One Solution for Cattle Theft, Grazing & Health

 ​​Shaye Koester  00:08

Hey, Hey, it's Shaye Koester and I'm your host for the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast where we foster innovation and enthusiasm in the ranching industry through sharing the stories and practices of different ranchers and beef industry leaders. Be sure to be a greater part of this podcast and become involved on my social media pages. Follow @cattleconvos on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok or Shaye Koester on  LinkedIn to join the conversations around the challenges we face as ranchers and how we can overcome them. You can also find more information about this podcast all my episodes and how to partner with me on this show, by going to my website, casualcattleconversations.com. With that, thanks for tuning in and let's see who our guest is today.  Good morning, afternoon, evening, late at night, whatever time you're listening to this. Thank you for hopping on and joining me today, if you're new to the show, welcome. And if you're a returning listener, thanks for being loyal and let me know what some of your favorite episodes are and what other content you want to hear. Today, we're talking ag tech. Now, not just within the US, we're gonna hop the pond and go to Australia. Well, I guess it was a zoom call, I haven't actually been able to go to Australia yet. It is on my bucket list and a dream of mine however to go there. But we are going to visit with an ag tech company in Australia. So we are going to be visiting with Lewis Frost today to learn about Ceres Tag technologies. And that's Ceres c e r e s. And we're gonna learn about how that ear tag works for cattle and GPS monitoring and other monitoring systems that this technology has, how it can help ranchers, how you could even implement it on your operation, whether you're one of my listeners in the States or one of my listeners in Australia, Canada, and I know South Africa listens to Mexico. There's wherever you are listening is what I'm trying to get at is you're going to learn how it works, how it can help you and the purpose of this technology. Before we get going with that, I have a couple things. As always, remember to comment, rate and subscribe. The more of you do this, the more this show gets bumped up in the algorithm so more people can find it. So help out yourself by hitting subscribe and making sure that you get notified when new episodes come out and help others out and help them find this episode. Follow @cattleconvos on social media to join the community that I'm fostering on Instagram and Facebook and follow ceres_tag or go to their website cerestag.com that's c e r e s ta g.com to learn more about this after the show, I will also have that link in the show notes. And remember the show notes are the description or summary part of each episode that you have access to go comment on my Facebook posts or Instagram post about this episode that came out on the release date. So you can have a conversation there about what you learned or what questions you have. And also exciting news. DM me on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn to gain access to a free meeting of the minds a meeting of rancher minds. So I'm going to connect ranchers from around the nation or around the world if that happens, I suppose to an event that I am treating like a mastermind, where we can come together as a community and help each other talk through problems and issues within the beef industry for about an hour. And that event is happening in December, early December. So DM me and I will get you a link and more information. With that if you want to gain access to exclusive episodes from experts. There is a patron link that will also be in the show notes or the link in my bio on my social media. So become a patron take action to improve your operation, mindset and lifestyle by soaking in all the amazing content that I produce for you there. With that. Thank you. Thank you Thank you for hopping on. I am going to quit talking for a bit and we are going to get on on with the rest of the interview. Would you please just explain your background in the beef industry?

 

Lewis Frost  05:07

Yes, I actually got into the beef industry through the aquaculture industry. I've got a job in a beef cattle genomics laboratory, we're using the same technology that I've spent the last little while working on fish breeding and genetics with. From there, I spent about the last 15 years bringing different new and novel technologies into the beef and dairy cow industries in Australia and abroad.

 

Shaye Koester  05:32

Awesome. So where are you working now?

 

Lewis Frost  05:37

So right now, I'm the Chief Operating Officer with a company called Ceres Tag and Cereset Tag is a comprehensive animal monitoring company. And we recently launched our first product a director satellite ID tag for livestock.

 

Shaye Koester  05:52

Okay, so what is like the foundation of the Ceres tag company?

 

Lewis Frost  05:59

We started about six years ago, when husband and wife team David and Lena Smith returned to their family farm after having spent a number of years working and living abroad. And they realized that technology on the farm hadn't moved a single iota since they'd been away. So they set about trying to tackle some of the big challenges on the farm. And tried to understand how they could do that with technology. And they settled on this idea of remote monitoring and precision, livestock management, and looking for different technologies and IP that can help them do that.

 

Shaye Koester  06:35

Okay, so what problems were they trying to solve with this technology that they developed?

