, biology, and physics. If they need it, yes. If they want it, yes, but not a requirement.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Right. You know, I would have been okay without taking chemistry, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Me too.

unknown 31:17

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

I have yet to do anything with chemistry. Now, biology, you might have needed some part of it. You know, but but then that brings me back around to what things can we be continuous learners about? Because I think, I mean, you you guys are continually learning, yeah, right. And with AI, I think it's never going to be more important than it is now. Right. Um, but I just I think it's sad and funny that people still in this day and age that people think that if you're in ACK, you don't need an education.

SPEAKER_03 31:47

Yeah, it is wild because if um like we right now, we are like we are hustling on learning about DNA and the DNA of cattle and how that impacts their offspring. And that that is a like that is a ton of education in in genetics and um and we have to know the repro, like we have to know the biology, and our cow, you know, our surrogate mother cow has to be in her seventh day of her cycle for us to put a seven-day old embryo in there for us to get a 64% chance of it to take.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

Yeah and all of that, all of that science and technology and education, like is huge for our industry. And and and being a seed stock place where we have registered cattle, um, like doesn't make us better than commercial cattlemen, but it it allows us to it allows us to use those technologies that commercial cattlemen typically wouldn't use because their business doesn't allow it in a in a business fashion.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

And um, but I think as we can t as we move forward and we learn more about this DNA, now we can take DNA tests on commercial cattle, get EPDs, and we can see exactly what's what's under the skin. What is what can this cow do? And talk about we already you already said it, how we have the smallest cow herd that we've ever had.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

And now so we got to be way more efficient.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

And now we can see which cows are doing the best. Like it's that merit-based.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

Yes, yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

It's that merit-based. Sorry, what even was the question?

SPEAKER_00 33:16

I just hit a no question, really. No, I love it. Like, I don't ever mean for there to be questions. I like the conversation to unfold. Um, but I I think the point is that if we can get the skills out of these kids, if we can teach them basic skills, then teach them. I think one of the things that teaching every kid chemistry, biology, and physics does is it teaches them to hate learning. And I think that there has never been a time that is more important to make sure these kids are learning to love learning because of what AI is doing, because of how innovative we need to be in the future. And so I want them to love learning so that they can go on the internet and find the information. They can go seek out a program and go learn the program so that they can be as innovative as they possibly can be. I think when we teach them to hate learning, they just stop looking for it.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

That's a great point. Because I I like when you said that, like I went back to 2014 and taking a chemistry class. Yeah. And we had to memorize this what a mole was, and I haven't used it.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Or the periodic table.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Right. Uh and I had to had to memorize all those things. But I remember um I took a oh, it was like uh that that class, and I was like, I hate the I hate this because I will never use it. And it did make me, I did not want to go to that class.

SPEAKER_04 34:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

But then when I took an ag business or an ag uh, I think it was an ag business class, and we had to do a ton of calculator and Excel work. And I did not like Excel or calculator, but I loved that class because it was so productive in where I was heading.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 34:57

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

You could make it relate to what you wanted to do.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

It was so relatable.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

And and then and that's why I also loved the TCU Ranch Management Program because it was so applicable to what I was using that that that made it fun for me. Yeah. Like I I loved those classes. I loved the learning of those classes, but you're so right because I I did not like that that chemistry for me was that one that made me not like learning.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

And and I think that's true of a lot of kids. Now their kids, you know, the argument is there's a lot of people right now, because we know our system is broken, how do we fix it? And there's a lot of people making the argument that we need to go a hundred percent back to classical education. And they're like, every kid needs to take chemistry, biology, and physics. And I'm like, mmm, I like some of the things from classical, but I really think that we need right now, we are one track at uh college prep for all. Everybody's got to take the chemistry, biology, and physics because they've got to be ready for college. And yet the new numbers out of the Texas Education Agency are saying that six years after high school, only 36% of kids are getting a college degree, a junior college degree, or any kind of trade certification.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

Really?

