Patience, Pedigrees, and the Long Game with the Cravens Family

We’re in Cushing, Oklahoma with Austin and Heather Cravens of Big Creek Longhorns—a family outfit where muddy boots, kid chaos, and big-hearted Longhorns all share the same pasture. The Cravens walk us through their “long game” approach: pairing pedigrees with patience, focusing on structure and disposition, and letting time reveal which matings truly click.

We talk daily rhythms (and the “did that really just happen?” moments), how the kids pitch in, and why faith, hard work, and humor keep the ranch running. It’s a conversation about simple joys, resilient cattle, and building a program that lasts—one thoughtful cross at a time.

Craven's Big Creek Longhorns: https://www.bigcreeklonghornsok.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hi there, I'm Molly. And I'm Jamie. We're the owners of Hired Hand Software.

SPEAKER_05 0:04

And this is season six of our From the Pasture podcast. For more than 15 years, we've been helping breeders promote their pedigree livestock with our easy-to-use, animal management-driven website software.

SPEAKER_04 0:18

Each week, we bring you stories from the pasture, breeding philosophies, ranch traditions, cattle knowledge, and conversation with folks using hired hand to power their livestock marketing.

SPEAKER_05 0:28

So settle in for today's episode of From the Pasture with Hired Hand. Welcome to this episode of From the Pasture with Hired Hand. Today we're visiting the rolling pastures of Big Creek Longhorns in Oklahoma, home to a family-built herd of registered Texas Longhorns rooted in faith, hard work, and a whole lot of good humor. I'm your host, Molly Clubb, and I'm excited to welcome today's guests, Austin and Heather Cravens, a couple whose ranch life is filled with muddy boots, quick-moving kids, longhorns with big personalities, and a few more of Did That Really Just Happen moments. Big Creek Longhorns is a place where heritage, family values, and hands-on learning come together. And today we get to hear how the Cravens started, what keeps them going, and the stories behind the cattle that shape their program. Thank you both for joining me. Well, thanks for having us. Well, why don't you start by just telling our listeners a little bit about yourselves and your family?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Um, well, we're we've been together now, I think what, 13 years? Pretty close to it. Going on. We got one boy named Rowdy. Um, I run a mobile mechanic business. That's kind of what funds everything. Um, we grew kind of attached. I grew up in the Angus, you know, world of things. And I kind of got real close to the Longhorns. We bought our first one, and now it's been a hobby ever since. Started out something little and now it's growing quickly. Won't slow down, I don't think, either.

SPEAKER_05 1:59

So I have to ask, you named your son Rowdy? Are you like gluttons for punishment? Is that is that coming true? Does he hold true to his name?

SPEAKER_03 2:07

150%.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

He was actually named by one of our neighbors we had at the time named Bill, and uh we were sitting at the fence one day talking, and Heather was pregnant, and he said, That boy's name's Rowdy, and I was like, you know, I guess so. That kind of sticks. So it kind of worked out. We lost him two years ago.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Two years ago, and he was pretty good, you know, to us. So that's kind of where his name comes from, and he lives to it a hundred percent, I promise. He's full of attitude and honriness, I promise. But hard work, hard work is definitely him. I will give him that. He's only six, and I guarantee you'll outwork most men, so that's good. I'll let him have his honoriness, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 2:52

So that's how you came up with your son's name. How did you come up with the name for your ranch?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

So we live actually in between what you would call Cushing and Ripley, and we have a creek that runs through our property, Big Creek. And we had kind of kicked around names, and I've got to give a big shout out to a guy named Mike Kendrick. And he's, you know, we got into this a little bit, and he's like, You need a ranch name. He's like, you know, a homestead name's cool and stuff like that. And we got to looking, and he's the one that's really helped us, you know. We pushed our ranch name, named it after the creek, and that kind of symbolizes our brand is a symbolized flowing body of water. And that's he's helped us out tremendous, you know. He kind of helped us teach us about the brands. He's like, You want a brand that's clean, you don't want nothing that's gonna burn and burn flesh. And he he's been a real big help, and that's where you know we kind of came up with everything.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

Which was harder to commit to the ranch name or the brand image?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Ooh, um the brand image. Yeah, the brand image, really.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

I wanted something more, and and Mike, he kind of explained to me that it needs to be simple so that when you put it on the cow, it's not a big spot that it's just easy to read. So I decided, okay, fine, we'll go with the simple one.

SPEAKER_05 4:12

That's one thing though, for for newer breeders or folks who, you know, maybe haven't grown up around having to brand cattle. It's a really hard concept to think about when you're thinking of your brand design that, you know, if you leave too big of a spot, right? That whole section of height will fall off. So it's hard to kind of reverse image visualize that.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, we we actually got quite a few people that are quite a few cows, you know, that are that way. And I've tried to help people, you know. I learn everybody else, you know, that comes into the breed, I try to help. I mean, I'm not no superstar by no means, but I try to help them realize, you know, because I don't I don't want to see it, you know. So it it took a lot of learning, I'll tell you that. There's the bottom learning. So you learn something new about this breed every day.

SPEAKER_05 4:58

For sure, for sure. Well, your website paints a really warm picture of faith and grit and also plenty of laughter, which I can tell just by meeting the two of you. Uh can you share a moment that kind of just sums up your daily life at Big Creek Longhorns?

