We Live It | LiveAg's Livestock Marketing Podcast

Cowboy, rancher, and storyteller Buster Frierson joins the We Live It podcast to talk about what it means to live the cowboy code in today’s world — from the saddle to the screen. Known for his work in ranch rodeos, Western film sets like 1883, and authentic ranch management, Buster shares his perspective on grit, leadership, and keeping the ranching lifestyle alive.

Plus, Casey previews the cattle market ahead of the Oct. 9 LiveAg Video Auction, breaking down key regional trends and what sellers and buyers should watch this week.

We'd love your feedback on the We Live It podcast. Send us your topic or guest ideas here: https://heyor.ca/sq3C0d

Looking to advertise on the show? Contact Katy Holdener (katy@live-ag.com) for more information.

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.
Guest
Casey Mabry
Casey comes to Blue Reef following over a decade-long career with Cargill. Casey’s career in the industry started as a cattle buyer in Western Nebraska and Wyoming for six years. Casey then moved to Wichita, KS where he worked in boxed beef pricing with a focus on understanding out front prices and position optimization. Casey then took to cattle procurement as a Strategic Supply Manager where he focused on cattle formula and grid marketing arrangements working with Cargill’s largest suppliers. Casey’s experience in cash and value based marketing of cattle can be a valuable asset to your operation. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Texas Tech University where he served on the Meats Judging team, and a Masters from Tarleton State University where he coached the Meats Judging team. Casey resides in Brock, TX with his wife Deidrea and daughters Reyse, Avery, and Brooklyn.
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.

Speaker 1:

Come to the We Live It podcast here live at Cooper's Barbecue in downtown Stockyards of Fort Worth. Joined here with me, co host Casey Mabry and we have a special guest on here today, Buster Fryerson and we're going to talk a little bit about his his roles down here in the stockyards and kind of where you come from but as always, before we get started here, Casey looked like the oldest, was it the oldest daughter? Had a really good time at the state fair and what

Speaker 2:

was

Speaker 1:

she?

Speaker 2:

Agri Science Fair.

Speaker 1:

Agri Science Fair. That's right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, they were getting us looped into all kinds of different things. You know, these kids do. So, kind of venturing a little bit away from the traditional stock show deal. Reese's got a passion for this agriscience fair and and some of those other things.

Speaker 2:

So she did a project last year and then the continuation of that project this year where she took beef eye around steaks, marinated those in different like enzymes from fruit based enzymes, and then went to Tarleton and did like slight shear force or, Warner Bratzler shear force testing on it, looked at tenderness. And so those kids, they go in there and they present in different segments. So she was reserve champion, in her segment for the Agri Science Fair which is like food products and food systems which is cool. Her cousin Josephine lives in Lubbock and she did it and she was a grand overall of the whole deal. So, there's probably 100 kids, I'm going guess in that deal.

Speaker 2:

They give $6.00 scholarship to the kid that wins it.

Speaker 1:

Man, that's awesome. That's that's pretty cool. Look like we had some y'all y'all showed pigs there. Got along decent.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, was okay. Yeah. It's summertime pigs are never very good. I mean, you're trying to do things with everybody and you don't really put all the efforts into em and so it definitely, we ended up third with one of em and that was pretty much it.

Speaker 1:

Gonna give a shout out to the the Campbell kids from up there and believe they live in Dalhart. Oh, yeah. Dalhart. Had They a pretty good run. His kids and his nieces and nephews both, they just kind of cleaned house up there.

Speaker 1:

Looked like pretty good. Yeah. Then some of Katie's family down there and Copart's down there around Sonora. Is that right? They they had a really good goat show.

Speaker 1:

So, look like some of the Live Ag family had a really good really good go there at the state fair. Want to congratulate all them kids. We like to keep up with them and and kind of post about them and that's pretty good.

Speaker 2:

You guys cleaned house at the heart of Texas, didn't

Speaker 1:

you? Yeah. We had a pretty good weekend. Them girls Tyler was reserving us both days and Peyton win the AOC the first day and winter class the second day. So, it's it was pretty pretty fun weekend for us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's kind of interesting to see that show because that's all prospects, isn't it on the heart of Texas?

