you don't want to be that guy that that
goes out and he's planted his wheat he's
got it Formed he gets some rain and that
wheat pops up and we see them come in
all the time and we see them come sit
down at the barn and try to buy their
wheat cattle and it it just it's a whole
lot cheaper to go out there and find the
guy that does that on a daily basis to
buy those cattle for you so go find
somebody you trust somebody that you
know that that does a really good job of
doing that and it it does it every day
on a daily basis sits through them sell
barns or sets through a video sale or
whatever he may do but he does it that's
his job it's a whole lot cheaper to hire
a professional than it is to try to go
do some of that yourself if you're not
used to doing that welcome to we live it
the live a podcast your source for
livestock market insights management
strategies and real conversations with
those who don't just work in the cattle
industry they live it here are your
hosts tidy Cordova and Casey mayy
[Music]
welcome welcome back to we live it uh
the live live a podcast with Casey maber
and myself Ty de cardova um once again
we have John Sloan on again this is a
part two of a series we decided to do
with John uh the last series last week
we talked about uh Market strategies the
volatility of the market the banking
aspect of all of it this week we're
going to dive into what we call a strand
a strand a strategy or planning um and
and John we've talked through some of
this stuff and Casey we visited about it
you know just the strategy of the
different types of operations whether
it's a wheat grass guy or a feed yard
guy that's going to finish fed cattle so
Casey you want to kind of talk on that a
little bit kind of lead into what John's
going to get to yeah I think we're going
to kind of break this into two parts and
so we're going to do a little bit of
role playing type stuff and so John look
what I was telling you before is uh you
know how do we get to a plan and so I
think you had some great Insight on that
and I think it's going to be very
educational in my mind so I mean we're
going to jump right into it so um let's
play a little bit of scenario and let's
say I'm a guy that's been feeding some
cattle or running some cattle on grass
let's talk about grass first I've been
running some cattle on grass uh you know
maybe I had two or 300 head of cattle
but now I'm starting to get bigger um
now I'm running a th000 or 1500 or 2,000
head of cattle uh my banking's become
more complex uh my scope has become more
complex you know what's I made a little
bit of money on two or 300 head of
cattle really good margins on a dollars
per head standpoint and I wanted to grow
it's kind of like whenever we you know
one scoop of ice cream is good let's go
after about five or six of them so um I
think it's really important to go
through some of the things that you talk
about uh to make sure that we don't
stubber toe or make mistakes and so
again let's talk about the grass guy the
wheat pasture guy the guy that's going
to buy lightweight cattle and sell an
eight weight perfect so that yeah that's
uh that's a great subject and that's
something that we see every day and the
way I like to think of it is uh let's
talk not necessarily about the guy
that's very established been doing this
a long time he got a whole team built
and you know maybe he's a bigger
operator what I'd like to focus on is
the the the person who maybe they're you
know 35 years old they're trying to grow
their business and they're thinking
through all the things you just said
Casey so the way I whether it's a cattle
feeding business or whether uh it's an
advertising agency you have to have a
plan to run a business you have to have
a strategy and the way I I think of it
is I like to break it down into steps so
in the cattle business the first step is
cattle procurement
so if a if a person came in and said I
want to be in cattle feeding i' I'm I'm
looking to buy some uh cattle coming off
pasture to put in the feed yard the
first question I'm going to ask them is
well how are you going to buy these
cattle where are you going to who's
going to help you are you experienced at
that uh how are you going to procure
them so that you can give yourself the
most advantage does that make sense to
you guys yeah it makes a lot of sense
and growing up in that in that industry
where um my dad my grandpa and them had
a order buying company and and we've
bought Catal out sale barn since we were
I don't know me and my brother started
probably started going to sales when we
were 17 or 18 in order buying for for my
dad's order buying company um that's a
real real thing to concentrate on you
don't want to be that guy that that goes
out and he's planted his wheat he's got
it formed he gets some rain and that
wheat pops up and we see them come in
all the time and we see them come sit
down at the barn and try to buy their
wheat cattle and it it just it's a whole
lot cheaper to go out there and find the
guy that does that on a daily basis to
buy those cattle for you so go find
somebody you trust somebody that you
know that that does a really good job of
doing that and and does it every day on
a daily bases sets through them cell
barns or sets through a video Cale or
whatever he may do but does it that's
his job it's a whole lot cheaper to hire
