We Live It | LiveAg's Livestock Marketing Podcast

Three stock show dads walk into a podcast studio... and the result is pure gold for anyone showing livestock!
Join hosts Casey Mabry and Ty deCordova as they sit down with Alan Lee, Vice President of Operations at BioZyme, Inc., for a deep dive into the company that's been fueling champions for decades.

🏆 What You'll Learn:
  • The history behind BioZyme's foundation products for cow-calf producers: VitaFerm and Gain Smart
  • Why Sure Champ is celebrating 40 years of show ring success
  • Real stories from the show trail (the good, the bad, and the hilarious)
  • How research-proven supplements give your stock the competitive edge
  • Behind-the-scenes insights from three dads who've been there
From the cow-calf operation to the show ring, BioZyme's products have become household names in the livestock industry. Alan breaks down what makes their supplements different and why generations of stockmen trust their animals to BioZyme nutrition.
Whether you're a seasoned show dad, just getting started, or somewhere in between, this episode delivers laughs, lessons, and the inside scoop on products that help livestock succeed both in and out of the ring.

Perfect for: Stock show families, cattle producers, livestock exhibitors, 4-H/FFA participants, and anyone interested in livestock nutrition and show supplements.

Learn more about Biozyme: https://biozymeinc.com/
Learn more about SureChamp: https://surechamp.com/

We'd love your feedback. 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.

00:00 Intro
01:37 Stock show dad update
02:35 Meet Alan Lee, VP of business development at BioZyme, Inc
07:58 SureChamp products for small ruminents
10:45 BioZyme's saftey and research 
19:30 The team behind the brand
25:55 Family stories
30:01 Why 4H and FFA programs are so important

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.

Intro:

Coming up. Some pretty

Alan Lee:

significant numbers you're gonna get to see in a couple of weeks that are making some people a lot of money. Once we come to market with something, I you know, when I lay my head on the pillow at night, I have no doubt it's gonna work. That product is a testament to what we've been talking about. Products don't stay in the show livestock world for forty years if they do not perform.

Intro:

That's right around the corner on the Live Ag Ranch and Livestock Marketing We Live It podcast. But first, a reminder, if it's time to sell your cattle, consign your cattle with Live Ag. Our summer auction schedule is on your screen and available at live-ag.com. Consign your cattle now and take advantage of Live Ag's generations of experience in livestock marketing. Now here's your hosts, Ty D Cordova and Casey Mabry.

Ty deCordova:

Welcome. Welcome again to the We Live It podcast. We are pre recorded some of these today in Cooper's Barbecue right next to the Barber Ranch Hereford Bulls. So I wanna welcome you all back and thank you for joining us here with the Live Ag We Live It podcast. Today on the show, of course, you got co host Casey Mabry with me.

Ty deCordova:

And joining us from Biozyme is Allen Lee. We're gonna kinda get into some of the of the stuff with the kids and what we got going on with our kids this time. The show season kicking off and then all the products that BioZyme has to offer us today. So thank you all for joining us. Don't forget as we go through this deal, leave your comments, like, and subscribe.

Ty deCordova:

So we'll get started here, Casey. How you been? What you been doing?

Casey Mabry:

Man, it's just been, yeah. It's good to be back here in Fort Worth for sure. We've just been pretty much, like, personally in full swing of getting, kids back in school and getting adjusted and all that stuff, you know, starting their activities there. Basketball preseason, you know, with Avery there and then starting to buy some of these show pigs. So that's like been pretty important in our lives since probably about the August or so.

Casey Mabry:

So Reese and I ran up to Indiana and went up there and looked at some so I got to see that corn crop up there. It's pretty interesting, to see how big that was back at the August. But then I've been going to some of these live sales around Texas here recently. Been pretty wild. Seems like, I don't know, it feels like show pigs have turned into beanie babies or something, know, everybody's trying to feel like they can't get their hands on one and so the price is like crazy, crazy high, but, you still get these guys calling you and trying to sell you one, you know?

Casey Mabry:

Oh yeah, yeah.

Ty deCordova:

And Alan, you, y'all been buying, goats and lambs and looks like you've been buying track dogs and everything else down there.