Speaker 1:

It's all prospects.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, then they they we're going to take some pigs there today and it's all, this will be the first set, first show for this new set that they've kind of put together and been working on. So, I think we gotta be there all weekend long in the heart of Texas. They want to kind of keep you around.

Speaker 1:

We get lucky. We get to go in before they move all the carnival and all that stuff in. So, we're we're we're moving out. We were moving out when they were setting the carnival up. So, we.

Speaker 1:

So, you don't have to buy any coupons. No. No. We didn't have to keep. Egg roll.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. We we we got along good. We was there for two days and it was cool. That little cool front come in. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, was nice. So.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's good stuff.

Speaker 1:

So, but how's everything been your way, buddy?

Speaker 3:

It's good.

Speaker 1:

How's Good.

Speaker 3:

Yes, sir.

Speaker 1:

Long time no see.

Speaker 3:

I know it's been a long time.

Speaker 1:

Yes, sir. Yeah. So, kind of tell us kind of a little bit of your background. What? We'll get into the stockyards part here in just a short period but kinda tell us where you come from, where you at, married, kids, all your kinda deal.

Speaker 3:

All the ins and outs. Yeah. Again, like you said, my name is Buster Frierson. I grew up kinda around Robie. I don't know if many people know where Roby, Texas is.

Speaker 3:

It's about 65, 70 miles kinda northwest, west, Northwest of Abilene. Grew up on a little little place. My dad trained a lot of rope horses and broke a lot of colts. My granddad had a few cows and just kinda that's how I got into the agricultural ranching cowboy child lifestyle, I guess, through that. I moved up in this part of the world '99, I believe, and I actually went to work for TU Electric Encore as a lineman.

Speaker 3:

I climbed poles for about five or six years with TU, West Side Of Fort Worth. Just wasn't my gig, wasn't my deal. I just I mean, it was good money. It was a good job. I just really didn't like being in Fort Worth and working in that job.

Speaker 3:

So I kind of I'd been up here long enough. I run into some guys, and there were some ranches out around Weatherford, Tintop area. And I went to working for those guys and just kind of getting back to my roots and finally decided, you know, this is what I wanna do, and this is who I am. And so I turned my tools in at TU and went back to starving to death being a cowboy. I started just riding some outside horses and day working around and trying to make a living that way.

Speaker 3:

And I did decent, you know, and kinda got my name out there and got my reputation out there and went stayed pretty busy, for pretty good while. I actually knew your dad because I went to Palestine and worked for a ranch down there. And How'd work from there?

Speaker 1:

Lipsey. Oh, yeah. Yeah. William.

Speaker 3:

Yep. So I went down there and took care of Yarlins and some his cows. And I was on I was there about a year and a half, I guess. Got married, moved back this way, and had a boy. So I've got a I've got a 19 year old boy and then got divorced.

Speaker 3:

Day worked around here, had a pretty good little old circle around here and stayed very busy with my cowboy and then day working and riding colts and just training horses for the outside. And, anyway, so I got hired at Ville Ranch right out here outside of Weatherford or Fort Worth between Aledo and Benbrook. And I was there sixteen years running that place, and they finally so close to town, they finally sold it and subdivided it. And so I went out on my own. I knew that was coming.

Speaker 3:

I'd I put a few cows together and just kinda over the years and had a few lease places. And then I really went to when I knew they put that ranch up for sale, I knew I'd probably go on do something on my own. So I did. Had a few cows turned out and tended to those cows and saying kinda went back to that same deal, just riding colts for the public and working, doing whatever I could to make a dollar. And got kinda tied up with a guy, run into a guy that was in the movie business.

Speaker 3:

And since Taylor Sheridan moved down this way and started all the big Yellowstone project and the cowboy bringing the western back and the cowboy back, I gotta ask if I wanted to help them. And so on 1883, they hired me. They bought all those cattle that were in the show, the Longhorns and the Corianni cows and the Herefords, and they needed somebody to gentle them down, train them, whatever you wanna say to where you could use them on set. So they hired me to do that. I was on 1883, the whole way through.