a professional than it is to try to go
do some of that yourself if you're not
used to doing that cuz first thing
you're going to do is get at that cellb
barn and you got to create your seat
Well them guys that come over there
every week they ain't going to let you
have that seat so it's it's a whole lot
better on you if you'll if you'll if
you'll find somebody that you trust to
to procure those cattle for you cuz they
can get it done not saying they can do a
better job than you but they can do a
better job than you um so that would be
my advice so you think they can do a
better job than you yeah exactly well I
can only imagine I mean you think
there's always those guys that we all
think that he can save 50 cents or a
buck a hundred um and he goes and sits
in the sail Barn in his local area and
and and he's thinking about his scope
you know and that in that scope uh the
sail barn might be high that day just
for their uh but even though they see
that new and that fresh Blood come in
there and they just hammer down on him
so yeah the the uh I think back to one
story where I was you know and I was uh
just started out with Cargill and I was
the world po Poker Tour was going on and
I slipped into Golden Colorado and went
in one of those poker rooms and I
thought I was going to take them old
men's money and yeah it's about like
going in there trying to buy calvs in
the sail Barn I'm guessing I remember
going to Barn for the first time and you
know they always talked about this
certain barn out the cattle I mean the
guys there they were tough I mean it was
rugged and you get there and you try to
get in there and start buying cattle and
my goodness my dad would chew me I'm I
mean how are you buying how are they $10
higher than mine well you've been doing
it for 40 years and I haven't so now
they're just they're just taking dead
aim at you and that's just like anybody
you know just fresh blood in the water
you just kind of attack them so what's
the easiest way to get like how do you
get a hold of somebody I mean what's the
I mean how do so let's say I'm going to
relinquish procurement I'm going give a
guy an order I'm going to work with
somebody there's not like an Uber for
for order buyers so what's the easiest
thing to
do talk to your neighbor or talk to some
friends that are doing it talk to
somebody that's in the business and
that's successful in the business and
say hey who who are you using uh who who
PR your stuff for you who procures your
cattle for you or I mean go to the local
markets your local sale barns just sit
down around and watch and and see a guy
that you like what he's doing I mean
like guys sitting there tending to
business buying cattle not buying all of
them not just making the market he's
tending to them he's keeping cattle cost
in this just doing a really really good
job I mean you can go find them guys
that you trust and get a relationship
with them there were some people that my
dad bought cattle for that I never seen
and he might have met once but we bought
cattle for them for 30 years and some of
them my brother still does at at the
order binding company he still buys
cattle for them same people we might
have made them met them one time but we
send them cattle every year and uh so
it's just a once again we go back to
that relationship and and picking the
right people to do business with
somebody you can trust somebody that's
that that'll do what they say and say
what they do so so T what tell me if I'm
wrong but I think I hear you saying is
it's it's probably more important you're
going to make your money possibly on the
buy more than the sell is that
definitely yes sir yep and uh I I would
agree with that 100% so you've got to
have the right strategy going in to buy
procure the cattle because if you do
that wrong you might have put yourself
in a lost position for the whole trade
yeah CU you can sit there and and and
buy a cab that most people think man he
give $101 more than he's worth but you
they ain't looking at the flesh they
ain't looking at the way up the calf
could he could gain 200 lb in two days I
mean just off the feel and off of just a
little bit of 101 care but he's still
Stout enough to work so there's
different different things like that
that you want to look at on your in your
buyer that to make sure that and there's
there's bigger order buying companies
out there that do a really good job of
procuring cattle for you just do a
little research I mean you know just go
out there and research on on what you
like what kind of cattle you want to run
and get somebody you trust I mean we buy
some cattle for guys in Oklahoma and I
sell some C guys for some cattle for
some guys up there that they buy cattle
out of East and and they got a
relationship with the guy they've been
that guy's been buying their cattle for
25 years I mean that's what you want you
want to get that long-term relationship
that's like you said on the last segment
you don't want the guy that wants to
make home runs hit home runs you want to
base hit every time and that's what they
do yep yep I agree 100% um okay so now
we bought the cattle we've bought them
right and we've we own them now so the
next step in the process is uh
operations management taking care of the
animals so we're talking about cattle
coming off pasture and going into a feed