Alan Lee:

Yeah. Spending plenty of time talking to my banker to make sure we can keep buying them. But, yeah, kids are in full swing. We're, you know, we live in Arkansas and most of our show season kind of starts October, if you will, with Arkansas Youth Expo on into the state fair and then Kansas City, Louisville. So October moving in November will be busy, but we're excited.

Alan Lee:

You know, football coach for kicks, sitting real excited about him missing, bits and pieces in October, but, all in all, everything's good. We've got some moisture recently and things are good at home.

Casey Mabry:

So Arkansas youth expo is a pretty decent sized show now, isn't it?

Alan Lee:

You know, it's one of our funniest shows we go to in a year. They want you there. Eric Walker and family put that thing on at the the local county fairgrounds there in Fayetteville, Arkansas. And, yes, it is, it is certainly a livestock show that is built around the exhibitors and providing the experience for the kids. And so it's, it's been a lot of fun and it's been really good for the youth in Arkansas.

Alan Lee:

But, yeah, it's it's growing for sure.

Ty deCordova:

That's fun. We, been chasing the girls around playing tennis. It's kind of what we've been doing, getting the steers ready for this fall and this, you know, this this winter season. So we're gonna go to Heart Of Texas at the end of the month and show a couple of steers, but it's kind of what we've been doing at home run, mainly playing tennis.

Alan Lee:

So I thought I saw maybe a social media post that that Katie put together, show steers at the house eating one of those good heat stressed ups, man.

Ty deCordova:

They do. They love

Alan Lee:

them things.

Ty deCordova:

We go out there and we turn them out every night, and that's the first thing they hit. I mean, they all come out of style and I got four of them out there in that trap where they all stay. And I mean, that's the first place they go. They go there, they go to water, they go to hay. So that's I mean, that product right there, I love it.

Ty deCordova:

That heat stress tub, it's phenomenal. What just kinda talking about a little bit of your products going into y'all show season, kinda we all talk about your commercial products on your your Vitafirm mineral, your your Stress Tub for commercial stocker cattle, your GainSmart mineral and all that, but you'll have a very extensive show line for for goats, slams, hogs, steers, heifers, whatever whatever in the show ring. That's one thing that that on our end of the deal, we don't talk about much because we we mainly concentrate on, you know, stocker stocker cattle mineral and and and breeding mineral for cows and stuff. But we are all in the show world with our kids, and we

Casey Mabry:

like We're gonna be a little bit, selfish with this. We wanna learn more about your products so

Ty deCordova:

we

Casey Mabry:

can maybe use more of them. I know Yeah. We were talking about we use liquid boost at our house for sure. So let's talk about some of those ones you got.

Alan Lee:

Yeah. You know, I was gonna bring it up in case we were talking about it earlier and Liquid Boost is for sure one of our favorite products, one of my favorite products. I guess before we do that, there are a couple of products that would be a great segue into this and the Stress Tub is one of them because it's got an application in both the show livestock world on the cattle side, as well as in the commercial sector. It's a product that's growing for us. It's grown every year since we've had it.

Alan Lee:

And, you know, I attribute the fact that it actually does what it's supposed to. It performs.

Ty deCordova:

I got a story on that.

Alan Lee:

Imagine you having

Ty deCordova:

a story. A guy called me two days ago. He's he's a horse trainer out in Weatherford, Eddie Flynn. He calls me and I hadn't talked to him in a year probably. And a great guy, great people.

Ty deCordova:

He calls me. He said, hey, mate. What's going on? He's Australian and he just like down to earth. Great guy.

Ty deCordova:

And he said, hey, mate. What's going on? We talked for a little bit. He said, hey, you remember several years ago, your daddy, y'all were sending them cattle up here to us and we got a little bind on a set of them. What was that tub that y'all got me that turned those cattle around?

Ty deCordova:

What what was that tub that y'all had me use? He said, got a buddy of mine that's getting in a bunch of three weights out of the Southeast and he's having heck with him. And and I think that that tub will help him turn around, and it was a stress tub. So I mean, they they work. I mean, there's no doubt about it.