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Well, the one I can think of the most. So here at the house when we first got started, we didn't have very good fence or nothing. And it kind of goes back to we had goats at the time. I thought goats would be a great idea. We didn't have a good fence. Well, I had cows out and goats out, and we were all running across, you know, and it it was all a big laughter thing. That's just kind of the way we are at the ranch, you know. Everything's we push hard, yes. I've got certain things I like to achieve, but it it's more of, you know, a family hobby. Everything I don't like I don't like things to be uptight, you know what I mean? I like easy going, easy flow. Don't like and we push things, you know, and that's just the way it is. We all run around, laugh, have a good time. That's anybody that comes down, that's the way we are. We like having a good time. There's always something happening. When we say our cow's got a personality, every one of them's different. I mean, there's always something going on, something being funny. We've got one we call we call her Trisha. She's she's a halter broke cow, and she's she's the lie to everybody's show. She's always got something she'll either yell at you or she's wanting scratched. I mean, she's a lie to everybody show, and that's kind of what we base our ranch on.

SPEAKER_05 6:31

So Well, tell me a little bit about the day-to-day responsibilities. Who does what? Uh, what roles do you play? What is what is Rowdy's responsibility?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Rowdy's water boy. He's he's a dedicated water boy. Um, he still feeds though. When we work cows, you know, he's in there with us. It's it's always it's a team effort more than anything. Um what I would say is sometimes I'm working till two, three in the morning, you know, and she's gotta feed, I've got to feed sometimes because she's busy, you know, and we've got we got a couple people that help us out there on the ranch that you know sometimes they'll feed, but it it's all a family, it's family ordeal. Everybody's in on it. I mean, I will gotta say that there ain't one of us better than the other. So it's hard to pinpoint and say, you know, who does what, because it's all always anything.

SPEAKER_05 7:23

I do all the spoiling. All the spoiling. That's what I was just gonna ask. Is that you each kind of have a favor a favorite way that you like to spend your time there?

SPEAKER_03 7:33

We just like to sit and watch them, honestly. We'll you know, we'll go out there and say, Oh, well, we've got things to do, we're just gonna feed and hurry up and leave, and it's two hours later, and we're just sitting there watching them graze, and that's one of our favorite pastimes is just watching the cows.

SPEAKER_05 7:49

How do you like to spoil them just with lots of treats or lots of treats and lots of scratches?

SPEAKER_03 7:55

They have we have several that walk up and they put their head down and they're like right here, scratch, where I can't reach. So that's my job.

SPEAKER_05 8:05

So you mentioned that you started with goats. Uh, what made you kind of pivot and decide on longhorns?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Chasing goats. So we actually I got a cow. I bought a cow that was a crossbred cow. She was Longhorn Herford when I bought her, and I bought an Angus calf that was a bottle baby. Well, we kind of shifted around and I posted the thing as calf up for sale, and a lady had a long horn for sale. And you know, I've always kind of idolized the breed on how they are, how they're hardy, how they can, you know, they're a drought resistant cow. You can you they're basically they can survive on their own, you know, and that's what they evolved around. And I like the horns and uh just all kinds of stuff. And you don't find the disposition that you find in a longhorn in any other breed, I promise. I've been there. And we bought that crossbred cow, and I traded that Angus cow for that longhorn, and ended up, lo and behold, here we are, and one started from another, and then it just started multiplying on and on and on and on and on. So that's the ghosts are no longer though. I don't care how good of a fence you are, how fenced they are, they'll get out of it.

SPEAKER_05 9:19

So, how like how did you get started after that first one? Are there some folks that you went and visited their ranch? Did you buy it?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

We've been we've been to several ranches. I gotta give a big shout out to you know, Josh Dinwoody's helped me along the way quite a bit. Dale Hunt, he came out and actually gave us pinpointers, you know, on what we need. We bought some cows off Dale. And there's you know, there's several people I've called up and we just talk. And you know, Scott Pace, I was on the phone with last night. We're going to his ranch Friday. And, you know, that there's a lot of people in the breed that have been in it a long time. And anybody coming up new, I don't, you know, if you want to talk to them, call them. And that's kind of what we've had to do. And there's things I look for in the couch, you know, and I talk to the different breeders about it, and you know, I there's a big shout-out to a lot of people. Don't be afraid to call 'em.

SPEAKER_05 10:10

So can you talk to me about a little bit about why you picked out the first ones that you did?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Um, I'm a big I'm a big confirmation person and disposition more than I am horn. Um we've got bighorn cows in the pasture too, but I'm not the type of person I don't want to give up an udder, I don't want to give up a feet, you know. Longhorns, they they live and breed till they're 20s. That's what they were growing up, you know, grown up and done. And we visited a lot of the ranches, you know, and that's that's the way I am. If I see a cow with a perfect udder and she holds a calf, you know, that's 500 pounds and holds her flesh, that's that's what I want. And that's kind of where we've kind of picked from, basically. And we went out to some ranches and stuff, and that's where we've been picking, and I saw some cows I liked, and Josh and Dale Bolt have picked us out and helped us out a lot when we picked them up from them, and that's where we're at.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

So there, do you have a does your eye gravitate towards a certain color or type of longhorn?

SPEAKER_03 11:12

I like anything that has a lot of color. I want a lot of variety. But it we seem to have a lot of red and white ones out in the pasture. I like the flashy ones though, with the like the lacy faces and just you just look out there and I mean I like them all, don't get me wrong, but the flashy colors are definitely my favorite.

SPEAKER_05 11:36

So when it comes time to make purchasing decisions, I know when we were off camera you said you're on a buying freeze right now, so we won't we won't go down that path. Uh when you when you are making purchasing decisions together, are you able to find kind of a common ground or compromise? Or how does that work?