Speaker 3:

I started the stunt op stunt coordinator asked me one day if I could do a little old deal with some loose horses. And I was like, yeah, can do that. And then that kind of rolls into everything else. I, he started asking me to do some stunts here and do some stunts there. And so the last five or six years, I've kind of worked in the movie business and whether livestock coordinator or livestock trainer or wrangler or stunt man, I've kind of been hitting that deal up just day working around.

Speaker 3:

I got remarried last November. My wife and I own a CrossFit gym due to hers. That's kind of what she was in. She had five kiddos. So, I've got four.

Speaker 3:

Her oldest is out as well and I've got four girls at the house from nine to fifteen. So, it's always exciting around the house for sure.

Speaker 1:

Kinda got thirteen to sixteen at my house. So, I know exactly what you're living.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've got eight to fifteen.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. We're all in

Speaker 2:

same way. We turn the camera off. We can kind

Speaker 1:

of compare those. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yes, sir. For sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. We better do that off camera.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Off camera. I'm not doing it on camera.

Speaker 2:

Hey, Buster. It's unique that I mean, because we think about like, you know, it's just whenever I'm listening to you talk, the transition of and I grew up in Weatherford and I moved away for a long time and came back. We're raising our kids right down the road from you. To watch this area transition from, you know, as primarily agricultural based like probably when you got here in '99, would I have graduated high school in '98. So, watching that area then, I mean, there was a lot of hay grown.

Speaker 2:

There was a of cattle in this area, a lot of horses. And then now it's turned into a little bit of a pleasure area. And the movie deals big. I mean, not everybody knows that in this area and then, obviously, the real estate development. So, you've been through all of that stuff like where we're losing land.

Speaker 2:

Uh-huh. You know, from agriculture for different things but the the renaissance and then the the the resurgence of the western lifestyle.

Speaker 3:

For sure.

Speaker 2:

Has been huge and so, I mean, it's interesting. Like, you live West Of Weatherford watching all the movie things. That's really kind of thrown a big loop across the world of people wanting to do that. And then you mentioned now, what's your role now? Because I think it's interesting that you've transitioned into where you're in now because where we're sitting and, you know, call it a couple 100 yards away is where everybody's now starting to come back and get this resurgence in the stockyards.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. You know, the stockyards have been revamped, I guess, is how I would put it in the last, I don't know, eight, ten years, maybe, maybe less than that, maybe more than that. I don't know. But the, you know, the resurgence of the stockyards has come back. And I am now the assistant trail boss for the Fort Worth herd.

Speaker 3:

The Longhorns go down the street every day, twice a day, and, they hired me to kinda oversee all that. And that's one one reason I'm up in the stockyards today is because that's where I'm I come down here to my job. I've been down here. This would be my fourth week. So it's kinda new to me.

Speaker 3:

Still trying to figure it out, but it's a very cool piece of history that I I I'm thrilled to be a part of. It's something that, you know, I mean, like, I've always thought highly of the stockyards and how cool it was that it was kept like it, you know, normally originally was. And, so to be a part of it now and be a part of this the stockyards and the heritage is pretty cool.

Speaker 2:

No. I think it's I think it's highly important too to continue to tell that story about where it's from. I know we had Barry Cooper on here. Oh, yeah. That was talking about all the bricks that were under here and how this area used to be the packing industry and all obviously where this was like a a gathering point for that.

Speaker 2:

I mean, if you don't continue to do that and find people like yourself that have a background in agriculture versus, you know, somebody that just goes in there and wears a red T shirt or something, you know, to kind of manage that. So, I think it's cool that they brought somebody in with your background to manage that herd for sure.

Speaker 1:

So what are the times for that deal? There's anybody out there watching that never had heard of it. I mean, so when do they do the drives and how often and all that?

Speaker 3:

So we do a drive at 11:30 every morning and at four every afternoon. We do it three sixty two days a year, the Christmas day, Easter, and Thanksgiving. There's only three days we don't we don't do the drive. If it's raining, lightning, you know, dangerous kind of weather. If it's too hot for the steers, we don't, you know, we might cancel if it's too hot, which sometimes we do because of the heat down there on the street and the bricks.