yard so whether that be a feed yard that
you own yourself or you're going to put
them in a feed yard I'm thinking you
guys would agree that the relationship
with that feed yard and knowing are they
are they good at putting gain on cattle
can they do it cost effective is there
going to be much death loss what's the
historics around death loss what's their
average cost per day of feeding the the
animals is that what you typically will
look at I don't know about y'all but I I
look at the manager first who who is
baging that yard um get a relationship
with who's the nutritionist who who
tends to that part who who is the who
helps with the vet and and the that side
of the deal but the main thing is the
manager um there are some really really
good feed yard managers out there and
and a lot of them but then there's some
that you're like oh maybe we don't need
to go back there
um but that was to be the first thing I
looked at if I was if I was going to
transition to that to the FED cattle
deal is who is managing that yard who's
in charge um how does he handle his crew
how how does he what do they what do
they do with their B on their their
feeding and their corn and and how do
they manage that risk and and and all
those things but the manager is a key
thing in in one of those deals in my
opinion yeah I think that and this is
something that's always been very
interesting to me because I've been
having the opportunity to being I mean
the vast majority of feed yards across
the country um and there's lots of
differences in feed yards there's some
that um every fence post is painted uh
there's some that don't have any and it
doesn't really translate into the
performance at the feed yard for sure um
some guys I ask them a lot of times
how'd you figure out about this place or
where do you go when he talking about
custom feed yards uh from that
standpoint um and a lot of it's word of
mouth and I think that's in a lot of the
different businesses and so I think one
big key piece of that is it goes back to
what we talked about again and again uh
building a relation ship with somebody
you trust because there's somebody
that's gr grayer hair than you uh and
somebody that's a little bit longer in
the tooth to you that's been through
these different things and all of it is
is trying to avoid some train wrecks
right and so uh there's there's good
ones I'll tell you that most of the good
one most of the good feed yards are full
uh because everybody sees that too you
know and so that's hard to get into some
of them uh but you got to try to find
your way to line up into there so
whatever geographic location you're in
and so I think one big piece that I talk
to my guys and I've got some feed yard
or some guys that are in South Texas to
where they don't want to feed cattle in
the Panhandle they think it's better to
go to Kansas and vice versa and it just
goes back to bias um and and and and
there's some guys that won't feed cattle
outside of the State of Texas uh there's
some guys in the north that'll never
feed cattle in the South and a lot of
that comes from history but um I think
really just honing in and knowing your
business and digging deep and trying to
learn it um again I think it goes back
to we can't kill the same set of cattle
twice or the same set of cattle twice uh
but I I have a tendency to lean on uh
the network of people that you have in
there whether that's with your
nutritionist that you know uh knowing
you you're as a banker you get to see uh
definitely um under everybody's uh
sheets I guess you'd say say skirt but
she you pick one you know so you get to
see you get to see a lot of things uh
that a lot of people don't get to see um
and so you get to see the good the bad
ugly I guess you'd say yeah I'd agree
with all that the only thing I guess I
would add is when we're talking about
feed yards everything you guys said is
exactly 100% right the the other piece
of that is making sure that that feed
yard which the better ones always do is
have the right record keeping that they
can tell you what what is my cost of
gain what you know on a monthly basis
exactly you know what do my cattle weigh
in these Lots what are they gaining what
are they eating yeah what's the break
even projection going to be you should
be able to get all those reports and if
you can't most likely that's going to
cause you a problem down the road I
would always laugh at my dad that Colin
telling me got a set of cattle finish
and what does he want to do he say what
do you mean what do we want to do you
got we got to sell them they're finished
sell them let's go and I would always
get tickled because his answer would be
the same every time what do you mean
what I want to do sell to some yeah
they're scared to pull the trigger and
sell the cattle cuz they're scared cuz
the last guy chew chewed them out
because they sold the cattle and your
your your dad and those guys are
thinking about man I need to get these
cattle gone and the feed yard manager
might be thinking a buck 100 which is 14
bucks ahead or something you know and
yeah we're want to send more so get them
out of the way let's let's let's keep
going let's keep rolling so well that
was a that was a perfect segue into the
next topic which is marketing cattle and
uh so uh it's just as important as I
believe as as buying the cattle so now
you got to determine the day that you're