SPEAKER_03 11:55

So I usually, you know, we'll watch sales or go to other people's pastures, and I'm like, I like that horn set, I like that color, but he does all the breeding and the you know, checks out all that stuff, so I tell him what colors I want, and he goes and finds it.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

And we're never on a buying freeze, but we're we we're at, I don't know, probably 52 all together right now, counting calves. And we're we're gonna definitely clean some up, you know. We got some that we don't that are great cows, don't get us wrong. But we got some older stuff we're gonna switch out and you know, get some younger stock. But we're always always looking. And we not we we definitely are pushing things, you know. We wanna we want to better our stuff, we want to be known, and we kind of see what the industry lays out. So we're gonna try to push that way and see what we can do. But I still want to provide I want you to come to my pasture and you walk through my pasture and you know everybody walks up to you. That's one of our big things. And like when we go out, I don't have to everybody's like, we gonna get the feed truck? Nope, hold on a minute, they'll be here in a second. And that's kind of what we're pushing to. We want to expand our things and we wanna we wanna be known for the good confirmation, good attitude, good horn, good butter, and that's that's what we're pushing to. So we obviously everybody's told me, you know, you won't this ain't an overnight thing, playing on five years, and it it's a hundred percent true. A hundred percent true.

SPEAKER_05 13:30

Well, is there anything that you haven't mentioned yet in terms of what you look for that you feel like um ties into your overall breeding philosophy that you want to cover?

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Um really what we're looking for. I like, you know, there's a lot of rapid horn growth, but what I like, I kind of like a cow that'll grow throughout, you know, her her lifespan. I want to keep the horn growing. And I always want to change like any horn structure, you know, she likes certain ones, and I I like them all. There's I like variants, you know. We've got twisty cows. We've got one of my favorite cows out in the pasture we call Rugged Cross. She just hit 90. And she's a twisty horn cow, and she's one of my favorites. I call her grandma, but she's one of my favorite cows I've got out there. And just perfect uttered cow, perfect feet, holds her weight, cool horns, and that's kind of where we're at with things. I got a variety of everything. That's the way the easiest way to put it.

SPEAKER_05 14:30

Well, let's talk a little bit more about variety and um especially bloodlines. So, what types of bloodlines are you drawn towards as you continue to build your herd?

SPEAKER_00 14:40

I'm a sucker for EOT cows. I'll be up front and honest and tell you about it. Um, I really like Debbie Bowman's program. Um, she put out a lot of nice cows, you know. We didn't lack in the horn. Our big bull, Dark Knight EOT, he's a Debbie Bowman Zeus son. And he's an old bull, and you know, it's probably time to move on from him, but it's it's hard to give up what he gives me. You know, he he's he gives us everything. We get color out of him, we've had foreign out of him, we've had body structure, we've had good feet. And, you know, we can use him on some, you know, you got a cow that's got a bad udder, you can normally clean that up a little bit with a better bull. Obviously, you don't want to put a bull that's got any you know udder problems in there with her, but we've used him to clean up some cows, and I've been really impressed with the Bowman program. We've got several Bowman cows. Um, one of our foundation cows is a Bowman cow. Um, the Tabasco line that we got from Josh at the Texoma sale. And I've I've really stuck to her program, and I've kind of, you know, I've studied a lot into it, and I've been really impressed. And, you know, I like the sniper line a lot. Sniper comes out with a lot of clean, clean cows. I'm big on being clean, not a lot of loose skin, you know, a good neck attachment, not a short stubby neck. And my big thing is the true long-horn head. I really like the true longhorn head. One of my favorite cows we probably had before we lost her is actually hanging up there, and that was Boom Jewel. We were gonna flush her and we ended up losing her before we got a chance to. Um, we were gonna really try to push some programs with a lot of big name bulls with her, but this part of it, and we lost her before we got a chance to. Um my big thing I look for, I think, is the biggest thing out of everything is a complete package cow, a complete package heifer, a complete package bull. And I think, you know, the DNA thing that everybody's going with in this breed, I think it's really gonna lead us there. You know, we'll be able to see our integrity beef scores and stuff like that, and I really think it'll help this breed advance. I really do.

SPEAKER_05 17:13

That's a pretty uh pretty historic program that you, you know, you just got done talking about with the Endetrail Ranch and Mike and Debbie. Um, you know, they've been they've been in the breed for a long time and they've been able to adapt with it, but still, like you said, maintain um you know, maintain those qualities that a lot of folks look for. So it sounds like you were fortunate to get started uh on the right foot there.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

I hope so. I hope so. I've spent a lot of money into this and I really don't care, you know. I mean we we use it to push forward and I enjoy the cows, and hopefully one day we'll recognize those people. So we we chase a lot like that.

SPEAKER_05 17:53

So uh so tell me a little bit about what your biggest challenge has been in breeding livestock and how you overcame it.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Biggest challenge, um a lot around here was leaseland. Um when we first started, we live on 15 acres here, and we outgrew that quick, you know, and I was like, okay, well, we'll get leaseland and we'll start going. Um around here, leaseland's kind of hard to come by, I will say that. Um around here there's a lot of big name people, you know, that have leaseland that's been locked up for 20, 30, 40 years, and they won't move, I promise. I've tried. And luckily we've came, we've got some pretty good land now that we're able to expand on commercially and the registered stuff. And that's kind of where things have been, you know, was our biggest land struggle. And luckily we had some awesome people that we reached out to that helped us, you know, acquire land. And there's there's a ton of people I could sit here and talk for days that have helped with our program and helped with us, you know, as a person. And I I gotta say, hands down, you know, that was our biggest struggle is land.

SPEAKER_05 19:09

What's kind of a milestone that made you feel like, okay, we're really doing this, like this is happening?