 

Lewis Frost  06:42

They were looking at issues in three sort of broad horizons, they're looking at challenges on the farm. And these are really farming efficiency challenges. So how can we better manage our animals? How can we better use available grazing and pasture lands? And how can we understand our livestock better? I know looking at another horizon, which really span the entire supply chain. So why should a device or a technology stop adding value at the farm gate? So they want to understand traceability, food security, food safety, food fraud, issues like this? And ultimately, how that story is then communicated at the third and final frontier, which is to the ultimate consumer of that, that red meat product?

 

Shaye Koester  07:27

Okay, awesome. So that's really neat to see the traceability aspect all the way to the consumer. So can you talk a little bit more about the functions of the Ceres Tag?

 

Lewis Frost  07:38

Yeah, so important to note, I think I mentioned earlier, the tag is communicating directly to the satellite. This is a really key feature of this device and makes it a well first, on top of that their devices using GPS satellites to determine where an animal's located. And that uses the advanced accelerometer to monitor an animal's activity, behavior changes to behavior, particularly focused on detecting any distress in the animal. And all of this is then sent back, by that direct satellite detection?

 

Shaye Koester  08:13

So is this like a battery-operated tag? Or what are the functions there?

 

Lewis Frost  08:21

So the tag is powered by a battery, but it's a completely sealed unit. So the battery will just continue powering the device. And it's completely maintenance-free, there's no need to go in and change batteries at any time.

 

Shaye Koester  08:34

So what would the battery life of the tag me, per se,

 

Lewis Frost  08:38

So we've got a really long battery life, the device will function for up to 10 years. And that's a factor of two different things. One is we use a really unique battery chemistry. So we haven't just settled for an off-the-shelf battery. And we couple that with a small solar panel on the tag that allows the tag to be recharged every day, of course, we can get going on the sun and gives us such a long, long life of the device.

 

Shaye Koester  09:03

Okay, so is it fairly easy to implement? When are producers typically putting this in? I know, you said you just launched that, but would they be putting in like after weaning or calving?

 

Lewis Frost  09:16

Look, you probably want to put it in, I think the ideal time is your handling, and you putting it in animals that you're then selecting to either retain or maybe not putting it in animals that are going to be turned off on a shorter paid program. So you're maximizing the life of the device on the animal and collecting as much information across the animal's life as you can. The tag stays with the animal for its entire life. So even if that animal moves along the supply chain to a background feeder, it will continue generating data and providing value for its owner.

 

Shaye Koester  09:49

So you've mentioned there's obviously like the health side of it and then there's the tracking and animal stuff side of it. What do you see it primarily being used for?

 

Lewis Frost  10:01

The really interesting thing about what the tag is used for is we try really hard to not tell people how to use it, which sounds kind of counterintuitive. But we find producers always have a couple of key problems they're trying to solve. And it's different for each and every producer we work with. So rather than tell them how to use it, we tell them what it's capable of. And then they work to develop their own sort of deployment strategy, how many tags do they need, they might not need to tag everything, but what they're doing, I only need to tag a selection of those animals to get the data they need to solve their problems. So it's a very flexible solution.

 

Shaye Koester  10:42

Okay, so it's collecting all this data? How does the producer access that and put that to use.

 

Lewis Frost  10:51

So we don't actually provide any end-user software at all. Because we don't see any sort of failure or market value in that space. There's hundreds of fantastic management, animal management fund management software packages out there. And we're working with as many as possible to have a full data integration with them. So what this should enable is that producers can just continue using the software system that paid for learn how to use in a comfortable way. And Ceres tag data will just appear right alongside the other information like animal weights and treatments, genetics, and so on.

 

Shaye Koester  11:29

Okay, what has the response from producers been to this technology,

 

Lewis Frost  11:35

Producers have been really engaged, I think it does take them a little while to realize it can do almost anything they want it to, but they're going to see the best bang for their buck when you have a plan. So work out the problems you're trying to solve, deploy the tags and gather the data you need and remote, importantly, make the decisions at the other end of that deployment. So you're changing practice, and driving your operation forward, not just generating the data generation sake. So we really work with people to help them go through that process, rather than telling them how to use the tag on the stock, really coach them on how to drive change that in their own operation.

 

Shaye Koester  12:16

Okay, so what are some of those key changes, you really see it impacting? From the ranch management side?