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Which means 64% are getting nothing other than their high school diploma, which today has zero skills attached to it. Zero. Zero. Wow. Unless you've gone and done the trade things. Right, right. Right. But if 64% aren't getting a degree in that, then what are they doing? Because they're really only qualified for minimum wage and manual labor. And so I actually think that we need to change that entirely and we need to create multiple paths through high school. Instead of every kid taking the chemistry, biology, and physics, that maybe we create a life science that takes the important things out of each of those and drops it down to one year instead of three. And then we pick up those two years to go ahead and get the kids their trade license, to go ahead and teach them to be entrepreneurs and business leaders, right? Because 70% of our GDP is dependent upon small business, yet we never teach anyone to be a small business owner.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Even in college, right? Like I have a marketing degree. I can do marketing for business, but as far as my businesses that I've set up and run, I had to learn in the school of hard knocks and I made many mistakes as a result.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Yeah, we need to talk because that's where I am.

unknown 37:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

I am in that realm right now, just being like, well, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Yeah. And I mean, you see, and I mean, think of all the entrepreneurs out there who maybe didn't even graduate high school and didn't go to college, and yet they've made millions or billions of dollars, right? But for others, like in Texas, 20% of small businesses fail in year one and 54% fail by year five.

SPEAKER_05 37:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

So why don't we make that better for everybody? Give them more opportunity, give them more resources, and make their lives financially better, but also improve our economy while we're at it.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

You know, so let's do it. Yeah, let's do it today, right now. Everybody, yes, call your legislature, tell them that's what we want.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

That's great. I love the path idea. Uh it I mean, it it really takes me back to that merit-based, like where do we where do we find our merit and and where are we best at? Where can we best use our strengths? Because like Michael and I have very different strengths. And together we work pretty well together. Yeah, we work great together because we have those different strengths.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Well, and I think that's absolutely essential in any kind of partnership or working group that you find people who aren't exactly like you, but have different abilities so that you guys can play off of each other and you can figure out I'm gonna take care of this, they're gonna take care of that, and you cover the whole spectrum. And that's really critical in business and likewise in a in a partnership like a marriage too.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Um and I forgot to mention my wife um graduate graduated in education. Um, she's a kindergarten teacher.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

And uh last year, because of social media, we were able she we she loves staying home with her girls, but we just didn't quite have that opportunity. But social media has changed our lives in a way where she's able to to stay home. But um, like I've I've that has allowed me to a look into the education system as a kindergarten teacher.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

Right.

SPEAKER_03 39:08

Uh I mean, not she wasn't doing the star test and the some of the other things, but just the education system uh was my peak into it.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

And and what do you think is the thing that you gleaned the most from that?

SPEAKER_03 39:22

Well, the merit base was huge for me because I know like my wife was doing a rock star. Yeah, a rock star teacher.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

And you're not just saying that because she's your wife, but she was really good to be like as a dad, like I want her.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

I'm sad that she's not teaching my kindergartner right now.

SPEAKER_05 39:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Like I was like, but you're the best one. You're the best one we can have. And um and she is a rock star, but I know of the other teachers that had been there since I have been there that aren't as a rock star as her. Like they they are good, but now it's just into the place where their money keeps going up because they've been there longer and they're just trying to get to um what's the right word? Retirement.

SPEAKER_04 40:04

Right.

SPEAKER_03 40:04

And it's not because they're bad teachers, but but because they've been there longer, yeah, they get paid more.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