going to sell them and you guys know all
that better than I do so let's talk
about that a little bit but as as part
of a marketing strategy I wrap hedging
strategy in there as well because that
is part of your marketing strategy it's
not just risk management you're deciding
when you pull the trigger on those
Hedges basically you're making a sale
whether those cattle are still in the
feed yard pin or not so let's talk about
that a little bit because I think that's
every every bit of this is equally as
important so let let's expand a little
bit on the marketing strategy and and
well Ty what you see Falls that'd be a
little bit of different marketing
strategy on on grazing cattle and wheat
cattle and stuff and then I would let
Casey touch on the marketing strategy of
of the fat cattle and the FED cattle I
mean because that's a kind of a it's two
different two different sets of the
industry so as far as the the grass
cattle and the wheat cattle a lot of
that's predictability of when you want
to ship ship them is is predicted by
weather and especially if you're doing
weed or grass I mean if you got a grow
yard setting it's a little different
however long you want to keep them how
big you want get them get with a program
get it if you're doing a grow yard deal
stick with a
program get get a reputation going okay
this guy keeps his cattle 7580 days he
makes them way 750 to 775 he's going to
have a good set of cattle every 75 to 8
days or five loads or 10 loads whatever
your whatever your deal is but get with
a program and it don't matter whether
you're you're selling them to an
individual or you're selling them on a
video sale or how you're Market them but
you you got to build your reputation
when you build that reputation up the
marketing of the cattle gets easier
because everybody wants them because
they know how they're going to perform
well let take that back everybody either
wants them because they know what
they're going to do or they don't want
them so if they don't want them then you
need to change something you're going to
have to adapt so if you if you see
yourself struggling of getting your
cattle sold maybe you need to reflect
and say okay what do I need to do
different maybe ask them guys why didn't
they like them why aren't they not
coming back did they feed bad so do I
need to do I need to lighten up my
ration where I'm not getting them so fat
do I need to keep a little bit more
condition on them where they're
performing at the next level those are
things that you need to ask yourself if
you're having trouble marketing them um
the grass cattle and the wheat cattle it
all depends on like I said the weather
um but you can you know a lot of the
grass cattle come off the wheat deal if
you got to come off your early grze I
mean your your harvest wheat you got to
come off in March April and then your
grze out April May so just just form you
a
strategy we like to stay ahead of the
market cuz it's here lately it's been
the closer you get to your delivery date
the tighter it is the tighter pin space
is so you know I'm kind of telling my
guys to say try to stay 45 60 days out
uh on some of their on some of their out
deliveries there's some guys that they
can't do that uh they got to get them up
they got to get them in they got to sort
them they got to know what they got so
that's a two week sale but the rest of
them guys where they've run the same
kind of set of cattle for the last
several years they know they kind of can
predict what they're going to do they
can predict their outdate if they get
the weather right so you you got to stay
if you'll stay out a little bit this
Market will it's a little bit easier to
sell them and Market them and if you
feel like you got more outs because
people aren't space isn't so tight so
that's what we've been feeling here
lately anyways on selling those cattle
yeah so I'm going to say on a
flexibility standpoint let's stay on
wheat pasture cattle and grass cattle un
let's really specifically talk about
wheat Pastor cattle so we generally buy
those things when the wheat starts
popping up right cuz we don't know if
we're going to get some some rains
unless you're irrigated obviously but in
Dryland wheat country uh you get the
cattle bought uh you get those cattle
bought in the fall uh we start getting
the wheat popped up we kicked those
things out uh you know Lord willing the
the rains come and the wheat comes and
everything's great like we got a year
like this where you got tons of wheat uh
you got lots of flexibility uh what I
try to do with most guys um and let's
talk about you know you have two periods
where you're going to Market them cattle
March and may right whether you're going
to you know pull them cattle off early
and harvest the we or you going to graze
the kettle out and graze the wheat out
um you got some flexibility there let's
say we're talking about a graze out
wheat pasture deal where you're going to
have some cattle that are coming off in
May where I start to combine and this
just goes back to whatever size you're
at let's say I'm straight wheat pasture
guy this lrp has been tremendous for
that uh what it's been tremendous for is
the vast majority of the years uh the
longer you wait to sell the cattle the
worse the market is now this year likely
is going to shape up a little bit