Alan Lee:

We're we're, pretty pretty pronto here, Ty. I think we're gonna have some data from one of your very sizable customers and good friends of yours that have incorporated that stress tub, actually run a calf ranch situation and retain all the way through the yard on a lot of those things. The numbers that we're getting back from, they've incorporated two things, essentially, the stress tub and our cattle drench. And that's the two I wanna talk about that'll go both ways before we move into the liquid boost, but some pretty significant numbers you're gonna get to see in a couple of weeks that are making some people a lot of money.

Ty deCordova:

That's pretty

Alan Lee:

cool. So, those two products, the cattle drench and the stress tub have a spot both sides, of the industry show side as well as the commercial side and, both products growing leaps and bounds in terms of sales. And it's because they work. It's because they make these things healthier and they do what they're supposed to do. So as far as the liquid boost, I goat barn, sheep barn, cattle barn, hog barn, we love it.

Alan Lee:

It's a easy to use product. We've got it in two sizes, a 32 ounce to fit in the show box or a two and a half gallon to use at home like you, you know, you run it through your medicator. Speaking of medicators, I was at a trade show yesterday. Those Dosatrons have got expensive.

Casey Mabry:

Yeah. I keep one on hand to see

Alan Lee:

if get And I was like, oh, yeah. Maybe I'll just wait till mine breaks. But, anyways What do

Casey Mabry:

you want on the TikTok shop to pop up from, like, Vevor or whatever it is. That's about a third of the price.

Alan Lee:

Okay. TikTok shop. I remember that. So anyways, you know, small ruminant side, we utilize that in our drench a lot. On the cattle side of things, we put it in our water before we go to any shows, before we get on the road.

Alan Lee:

It's kind of how we use it. Or obviously if anything goes off feed or just in feeling a 100%, but very widely used product. If you don't know about it, I would recommend you go to vitafirm.com or suretamp.com or somewhere and look up Liquid Boost. Just great product that we've got.

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Casey Mabry:

So what we've done, I mean, so what our girls will feed quite a few. Like, let's just say there would be twenty-twenty five pigs in the barn and we start accumulating those animals about the August. And you know historically what we would do is we'd run some type of antibiotic or something through their water and then you know or the animals would start getting sick. You'd have great health, you know, the first week or so, and then things started breaking. And then the biggest challenge that we've had personally is keeping these animals on feed through that transition period and that high stress deal.

Casey Mabry:

So like, honestly, I've used it because it works, but I don't even know why it works. Can you talk through why it works?

Alan Lee:

Yeah, certainly. You kind of put me on the spot. So y'all had y'all had

Casey Mabry:

Sales gotta talk about some science.

Alan Lee:

Well, yeah. I mean, you've had Doctor. Cassidy, our head tech support that that has got several PhDs. Think he he's explained this on this deal before, so I'll try to, I'll try to follow him up, but essentially it's got a vitamin mineral pack in it. And then a couple of things that really make it work is the Amifirm that's in there, which is a prebiotic.

Alan Lee:

We were basic in fermentation at Biozyme. We have state of the art fermentation facility in St. Joe, Missouri. And so that's the beginning of it. And there's probably 150 ish peer reviewed trials just on Amifirm, both ruminants and monogastric.

Alan Lee:

So we're one of the few companies in my opinion and Ty and I talk about this a lot. I bet I was a customer of BioZyme way before I went to work there. And you know, I grew up in the show livestock industry. That's how we were raised. You know, products come and go in that space every day.

Alan Lee:

And we absolutely back our products with science and research before they ever come to the market. As a sales guy, as head of sales, I get impatient at times that I know we've got something that can bring value, but we're not ready because all the research hadn't been All the validation hadn't been done. So once we come to market with something, I, you know, when I lay my head on the pillow at night, I have no doubt it's gonna work. I know it's gonna work. We've already proved that it's gonna work before anybody got to see it.

