Common Ground Coalition: 5 Ways Ranchers Can Secure Agriculture's Future

Join hosts Ty deCordova and guest host 2024 WLAC Wade Leist as they sit down with Alabama cattle producer Eric Smith, one of 40 stakeholders in the Livestock Marketing Association's Common Ground Coalition.

Eric breaks down the historic summit that brought together diverse livestock leaders to tackle the industry's biggest challenges with one unified voice. Discover the 5 key priorities that could reshape America's livestock future:

✅ Ag-friendly tax policy 
✅ Effective risk management tools
✅ Improved labor access 
✅ Livestock hauler flexibility 
✅ Support for young producers

From preserving family farms to ensuring America's food security, this episode reveals why now is the pivotal moment for livestock producers to unite. Eric shares insider details from the Denver summit and explains how these initiatives will impact your operation in the coming years.

Whether you're a cattle rancher, livestock buyer, or industry stakeholder, this conversation provides actionable insights on joining the movement to strengthen America's livestock industry.

Learn more: https://www.commongroundsummit.net
Submit your guest or topic ideas:  https://heyor.ca/sq3C0d

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Creators and Guests

Host

Ty deCordova

Ty DeCordova is a seasoned professional with more than 25 years of experience in cattle marketing. He spent 20 years at Superior Livestock Auction, including his final years managing the Country Page as well as the block during video auctions. This allowed Ty to develop a deep understanding of the cattle industry's operations and build relationships with cattle buyers on a national level. Ty now oversees all operational aspects of the business, ensuring efficiency and excellence across all areas. Ty comes from a family with a long-standing history in the cattle industry. Growing up in Groesbeck, Texas, he and his brother started their own cattle business during their teenage years, purchasing and selling loads of steers. By the age of 17, Ty was actively involved in buying cattle at sale barns for his father, gaining hands-on experience. This early exposure to the sale-barn environment shaped his lifelong passion and expertise in cattle marketing. Ty continues to run cattle today and is committed to serving the agriculture industry.

Host

Wade Leist

Wade Leist is the 2024 World Livestock Auctioneer Champion, earning the top honor from a field of more than 100 auctioneers across the U.S. and Canada. Though he grew up helping at his family’s sale barn in Gaylord, Michigan, Wade never set out to become an auctioneer. What began as selling his own stock turned into a career defined by grit, humility, and a deep respect for livestock producers. Raised on a cow-calf operation, Wade understands firsthand the long nights, harsh weather, and hard work that come with ranch life. He carries that experience into every sale, striving to honor the trust cattlemen place in him and to remind them that their work matters. Known for both his talent behind the mic and his authenticity in the industry, Wade brings passion and gratitude to every auction he calls.

Producer

Katy Holdener

Katy Holdener's journey in agricultural communications began on her family's row crop farm in California's Central Valley, where she developed a deep appreciation for the industry. After earning a degree in Agricultural Communications and Economics from Oklahoma State University, Katy has been fortunate to work with respected organizations such as the American Hereford Association, American Angus Association, Superior Livestock Auction and BioZyme, Inc. These experiences have provided her with valuable insights into seedstock and commercial livestock marketing. Katy strives to create effective marketing strategies that support the company and its consignors.

What is We Live It | LiveAg's Livestock Marketing Podcast?

Welcome to the "We Live It" ranch and livestock marketing podcast, where cattle market intelligence meets ranch-ready wisdom. Join hosts Ty deCordova with LiveAg and Casey Mabry with Blue Reef Agri-marketing as they bring you straight-talk market analysis, proven strategies, and insights from industry leaders who understand ranching isn't just a business - it's a way of life.
From livestock market trends to cattle management practices, each episode delivers actionable knowledge to help take your ranching operation to the next level. Whether you're in the saddle or in the truck, tune in for conversations that matter to modern cattlemen. Because we don't just talk about the cattle business...we live it.

Coming up, one of the things that we're

doing is passing legislation that allows

that to happen in Congress. So, if we

can get that, we're looking at some ways

for new and young farmers to enter the

business. You have an opportunity today

to use this LRP product to lock in those

prices for next year's calf crop.