different than that it feels it feels
like as we turn the calendar the market
just goes higher so uh but most years
aren't like that so seasonally the
market uh puts a peak in kind of in the
January time period and then it
seasonally breaks going into the May
time period so a lot of times what I
recommend to guys TI is like try to
forward sell them weat pasture cattle
you know for the grze out time period if
it looks like the Wheats there um and
then buy an lrp policy that uh that exp
we buy the lrp policy first that expires
in that March April May time period
whichever whatever fits you uh whatever
price period you like there and then we
start to look for an opportunity to sell
those cattle as the market kind of Peaks
out if the market stays low we drag our
feet because the security that lrp
policy allows us that confidence to
continue to do that if the markets at a
raging high like we are right now maybe
you go ahead and sell the cattle and
take the profit where you're at uh and
then you still have that lrp policy in
place and so I think from a from a wheat
pasture grass deal that's the that gives
us uh the lrp allows us to have that
security
um and then have the flexibility to sell
the cattle whenever it works
yeah perfect perfect another one of them
awkward silences again so let's talk
about marketing fat cattle okay so we're
going to talk about marketing fat cattle
for a second because we kind of combined
both these things together so marketing
fat cattle I think that goes back to uh
the feed yard and the relationship that
that feedy yard has so you might have
some feed yards that are just going to
be a Straight Cash seller um and there's
fewer and fewer of those as we've all
been aware of over time but there's a
handful of those guys in all areas that
straight up sell cash cattle so if
you're a producer that loves that side
of it and you want the cash Market you
find a feed yard that does there you
tendency you have a tendency to have uh
more say and what you want for your
cattle um from that standpoint uh but
obviously sometimes that could run to
your detriment as well like you talked
about with your dad wanting to you know
just go ahead and sell the cattle uh
they got other feed yards that what I
would refer to to his own formula uh and
those formulas are different at
different feed yards they're all vastly
different uh but by and large they all
do the same thing and they reward cattle
that are better from a cutability
standpoint and a yield standpoint and
the ones that grade more they they
reward those and then uh so if you got
cattle that are really really good and
you've gone back and bought really
high-end frontend cattle uh from a
conventional standpoint you might want
to grid those uh so that you get the
reward for that so different feed yards
there and again you can ask all the
questions and figure out where to go and
uh where to what what who has what grids
and different Packers have different
scenarios based on Geographic locations
uh from a hedging stpoint and so this is
where I probably we'll probably dig a
Little Deeper on this uh we start to get
a bit a little bit more complex and
really what I try to do is is is
depending on the size of the producer um
the exposure that the producer has we
got varying different risk management
strategies that are in place what I
always recommend is if a guy's got a
couple of pin of cattle or like let's
say it's less than a thousand head of
cattle I'm probably going to push those
guys predominantly to use a forward
contract um to where they don't have a
margin call uh they they can go to the
you know Packer through their feed yard
and just forward sell those cattle on a
basis trade uh and go ahead and price
them and they're just locked in as we
start to get bigger uh you know 500,000
2500 head of cattle we start to get into
more in-depth risk management plans
where we we're using a comprehensive
approach using lrp Liv stock risk
protection
insurance the thing that's synonymous
with that are the same or very similar
as a put
option um we start to get into where we
have brokerage accounts uh managing
margin calls and things like that with
options and Futures uh we start to take
a very hybrid approach between lrp which
is the livestock risk protection
insurance and options short calls
Futures and different things like that
so I'm not going to bore people with
what all those things are cuz we could
get down a big time Rabbit Hole uh but
taking a very very you know a
level-headed approach based on
seasonality timing market prices and
trying to achieve the goals that you
have there so what I would say is find
whoever you have comfort in it doesn't
have to be me or uh it could be whoever
you're comfortable with uh who you can
sit down and have a really deep in depth
conversation with who you like uh
generally speaking um and who's willing
to sit down and have that conversation
with you on what fits your specific
needs um but you mentioned uh as far as
the banking side of things go um how you
know managing margin calls and different
things like that from a from a sector we
might get into that here in a minute but
uh just making sure you have all of
those things in place and somebody can
help you understand that yeah exactly I
I think what you said is there Casey is
the key is the more complicated the the