Alan Lee:

So, and then we we incorporate a moss product in there to help bind the toxins as well. So, you know, with your analogy, using it when y'all run some antibiotic through there, you know, that'll set back most anything, but we're trying to increase the appetite as well as buying the bad toxins in that whole process. And it works in conjunction with antibiotics because it's a prebiotic, not a pro. So that's why we formulated it that way. Believe it or not, that product and kind of a sister product are used very widely in the integrated commercial sector in different species, if you will.

Alan Lee:

So great product. I know my kids started showing pigs. We bought most of them from Jesse Heimer and Jesse's a huge advocate of liquid boost and and those products as well. So a good friend promotes it a lot there at his place as well. So we appreciate you using it.

Casey Mabry:

And Yeah. It's been good.

Alan Lee:

Hope it continues to work like

Ty deCordova:

it should.

Casey Mabry:

I'm gonna say we started using it probably two or three years ago. And then, I mean, honestly, whenever we get rolling, sometimes I'll forget to put that deal on the medicator, you know, and you can obviously tell the difference whenever. And I mean, that's just not BS and that's the truth. Whenever we we put it in there and I can see in the water that there's some, red in there, It definitely those animals are hitting it harder.

Ty deCordova:

Yep. Well, that's good stuff. We use the liquid boost on in our waters before we get to like we'll start probably they might have started last week or they're gonna start this week. I don't keep up with them girls do it all now because I'm not there enough, but we'll start the liquid boost on, the steers will take the heart of Texas here in three weeks. So they'll they'll get on that about two or three weeks before we go to kinda get them going.

Ty deCordova:

And then, you know, when we do get to shows and and we do have some troubles, we'll use the recover or, some of them paste that y'all make. So really

Alan Lee:

love Vitacharge appetite, Jill. Vitacharge. It's a good one. Another great topic to talk about. So that falls in the Sure Champ brand, which is essentially our show livestock brand.

Alan Lee:

And so this year is the fortieth anniversary of the Sure Champ pellet that started that whole deal. And so we've kind of went all out. We've spent the summer attending junior nationals. We've put together quite a bit of video footage for that. We're gonna continue that birthday tour basically all the way through Arizona National in Phoenix and the December moves into January a little bit.

Alan Lee:

We have put Sure Champ cattle pellet in a new bag. It's in a birthday wrapping Yeah. Top bag. The Appetite gel now smells like birthday cake for a short period of time. Don't worry.

Alan Lee:

We did all the tests. Consumption's good. All of it's all of it's

Casey Mabry:

You well, but you might you might start

Ty deCordova:

I was gonna say.

Alan Lee:

You may start Yeah.

Ty deCordova:

Yeah. Birthday cake stuff. I

Alan Lee:

mean Yeah. I might have a tube I can give you before I leave and try it. But, yeah, it's the fortieth year, fortieth birthday of Sure Champ, and it's been a big deal for us. You know, that product is a testament to what we've been talking about. Products don't stay in the show livestock world for forty years if they do not perform.

Ty deCordova:

Yeah.

Alan Lee:

And so when you bring science and research and real world application to make these cattle or any livestock healthier and keep their appetite up, thanks. I mean,

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Ty deCordova:

We've been showing, I guess Peyton is 16 going on 17 now, been showing since she was six. And we've, there've never been a year in our barn that we did not have a Sure Champ pellet. I mean, we've used it. And because it works. I mean, we we use it religiously.

Casey Mabry:

Yes, sir.

Alan Lee:

Yep. And I, you know, I think we're we're like Casey is at at our barn. I mean, we live with these things to be as competitive as we all wanna be across the nation. Actually, Casey, I think the last time you and I were on here together or I was on with y'all was at the National Western Stock Yeah. Yep.

Alan Lee:

Y'all were showing my kids were showing goats and sheep.

Ty deCordova:

They showed upstairs the next week. Yeah.

Alan Lee:

Yep. That's right. And, so anyways, you know, when you walk in, you can kinda tell something's a little off. And, I mean, the great thing about liquid boost is even my 11 year old daughter can give it, you know, it's not hard. That's the first, that's the first thing anything gets if it doesn't look like it's feeling a 100% today.

Alan Lee:

So great product. Have several more. You know, I know in the past, you used some of the clinch product. I love it.