That's right around the corner on the

live a ranch and livestock marketing we

live at podcast. But first, a reminder.

If it's time to sell your cattle,

consign your cattle with Liveag. Our

summer auction schedule is on your

screen and available at live-ag.com.

Consign your cattle now and take

advantage of Live A's generations of

experience in livestock marketing. Now,

here's your hosts, Tid Cordova and Casey

Mabry.

Welcome to the We Live It podcast. We

are pre-recording a few of these here at

Cooper Barbecue. Um, we want to thank

Barry Cooper and family for allowing us

to be here. This has been an awesome

venue for us here at Live Aag. Um, with

me today once again, Casey has build.

So, we have the fill in here, Wade

Elish, if let me make sure I say it

right. And, uh, with us also, we have

Eric Smith out of, uh, Alabama. So, um,

we're going to kind of talk here today

about some common ground issues with,

uh, several different organizations that

come together. LMA brought several

different organizations together to to

go over and to to become united on

several different fronts. But first,

kind of give it background on how you

two know each other. I mean, kind of

where where y'all met and how y'all met

and all that.

Yeah, when I uh was traveling around for

the World Championship for for the LMA,

uh the guys at Elite, Jerry Ethridge and

Daryl Stokes and them, they they were

they needed an auctioneer for one

special sale. So, I went down. I ended

up making a a tour all the way through

Alabama and got to meet Eric there. We

had a nice dinner there and uh I was

supposed to stay at a hotel that ended

up getting cancelled. We had there was a

hurricane come through just about that

time

and and all the rooms were needed for

rescue people.

Yeah. Yeah. They were coming down to uh

reset the power, I think, or or getting

prepared for it. Maybe that's what it

was. They were staging. So, I got kicked

out of my room and uh couldn't have

worked out any better. here. I was kind

of kind of upset about the deal and Eric

said, "Well, I'm it's where you you

background some cattle."

That's right. One of my backgrounders

and uh his bunk house, which is really

pretty elaborate.

I should say it's not a normal bunk

house. I've seen it.

Yeah, we was out there the mic and

stayed in the other day. So,

okay. Pretty pretty good selection of

bourbon in there, too, if I remember

right.

I can't remember.

But we had a we had a good time down

there. I really enjoyed my time in

Alabama. uh got to got to hang out with

these guys at Elite and that's when they

were they were having their independent

sales and they they did a tremendous job

and that's why when I heard that we were

we were all going to merge I I was

pretty excited about that because I know

I knew that a bangup job.

Yeah, they they it's been an awesome

addition to live a that that group down

there. They they do a tremendous job. So

Eric, let's kind of get into a little

bit of what what is Common Ground?

What's the Common Ground Summit? What

what what does it entail? um what are

the key issues that y'all are working

on? Let's kind of get into some depth of

that.

Before we get there, let me follow up on

what you just said. I mean, it's been a

a great partnership for Elite to come

together with live a uh we've grown our

elite

footprint that in ways we couldn't have

done without coming together. So, just

let you know, we appreciate that the

customers out there in the country, you

know, it's a better way to serve them

and it's a better way to be together. So

it's pro progress.

Uh common ground summit was something

that was several years in the making. It

started out maybe four or five years ago

with quite a few of the livestock groups

coming together to try to find some way

to keep producers in agriculture. And

that simmered along for quite a little

while and nothing ever moved off the

center. And so I'm going to give a lot

of props to LMA for this. They they saw

that it was a need. They they just

decided after a while that they were

willing to just take it up and go on

their own. And we've been fortunate that

it's been accepted across the country.

These are not problems that are brand

new. Agriculture's always been a low

margin business. Uh in the past it was

so simple that when operations changed

they stayed in agriculture. It might

have been a different person. It might

have been a family expanded.

Uh young people stayed on the place and

the ranch just grew. Today is not that

way because all of a sudden people have

valued property and they have valued

coming in and when there's land

available other entities take it either

recreation we've seen development uh

it's probably not as big a deal today is

still a deal but solar these alternative

energies are a little probably not as

strong as they were six months ago.