uh the hedging strategy is the more you
need to rely on the relationship you
have with your broker and really really
having that person explain it manage it
some of these hedging strategies are
fairly simple I I would say some of them
are very very complex and if you're
trying to do it yourself because you
know you watching CNBC that day and
heard some crazy strategy next thing you
know you might not be hedged and you
thought you were so I think certainly as
it gets more complicated those
strategies you got to rely on a
professional that's what I would say on
that yeah and there's been a lot of
times where I'll get on I tell my guys
all the time like hey get your Banker on
the phone let's talk about this because
the last thing that I ever want to get
is to a position to where we have to we
have a plan everything's great we have a
strategy it's all great Market goes one
way or the other and then we have to do
something different because of
constraints and so uh I mean I'm going
to tell you this like get get your
Banker on the phone with your broker uh
get your Banker on your phone with your
feed yard making sure that all of those
things are good because you could have a
plan in place and then things go right
exactly so the first three steps are
really the exciting part of the cattle
business right that's what every
producer likes loves to buy cattle loves
to raise cattle loves to sell cattle
that's what we've talked about so far
well these last two steps are what
everybody hates the worst and I don't
even like it I'm a banker that's
recordkeeping and uh financial reporting
which kind of go hand inand but it
really is two separate steps the reason
I break them up is because the
recordkeeping part is really internal
you're as a as a business owner owner
and an operator or trying to determine
what records do I need to manage my
business and what records do I need to
show my accountant show my banker Etc so
they can do the financial reporting and
when we're talking about cattle feeding
there's lots of different ways you could
do it you could do it on a notebook
paper you can buy software you could
hire a bookkeeper to do it for you so
there's many many ways to do it I think
the only point I want to make there is
you need you really need to think about
where are you trying to take your
business long term and if you're going
to scale it up then put yourself in a
position as you're making these
decisions that whatever recordkeeping
that you have it's going to work on your
business for let's say the next five
years so if you don't really intend to
grow maybe you don't need a uh you know
sophisticated recordkeeping strategy but
if you plan to grow from say 200 head to
you know 2,000 head or 5,000 head or
10,000 head or whatever you probably
want to make sure you've got the the
right systems in place early on so that
you could scale your business and you
don't have to worry about that you know
a year or two down the road because it's
it's it's costly to put those in place
and there's also a lot of training
involved so I I just think that that's
very important because everybody's going
to be asking you for these records and
they need to be accurate they need to be
timely especially when we're talking
about a banking relationship so we
talked about borrowing based reports
when we met last time and those reports
really are not not that hard to do but
they need to be accurate and it's
important for you to know what is my
cost of gain what what am I spending to
uh to feed these pasture cattle or or
whatever on their cost of gain that's a
little different than cattle in the feed
yard so I I make that point to say make
sure whatever you're doing is accurate
and you can do it timely and you said I
think there's several of those good
record keeping marketing tools out there
um that they they've developed them and
and they're really good at what they do
um and if those guys ever want to
advertise or something with us would
would we would love for you to advertise
on the podcast so just look up Katie but
those recordkeeping deals are fabulous
to use I mean just to be able to put
your inputs in and and they have it all
lined out for you they got good training
they can train you on what to do they
can train you how to put your inputs in
there and then it tells you how to do it
all I mean and then it figures it all
for you then and that's something that
your banker and your accountant would
love for you especially if you're SC in
your program up going from 500 to 1,000
or th000 to 2,000 or whatever you have
to have some kind of recordkeeping
system and and you're right that if you
want to research those and go find you a
good one they're out there yep yep yeah
I've got some customers that I mean one
in particular that that guy spends two
or three hours a night going through his
records and making sure it's there and
he does everything pen and paper and
it's a fairly young guy not many people
have the opportunity or the time to do
that especially if you're want to grow
and push and things like that so I mean
a lot of the stuff's automated and then
the days of AI there's probably even
it's easier than what it is and so if
you got any kind of personality type
like I do you need a system I mean for
sure uh that way you could just easily
see it and kind of snow where you're
sitting right there you know so like a