 

Lewis Frost  12:25

Look, I see it operating in a few key areas, probably unsurprisingly, one of the big areas we get a lot of inquiry from is theft. So just trying to reduce or stop count that from occurring. It's more of an issue in certain parts of the world than others, but even in a sort of well-developed market industry like in Australia, it still cost the industry over $250 million a year in direct stock loss. And that's a highly underreported figure. So there's probably a lot more stuff that's going on that people don't detect, or be able to detect and report. That's a big, big motivator for people. And pasture utilization would be another one. People want to know where their animals are going, which may develop a heat map of sorts to be able to work out where animals spend their time grazing or not on their property, and animal health. People really want to monitor their animals from a distress perspective. So you can't be with your animals, probably for seven, but to have a device that is, and it's going to send you an alert if something goes wrong. It provides a great deal of peace of mind for the end-user.

 

Shaye Koester  13:38

So because of that alert, is that something that would come in on a cell phone?

 

Lewis Frost  13:43

It does depend a little bit on what software you're using. So as I've mentioned, we work really closely with the end software providers. But what about minimum requirements is that they can push that alert to you either through an app, a text message, or an email, looks at alerts coming through directly that's come through in real-time. So if someone's feeling

 

Shaye Koester  14:09

Okay, so how does this tag compare to other tags? Because EIDs and other technologies like this, there's a lot coming out right now. There's a huge push. So how does yours compare to say other ones?

 

Lewis Frost  14:24

Compared to like an EID tag this is a massive stepwise change for the industry. But one thing we didn't want to do is we didn't want to come out and just disrupt the industry for disruption's sake. So what we've done is we've essentially built backwards compatibility to the device. So Ceres Tag can come with an RFID. So the same as what's inside of the EID built itself. It can even replace one of the other tags on the handle of identification in comparison to some of the other sort of monitoring Ceres tag technology is truly first. And it's one of the easiest and most affordable ways to get into animal monitoring. Because you don't have to put up any infrastructure for the antennas or towers, base stations or relays. So you're saving sort of 10s, or on a very large property up to hundreds of 1000s of dollars of hardware deployment costs. So you can just get a few tags, if you like it, keep using it. If not, you're not out of pocket that much.

 

Shaye Koester  15:30

Yeah, so how much do these tags cost?

 

Lewis Frost  15:34

We don't actually sell the tags individually, we sell them in packages. So they can either as a box of 24, that's more economical, or an introductory pack, which includes an applicator, and 10 individual tags. With that introductory pack for less than two and a half 1000 USD, you've moved into the world of precision animal management, but you've not made the commitment of putting all the hardware and infrastructure on your farm, you're gonna have to make that.

 

Shaye Koester  16:00

Okay. So how does it or have you been able to see with like, even your beta customers like having it go through the whole supply chain, so how has that worked, as far as different segments collaborating with each other,

 

Lewis Frost  16:18

The tag is, is readily identifiable, and it's marked as a Ceres Tag device. So that if the handshake doesn't essentially occur between someone selling cattle and someone buying cattle, the new owner can clearly recognize lots of the animals that come to our website, and we then set them up an account, so they can start accessing the data of essentially the new animals with tags, and they've recently acquired, so we can have sort of ownership of the access off as the animal moves along the supply chain. Ultimately, when that animal is processed, you've got this beautiful package of data, and it's like a golden thread to the animal's life that's been monitored precisely everywhere, in its entire journey. And what it experienced on the way.

 

Shaye Koester  17:05

Okay, so, big picture, 10,000-foot view. How do you really see this impacting the beef industry of Australia, and on a global scale, because these are not just in Australia at the moment?

 

Lewis Frost  17:20

We've already sold tags, since going live in 10 countries around the world. Again, everyone wants to use it for something different. But we really see it as bringing a level of transparency to the industry, when you're able to require an animal's know exactly what it's been and what its experiences life. And the person you want sell that animal to that's the same level of transparency, we're hoping it's going to bring a new level of clarity around traceability and provenance, where you're basing it on data, you're not basing it on information that's been recorded by a person against the electronic tag, the electronic tag that actually automating all of that data capture. So whether you're trying to manage a carbon sequestration project in Australia, prevent cattle grazing on the forested Amazonian rainforest, or ensure that your cattle are safe and healthy in South Africa or anywhere else in the world, you can use that single tag and legal system to enter this data and provide it to the people that matter to you in your value chain.