Well, and there's a bigger problem that is starting to be like you're seeing on social media now. There's all these teachers now coming on social media talking about how hard it is and how bad it is to be a teacher. And um, you know, there's a lot of teachers that are very dissatisfied with the profession, and they obviously are asking for more pay, but they're actually more concerned about the how the kids are behaving or rather not behaving, right? And that they don't have any power is not the right word, but they don't have the ability to discipline in the classroom. Um, parents get mad at them and call in screaming and like, not my kid, and it's disrupting the whole entire learning environment. And the teachers don't feel like they have control um or any ability to try to improve it. And we're seeing an exodus, all these teachers leave in the industry, and we already don't have enough teachers, right? Right? So we don't have enough teachers, they're leaving for all these reasons, and um we've got to figure out right now, we've got to figure out how to get more teachers in, but how do we keep the good teachers, right? Is a thing. And without merit-based pay, where teachers feel like they're actually getting compensated when they're doing a good job, and also trying to figure out how to bring the um control back in the classroom where they actually can discipline the kids and not get in trouble and not have the parents yell at them, um, is really critically important. Um and so last session we passed legislation, you know, to try to say the teacher bill of rights so that the teachers can actually discipline and the administrators don't just put the kids back in the classroom the next day, right? Because there are teachers who've been hurt, yep, stabbed, and then there's a teacher out of Hereford that got stabbed with a pencil through into their sinus cavity, and the next day the kid was back in class. You know, we wouldn't put up with that. I mean, you're not gonna put up with anybody on your ranch acting that way. I'm not gonna put up with anybody, you know. So why should teachers have to put up with that? Um, and not be all the time backed up by the administration because they're so concerned about what the parents are gonna say. But if we don't um figure out a way to keep these teachers, and right now, like one of the things that I think is a problem is because of the way teacher pay has been structured all these years, you have a five-year teacher. If you're a five-dire teacher, you make this much money. And at some point in time, though, their pay is capped. Now, the merit-based pay will change that a little bit, but I don't think that we should have that cap because what it's doing is it's forcing really good teachers out of teaching where they love and want to be, and having to go into an administrative role to be able to reach that, to be able to make more money for their own families, right? And so that's something that I'm I'm working on this year is trying to remove that pay cap.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

So that we can have more open market, like a more free market. Like I would love to get it where there's no you make this money, much money as a base pay for how many years you've worked, but it's totally free market. Like you go in and you based on what you've done in the past, what you're capable of doing, your degree that you have, you negotiate for your salary. I mean, that's what we do in the real world.

SPEAKER_03 43:22

Yeah, it is, you know. So no, I love that. Um I think a free market, it uh adds competition, which I think is a great thing.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

All competition is good.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

Yeah, and then you're held accountable too.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

Because if you're not doing your job, just like anywhere else, yes, then you either get cut or your pay gets cut.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Right. And now it's it's really hard in the environment in which we live. And even social media complicates it, right? Because people can put anything that they want out there, whether or not it's true or without the context or whatever, and get people all riled up. Right. Um, but we've gotta we've gotta make some big changes. In the education, and I'm trying to work on that through policy. Um, working on policy, taking it to Austin. Um, and I know that you recently have gotten a little bit involved in policy with agriculture. Yes. And uh, I know that you were recently up at the White House um meeting with President Trump, talking about agricultural policy, and with my friend, Secretary of Agriculture, Brick Rollins. Tell us a little bit about that and where where you plan to go with this policy.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

Oh goodness. Uh I've again, this is something I've stumbled into.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Oh, I stumbled into all this. I get it.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

With uh I got a call from the National Cattleman's Beef Association to join them um when Trump was speaking there at the White House. Uh but then I got a call from uh Secretary Rollins Chief of Staff to join them earlier that week for National Act Day at USDA headquarters. And uh I was like, yeah, that would be yeah, what a cool idea. What a great idea. Yeah, I'd go. I've never been I've never been to see all the things at DC. I've been to Capitol Hill, but never seen all the other stuff. Uh and so I I got to go up there and little did I know it was like eight of us in Secretary Rollins' office.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Like you thought it was gonna be a hundred and if you're I did, yeah. There it was just very she loves to do those small round tables, and it was so neat.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Um that was my first time meeting her in person and uh being able to spend time with with her and her story and very which is very inspiring if you've never heard it. And um then as she was like, Hey, we're about to meet this person, they run this, this person's about to walk in. And I was like, Wait, they do what? Hang on, hang on, wait, I didn't know I was meeting them.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

You're like, Am I dressed right? No, yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

I've and I've got to a room where I was sitting in a room where I was like, I do not belong here because I don't, I've never done anything in policy or politics, and I don't know these people or what they've done. Um, but it was really neat, and I I remember talking about that, and they're like, Well, we kind of want that because it you help ground us, honestly, in into what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

They need people who are actually, and I'm gonna use this term, in the field, right? Like you're doing it every day, day in and day out. You have lived with the policy that has been made in the past, and because that you know what's not working, and that's exactly what they need to hear.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

And it is, I'm I'm kind of I feel very spoiled because coming from Texas, which is you know, really relatively really good to its farmers and ranchers, yes, uh, compared to other states. And I have friends in Minnesota and in Wyoming and in uh New York and in California that are very fired up. And I was like, man, I don't have that fire because I I also don't have that problem.