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Um it started out, we had I think what'd we start out with, five cows. Five here at the house. We went to what sale was it? What sale did we first go to? Texoma was the first sale. Yeah, the Texoma sale. And we sat there and me and Heather talked, and I said, We're gonna do it. We might as well do it. We might as well not play around with it. And Mike kind of pushed us, you know, he said you need to decide if you're gonna go with commercial non-registered herd or if you're gonna go with a registered herd. If you're gonna go with a registered herd, you need to play with the big boys. And I was like, Well, fair enough. That's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

So I think that's when we met Josh, didn't we? And he helped us out a bunch. We went to his well, we've been on to his place a few times now and always come home with something.

SPEAKER_05 20:09

Have there been any um innovative practices or technologies that you've added to your breeding program that you want to talk through?

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Um, technologies, no. I'm kind of an old school person, to be honest with you. That's just the way I grew up, and a lot of it's you know, you tracking. We I do a lot of pedigree tracking. I take a lot of pride in tracking growth on, you know, our cows and everything. We're always working on. Um, you know, a lot of technology practicing things. So we had a cow, one of our actually foundation cows, I would probably say it's gonna sound weird. She came down with cancer on us real bad. And we thought we were gonna lose her, and I got to talking to a lot of people here and talking to actually one of our doctors, my my personal doctor, and he's big on you know natural medicine. He was like, You should try benzene. And we tried safeguard, and I actually saved her with safeguard worm benzene pellets, and that's a lot of our technology is still the old school way of things, you know. And like I said, we're trying to adapt into the DNA stuff. We've got some stuff DNA on file. Um the biggest thing is old school ways, and maybe I'll come out of it, maybe I won't. It's just the way I was raised. You know, I was raised where when you brand the calves, we bring them in, and it's an all-night branding and all-night working and stuff like that. But it's just I'll kind of set in old school ways. That's the way it is, and hopefully one day, you know, we'll move in to newer technology things, you know. But right now I think I'm kind of stuck in keeping everything in a notebook, you know, and we keep everything we know when our calves back up, we know what the feed ratios are, we know what our feed plan is, and it's all it's all in a notebook, red notebook. If I ever lose that red notebook, I'll be in a bind. But that's that's kind of the way we are with things. Um feed technology is big and that's kind of where we look into a lot, you know, seeing different feeds, what we are and what they have to approve and mineral, that's our two big things. That's what I pay the most attention to if we were gonna talk new technology things. You know, and what feeds what and new mineral coming out, what that mineral offers, and et cetera. That's kind of where we are in new technology things, I guess I would say.

SPEAKER_05 22:35

So I feel like uh feed and nutrition is something that folks a lot of times will guard pretty closely, right? Are you willing to are you willing to share any more information on you know what brands you're using, combinations you're using, what's worked, what hasn't?

SPEAKER_00 22:49

I would love to. I uh I actually try to turn a lot of people on to things. You know, we see a lot of things, and I've got some tips and tricks that I've done and we've explored with that I've really seen work. Um, you know, like our big stock, we feed our little stock. I have a it's a vitamin packet. We feed them every day. I mean, I probably shouldn't be telling my tips and tricks, but I've seen I've watched it turn, you know, the blood flow to the horns. I've watched them be white horned and watched them turn dark purple with just you know water minerals and stuff like that. We're big on um, you know, during the summertime, during the fly season, we feed perennial wind and rain. Um, that's medicated. You know, there's some people that are against that that you know try to stay the natural ways, but we're big on that. Um, you know, it helps treat foot rot. It helps, it's one of the preventative steps in that, and it helps keep the flies off of them, helps keep the flies from you know making them sick, stuff like that. Anaplasm is a big thing. Um a lot of times we've seen this year, we've seen we had a couple cows that I helped another ranch with. We seen foot rot because of the rain's like crazy out there. And you know, just being the preventative steps with good mineral, good feed, it really helped prevent us from that. I think we had one cow out of the whole rainy season get foot rot. And, you know, big thing we feed, we push cows. So, like I guess our show feed program is a little bit different when we're doing fraturity animals. I uh I we feed five pounds a day. That's what they get fed. And we have a bull, he's gonna be really nice. He's two years old coming up, he's a partnership bull with us and Mike. Um, first time heifer, and he's never been on creep. You know, normally we have creep out, but he was not a creep, and he was, you know, a first-time calf out of her, and he's real fleshy. And we've been feeding our showed feed mix. We have a stillwater milling, it's got a thing we call house mix. Um, it's full of DDG, corn, wheat mids, stuff like that. And I've tested it out, it tested like 17% protein, but it's high in fat, and the vitamin pack they put in it is outstanding. And we've seen really good luck in our maturity animals that way. Um, another one we feed, our regular cows are on DDG cubes. We've seen a outstanding, you know, cows backing up 60 days, 50 days on the regular, on good mineral, good feed. And that DDG cube works very well, and it's still reasonably affordable. And that's kind of that's the sum of our feeding program. And we try not to overfeed our cows, we try not to overfeed our faturity animals. We we want you to see most of the time our bulls are coming off pasture to a faturity, so how you see them there is how you're gonna see them in the field in their working shoes. And that's one thing I really push towards. If we bring a heifer, I don't want her overfed. I want her coming off the pasture, you know, maybe five pounds of feed a day. That's what our whole herd gets. And I want you to see that. And that's what we really push towards. I don't want to hide nothing. I'm not that person. I want you to see upfront what you're getting. And I want you to see how they're gonna grow. I want you to see how they're gonna maintain, raise a calf. And that's just the way we are.