 

Shaye Koester  18:26

Well, awesome. Thank you very much for that. So where can producers go to learn more about this tag?

 

Lewis Frost  18:35

So you can check us out on our socials, any of the major social media channels, you can check out our YouTube channel. Or, you can just head to www.cerestag.com where you can even schedule a time to have a video or phone call with someone from the team if you got some particular questions that we might help you with.

 

Shaye Koester  18:53

Well, awesome. So kind of shifting gears a little bit what other I mean, you said you worked in the technology space before. So what other ag technologies are you excited about?

 

Lewis Frost  19:04

Look at the moment. My background is in genetics and breeding and genomics broadly. But right now, I'm really interested in genomics, and devices that are improving the level of automated recording and phenotyping that we're seeing come into the market. So we are advanced as a walkover weighing and remote weighing solutions, some of the individual feed intake systems and some of the computer vision solution. So looking at targets recording, and even estimating retail on a live animal. I think the more we can automate and improve the accuracy of the data we're collecting, the more it's going to power rapid evaluation systems. And that's just going to drive progress right across the entire industry.

 

Shaye Koester  19:48

Well, that is exciting to hear. So is there anything you'd like to tell producers about adapting to any new technology within the ag industry?

 

Lewis Frost  20:00

Yeah, I think I'd come back to the eyes wide open type approach. So as trying to establish before you even look at technology, trying to establish what problems you're trying to solve, then seek to understand what the technology is capable of, and then work out precisely how you're going to use it, not how other people have used it, not necessarily how the technology provider says to use it, try and work out how you're going to deploy it in your operation, for the maximum return on your investment, and the end of may be very different to what you've seen before.

 

Shaye Koester  20:34

Well, thank you for that. Is there anything else you'd like to add to this conversation or wrap up?

 

Lewis Frost  20:41

No, that's been fantastic. Thank you so much for having me.

 

Shaye Koester  20:44

And that is a wrap on that one. Thank you Lewis for coming and visiting with me and sharing your story, as well as the story of Ceres Tag. Now, with that, like I said before, please be sure to find @cattleconvos on social media, subscribe to this podcast, make sure you get updates. Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter by going to my website, casualcattleconversations.com/newsletter so that you get episodes sent straight to your inbox for free. If you want exclusive content, become a patron and take action today to improve your operation mindset and lifestyle. Be sure to follow Ceres Tag on social media as well. That's Ceres_tag. And with that, thank you for hopping on. You have a fantastic rest of your day, folks. I'll catch you on the next one.

Empowering the Next Generation of the Beef Industry through Entrepreneurship

 

Shaye Koester  00:00

Hey, Hey, it's Shaye Koester and I'm your host for the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast where we foster innovation and enthusiasm in the ranching industry through sharing the stories and practices of different ranchers and beef industry leaders. Be sure to be a greater part of this podcast and become involved on my social media pages. Follow cattleconvos on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok or Shaye Koester on LinkedIn to join the conversations around the challenges we face as ranchers and how we can overcome them. You can also find more information about this podcast, all my episodes and how to partner with me on this show, by going to my website, casualcattleconversations.com. With that, thanks for tuning in, and let's see who our guest is today.  Here we go with another one! Today we are visiting with Brandon Howlie about empowering the next generation of beef industry leaders. Brandon and his wife Stefnie are highly involved in empowering youth to be entrepreneurial and think outside the box when it comes to operating ag businesses. They also run a highly diverse operation and focus on niche marketing.  It’s a fun episode that is sure to get your mind going with how to empower the next generation and find ways to diversify. Speaking of diversifying? How is advertising going for all you seedstock producers? 

 

Cow Camp Promotions  01:47

Seedstock producers have been promoting their bull sale using the same method for the past 20 years. While most producers have incorporated new technology like videos, online bidding and social media, their process is still the same. Frankly, the "build it and they will come" approach isn't cutting it.   But here's the good news – there's a better way!  The Cattalyst Hybrid Media Strategy uses a multi-facetted plan to engage with bull buyers and build a relationship. So, when sale season does roll around, your customers KNOW you, LIKE your cattle and TRUST your program.  This elevates you above the competition and builds loyal bull buyers for years to come. And once you learn the Cattalyst strategy, you will understand and be able to use these revolutionary secrets to promote your genetics year after year.  If you want to spur the success of your bull sale, visit CowCampPromotions.com to learn more. 