SPEAKER_04 46:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 46:39

I I I want to help them, but that's not uh, you know, it's not direct directly hitting me. But it was so it was eye-opening. Um and that so be able to meet all those people was really neat and see all that USD USDA does and how much they're how much Secretary Rollins has done. And she's she's a stud. Holy crazy.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

She is, she is. I worked with her, um, I was on the executive committee of America First Policy Institute for the three and about three and a half years leading up to the the newest Trump administration and got to work with her a lot. And uh obviously I I communicate with her quite often and see her at events and talk a little bit about ag policy because even though I'm focused on education, I can't get out of ag policy because it's part of what we do every day, right? And and and I think it's so so critically important. Um, but where do you think your future lies with policy?

SPEAKER_04 47:35

Great question.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

I mean, you've got a great platform, and that's why I'm asking, right? Yeah, I'm building this platform because I want to make a difference in education policy. You have already built a platform that I'm very envious of, um, and have a platform now to have an impact on policy.

SPEAKER_03 47:52

Yeah. Yeah, right. Like as as we speak right now, I love the place that I'm in where I get to um where I I can either add pressure or relieve pressure from people who are doing policy based on what is happening at my place. Because that's what I know, that's what I do, that's what I'm doing every day. Um and I'm gosh, my my dad lived in DC for a while and was uh had had worked up there and he loves it. And the six days I spent up there, I can be like, I can see why people actually can enjoy this from everything I'd heard, you know, it's so negative. But then the people you see fighting on TV or having lunch together inside, and I was like, wow, this is a different world.

SPEAKER_04 48:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:39

So um, you know, where do I see myself with a future involved in politics? In some sort I do. Am I two feet in and going? At the moment, I don't think so. Um, but do I want to be more involved in the policies that are impacting because I know regulation is something that's coming, and if we do nothing about it, it will absolutely be here. You look at Colorado, and they voted on whether their state cattle industry would harvest cattle at that you couldn't harvest cattle after five, you couldn't do um AI or palpation, you couldn't do embryo transfer. So all of those feed yards up there would just die. All the cattle ranchers up there would just be.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Well, I mean, look, look, you guys are being so successful because the innovation that you're doing with the AI, with the embryo transfer, and now they've basically the politicians in Colorado have said those farmers, those ranchers up there can't do that. And so they can't be innovative and m make it more economical for their families.

SPEAKER_03 49:39

Right. And yeah, that's it, it would break it, it would break Colorado's beef industry. Yeah. In a in a state that's so no pretty well known for their beef and their feed yards and what they produce, uh, it would destroy it. And so I a lot of that is because it's not because people hate ranchers. I truly don't believe they hate ranchers. I just think that they don't know what that would do to the rancher. And so I love my place at the moment where I get to tell them exactly what would happen. And I have that platform and I've been building the trust with people. Like people love to hear from ranchers, like there's a lot of data that shows it. They want to know where the food comes from and they want to hear it from a rancher. They don't want to hear it from McDonald's, they don't want to hear it from well, they might want to hear it from HEB. Everybody loves HEB, but they they don't want to hear it from these corporate companies, like they want to hear it from boots on the ground people in the field, as you would say. So I love my spot in that now. And you know, if I get um it uh in I believe it's in Psalms, it says uh delight in the Lord and the He will show you the the ways of your heart. And uh that's where I'm at now. And if that's uh if that's something that comes my way and I feel called to do that, I try to do my best to say yes, sir, and uh and follow that path. But right now I really am enjoying where I'm at.

unknown 50:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

And you know, my road to doing what I'm doing um was very circuitous and doors opened for me in the policy side and and with the politicians that I wasn't trying to open. Yeah, like it was very god-led, I think. Um, and and in a way, I think yours is as well. You know, obviously you you set out to tell people about ranching and through your podcast, through your love of telling stories, right? And and yet here you find yourself now. Yeah, and going into rooms with the most important people in the United States, right? And so I think that you have an amazing opportunity to be able to tell them what we're really doing on the ranch and how the policy that they're creating up there, whether or not you actually get to write policy, um it's not that fun. I do it, but it's not that fun. Um, but I love being able to tell the story and tell the people who are in the middle of voting on the policy, yeah, this is true, this is not true, this is going to kill us, this is going to benefit us, and really take that story straight to Washington. And and I appreciate that you've now put yourself in a position to help the ranchers.