Speaker 3:

It gets too hot for them cattle, but, you know, they're

Speaker 2:

How many people are involved in that drive every day? Know there's quite few.

Speaker 3:

There's six drovers there's six drovers every day that actually horseback that go down go down the street with their 17 steers we drive down the street. And the reason for the 17 is every ten years, the history, they put a steer in. And so there's a 170 of history right down here at the stockyards for the Fort Worth and the stockyards. So we drive 17 steers down the street two times a day, and it is impressive how many people watch it. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

It it blew my mind. I didn't realize, you know, on Tuesday or Wednesday, I didn't figure that'd be that big of a crowd. And you walk out there and you're like, wow. Look at all these people. But it's it's a really cool like you said, it's a cool event that Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Nowhere else in the world they do it. I mean, there's no other no other place that does it what they do right down here at the stockyards through the Fort Worth herd.

Speaker 2:

No. We had some friends that came in from Missouri. I mean, they we took them in there and then they just had an absolute blast. And honestly, I did too. Because I was like, you know, I'm from here.

Speaker 2:

I'd seen it before. And then, you know, taking my kids up there and and really what I what I took notice of is right down there through that area. You know, they've brought in a bunch of newer shops that are cool to go in there and obviously, our wives probably like to go in there and shop but man, it's it was, I mean, packed. Elbow to elbow all the way through that whole deal. And it was cool.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It is. It's a you know, how they've revamped it and, you know, made it where anybody and everybody is very family friendly. You can come down, hang out, bring your kids, you know, and go down to the shops and see some old history and go in the Exchange Building and go to the museum and kinda check out that old history that a lot of kids nowadays, they don't even have any idea, you know, that there was cows in Fort Worth, Texas one day, and there was a lots of them. You know?

Speaker 3:

I mean, this is a part of the Chisholm Trail that tens of millions of cattle were drove up, driven through right through here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. You know. We take it for granted.

Speaker 3:

Know. It's very cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Oh, we take it for granted because I mean like, I still think this is a cattle area but it's a house area now almost. You know what I'm saying? Like, from between here and Weatherford, it's it's crazy how much it's changed but.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. For sure.

Speaker 2:

How many people stop through the stockyards and watch that deal every year? Do they have a number?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. They they have a number. I haven't. I I I would be

Speaker 2:

It's gotta be millions.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It's in the millions. There's no doubt about it. I did hear and and I might be corrected on this. They might correct me on this, but I think it's the number one tourist attraction in the state of Texas now.

Speaker 3:

They've taken the away from San Antonio and the Alamo and the Riverwalk. There's more people come to the stockyards and watch the herd than there is go to the Alamo and the Riverwalk now. So, that's.

Speaker 1:

Here we go.

Speaker 3:

That's pretty impressive.

Speaker 2:

Well, the development down there is awesome and I'll tell you this. I mean, I'm biased because I'm from this area. I've been to both and this one's definitely seems cleaner and nicer and.

Speaker 3:

For sure.

Speaker 2:

Safer and ever all that stuff But

Speaker 3:

For sure.

Speaker 2:

That area is really impressive. They're are they still I mean, they're continuing to

Speaker 3:

add more development to it. Yeah. They're still doing, you know, like the old armor and the swift buildings across. They're working on those and not you know, like that one. There's a set of apartments over there now that are nice apartments.

Speaker 3:

I mean, they've redone it and made it really nice. So it's becoming more and more, and they've got a lot more plans for it. So it's it'll be interesting to see in the next ten years where it goes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I think Standard Meats just finished a plant here where they're cutting stakes. I mean, a big massive plant in that area. That's right over there across the tracks.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Pretty good. For sure.

Speaker 1:

Buster, we thank you. Man, appreciate you coming on visiting about all this. Anything else we want to touch on that we missed? We can't talk about some of the things we probably want to talk about.

Speaker 3:

We won't talk about that guy that we talked about earlier. We'll him.

Speaker 1:

We'll leave him out of all of those.