We've evolved this organization into a

name now that's called u

common grounds just common grounds. So

the summit part is beyond us. Um yeah

well I think sorry I think what the LMA

did was they looked at these multiple

organizations and said you know they

don't agree on a whole lot of things. Uh

in the end though they all we all want

the same thing regardless. Yeah.

Regardless of the organization we all

want the same thing in the end. And

along the way, there are a few things

that everybody agrees on. Sure. And and

can agree on? And I think that's where

the root of this came from was to say,

can we at least find four or five things

that we all agree on? And if those four

or five things are productive in saving

agriculture and keeping people in

agriculture, keeping farmers uh in

agriculture and producers, then why not

why not stand on those? the the best

part I I I got out of the deal, what I

thought was so great was when they did

have the the the initial meeting and and

the follow-up meetings when those

different organizations come in the

room, you leave your policies at the

door. No matter if it's LMA or or Tupper

and that group or whoever's coming, the

policies, your policy, your organization

policies stay at the door. We're going

to come in here, we're going to talk

about four or five key issues. We're all

going to get aligned. We're all going to

get behind it. and then you're going to

go to your own organizations and we're

going to attack it that way. I think

it's a great idea. It's it's

one of the things we want to make clear

is this is not an LMA

organization. This is not an LMA. This

is a producer push. This is who is, you

know, driving this. LMA is the vehicle,

but the producers are actually running

this thing. And so it's a huge

cross-section across the country. Wade

and I are from a north and south

geographical position. As far away from

each other as you can possibly be with

the same problems and the same interest

and the same solutions that we got to

come up with as if we were neighbors. H

how do you how do you go about learning

more about it? Where do you go to to

learn? Where do you go to sign the

petition? Because that's a big thing

that they're trying to get a lot of

names on the petition petition. Where do

you where do you do that at?

The signup is really growing. Uh there's

every time we have a meeting across the

country, Common Ground has someone there

as a representative and for the sign up

and for the information outreach and out

push uh you go to the website Common

Ground Coalition. It's uh out there

right now. So if you'll just go to that,

we don't need your information. We don't

need your affiliation. We don't need

anything other than your signature that

says I support agriculture and the

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get started today. That's the big thing

is join us. Show the a unity. And that

unity then we've got to have some

government help. We've got to have some

people in Congress that are willing to

say we're going to stand beside you and

make the business climate

uh an opportunity to be successful.

You're still gonna have to work at it.

You're still going to have to be

productive. But if the business climate

can support us, then I think we've got a

a real chance to continue on.

Yeah. This isn't asking for government

handouts by any

Oh, absolutely not.

Yeah. They u So talk about some of those

common things that all these

organizations have had. I I think there

was four or five. We talked to Cali

about it in Boise. uh she came from LMA,

but what are a few of these really

common uh denominators amongst all these

organizations?

I I'm a prime example of what this

organization and the common ground

should be. My wife and I started and

have grown from a small outfit to a

pretty big operation. Uh we run a lot of

yearlings, cover a lot of ground. I've

got three sons. All of those are ranch

raised, super good young men. None of

them are going to be back on the ranch.

They might own ranches. They might

manage ranches, but they're not going to

come back because they've got outside

interest in other jobs. My dream is not

their dream. And so what we've got to do

in my own particular operation is find

some way to continue

cattle on my ground with another person

who does want to do that. And so we've

got to have some way for those people to

buy in. The thing we can't do is

penalize the retiring farmer by saying,

"Oh, we want you to keep it in a but

you're going to have to do it at a

discount."

All of our lives we've acquired and made

land payments and struggled and made,

you know, farm loans, bank loans.

We've got to be able to reap that reward

here at the end. And one of the things

that we're doing is passing legislation

that allows that to happen in Congress.

So if we can get that, everybody wants

to talk about the estate tax, but really

the estate tax is just when you're dead.

We need retirement mechanisms. And so

that's one end of it. On the other end,

we're looking at some ways for new and

young farmers to enter the business,

which is so difficult because of the

cost of involved today. So we had an

idea one time. is not going to maybe go

anywhere. But if we could we could

classify livestock production like a

municipality is,

municipalities borrow money from

financial institutions at quite a lower

rate. And so if we could be classified

as that same thing, perhaps our interest

rates could be down two or three points

from where they were, which would make a

huge difference

uh in getting into the industry. So

those are each end of the spectrum and

there's a good bit in the middle.