SPEAKER_03 52:12

Right. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:13

You know, if anybody's gonna represent us, I would love for it to be people who do it every day.

SPEAKER_04 52:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 52:18

And if, you know, if that is a is a door that opens and I'm the representative, then I I like being a part of the solution. So I don't I don't know where it'll lead.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

So your family ranch has been well, we've talked about it being innovative, but and you said that everyone in your family has to leave the ranch for at least two years, go walk outside, and if they want to come back, they have to bring a new technology or new business back. So what are y'all working on right now?

SPEAKER_03 52:48

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

I mean, obviously the AI, the making more the genetics better, doing all that stuff, but what's the what's the most recent thing that has been brought back?

SPEAKER_03 52:56

Uh most recent thing, I mean, social media definitely is part of it. Um, but the bee we I started a beef business during uh about six years ago, and it's probably taken off more like the past two.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Uh but the that's and are you talking about when you say beef business, are you talking about selling like steaks and hamburger and whatnot, like so direct to consumer?

SPEAKER_03 53:18

It is direct to consumer, but it's I mean it's more halves and holes. Um being in Throckmorton, it's really hard to be shipping a whole lot of things in in this small place. But um, it is really neat because I've been able to connect with a lot of people, mostly in metropolitan areas, yeah, that want to know a rancher or want to know where their beef comes from and how to cook a certain thing, which is another thing that I've learned the past couple years of how to cook a picanna or how to cook a pivette or a certain roast and all of those things I didn't know. Yeah. I was like, oh, I better learn this if I'm gonna if I'm gonna sell it.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:51

You know. So that's been an interest a really fun, fun thing uh to learn about. But the beef business is interesting and I I love it. I love that there's more of it, um, but I also really dislike whenever the direct-to-consumer rancher hates on the um place where people get most of their beef, which would be the grocery store.

SPEAKER_00 54:15

Grocery store.

SPEAKER_03 54:16

Like I I buy beef from the grocery store relatively often, and I have my own.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

Yeah. But when we do too, we process our own cattle and and I sell like halves and holes to friends. Um, but like I'll find myself running out of stakes. There's only so many stakes on it on a cow, right? Exactly. And I want a steak and I'm out and I I haven't processed another one, so I gotta go buy it. Go get it, you know? Yeah, so you gotta do both a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

And building that trust back, uh, the good thing is is when when we tell the truth, U.S. agriculture wins.

SPEAKER_00 54:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

And that's uh there's been a lot of half-truths told. There's been a lot of other things that aren't exactly the whole truth or maybe not the truth at all. And so as ranchers, when we can tell the whole truth, it it it rises the tide. High tides rise all ships. Yes. And and in agriculture, our tent is so small that we can't be kicking each other around.

SPEAKER_04 55:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:05

Um, now I believe we can disagree. We can agree to disagree, but as far as getting on social media, going to different policy places, and being like, buy mine because at the grocery store it's full of this. Like, is that the truth? Our our system says no, because we wouldn't produce something that we wouldn't, I wouldn't produce anything that I wouldn't want my daughters to eat.

SPEAKER_04 55:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:27

And I think 98% of our industry is that way too. Do we have some bad eggs? I think there are some and they need to be held accountable.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

Yeah. And I think that's true of every industry. There's always the people who give everybody else a bad name. I mean plumbers, I mean age-old joke. But yeah, you know, there in every industry there are the bad actors, and we need to hold them accountable and and make them change or exit, right? Or but we shouldn't hold it across everybody.

SPEAKER_03 55:58

Right, I agree. Yeah, but that uh yeah, I don't like that.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

You know, and you see that in politics. Yes. And uh yeah, good point. Yeah, and uh it's a it's another sad thing, and I can tie that right back to education if we were teaching kids, if every kid had to go through FFA and learn to take debate or just take debate, I think that we wouldn't that be so cool. Yes, that would be so cool. I actually that's one of the things I want to add.