Ty deCordova:

I used it I used it last week, matter of fact. Yeah. I love it.

Alan Lee:

Natural scour product works great in hogs too.

Casey Mabry:

Yeah. We've used it.

Alan Lee:

Yep. So I, you I know, don't know if you won't go through the whole portfolio, but but those are some of the products that we personally use every day at home and some of the better selling products that we have at Biozyme.

Casey Mabry:

Yeah. I imagine, Katie, you'll have a link on attached to this deal to have all them products and go through there because I'm gonna personally go through there and dig through it and make sure that we're utilizing what we can use. But one statement that I would tell you, most people and then there's some families that I'll kind of help around where we live and it seems like most people are trying to find something to fix something. You know what I'm saying? And so they're always like, you know, you know, what can I do to make this animal eat or do whatever?

Casey Mabry:

And you can see that all over Facebook. Honestly, I think we attribute it to a really really good start at the beginning on our side and then kind of continuing through the process more so as something that just kind of continues through you know we use it all the time so not trying to fix something but just trying to continue to keep those animals on feed because when they eat they win you know.

Ty deCordova:

Use it as preventative, not a cure. I mean, you if you'll started on it and you can keep them on it and they it it makes their have their appetite like it does. Like, we know it works. We use it. So if you if you get ahead of the problem, the people never have the problem.

Ty deCordova:

So that's why we use it throughout the the year. We don't we don't ever stop using it. So

Alan Lee:

I can tell you, with the newfound, drive of my two kids wanting to be competitive in the small ruminant space, I look at this as a simple insurance policy. It's one more thing I can do to try to prevent something. And, you know, for years, I mean, I've been at Biozyme for fifteen years now, I think, and was probably a customer for ten years prior to that. But, you know, I talk about this a lot at home. I mean, people, you've been to the house, Ty, but our ranch is split by county road down the middle.

Alan Lee:

And, you know, neighbors drive by and they're like, man, them cattle look good. What are you feeding? I'm like, I'm not feeding them. I mean, you know, they're on a good quality mineral. It's got amiferm in it, increasing digestion by 17% every day.

Alan Lee:

It makes it pretty easy for them cattle to perform. And it's the same thing in the show livestock deal. And I mean, if I could say one thing, and I know that Doctor. Cassidy and I for sure agree on this statement, a lot of times in our seats is show dads, if you will, we wanna over complicate the feeding. I mean, if you'll keep it basic and you'll put the right things in front of them from the get go, like you said, sometimes we don't create our own problems that way.

Alan Lee:

So for sure, staple in our barn. Was just on a team's call leading up to this. You've seen me sitting over there. And that's one of the things we were talking about is our team at Biozyme, you know, whether it be our sales team, some of our marketing team, or our tech support, you know, there's somebody raising nationally competitive livestock in some species across that whole, you know, all three of those teams I just mentioned, let alone, we have people back there running our manufacturing facility that have hung banners in this breed right here on a national level. So, you know, we're proud of that, but it helps us make those decisions when we're trying to bring a new product to market or or just a new idea that we're not just trying to sell it.

Alan Lee:

We're gonna use it at the barn. You know? And and I I do think it makes a big difference.

Ty deCordova:

That goes right back to we live it.

Alan Lee:

I mean Exactly.

Ty deCordova:

We're not here just to sell it. We we do it. We do it on the daily. Yeah. We did a good job.

Ty deCordova:

We live it. Yeah. Yeah. So Yeah. It's not like we just talk about it, but we walk the walk.

Ty deCordova:

So and that's what I love about the company and and and what y'all produce is if you're using it, you're not using it just to use You're not using it if it don't work because y'all compete, I mean, at a national level. And it kinda threw me for a loop when y'all changed from the heifers and the bulls to the small animals. But, man, y'all kicking butt in that too. I mean I'm guaranteeing. I was like, what you raised some heckacious Charlotte cattle, and then all of a sudden, the the kiddos wanna show goats and lambs, and, I mean, they smoke them with them now.

Ty deCordova:

They don't just show up just to show up.