 

Shaye Koester  02:45

I just want to thank Tracey for sponsoring this show and offering this package to seedstock producers.   Before we get rolling, please remember to go check out my website casualcattleconversations.com or go to the show notes to learn how to gain access to exclusive content, partner with me and have new episodes and blogs sent straight to your inbox. Remember to follow cattleconvos on social media as well!  If you don’t go there already,  the shownotes are the description of each episode. Shownotes are where you can find links to the advertiser for each show, any special offers I have AND a quick 3-minute survey that will help me make this podcast YOURS and produce the content YOU want to hear. So get check that out!  What is your background in the ranching space?

 

Brandon Howlie  03:40

Yeah, absolutely. So my background really stems from my grandfather's upbringing of me. From a very early age, I have pictures all the way back to two years old ofa me getting on a horse and going out and working cattle with my grandfather, you know him taking the reins and leading me around as we push cattle. And then I've spent all of my summers and all of my weekends throughout the years, coming out here and running cattle. And at that time, he had quite a large Quarter Horse operation that he was doing in conjunction with the cattle. So I also kind of got a little bit of background in the Quarter Horse world and the cutting world of things when we went into competitions. They also did a little bit of reining at times. But most of my experience was based in the cattle and you know, learning about the genetics and learning about the things that actually went into what makes a good cow what makes a good bull. Those types of fundamentals that a lot of I feel ranch kids get at an early age coming up through this type of system going into the genetics it's going into what types of breeds you're using and what the intention is for the overall objective. Back then my grandfather was more concerned about growing the cow or the steer out to a finished weight as quickly as possible or getting him to that 500 weight and then taking them to the sale barn or doing some type of private treaty to send them on to another ranch. So just kind of being one of those kids that got a taste of this and really a passion for it as I grew up through the years. You know, my summers out here, were crucial, baling hay doing all the grunt work that you know, nobody wants to do, but has to do to come up through the chain. And yeah, that's pretty much all I got my my background and ranching.

 

Shaye Koester  05:39

So do you want to talk about your operation today? And what you're all doing there?

 

Brandon Howlie  05:46

Yeah, absolutely. So just to give a little bit of context, our operation was started in 1977 by my grandfather as a conventional cow-calf operation. And there was a period of time between the the end of his career with the ranch and me being in the military that the ranch kind of said, dormant, if you will, and we had to sell off or tie trade down on a lot of our cattle population on cattle herd and our horse herd. And so in 2017, I came into the picture after I got out of the military.  And we were at a crossroads as a family and trying to decide what it was that we were going to do with the ranch to maintain its continuity and so I ended up raising my hand at that meeting and telling everybody, you know, this is my plan. This is how I expect to get things done. And then we retro actively converted the ranch to a grass fed and finished and biodynamic and sustainable operation. And then subsequently getting our certifications as a GAP Step Four operator and being certified by the American Grass-fed Association and a couple others. So since then, we've been moving everything up. So we're actually retaining yearlings now or backgrounding. We've filtered out, if you will, some of that color that my grandfather had bred into to our overall herd and then kind of looked like a Picasso picture, you know, at the end of 35 or 40 years. So we cleaned it up, got it back to our Angus roots. And now just for our growth factor, we're doing a SimAngus, three quarter Simmental and a quarter Angus or excuse me, reverse that three quarter Angus a quarter Sim cross. So that's kind of where we are today to catch you up.

 

Shaye Koester  07:10

Yeah. So in addition to your ranch, I mean, you have more than just the raising cattle. I mean, you're connected with consumers, you have other aspects. So what are those other diversifying factors that you still consider a part of your overall business and what you're doing today?

 