SPEAKER_01 56:25

Oh, that'd be so cool.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

Like when you talk about adding skills back, you see it every day, right? Where you you disagree with somebody and all of a sudden two people start yelling at each other, or maybe one person yells at the other person, whatever. Um, but I think if we would teach kids to actually um pick a topic, do the research, right? Because that's part of what's missing. People are listening to the talking heads and not doing their own research. Teach them how to do research to find the truth and to have a conversation, to be willing to listen to the other person, listen for understanding, and then to be able to factually say, here is my my point, and I'm gonna I'm gonna very well articulate my points with backup, right? And have conversations with people again, I think would be really important.

SPEAKER_03 57:11

Yeah, and that and kind of going back to the communication side, like communication can be bought once uh every industry wants to hire that. And it like if you're a good communicator, you can go a lot of places. Yes, agriculture included.

SPEAKER_04 57:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 57:26

Like if if if you're good at that, there's plenty of room for great communicators in the agriculture space. It's not most of the time they're not looking for that on the back of a horse, uh, but there's a ton of places in in sales, like in selling bulls, like we do. Yes, that is a huge piece of what we do.

SPEAKER_04 57:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 57:45

Communicating with our customers. Ag is a people business, and whenever you can debate and speak and communicate, that's when we get to know more people.

SPEAKER_00 57:52

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let's communicate a little bit with the audience right now and tell them, because I know we're needing to wrap up, unfortunately, although I think I could keep talking to you for a few more hours. Um, tell them where they can find you, how to get a hold of you, and and where you're on social media.

SPEAKER_03 58:09

So on social media, I'm Tucker Brown R A B for R A Brown Ranch, and that's where I'm on everything Facebook, TikTok, Instagram. Um, I've got a I just checked today and it's I hit over 850,000 followers. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

I need you to give me some lessons on that.

SPEAKER_03 58:26

I've I've worked really hard at it, and uh man, it's been so fun to to do that. And again, a people business that I just get to join my two passions. But um, yeah, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all the things. And um in your podcast. Oh, yeah, the Registered Ranching Podcast. I love having cowboys and ranchers in here and being able to just tell the story like they were around the campfire or saddling up their horse and uh in a in a lifestyle where people think that's gone. It's just really fun to be able to share that.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

Yeah, it's just it's just not in your city. You gotta leave the city. Exactly. And I once heard it put this way, because even people in small cities don't always know the real ranching part. You actually gotta cross the cattle garden.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

Oh, good point. Got to cross the card.

SPEAKER_00 59:10

Got to cross the fence. Yep. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:12

And then it's up to us to leave that gate open.

SPEAKER_00 59:14

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 59:15

Because we don't do that very often. That's true for good reason, but uh I think as ag it's time for, you know, open the gate and be able to show what we do because again, when the truth is told, ag wins.

SPEAKER_00 59:27

Yeah. I um have recently been looking at some of our different ag, I'm gonna call them institutions, the commodity groups, and across all ag, and there's some good ones, but there are also some that I'm like, are they really doing what's in the best interest of the farmer and rancher? Or have they been um kind of taken over by big corporate ag? Right? And just really investigating that right now. But I think it's never been more important that we have people like yourself who are on the ranch every day that are telling the story and possibly even working in policy a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 59:59

Okay, we'll see what doors open.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:00

Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming today.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:04

What a pleasure to have you in Throckmorton America. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:07

I'm glad to be out here. I loved, I love getting out and seeing the world go by as I drive and getting to have a little bit fresher air to breathe and uh spend a little bit of time thinking when I'm driving.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:19

It is a good time for that, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:21

It is a good time for that. So well, thank you so much for for having me in Throckmorton today and for being on the show. And uh I hope you'll come back to join us again.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:30

That'd be so fun. Thank you, Ashley.

unknown 1:00:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

Well, thank you all for joining us today from here in Throckmorton, Texas. Um, I hope that you will come back and see us next week when we talk about more ways that we plan on transforming the K through twelve education system. Until then, take care and God bless. Sorry, it kind of went.