reporting system yeah and then so the
the last piece of that is is the
financial reporting piece it's really
that's likely going to be your
accountant because most you know and I
will say you know we talked about this
is a younger operator we're talking
about probably that's trying to grow
their business business is where we
started this and we haven't said one
word about having to go out and hire
somebody yet so I'm not saying you need
to go hire five people to do these
things you may be able to do them all
yourself if you have the right
relationships with a commodity broker
with a with a cattle buyer with a banker
so and and you have the right software
so we haven't talked at all about having
to hire somebody till now which would
probably be an accountant MH and the
reason that you you think well that's
pretty simple but it's not really and
the reason is is because you probably
need especially if you're going to grow
your cattle business somebody that's
very familiar with not only the cattle
industry but cattle feeding in general
because that's a a cattle feeder
somebody that's turning cattle a lot
that's a lot different than somebody
that's just has a cal calf operation and
maybe they sell Cavs once a year that's
yeah and and you have to have the right
account that's experienced in uh in that
type of work so what I'd recommend there
is you know talk to your your friends
and neighbors find out who who's good at
at what they do and try to find somebody
that can meet deadlines and and I can
tell you that that's getting harder and
harder every day these accountants seem
extremely busy I think there's only so
many really highly qualified ones that
are specialized and it gets more and
more difficult to to get the reporting
on time and that's not usually the uh
producer's fault and I'm not saying it's
really the accountant fa it's just a
reality so do a little bit of research
make sure you find the right one and
it'll pay you dividends in the end I
mean do you have some guys that you that
you work with I mean you're not the same
on here but I mean that you if somebody
came to you uh John and said hey look
I'm I'm I'm frustrated I'm pulling my
hair out um I don't I don't I want to
you know I've got an accountant that
doesn't know anything about cattle I
mean I hear that quite a bit you know um
or is there a list of them out there
that we can find is there somebody that
you could I mean if if I came to you in
confidence uh you can recommend them
yeah I don't know of a list so to speak
but absolutely we'd be willing to give
some names and what I say is you know
those those are about as good as what
you pay for them and I'm not charging
you anything so uh do your own research
because a lot of that's also about
relationship and you you need to know if
they're qualified but you also need to
say can I get along with this person
because you're going to have some very
intimate conversations and uh you need
to make sure that you're comfortable
with the person and you like talking to
them because they're going to know
everything about you
yeah well I think we kind of dove into
most of it is there anything else y'all
kind of want to cover is there anything
else you want to talk about John the
only thing I would say is in each of
these steps deps you can create yourself
advantages over your competition so your
competition really is the next guy
feeding the cattle right and you can
give
yourself Pennies on every head in each
one of these steps so if you do a good
job and all of them you can give
yourself a significant Advantage as
you're feeding these animals through the
cycle so that's what I would say is look
at them all and see see how you can make
yourself more gain without any risk yeah
you're you're talking about like just
kind of creating a plan and and then
having the ability to kind of Step
through that thing versus just rolling
in there and gambling in the cattle
market or buying a set of cattle and
hoping this thing works and I mean one
thing I tell people all the time is like
Hope's not a strategy I mean when when
you hear that all the time I hope the
cattle market goes up I hope it's good I
hope you know I hope it rains you know
there's there's really no strategy in
terms of that but those are not
controllable but controllable is knowing
who's buying your cattle for you and
making sure they're not
cheating uh you know having the the
right you know partner whenever you go
to grass or go to wheat pasture and make
it sure your cattle are there whenever
they go to ship uh going to the feed
yard and making sure that those guys are
going to care for them in the right way
and there's lots of good feed yards I
mean I mean I've got a list a mile long
um and then uh the the bad ones usually
don't don't don't last around very long
they end up getting sold or shut down or
whatever but um and then the the part
that I personally have need to that or
like that I think is vastly as important
as that financial reporting part of it
so you know where you're at and then
again whenever you get to a point where
you've got you know need to buy cattle
or you need to buy more you know I mean
the Market's always going to go up over
time right from from the time that we
were little kids until now you're going
to have some chop in between there my
assumption is if some guy's walking in