Alan Lee:

I'll guarantee you one thing, Todd DeCordova. It didn't throw you for the loop that it threw me for. I promise you. You know, it it's one of those things, be careful what you say. And, several, several years ago when when Christy and I started having kids or when when Kicks was born, I said, there is no way, and you know what, we'll ever have a sheep on this place.

Alan Lee:

And our cattle barn is almost converted to a show sheep facility.

Casey Mabry:

So It's amazing what them cats will do.

Ty deCordova:

I get a I get a Snapchat from his wife the other day. She's calming goat hair leg and blowing it and making it and lambs everywhere. I'm like, yeah, daddy. Daddy, he's yeah.

Alan Lee:

That's why daddy's been in Fort Worth all week trying to earn a living to pay for all this for sure.

Casey Mabry:

Yeah. Those those goats are cheap,

Alan Lee:

aren't they? Yeah. You know? And some of my friends that I buy goats from will probably listen to this, so I'll just we'll we'll move right along. But, you know, there is upside to this thing, Ty.

Alan Lee:

We we have the best set of springboards we have ever raised. Not even questionable, and I'm a get to sell them this time instead of my kid picking up two or three

Ty deCordova:

of them. I know you sent me a video of one of them the other day, and you might not get to sell that one. Well That we might have to discuss that one. I mean, that one might have to be a topic of discussion.

Alan Lee:

It's been a lot of fun, and it honestly, it's it's got it's changed for us, obviously, because instead of me trying to figure out which one kicks or is gonna keep or whatever, you know, I'm like, man, that thing, I can send this one there. I can do this. So it's been fun. And I will say, was telling this earlier in the week, the small ruminant deal for us has been a lot of fun just from the challenge and learning because I'd had no exposure until the kids decided to do that. And both of our kids started showing pigs and, and, and I tell people all the time that was one of the funnest periods for us because I didn't know much about feeding pigs to start with, but I miss feeding on those pigs.

Alan Lee:

Not advocating we're gonna show pigs. I'm just saying I miss feeding on them and and that feeding those show pigs has actually helped us a lot on these other species.

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Casey Mabry:

We've got two goats in the barn. And so, my daughter, Avery, the middle one, started, she showed goats at our county show, which our county shows come an odd time. So our Texas major season, you know, is what, Feb, March, Jan, Feb, March, and and our county show is in June. So we would always get kind of holdovers from somebody else, you know, that were done with them and then they would validate them in March and then show them in June. But she never really got like the full blown experience.

Casey Mabry:

And so this year she's like, I want to show, I want to buy a goat, like a baby goat. Right? And so I had to go to that. So I went to a couple of these like goat sales because if we're going to try to do it, we're going to try to do it, you know, competitively. And the first thing that most of these guys will tell you is if you buy the right one, it's it's going to hold together.

Casey Mabry:

And I'm trying to learn through that. I don't know we're about six weeks into this goat journey you know but what's cool she's got that thing broke. She's been working with it every day. She's got a considerable amount of pigs in the barn but she's handling all that stuff too. And to the point you said a minute ago like in the show pig deal to us, we've done it for about ten years now.

Casey Mabry:

No, probably seven years now. And the expectations that you have on your family when you go to the show almost kind of takes the fun out of it. And then for us now, we get to be the Freddie four h's, you know, with the the with the goats and there's no no expectations, honestly. And so besides the fact that we went out and tried to buy a competitive goat, you know, so but to her, I'm like, hey. There's no pressure.

Casey Mabry:

Do whatever you wanna do. You know?

Alan Lee:

Yeah. I get the try part. I we we go to a sale called Friday Night Fever every year in in San Angelo, and I tell some friends of ours actually put it on or several friends, and and I tell them all the time, This is my favorite night of buying livestock and my least favorite night of buying livestock, right here all in the same place. We've left that place without goats most of the time. And, as Ty Ty knows my wife pretty well, and she's competitive at everything.

Alan Lee:

And we were there to buy a goat when we didn't buy a goat. Like, it's my fault for some reason. You know? So but, you know, it it it is, and it it's been a lot of fun for us. We we help quite a few cattle families across the country there.