SPEAKER_05 26:05

So, how you came to today's feed uh brands and rations, was it just kind of a learning process, trial and error? Did you get, you know, did you get some word-of-mouth uh recommendations to get started? Or tell me a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 26:19

You know, we I was in the Angus game with my grandparents, and we really pushed, you know, different feeds and watched different feeds and stuff like that. And Mike, another, you know, Mike Kendrick again, here he is, that's what he went to college for, and he really helped pinpoint us in things, and you know, he helped me adapt and learn what I needed to learn and look at feeds and stuff like that. And it's really, really, really helped push, you know, everything to the next level. And there's a lot of things I think, you know, that we all should people as you know, breeders should help each other, you know. Everybody keeps it hid, but I don't think so. I think if anybody ever wanted to call me and come look and see what I do, come on. You know, I want everybody to be successful in this. Nobody needs to hide anything.

SPEAKER_05 27:06

So, Heather, are you picky at all about the treats that you that you give when you spoil them or uh any special formulas there? No.

SPEAKER_03 27:15

No. We uh so I used to actually get they had uh treats for cows that tracked our supply, and then they quit carrying them. So they usually just get cubes. I usually just have them in my pocket, but they know that they're there.

SPEAKER_05 27:29

So they're not too bougie yet or anything with brand dollars.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

I will say though, we've even tried the uh alfalfa cubes.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

They don't want anything to do with them.

SPEAKER_05 27:41

I feel like maybe if they maybe if you guys were a little bit further north, they'd appreciate those, right? Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Yeah. For sure. Well, I did feed them alfalfa pellets the other day on their hay, and they were they were all right with that, but nope, they're all about their cake. If they can get cake or a treat, oranges. We've seen oranges work or carrots. Carrots work pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 28:01

Like donuts too. They do like donuts.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

We've got one that I she's a McDonald's French fry eater. Okay, 100%. She gets McDonald's french fries, you better be ready because she's coming. She can smell them.

SPEAKER_05 28:17

Like salty, huh?

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah. Guarantee to you that. So we got a variety of different characters in the anybody that ever wanted to come to the ranch, they would be, I'm telling you, they'd be shocked.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

Entertainment. I would say free entertainment, but there's nothing free about it.

SPEAKER_05 28:37

Well, you mentioned when we were talking about nutrition and then also some of your breeding uh philosophies, you have mentioned fraturities a couple of times. Yes. So let's talk a little bit about just the Longhorn community and networking and fraturities and events. How important do you think community is within the industry?

SPEAKER_00 28:54

A hundred percent. Huge. Huge. And I think it needs to stay tight. Um, you know, there's a lot of us out here and there's a lot of new breeders coming in every day. You know, we sold a bull and a cow, no, sorry, a heifer, to some people that were new in the breed, and I told them, you know, I gave them some phone numbers. I said, call these people, let them help you out, you know. And I think it's it's really big that we all stay together. You know, even you all, you all do more work than anybody could ever imagine. And I think that we should stay together, and I think it needs to be, you know, a community-wide event all the time. You know, everybody's got their different sales they want to go to, everybody's got different faturity things they look for, and I I think it's huge. You know, I think it's gonna help us evolve, you know, into a breed that it should be. I really do.

SPEAKER_05 29:46

Well, when you think back to when you all were new and you went to your first sale or your first futurity, whatever it may have been, it's always a little intimidating, right? You don't know many people.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

Yes, guarantee you. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 29:56

Don't know many people, you know, aren't if you brought animals, you're not sure where they're gonna fall, you know, and these things. What would be your advice, or maybe there's a story you can share, you know, for those breeders who are considering going to their first event um to meet others, what would be your advice or or insight you can give them?

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Go f go for it. And if you see somebody, walk up and talk to them. Just do it. I haven't found one bad person in this breed yet. You know, I've been able to talk to everybody, everybody's everybody's willing to help with open arms, and that's a big thing. That's a big, big thing. You know, I've been on both sides of it, and you get to some places where some people just don't want to talk to you about nothing, you know, and they're like, uh no, I don't think so, you know. And I think the Longhorn breed's all about helping the new person because you know, there's some people in our breed that we're gonna lose eventually, and I think it's big that we keep it going, you know. There's a lot of falling trades out here, a lot. And I think that the community coming together and helping, no matter who it is, you know, and I think it's a big thing. We sat at the back table at our first futurity event and never talked to nobody. I didn't know nobody, and you know, we sat through that whole sale and then I was like, hmm, well, we might as well intermingle with everybody. So that's the way it was, and we started talking and meeting and ended up at some people's ranches, bought some cows, and I think that's just the way it should be, you know. And we we love people. If people want to come to the ranch, we love it, you know. We'd love people to come out and see what we got. We're kind of a small breeder. We've got, like I said, 50-something cows, and it it's neat to watch people come out, you know, because I I like being a sleeper, a kind of guy, I guess. And we've got horn, we've got feet, we got stuff like that, but I'm always looking to advance, and that's one thing that if you're coming into this breed, you should know, you know, is the community will help you advance. You don't have to worry about being stuck in limbo. If you want to advance, you can reach out and people will help you get there. And I think that's really big of this breed. I really do.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

Do you have any other advice, Heather? Or are you just gonna ditto what he said?

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Um, yeah. Yeah. Just I mean, Austin, he doesn't meet a stranger. So for him to go, you know, and just make friends with whoever is no big deal. Had I been there by myself, I would have just sat at the back table in the corner and just watched everything and just, you know. But he said, Well, let's go talk to so-and-so. And and, you know, he'd already done his research online and so knew who some of the people were, but I just I just go along for the ride and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_05 32:34

Well, let's talk a little bit about your future goals. What are your goals and dreams for Big Creek Longhorns? Let's look at the next few years and then the next 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

So I'd say in the next few years, um let's see. Next, you know, over the next few years, I definitely want to advance. I want to be I want us to be known, you know, like everybody else. Um we want to advance our herd, be be one of, you know, you come to get elite cows here. You you'll get the confirmation, you'll get the horn. And that's really what I'm pushing towards. Um, the next 10 years, I want, you know, I want it to be a marketing thing. You know, right now we don't push much. You know, we've got we've got really nice stuff, but we don't push much. I don't we don't have anything to attend the big sales that I want to get rid of right now as we're still trying to build our program. Um the next 10 years, I hope we have something in every sale that everybody's got. And I hope, you know, that it really really opens some eyes that, you know, we what we chased and what I've put together and she's helped put together.