with a watered up piece of paper and he
says that's his barring base you're
probably going to not necessarily get
all excited about that but if somebody
walks in there with a lap top and has
these R you know really good financial
reporting tools that you guys are going
to listen and you're going to probably
be more excited about lending money to
those guys compressing their margins
higher or I mean their their line their
note higher and working with them and
driving higher absolutely I could have I
could have said that better myself so if
I walked in on my big big chief tablet
with writing on it you're probably not
going to must been ju Jason redid it all
the other day we had to deal with some
banks the other day and I had it on Big
Chief tab he said give me that I imagine
people's financial statements are
written on the back of a cop I'm I'm a
little bit old I'm a little bit old
school too so I don't really mind Big
Chief tablets necessary but they got to
have the right stuff on them yeah yeah
yeah well once again John thank you uh
John Sloan with a Texas if you got any
questions for John feel free to call him
it's
8673
3884 give him a call he'd love to answer
any questions like you said this
is this is informative we want to be we
want to be more educational that's the
whole purpose of these podcasts well
sometimes we'll get on here and have a
little fun we might do that on the next
one or two but we want to be informative
and we want to we want to educate the
people that are wanting to grow and
wanting to get bigger um something that
we you know we could probably have went
and found it when we was trying to get
bigger but just wasn't readily out there
really available for us um but so just
yeah and if you guys have any questions
whatsoever I mean you feel free to to
message Ty or get a hold of Ty or myself
or I mean we got a whole team of people
that can help you I mean I he wasn't
going to say this a second ago but if
you guys are looking for somebody to buy
cattle he can probably find somebody to
help you oh yeah or at least kind of get
you through those pitfalls I mean we'
this this industry is a family this
industry is a network um and and
obviously there's there's uh easier ways
or easier routes to do this the vast
majority guys in the cattle business are
they're they're a little bit uh I'd say
reclusive sometimes and don't want to
step out there and somebody there's all
kinds of different forms of
communication that you can reach out to
us on he he was saying something earlier
about advice and I think you said
something about being able to call
somebody and ask them a question that's
been there done that they they they're
long in the tooth gray haired they've
been they've been through it all you
know I've been fortunate in my life that
my dad had put me in a lot of positions
to meet a lot of different people and a
lot of very intelligent people and
there's a couple of them guys I can
still pick up the phone and call and say
look I'm beating my head against the
wall on this this deal what do I do and
and they'll they'll walk through it with
us and you need to have those you need
to find those relation they won't give
you the answer they're not going to give
you the answer they're just going to say
no the answer they don't but but they
will say well you know have you tried
this you going to do this might look at
this might do this but they'll walk
through it with you but you got to have
those relationship for them guys to do
it they're not just going to talk to no
stranger but that's what we're talking
about if you're young in this game and
you're wanting to get better and bigger
in this industry build those Rel ships
reach out and talk to those guys don't
be afraid to sit down and just visit one
of them guys go through the sale bar and
sit down and chat with them um go to
these video sales pick your brains or
pick up the phone call somebody well
I'll be at the I'll be at the live sale
tomorrow so if anybody's got any
questions this is all about education
for me we're not trying to sell you
anything yeah we just want to be here
for you if you got any questions so the
best part about it is just like the
title says we live it we all we all in
the business we're all in the industry
we do it on a daily basis so we love
what we do um some days we love it more
than others true true true so but it's
it's a great industry to be in and
thanks again um thank you for joining us
thank you for the Insight on what you do
what you guys do is me and case have
been talking about this for a couple
month month or so now about how all this
ties together in the banking world and
trying to find somebody that would come
on here and be open and and and we might
have shot some pretty tough questions
your way but not be afraid to to answer
them so we appreciate that um not try to
sell something we're just trying to
educate so uh once again thank you guys
for watching the weiv it podcast uh for
live a uh if you got any questions visit
live- a.com um or look up Katie give her
a shoot shoot her an email if you want
to advertise with us um don't forget
once again hit subscribe when you watch
it so so now I'm getting brownie points
with Katie so thank you guys and
remember we live it and we love you
[Applause]
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