Brandon Howlie  07:52

Yeah, well, we identified a problem early on, when we started retrofitting everything over to the the grass-fed and finished side, we realized that we weren't netting necessarily what we needed to make a profit every year at the sale barn. So identifying that was the key to allowing us to, I guess, assess all of our options as to where we wanted to go from here. And one of the options that we ended up going forward with was the direct to consumer route. So you know, I created an entire supply chain with our cattle to where we would grow them out, we would background them, you know, we retained some more of those heifers that were in, in line with our program that we were going into, and we in doing so we would go to the farmers market, we were able, we got the capability to approach restaurants, to approach grocery stores to do all of those things, kind of the typical routes that you would assume, with going direct to consumer, though, we were kind of faced with a dilemma, once COVID hit, and then kind of fun, funny, right before COVID hit at one of the farmers markets. We ended up meeting the director of the CTE programs for the Dallas Independent School District. And I didn't know who he was at the time. And he was just kind of a guy in the crowd that was listening in on the conversation and hearing what I had to say about the cattle in our operation and how we care for our beef. He approached me to say, Hey, I'd really appreciate it if you come out and help help kind of get a picture of what we're working with out here at this Seagoville facility. So I said sure. And from there that blossomed into a contract where we not only went out there to consult just on the baselines of what they needed for that to be a sustainable cattle operation on that small of an acreage. But we also identified other ways to create revenue for them by bringing in storefronts, creating the show, working in partnership with the ranch and other ranches to create a pipeline of cattle and ruminant animals that can be used in show. So all of those kind of typical check in the boxes for them that would make their program a lot more robust. But the key thing that I think that we walked away from that situation was, is that we had the ability to create blockchain curriculum. And what this blockchain curriculum essentially was going to do, or it still is going to do, we're still at the planning process is happening with COVID, as it's kind of going along. But what has been discussed is that, you know, you would take one, maybe two weeks at the producer level, and these kids would go through an intensive learning program and see, you know, the dairy side and the beef producing side and the cow calf side, and then they would shift up and then they would see, you know, what does it look like if I did decide to go direct consumer or kind of take maybe a wholesale route or something along those lines, and then what does it look like working with the packer and then we'll be able to see the meat sciences and how to negotiate packing contracts and all those types of things all the way up until they got to a finished product. Module, I'll just call it to where they, you know, see how that finished product looks on the plate, how they market that how they talk like a chef, how they cook like a chef, you know, so that they can go into any situation at any level and be knowledgeable to some degree or at least a professional degree, and hold their own. Now, this was kind of a unique idea in the sense that this was or my intention for it was to create a pathway to an alternative to college credit. So we had gotten with private equity groups. One in particular that I had brought this up to is Jaylon Smith from the Dallas Cowboys. He has a minority entrepreneurship institute that's really big into mentoring and lifting up people that want to get into business that don't necessarily maybe have the means though. So what would happen is that these kiddos would get to the end of this blockchain curriculum. Now, whether that be at the end of junior year or senior year, these are the details that we're trying to work out with the DSD as far as you know, what are the upcoming COVID restrictions? You know, how are How's teaching gonna look? Is it going to be online? Is it gonna be mostly in class, it's all these things. And I think most of those are still trying to figure out some things. But the the part that was kind of unique to that situation is that MBI aspects. So they would, essentially, these kids would take one of those blockchains and create a business plan of their own for it. So they they really have a affinity for meatpacking, or they really have affinity for a cow-calf operation, well, then they would create their own business plan, they would go in and pitch it in like a mini shark tank in a way. And then you know, these Peony guys would essentially say, Hey, I'm gonna, you know, sponsor you and mentorship or we'll fund you up to a certain dollar amount, or we'll fund you all the way. But essentially, it gives them some type of long term guidance that we're not just saying, hey, great job, guys, you did really good, I'm glad you found found yourself in this program. See you later, right, we don't want that to happen, because that's when people start losing confidence in the ability and they face problems that they might not know how to overcome in certain situations. So having that added layer of continuity, to take them out after high school really lends some really unique perspective and really unique abilities to the program. So that's kind of in a nutshell, what we've been working on with the DSD. Now since COVID has happened, we've had to pivot with our ranch operations and with the DSD in a lot of different ways to where we couldn't go on campus, the DSD, we couldn't interact with the kids, we had to do zoom, you know, everything pretty much. And our timelines for for everything, essentially, with the training or teaching or however it was done was cut in half. Everything had to be faster, faster, faster. And then we're, we were picking up contracts with the ranch, you know, on the restaurant side of things and doing those types of things. We were losing out because then the restaurants had to shutter and the chef's no longer could cook and people couldn't go to restaurants. So in a very short amount of time, we lost a lot of our revenue base. So what we did is we pivoted yet again so we now have this DSD thing that we were kind of controlling all the way through COVID The best we could on top of it Creating a chef collaborative, called Cowboys and Bohemians out here at the ranch, where we took all of the chefs from Dallas are the ones willing to come out here and work with us, to the ranch created this r&d kitchen for them, so that they can continue their craft. And we bring people out here we host the private dinners, we do things like that. I think one of the more fun things that we did was our brunches. The way that works is that we pick you up from East house, we drive you out here, when you checked out with your your ticket, you'd be able to pick one of two activities, you either do a health and wellness or you do skeet shooting. So I'll take you out and you skeet shooting with me for an hour. And then we come back up and you can watch the chef prepare a four course brunch. So and then we take care of all your transportation and everything like that. So it's those things that allowed us to continue normal operations, but we had to remain and stay very creative and ingenuitive. The other things that we've been trying to do is that since recent legislations kind of been passed, we've been reaching out to more international partners or potential partners, to see if we can accommodate or offset any of their demand that they're having to face that they can't necessarily capture. So you know, we're working with a contractor in Korea, there's one in Bahrain potentially. So these are all kind of little caveats of what we're doing out here.