Speaker 3:

He knows who we're talking about. You know who we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

Give But us a little market update before we got a little over 8,000 cattle on the sale today. We got a really good runner feeders and weaned kids, but we also got an outstanding set of bred stock. We got several deals of bred heifers and then a pretty unique deal of pairs up out of Idaho. So tune into that. We started 11:00 Central Time, but kind of give us a market outlook.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sales should be great. I mean, markets on fire. Feeder cattle have definitely from a future standpoint, continue to push into new highs. We closed in a new high yesterday. There's been lots of momentum there.

Speaker 2:

We kind of set back for about the last three weeks, I'd say, where we were coming off of, you know, the summer high cutout where we had from a boxed beef standpoint, where we got up there above $4. And it looked like we kind of run into a little bit of a stall there. And then the packers pulled some kills, kind of checked the thing back a little bit. And then we started to see a few more cattle pop up on the cash market list in the North. So that market's been pressured to some degree, but looks like we're finding some stability in the cutout right now.

Speaker 2:

It's starting to wanna change some directions. Seasonally, that's what you get into right here at the October. And then we should start to find a seasonal pickup on demand on primarily the ribs and the tenders as you start to go through the holiday parties for it. But those things are trading trading at crazy levels. I know like wholesale price on rib eyes right now, $15 a pound.

Speaker 2:

So that's not even the retail price. And then the tenderloins are $20 a pound. So demand has been incredible. We're seeing the we're seeing, like I said, good cleanup from a cutout standpoint starting to bounce a little bit. Futures have been bouncing pretty good over the last, call it, or five days, come off of a pretty good low there.

Speaker 2:

And then they look like they just want to kind of march higher as we go into the fall.

Speaker 1:

It's funny when you say low. I mean, when you when you say a pretty good low, I'm thinking to myself, I mean, we.

Speaker 2:

We're still $20

Speaker 1:

or 4.

Speaker 2:

We're probably still $50 higher than I ever thought we

Speaker 3:

would get.

Speaker 1:

I'm like, it's it's a low. I mean, I guess it's a low in a year standards, technical standards but it's. Recent low. Yeah. Recent.

Speaker 1:

Recent low.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's lower than where it was but I mean, feeder cattle aren't. I mean, that's that just goes as testament to what the optimism that's built into this market. Yeah. I mean, these it'll be interesting to see what these the breeding stock that you're gonna sell brings.

Speaker 2:

I know that's been something that's just been on fire. I mean, the optimism out there and, you know, we got tons of forage. I mean, grains are in you know, I mean, they've been under pressure, and so that gives a lot of boost to Yeah. There's a lot of feed out there. There's a lot of hay out there.

Speaker 2:

People have the ability to grow now, to grow the herd. They're So gonna probably start to pull on the heifers, and that ultimately puts buying pressure across the

Speaker 1:

whole supply chain. Well, once again, Buster, thanks for joining us. Awesome story. It's pretty neat across the street. So if you never if you never witnessed it, never been to Stockyards, you need to get out there and try to look at that even if you're in this industry.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you know, as us in this industry, we think I trail drive or whatever but it's neat to see the amount of people that actually show up that are interested in what we do in daily life. So.

Speaker 2:

Big change.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Big change. So.

Speaker 3:

Sure. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Probably get it behind the scenes with Buster, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Hey, Ken.

Speaker 1:

Shoot you out. So, yeah. Thank you everybody for joining us today. Don't forget to hit subscribe and like and if you got any comments, leave those. Please leave Casey's body type out of the comments if you don't mind.

Speaker 1:

And if you are doing that, I'm gonna speak straight to you. You need to find something to do because you're bored. But anyway, you need to find a job, I guess. So, but thanks. Everybody for watching us and joining in.

Speaker 1:

We love to talk about our kids and our industry and we just thank y'all for joining in on this. It's been a thought process among the cases for a long time to do something like this and we appreciate y'all supporting us. If you wanna reach out at Katie, katy,@live-ag.com, do so. She can hook you up with a marketing package, or if you wanna join the team, or if you want to sponsor some stuff, we'd love to see you there. Subscribe, like, and we live it.

Speaker 1:

God bless.