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Well, there's two things I I want to

talk about. Um, I'll get to the second

one. The first thing, all I heard on

that was that he's taking applications

for grandkids to take over for him.

I was thinking that he was looking for

somebody putting the wheel and I was

going to put my hand in the

I saw your hand kind of fleeing there.

There's going to we're going to have

people signing up for uh common ground.

We're going to have people calling you

and and and asking how they can uh be

your apprentice. Yeah.

Uh the other thing you you deal a lot

with this uh LRP, livestock risk

protection, and I know that that is one

of the topics that they're talking about

with the common ground. Can you get into

to that a little bit? Some of the

benefits that you see uh long-term in

viability of of producers.

It's just a business. And if you're

looking at it any other way than this is

your business, then you're mistaken. Uh

we're in a competitive world today and

there's opportunities out there and

there are tools out there. LRP is one of

those tools. It's one of the few

programs that's been established that's

actually gotten better is it's got a

little age and maturity to it. uh

there's an opportunity to have some

input about other things that you would

like to see the program grow at.

I encourage people every day to evaluate

their operation and see if it has a

place for them. So right now we've got

the most phenomenal cattle prices in

the, you know, in the history of the

cattle industry.

And you have an opportunity today to use

this LRP product to lock in those prices

for next year's calf crop. And there's

no reason for you not to look at that

and take that into consideration.

There's a variety of options into there

and you can fine-tune that program to

anything that works for you.

I'm in the yearland business so it

absolutely works for me. I can't afford

to have a market pullback and not cover

the calves that I'm we're buying every

day. We know we're going to get a great

deal with live a on our sales. On the

other hand, you can't, you know, you

can't

uh foretell the future and see those

unexpected glitches. Fundamentally, the

cattle market is

the most incredible it could be.

We can sell them high, but we can only

sell them within today's market.

Oh, you're you're going to bring at the

top of the market for what the market

is,

right? And what you're saying is if that

market isn't where you projected it to

be, you can lock in a profit with your

LRP.

This is risk protection. Yeah,

it's a tool for producers to have and it

keeps you in business. It It's a solid

thing. It's like every car in a parking

lot or every house you see driving down

the road, every one of them's got

insurance on them and every one of them

hope they don't ever have to use it. On

the other hand, when the house is

burning down, you can't get insurance.

So, this is the time check with your

agents. Uh the product is the same. It's

a crop insurance for calf kind of a

program. And as producers and industry

leaders, we've struggled for this to get

something like this for our our sector

of the industry for years and we finally

are there. We encourage people to use it

or at least look at it. That that's the

my biggest thing is a lot of a lot of

producers out there, cow cap guys out

don't understand it and it scares them.

And so that's one thing we as industry

need to do better is going and educating

these guys with these cow herds on on

Yeah, the yearling guys are knowing it.

They're they're in the business. They're

they're used to it. They they protected

their yearlings for years. The stalker

guys have done it all. But these

producers, these cow calf guys never I

mean never had nothing like that. So now

when they see something like that, it

just kind of they're like standoffish

are like what are they trying to they're

trying to get me here? There's another

way they're trying to get a dollar off

of me. So if it's we need to as an

industry as a industry whole, we need to

we need to do a better job of explaining

that to those smaller producers that

that need to understand it.

Well, think about that producer. Let's

say there's a producer 60 years old and

they got 100 cows and they've and

they've and they've built that cow herd

up since they were, you know, 20 years

old or something. They already out of

high school. How many times in that 40

years that they've been building that

herd have they been taken advantage of,

you know, throughout throughout their

lifetime, throughout their career? And

so when something like LRP comes in and

they and they don't understand it, it's

another thing that could potentially be

taken advantage of, though. So there's

got to be a more thorough explanation.

And I'm sure there's going to be people

watching this podcast uh that we use

those term or we use the the

abbreviation LRP or we use LMA. you

know, LRP, we're talking about livestock

risk protection. And we're talking about

insuring the animals that you have uh

into the future

into the future to price protect them.