SPEAKER_05 34:16

If you could go back to your very first, let's say, six months with longhorns, what's one thing you would do differently?

SPEAKER_01 34:23

Um being a little bit more picky. That's what I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

A little bit more picky, um and doing a lot more studying before you jump in with your feet. I will say that. Uh I got my feet wet in the longhorn stuff without very much paying attention to everything, you know. That but our first cow we bought was supposed to be registered. I didn't know nothing about how they were registered with the brands, yada yada yada. And come to find out a cow wasn't registered, but it's just part of it. But really would be pedigree studying and paying attention, you know, and seeing what we were, being a little bit more picky and not just jumping in feet first. When we first jumped in, I bought everything we could buy. If it was under well, if it was a thousand bucks, we were buying it. And that's you know, we grew quickly and I started having to weed those out, you know, and some of those were coal cows, and that that's where I would definitely jump back and be like, okay, hold on, let's let's put some money where this cow needs to be, and you know, spend a little bit bigger money on nicer cows, if that makes sense. I'm always shopping for a deal, but definitely spend a little bit money on some better cows starting out. That way you're feeding something that will be productive, you know, because we don't get the calf market that the Angus and everybody else does with the longhorns being registered, you know. We're a roper is a thousand bucks, and you know, we're an Angus cow is two thousand dollars. It's a little bit more picky because when you get those pickier, smaller, you know, not so good cows, you don't get the quality that everybody looks for. So that's where I'm at with that. There's definitely be a lot more picky. And if anybody was to ask me what my thoughts were, I'd be like, don't jump in and buy everything you can buy. I promise. We'd we come out with some nice cows over that, I will say. But definitely be more picky.

SPEAKER_05 36:18

So you kind of you you touched on something that um I'm often curious about when I interview uh breeders like yourselves is um, you know, you mentioned that it's it's different from Ropers or Angus or you know, Herefords, that type of stuff. What do you say when someone, you know, that has experience with those types of commercial herds says, like, what are you doing with the longhorns?

SPEAKER_03 36:40

Why you know You get that all the time.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Every time all the time. Um, one of our good, you know, our good friends, Mike, again, this comes back to him, he raises the longhorns on Charlets and they do outstanding. You know, they wean with a great Charlet bull, they wean great calves and they do very well. But I tell them, I'm like, this breed, I'm not in it for, you know, to make the million dollars off a calf crop, you know. We can the cows are self-sufficient enough, you can pay your bills on a thousand dollar rope or a seven hundred dollar rope or especially in a volume. Um do I wish they were all females? Yeah, I really do. This year we had a horrible bull matchup, but we had some very good, I think that's gonna be some knockout potential herd sires come out of the deal too, you know. And if you sell this breed, if you sell, you know, a$3,500 heifer, that covers up, you know, that bull loss of a thousand bucks. Um my grandpa gives it to me all the time. He's like, them damn horn cows, why do you want them? And he's like, Can't make no money on those. And I say, well, you know, it's more of a it's more of a traditional thing, and it's a different lifestyle, you know, like to show Angus and show Charlet, Shar Cimitals, stuff like that. It's the same ball game. You know, just our bull calves don't bring as much, but that's not why we're in the breed, and that's not why, you know, we're pushing it to be outstanding, and that's what we're gonna try to do.

SPEAKER_05 38:09

So Alright, Heather, this one's for you. Tell me your funniest longhorn related story to date. Well man, there's a lot.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

I mean, I'll take more than one. We we have a while. Go for it. Well, so okay, just last week actually, we were um we had a flatbed trailer we were unloading hay out of off of, and the tractor wouldn't start, so we were having to push it off. And we turned around and one of our heifers, she's up on the trailer with us, eating the hay. Um let's see, what did we do? Get some pictures or video of it? I did. I did get a picture of it before the truck pulled forward and she got scared and she jumped off. Um what else?

SPEAKER_05 38:57

Oh goodness, you put me on the spot and now I can't think of anything. Have you guys ever bid against each other at an auction or on Hiring Live?

SPEAKER_03 39:07

I don't I stay away from the online auctions. Um, I bought one on accident. Oh, and then and then he's bought one on accident, but then they both turned out to be wonderful cows that are some of our favorites.

SPEAKER_05 39:19

Uh here's what I always ask folks when they use the on accident excuse. You have to push the button like two or three times. Are you sure it was an accident? Well, so these ones you had to swipe.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

I was on your auction where you got a swipe and I was logged in watching it, and I was sitting there messing with her like I was gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

And I swatted his hand, and when I did it, his finger drug the thing across, and nobody else bit after that. So, you know. And then the other one that he bought, um he says it was an accident. I don't know for sure. Uh he said he was dropping his phone.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

No, I threw my phone.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

Or threw I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

I was I was very angry at the feed truck. Oh, yes. Our feed truck just gave me some nightmares sometimes. And I threw my phone and it's another one. I was on the swipe thing and I threw my phone through down this swipe, but outstanding cow, and I'll give my point.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

She's and she just turned 90 inches. She just got to 90 inches.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

So no, that she's not at 90 yet. She's mid-80s.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

That's no, that was Lioncatcher that you bought.