Alan Lee:

And, you know, couple years ago, was about to pull my hair out. And another show dad that actually buys cattle from us, he's like, what's wrong with you? Like, I don't know. This goat's not eating. I can't figure it out.

Alan Lee:

We can't get it showed right. You know? And just starts laughing. And I'm I mean, I'm just about fighting mad, you know? And he said I said, what are you laughing at?

Alan Lee:

He said, now you know how I feel every day. And and so it kinda, you know, gives you a little check and but it it's been been a lot of fun. So

Ty deCordova:

What I like about it is, like, last night, I got home. I don't know. Was 08:30 or 09:00. I pulled out of the driveway. The first thing I see is the barn doors open and the lights are on.

Ty deCordova:

And I walk in the house and Jen's in there cleaning stuff up. And Tyler, the youngest one, she's at the barn doing barn stuff, cleaning the barn, getting it all ready for the next morning and Peyton Peyton's at tennis still so she's not no, she was at FFA Bank last night but anyways, they spend time out there. They enjoy it. They stay out of the house. They stay off their phones.

Ty deCordova:

They stay off the TV. They get up every morning. They go out there. It creates a worth ethic in those kids that you don't see that nowadays much much when you go around. In the ag ag world, do.

Ty deCordova:

But other than that, we're we're instilling in them through the show world a a worth ethic that that they'll be miles ahead of everybody else when they go to the workforce.

Casey Mabry:

Yeah. No doubt about it. I mean, like, every time I start to get, you know, the little minor things about it that frustrate you, you know, time commitments, family, you know, all these things that you kind of pull away. My wife and I step back and reflect about all the time that we have together, and we do it together as a family. I mean, there's no we don't have anybody at in the barn and there's been times, I promise you, I've been tempted multiple times to hire somebody to help clean pens or, you know, do whatever, to help around there because we do get busy with those daily activities, you know, where FFA banquets or basketball games or, you know, they wanna go hang out with their friends or whatever, and we try to balance all that stuff out.

Casey Mabry:

And it it gets trying. But, when you step back and your kids I mean, Avery, I've said this on here before. Avery came out to the barn one day, and she's like, dad, I was talking to my friends at lunch today and she's like, when they get home from school, they just go lay in bed and play on their phone. And she's like, I have to come out here and break pigs and, you know, clean pens and brush and do all that other stuff. And I mean, it's a couple hours a day, but man, those couple hours over a, you know, over a a ten year period definitely I mean, you're getting your you're getting your value out of it for

Ty deCordova:

It changes things. I come in the other night and I I thought I thought everybody was at home because it was I had to go do a sale. I think it was Saturday. It was Saturday night because this is when this one hit me so hard. Saturday night, I got home.

Ty deCordova:

It was 09:45 and walk in there and I'm talking to Jen. I thought the girls were both in there. I didn't pay no attention that Peyton no. No. Because all the trucks were there.

Ty deCordova:

I didn't think nothing. I thought everybody's there and all of a sudden here comes Peyton through the door. It's like 09:45, 10:00 and she's got a Starbucks cup and she's being a teenage girl.

Casey Mabry:

She'll hop over caffeine.

Ty deCordova:

Oh, yeah. And I'm like, whatever. When she walks out of the living room, I look at my wife. I said, I'm about fed up with this Starbucks crap. Going to Starbucks all the dang time.

Ty deCordova:

Jen looks right at me. She says, it's 09:45 on a Saturday night. She's a junior in high school. And you're gonna be mad about her just going to Starbucks? I went, I like Starbucks.

Ty deCordova:

I think Starbucks is a good place. So from now on, I'm like, she could be doing a million different things, but, you know, that's just when you raise them in that in that atmosphere.

Casey Mabry:

With those people too. Yeah. Yeah.

Ty deCordova:

So I'm like, whatever. I I it puts you in check just like you said sometimes.

