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
continuation of agriculture.
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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.
You make the decisions. Don't Don't ever
get that confused. When you get ready to
sell them, you sell them. They're 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