SPEAKER_00 40:18

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

At least keeping it. Yeah. She's a very nice cow.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

We should, we should, by the end of the. Yeah, I bought.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

Mellow Yellow was the one that he bought.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Well, she ended up being an embryo cow. And she's a perfect cow.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

But she's one of our favorites now.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Um that's gotta be in your business 24-7. I call her my pocket picker. But she's a helper. Um we should theoretically, hopefully, by the end of next year, we should be we should have about nine cows at the 90-inch mark. And that's we're excited for it. We'll see what happens and we'll go from there.

SPEAKER_05 41:00

But that's awesome. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 41:05

Well, let's do a few rapid fire questions here. So, one answer from each of you. You can't discuss and agree on it. You can each have your own. All right. Okay. Morning coffee or evening sunsets on the ranch.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

Evening sunsets for me.

SPEAKER_05 41:20

Morning coffee. All right. Uh favorite work day, ranch day song or playlist? 90s country. Definitely 90s country. Who's your n who's your favorite nineties country star?

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Shania Twain.

SPEAKER_05 41:40

Yeah, same. Not gonna explain. Okay. Uh what's one farm task you probably shouldn't, but you secretly enjoy doing it? Branding.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

Horn measuring, worming, working the cow working the cows, I'll say that. So everything. Yeah. Yeah. I really enjoy it. You you never know what you're gonna get, and it's it's exciting sometimes. It gets western at times, and then sometimes it don't. But it's always teaching, you know, our boys out there, and it's everybody's already always learning, and that's that's a big thing for me. It's a big thing.

SPEAKER_05 42:52

What's one thing you always carry in your pocket?

SPEAKER_01 42:56

A pen.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

Don't know why.

SPEAKER_05 42:58

But it's with that red notebook, that's why. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

95% of the time there's a pen in my pocket.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

My phone. Oh, is that that's that's usually what I have in my pocket. Or a knife because you have cubes, right? Oh, yes, yeah. I yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Yeah, you're at the ranch, you gotta get it. Yeah, that's true. No matter who you are.

SPEAKER_03 43:18

Especially if we're working cows, I gotta keep in mind because I feel bad for them when they get put in the shoot. I have to give them treats and let them know that it's okay.

SPEAKER_05 43:27

If money were no object, what's the one thing you would add to your ranch?

SPEAKER_01 43:36

Money was no object. Let's see here. Probably indoor working facilities and indoor facilities for the cows.

unknown 43:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 43:53

I'm gonna have to piggyback on that one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:55

Air conditioned.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Air conditioned heatered the whole nine yards.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

I got a good taste of the cold last year. We actually stopped breeding to calve in February. I will not ever do it again. I got a we lost a calf, and then I ended up pulling a calf in about negative 10 degree weather, and I will never do it again. Never.

SPEAKER_03 44:16

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Out of our first cow, actually, the crossbred cow, she had a huge longhorn calf, and I ended up pulling it, and I was like, nope, we're done. We're not gonna calve in February no more.

SPEAKER_05 44:26

So what is the what's the average winter temperature there?

SPEAKER_00 44:31

It's all over the place. Our our seasons have been so weird the last couple three years that you never know what you're gonna get. Like today it's like 60 degrees outside. And then this weekend it drops into the 30s.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

And then Usu usually though I I remember like as a kid, it didn't get this cold. Yeah. But like this past February, we had winchels of negative 17. And that's that's Iowa weather right there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

Yeah, it was rough.

SPEAKER_03 45:01

And that's when we were out there, he was pulling a calf and we had lost one the day before. And normally I would say, you know, 20s for the winner is normal for us. But these last couple years, it's not been normal, and it's been rough.

SPEAKER_05 45:19

If you had a hashtag for your ranch, the ideas on every post, every ad, put it on the side of your truck, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 45:27

I feel you have to answer it too. Hashtag funny form.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

That's what we call it, is the funny farm. So That's a good one actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:42

Yeah. You can go with that one?

SPEAKER_03 45:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:45

Alright. Couple more here. Uh what would your ideal herd size be?

SPEAKER_03 45:51

I'm happy with where we're at. So 50-ish.

SPEAKER_05 45:55

50 mama cows or 50 total?

SPEAKER_03 45:59

50 total. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

I like to keep the mama cows around like the 30 range. Yeah. You can be a lot. If you can get the numbers I'm gonna I'm gonna touch it this way, real quick and simple. If you can get the numbers, you can gamble a lot more. I will say that. And you don't you can s you can mix anything. You can make anything happen. And you can do that with numbers, but I really like being hands-on with my cows, and I don't feel like you can do that with big, big herds like that. Well, I'm I'm with mine every day. I see mine every day for at least two hours. And when they are at the house, you know, when our heifers come to the house for the weaning pen, I'm out there three or four times a day if I'm at home. And I I think that's a big part on making, you know, the disposition and stuff like that the way it is.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

And I really think probably Yeah, I'm gonna say I'm gonna go with 50 to 60.

SPEAKER_05 46:57

Okay. All right, last rapid fire here. Um if you could only attend one livestock event every year for the rest of your life, which one would you pick? Horn showcase.

SPEAKER_00 47:08

Yep, hands down, horn showcase.

SPEAKER_05 47:10

What what holds a special place in your heart for that one?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

You see everything from around the country, well, around the United States, you know, you get to see where everybody's at, measurement-wise, you get to see a lot of animals, and you get to see a lot of people. Bull Alley, it's a fun event.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

Um, hopefully we get one of our bulls in there in the next couple years. We just we had one on lease come back where he wasn't, you know, where he should have been and he was recovering. But I really hope that you know we can get one in there. And I think that's a cool event. The concert, it's just an overall, yeah. It's fun. For a three-day event, it's a blast. I will hands down say it.