 

Shaye Koester  16:34

Well, that's awesome. So there's a lot we can touch on with each one of those segments. But you guys have really done what sounds like an outstanding job of pivoting when needed and making sure you always have a cash flow somewhere. But going back to that CTE program, so these students you're working with, obviously, if they're in there, they're interested in Ag in some space, do all of them come from ag background, or are a majority from non ag backgrounds? What are the types of kids you're working with?

 

Brandon Howlie  17:03

So it's right now, for COVID restrictions, it was mostly ag kids that were allowed to go to those facilities, because they were already in those types of programs before and they didn't want to, I guess inundate the facility with a bunch of people just trying to see if they liked it. The idea is, is for it not to be just the Ag kids, for anyone really, that wants to show an interest in and it's across multiple CTE programs. So, you know, if, you know, we touch on hydroponics, we get hydroponics, CTE kids, or if we touch on land management, or you know, ag and then you know, culinary gets involved as well on that finished product side of things when we're, you know, negotiating contracts with restaurants or, you know, talking about finished dishes and bringing that kind of professional language into their vocabulary, so that they can communicate effectively on that level. So, no, I, that was the overall intention. I think that's why DIC really liked the ideas because it was so inclusive, that any walk of life can come in here and get something out of it. But I think with you know, budgets, and the Coronavirus, couldn't restrictions that they're going to look at it a little bit differently in the sense that they only really want people that are looking at this as something serious and not as an inquiry. They don't want you to just come out for, you know, a couple classes or whatnot or anything like that they want you to commit. So typically, what we've found thus far is that the people that have committed there were ag or they have some type of ag affinity in their background.

 

Shaye Koester  19:00

Okay, so what has been like the most rewarding part for you? I mean, I know you're still in some of the planning stages, and you've had to deal a lot with COVID. But what's been the most rewarding part of being able to build a program like this for youth?

 

Brandon Howlie  19:17

Well, there's a lot of things and I think that the largest one was being able to collaborate with the the directors of facilities and really get their insight as to what they were lacking. And then giving them a product that they can be proud of and put their name on and, you know, allow these kids to have access to the facilities and the equipment and everything that they'll need, but that the ISD might not be able to provide on their own. I think that giving them that ability has really increased my insight into how the public school system works and why It's so important to have channel partners like happy Hollow Ranch and, you know all these other like Virgin hotels and Peter Barlow, all these, these people that are involved in this program come in and donate their time or, you know, donate their equipment or whatever capacity to enhance that experience and to enhance that learning. Is what is the most rewarding for me.

 

Shaye Koester  20:22

So outside of the COVID challenges, what were some of the other challenges that you faced?

 

Brandon Howlie  20:30

I think budgetary challenges justifying certain things and making sure that the program was built out the way it needed to be. And we weren't going to cut corners in a sense when you're dealing with an entire school district. And there's a lot of ins and outs as far as what they need for that year. Sometimes your ideas get shuffled to the bottom, but you have to justify it and overcome that obstacle to make sure that you're staying on the ball.

 

Shaye Koester  21:02

Okay, so what advice do you have for someone who is interested in helping youth in some educational fashion with agriculture, whether that's through school districts, or through other independent organizations, what advice you have for them,

 

Brandon Howlie  21:19

I would say go into it with open eyes and well intentions. If you're doing this for the money, or you're you've got some, you know, other alternative to your motives. It's going to hinder your ability to effectively accomplish your your goals. You really want to go into something like this was being an altruistic person and saying, Hey, this is for the kiddos. And we need to keep that. Keep that in mind.