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Alan Lee:

You know, Ty, as you said, we're in Fort Worth today. It's Wednesday afternoon, I think. I don't know if I'm supposed to date it, but I've been down here all week, with one of our distributor partners having a they had a trade show at the Fort Worth Convention Center this week. And and, the most of the people that were there are owners or managers of feed stores, for lack of better words, farm and ranch stores. And, and, you know, one of the number one topics of conversation throughout the last three days is is is the the the work problem, the labor problem, and the lack or lack of, And, I should you know, I don't know that I talked to one sizable operation that didn't have something to say about they can't find help.

Alan Lee:

And so I'm gonna flip that. The cool part about this deal is, you know, live ag and what y'all do predominantly based in the commercial sector, like we talked about. And obviously that's what pays our bills on a daily basis as well. But there were at that same expo for the last three days, there were three other people I run into that compete and show livestock space on a national level. Couple of raised goats that compete on national level.

Alan Lee:

Just within this room, you know, there there's people here that that raise goats that that, compete on the national level. And and so those people that those youth specifically today that come up through that program, are working their way to the tops of some of these organizations. And I'm talking, you know, I I'd love to say Biozyme's a big company. We're a small company, but but we try to bark pretty big. But I'm talking some big companies.

Alan Lee:

And and the kids that come through that program, they find their way through it pretty quick.

Ty deCordova:

Yeah. And they and they know them. They're like Yep. And they recognize them from it. So they know first of all, when they see them, they come into for that job interview or or whatever, they're like, okay, we have our expectation.

Ty deCordova:

We know where she he or she came from. You know she got brought up in this way. So that's gonna give them a step up. So I I I love it. I mean, Casey's big and and and the meat judge and stuff and and four H FFA and and and he coaches a lot of teams and and takes a lot of teams to to state and the nationals and and and even grill them up and stuff like that.

Ty deCordova:

Just the industry, growing them up in our industry is just you're setting them up for success on down the road. Oh, yeah.

Casey Mabry:

No, it's cool. We were going through our schedule, over the next couple weeks or a couple months and we're taking the four H team to the American Royal. And then my wife and I are taking Reese to the National Fagan Bension for the Agri Science Fair. And, so it's like, maybe we get to spend I mean, when you step back, you don't think you really do anything besides spending all the time in the barn. You go back and look at the flight log.

Casey Mabry:

I mean, you're going places, you know, and it's a lot of good stuff going on there.

Ty deCordova:

You was telling us about the project. What? Her, Reese's project?

Casey Mabry:

Yeah. Yeah. So she took beef eye around steaks and marinated them and then did, tenderness testing on it. But, yeah, it's pretty cool whenever your kid can, you know, is 15 years old and is talking about, you know, enzymes and what enzymes do and how that breaks down all those different things and, you know, sheer force testing and stuff like that. But my wife's got a meat science degree and so do I.

Casey Mabry:

And so we ended up raising a couple of meat nerds, you know, maybe maybe we could have been dentists and everybody would have made a lot of money. But, you know, we got these meaningless things, I guess.

Alan Lee:

Don't know. No, certainly not meaningless.

Ty deCordova:

Well, guys, I I enjoy it. I enjoy the visit. I'm glad we we got to get on here today. Allen, I know you probably wanna kinda hit the road and head to Arkansas and get back home to that family and that show barn and Casey, I know you got some meetings down down south of here. You gotta get to.

Ty deCordova:

So, we'll kind of wrap it up here and I I can't thank you guys enough for joining us. Casey, thank you for hosting us with us and Allen, thank you all for your business and most more than that, thanks for the friendship. I mean, we go back a long ways. We've we've been been you've been a fence post for me to lean on quite a quite a many times. So, can't thank you enough for that.

Ty deCordova:

So, want to thank everybody out there in social media land for joining us today. Don't forget, hit subscribe and like and leave your comments. If you want to reach out for any advertising opportunities, reach out to Katie, katy@liveag.com or go to our website liveag.com and scroll through there and you can find her that way too. Go to the website and look for our upcoming sales. We have feeder calf sale in October.

Ty deCordova:

We have big, big selection of purebred cells coming up this next couple of months that, you'll wanna get in there and look at and and kinda, I don't know what she's trying to tell me, but anyways, log on there. Live at live-ag.com, and and appreciate y'all, and reach out if you need us. God bless.