SPEAKER_05 47:46

Yep. Well, let's switch gears and talk a little bit about your website and some internet marketing here. So um, you know, you you all have mentioned how much personality your cattle have, and it's it's talked about quite a bit on your website as well. How has having a website helped you share some of those stories?

SPEAKER_00 48:05

You know, we can kind of pinpoint now. Before it was all pictures of the cows from a cell phone, you know, and then I would have to go in and show people, you know, like take a picture of the pedigree or whatever and send it to them. And the website's helped us greatly, you know, advertising, and I can click, you know, if I want to pinpoint a cow, like last night I sent a cow to a lady, and you just, you know, you send them the pedigree's there, or measurements, or prodigy, or prodigy, however you say that word. Progeny. Progeny. And uh it it really helps. And you know, when you can click on yawn, you can take it to the mother, you can take it to the father, and you can just go down that line and see the prod prodigy of everything. It it really, really helps. It really does. And I think it's helped it helps with me with my studying a lot too, because I'll start going down the family line and looking at the family lines, how how their babies look, how their mom's babies look, how their dad's babies look, you know, and look at everything. Does that mom have a perfect udder and just things like that? We've got a cowgirl up, she's out of an EOT cow, Cadillac cowgirl out of GL Painted Savage, and you know, that's kind of how I tracked her. Is we went back in, you could see her sisters that were still growing horn at 12, 14 years old, and they're in their 90s, and her mom's in her 90s almost to her hundreds, and it really it really helps. It really, really helps. And if I think if people don't have a website, they should. We waited a long time for that. And yeah, I really think that we should have done it in the beginning. I really do.

SPEAKER_05 49:38

Now that you have your hired hand website, what do you enjoy most about it? Like what's your favorite feature to either go in and update or to utilize on the back end?

SPEAKER_00 49:48

Um, let's see. Really tracking progress. I mean, it really helps tracking progress too. I guess that would be one of the new technology things you said. Um, it kind of helps track, you know, horn progress, prodigy progress, and stuff like that. I really think it does help track keep track of things and birth dates and calves and everything. I think it really helps with that.

SPEAKER_05 50:12

How many hours a week do you think you spend looking at other people's hired hand websites?

SPEAKER_03 50:18

That's a lot for my hubby here. It in downtime, he's not scrolling Facebook. No, I look over and he's on you know this ranch and then go into this, and that's what he does in his spare time is studies cows.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

I enjoy it more than I do scrolling through social media social media.

SPEAKER_05 50:38

I mean, I hate being that way, but what do you think that the last three animals you or last three websites you looked at were?

SPEAKER_00 50:46

Um well, I looked at Pace yesterday. I went through I think I went through Dale's last night again. And then I caught myself back on RTG's uh website. We bought a cow from them at the Legends.

unknown 51:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Yeah, Legends sale. And I've kind of been uh Cassie's girl. Oh and I've been kind of keeping track and looking to see what they got and never know. I'll looking for a road trip. We may go hit a bunch of different ranches this year.

SPEAKER_05 51:18

Oh, it would be quite a road trip.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah, big road trip.

SPEAKER_03 51:23

Where's that one at?

SPEAKER_00 51:24

Like up by New York.

SPEAKER_03 51:25

Oh. See, this this is all him. I just I go out and love on him. I can tell you a little bit about him, but he's the mastermind behind all of it.

SPEAKER_05 51:35

Well, you mentioned that you like scrolling, you know, longhorns and longhorn websites better than social media. Did you know? I may Heather, maybe you'll kill me for telling him this, but on our on our on our hired hand website page, we have what's called a resources page. And did you know that you can scroll through every photo that's been updated in the past week, every measurement that's been updated in the past week?

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Didn't know that. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 52:01

So bookmark that if you like scrolling, there's lots of uh lots of new information on there.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

Yeah, I'll have to go through that. I've never paid attention to that.

SPEAKER_05 52:09

Yeah, links back to every single animal it shows.

SPEAKER_00 52:12

Really?

SPEAKER_05 52:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 52:14

Yep, you're gonna have to dig through that then. I'll be in a rabbit hole later tonight, I promise.

SPEAKER_05 52:18

There you go. Sorry, Heather. That's okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:21

There could be worse things, right? There absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 52:25

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 52:26

I don't know about more expensive though. This it's an expensive hobby, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

So I feel like we covered a lot of ground today. Is there anything that I haven't asked you all about that you want to make sure our listeners know about um your ranch or your breeding program?

SPEAKER_00 52:45

No, I think we pretty much touched on everything. If anybody wants to come out, feel free to reach out. Um reach out to me on Facebook. My number's on Facebook from all the Longhorn groups, I promise. Um reach out, come look, you know. We'd be happy if somebody wants to come down and if they're from a long ways away, I'll put you up in a motel room for the night. We got a ranch house, but the guy's living in the ranch house, so I don't want to board you up with him, but we're we're always looking for people to come out.

SPEAKER_05 53:12

And what part of Oklahoma are you all located in for the folks thinking about visiting? Central.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

So we're an hour from Oklahoma City and an hour from Tulsa. So right in the middle of both of the big towns.

SPEAKER_05 53:26

Perfect. Well, thank you both so much for joining us on From the Pasture with Hired Hand. Uh, listeners, we hope you enjoyed this visit to Big Creek Longhorns and got a glimpse into the ranch life that they have filled with faith, family, resilience, and plenty of Longhorns with personality. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can also explore more stories from the pasture by visiting our website or following us on social media. Until next time, remember to appreciate the pastures you roam and the traditions that make them special.