 

Shaye Koester  21:52

Awesome. Thank you very much. So shifting gears back to like, how you've diversified and done so many different things there. When you look at what your next move is, is this something where you decide that kind of right away when you see a problem? Or do you kind of have like a list? I mean, I know your wife's a part of the operation, too. And whoever else is a part, do you guys have like a list of like, dreams or potential options where you can diversify when the time is right? Or how do you make that decision.

 

Brandon Howlie  22:24

So it is just me and my wife, and then one employee out here. So it's, it's pretty easy to get a meeting of the minds at times, I think that we have some really, really big dreams. But I wouldn't say per se, say we have a list of things. I think that, you know, learning what we've learned over this past year with all the change and you know, dynamics of legislation have kept us adaptable, and not so fixed on one thing, we have kind of like a general thing that we would like to accomplish, and we formulate that vision as it gets built out. But yeah, I think that we would like to build out that Chef collaborative, because I see there's a future and that and really cultivate those relationships to where, you know, when restaurants do come back online. We give those restaurants the ability to take their consumers out to the ranch and say, Hey, this is where your food comes from, let us educate you from the on-the-ground position. And give you a taste of what you've been missing. Because when you go to the Cisco's and US foods and things like that the National tech or suppliers, distributors, their disconnection, you know, you don't get to see where it's grown, you don't get to see what was done to it or anything like that you have no background, no transparency. And for a lot of these restaurants and a lot of these supply chains now, that's kind of what I've been noticing more and probably where our point of focus is going to be more directed to is these more regionalized supply chains. So the other thing that I'm doing for the DSD is building out a book of businesses so that they can go out if there was ever a national shutdown, again, they couldn't source from US Foods or Cisco or something like that. They could then whip out this book of businesses and say, Okay, we need beef, we need chicken, we need eggs, you know, find all their proteins, vegetables and fruits from a localized area. And I hope to take that model and extrapolate it out across the nation to where we're increasing the the nutritional diversity of assisted lunch programs. So that's kind of my my arm's length goal is to get involved with the assisted lunch programs and really have an impact on that on a larger scale. But that requires working with the Government. So currently we're, we brought that up to Senator Bob Hall and we'll discuss that further as it as it develops.

 

Shaye Koester  25:11

Well, that's outstanding. So as we wrap up here today, you really did a thorough job explaining everything you do. And so is there anything else you'd really like to add or share?

 

Brandon Howlie  25:23

Well, if y'all ever want to come on to happy Hollow Ranch, for door's always open, and we love to host people. Keep up with us on Instagram at happyhollow.beef and happyhollowbeef.com is our website. So you can go on and order a package of curated beef or drop me a line. But it was an absolute pleasure doing this interview. And thank you so much for bringing me on. I think that this is fantastic. You asked great questions, and I really appreciate the robust conversation.

 

Shaye Koester  26:00

That’s a wrap on that one and I just want to remind you that

 

Cow Camp Promotions  26:03

Bull sale season is fast approaching so it's a good time to evaluate if your promotion is effective.  Ask yourself these questions: Is your bull sale as successful as you had hoped? Are you skeptical if anyone sees your ads? Have you analyzed and adjusted your promotional budget this year?  Many factors can make seedstock producers nervous before their sale. They simply worry that no one will show up and raise their hand when the auction starts.  Take the guesswork out of promoting your bull sale. The Cattalyst Hybrid Media Strategy revolutionizes promotion and elevates you above the competition. The tactics and practices help you build long-lasting relationships with your current customers plus attract new buyers.   The Cattalyst strategy even takes the pain out of writing those dreaded footnotes when it comes to catalog time.  If you want to spur the success of your bull sale, head over to CowCampPromotions.com and schedule a time to visit.  Thank you for tuning in again, thank you Brandon for sharing your story with this audience and thank you Tracey sponsoring this episode. Please remember to go check out my website casualcattleconversations.com or go to the show notes to learn how to gain access to exclusive content,  partner with me and have new episodes and blogs sent straight to your inbox. Remember to follow cattleconvos on social media as well!  If you don’t go there already,  the shownotes are the description of each episode. Shownotes are where you can find links to the advertiser for each show, any special offers I have AND a quick 3-minute survey that will help me make this podcast YOURS and produce the content YOU want to hear. So get check that out!-  Take care and have a great day!