You're not insuring your calf. You still

have to do a good job in production. You

get paid for what you produce, but we

are protecting price. So, this price has

run up.

Remarkably,

some of the people who are against a lot

of things

for no for no special reason at all will

tell people, "Oh, this is a terrible

program. This is something that the

government is just telling you and

they're managing your cattle and they're

telling you what you got to do." That is

absolutely not true. People ask me those

questions every day because I talk LRP

to people every day. And I tell every

one of them, "These cattle are yours.

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know, he's passionate about about not

only LRP and it's part of your business,

but and you feel like it benefits

producers and so he he's really

passionate about it. And when I got to

talk to him in Alabama, I found out he's

very passionate about the common ground.

He's passionate about producers and and

uh you know, when I talk to somebody

like that and you can see that in their

eyes, you think like, man, there's

something there's something different

about this guy. And then he told me

where he went to college and what he did

there. Tell us tell us about that.

I you know, I don't know. We may not be

able to tell all those things. I

You don't have to tell all the stories.

I went to Old Miss and and I was a

football player there. And I've been

fortunate in my life like a little a lot

of kids growing up, you know, you're

trying to decide what you want to be and

some kids want to be football players

and some kids want to be soldiers and

some people want to be cowboys. And I've

been fortunate enough in my life that I

got to be all three. So I'm a past

military, past football, current cowboy.

That's where that dogged determination

comes from right there. You don't do any

of those things without having some

determination.

I'm going to tell you lots of grit and

lots of determination. So, well guys, is

there anything else we want to touch on

before we kind of shut this thing off

here?

I really do. Just a minute, Ty. I I

really want people to understand this is

important. This is the future of the

industry. This is an opportunity for us

to be proactive. Jump out there in

front. say that it's not just about

ranchers and farmers. It's about rural

communities. When you lose a ranch and

you turn it into development or you turn

it into recreation,

all of those little businesses go away.

All of those are dependent on what we

do. So, our reach goes way out. And if

it's important for you for the United

States to continue to be food uh

food friendly or food supportive or we

don't want to be food dependent.

That's that's what we absolutely don't

want to do. We don't want to import all

of our stuff.

In my lifetime

after World War II, I'm not that old,

but we lost we've given up

most of our manufacturing. We've given

up most of our knowledge. We've given up

a lot of our wealth. The only thing we

hadn't really given up is agriculture.

And I'm determined in my productive

career that I'm going to campaign that

we continue to have a solid agricultural

base.

Well, this is one of those opportunities

to not say somebody should have done

something.

Y

this this is an opportunity to actually

step in and say we're going to do this.

Sign up.

Sign up. If you'll go to the website,

sign your name. That's the biggest thing

we need. Support.

If you go to Congress and you don't have

a lot of names and support on there, you

don't get much attention. That's just

the way it is.

Common Groundscoal dot is it or it'll be

in the it'll be in the chat. It'll be on

the on the link to of the of the

podcast. So,

it will pop up if you'll just type in

Common Grounds. It

pops up Common Grounds Coalition. And if

if you will when you're watching this,

just go to that site, research it, get

more information for yourself. And and

as you read through it, you'll you'll

understand that you want to be a part of

it cuz it is a industrywide. It's not

just one

ranchers and farmers. It's it's just

Americans that think that that think of

agriculture is important to this

country.

Yep. You don't have to own cows. You

don't have to have a farm. you if you

think being dependent on just solely

American farms and American ranchers to

produce our food here in America, this

is something you need to get behind.

Correct. That's where we that's our

message.

So, okay. Well, thanks everybody. Thank

you guys for for joining us today.

I appreciate being here.

Appreciate you flying in.

Yeah, you bet. And

so, thank everybody out there in social

media land for watching this uh We Live

It podcast. Once again, we can't thank

y'all enough for supporting us. If you

have any comments, please comment on

this. If you have any questions, please

ask those questions. We will get back to

you with the answers. If we don't know

them, we'll call Eric. He knows them.

So, subscribe, like, um, all those good

things. Uh, and we appreciate you and

God bless.

Rattling in your bones