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May 31, 2025 41 mins

This podcast episode delves into the complexities of the current cattle market, featuring insights from Will Homer, the COO of Painted Hills Natural Beef. A salient point of discussion is the mounting pressure on cattle prices and the broader implications for both producers and consumers. Homer articulates the challenges stemming from fluctuating costs associated with cattle production, including feed and operational expenses, which have escalated significantly in recent times. The conversation further explores the peculiarities in grocery store meat availability, reflecting on how supply chain disruptions have affected consumer access to various beef cuts. Throughout this discourse, we aim to enhance our understanding of the intricate dynamics at play in the beef industry today.

Links referenced in this episode:


Companies mentioned in this episode:

  • Painted Hills Natural Beef
  • Fred Meyer
  • Amazon
  • Whole Foods
  • Kroger
  • Pig Powder

Mentioned in this episode:

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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
It's time for Barbecue Nationwith JT So fire up your grill, light
the charcoal, and get yoursmoker cooking.
Now from the Turn It, Don'tBurn it studios In Portland, here's
J.T.
hey, everybody.
Welcome to the nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with my hall ofFame co host, Ms.
Leanne Whippen.
Dave and Chris are slitheringaround the back doing whatever they

(00:36):
are doing.
And we would like to thank thefolks at Painted Hills Natural Beef
beef the way nature intended.
You can check them outonline@painted hillsnatural beef.com
and speaking of such things,Will Homer, the COO of Painted Hills
Natural Beef, has joined usagain today.
I like to keep an eye on,obviously, the commodities markets

(00:59):
and the beef market and thatbecause I'm interested in it and
I know our listeners areinterested in it.
But also, we got to eat, so wegot to know if we're going to get
some cows in the store.
Well, welcome.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me today.
You know, you don't sound veryfired up today.
Usually you're gregarious.
Yeah, well, you know, it'sbeen one of those.

(01:20):
It's kind of a.
I don't know, it's kind of asleeper, I guess, today.
I don't know.
Just going to wake me up.
Well, that's Gabrielle's job.
I'm not, I'm not going there anyway.
What's going on in the cattle business?
Well, I don't know.
I'm getting so tired oftalking about change then, and I'm
not seeing it anywhere.

(01:41):
Just I don't know what to think.
In fact, I, I'm going to geton the road next week and get a feel
for what's going on out therebecause you see, as you see my picture
behind me, it's beautiful here.
I don't like to leave here.
It's nice and quiet andthere's nothing crazy going on.
But I got to get out on thestreet and see what's going on.
It seems like the pressure isbuilding on the live animal side

(02:06):
quite a bit.
There's quite a bit ofincreased value to the producer,
which is a good thing.
The packer.
As a packer, I have to give alot more money for cattle than I
have in the past.
And so my cost of goods havegone up quite a bit.
And it seems like I don't knowwhat's happening in the retail.
I don't know what's happeningin the grocery store, if they're

(02:29):
moving or it's changing orit's even selling.
It's just.
It's just been.
It's been a weird.
It's just been a weird spring.
Well, I will say that I seebeef in the store.
Beef prices have gone down in Florida.
Wow.
Yeah.
Not substantially, but, youknow, they have their loss leaders,
of course, but I see it kindof going down a little bit.

(02:52):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So as you see, you see the bignational guys report because they
have.
They have stocks and thingsthe stock owners and things they
report to, you know, andthey're all.
They're all saying.
Waking up to the fact thatit's cost them a lot more money for
the cattle they have, andtheir cost of operations are a lot

(03:14):
higher than they have been.
So if that's going to resultin a higher cost of the grocer or
the grocer's going to pushback and sell more pork because it's
still free, I don't know.
I don't know what's going to happen.
Well, I can give you your oldbuddy Jeff's spy observation on the

(03:35):
retail level here.
Yeah.
My wife came home the other day.
She went out and did some shopping.
She let me sleep in thatmorning, which was great.
Something I rarely get to do.
She came back in, she goes,you know, the store was really weird.
She went to two different stores.
And I said, how's that?
And she goes, well, you'regoing to go back there in a couple

(03:58):
hours.
I know you will.
So why don't you.
Why don't you look and thentell me.
And we talked about thisbefore, but this was more kind of
in.
In indicative of what we sawpartway through the pandemic.
There was a lot of certainproducts, a lot of pork, except they

(04:22):
didn't have any ribs.
Okay.
There wasn't a rib to be foundfor the Memorial.
Memorial Day.
Yeah, but.
And I.
That was not to get off in theweeds here, but I was like, what
beef department manager orwhat meat department manager, excuse
me, wouldn't order more ribsfor Memorial Day?

(04:42):
You know, fourth of July, thattype of thing.
It didn't make any sense to me.
When I went to the store, Iactually asked the meat guy and he
got real testy with me.
No, no ribs.
No ribs.
I'm like, okay.
But there was a ton of.
They were selling pork tenderloins.
Package of two for 299, not a pound.

(05:03):
299.
I told you it was free.
Yeah.
So I bought some, of course.
Yeah.
And then other things, youknow, just bulk packaged meats.
You know, chicken, pork, beef,whatever those are.
You know, they're never thebest cuts, you know, when they do

(05:26):
those family packs like that.
But they're okay.
There was a lot of those.
There was a small amount ofpre cut steaks.
And then in the end, in theglass counter, you know, where you
think you're really gettingexceptional service, but they're
just pulling them out andthrowing them on the scale for you.

(05:46):
But, you know, it's.
It's like there was a fairamount in there, but there was holes
in there.
Okay?
There was no, there was no tenderloins.
There was no New York's.
There was some ribeyes, butthere was no New York's.
All right.
And so I thought, well, that's weird.

(06:08):
It just looked weird.
Their produce, there was bigholes in their produce department.
And to me, you know, I grew upworking in a grocery store for a
while there, you shouldn'treally be out of radishes, you know
what I mean?
And that type of thing.
So we went to another store inanother little town just north of

(06:31):
us, Camby, you know, and wentto the Fred Meyers there.
And it was about the same.
And I.
So I don't know what the hellwas going on.
And it wasn't just because itwas a holiday weekend, because usually
those guys have stuff stackedin the aisles for a holiday weekend.
Right.
So that's my worthlessobservation for you, but it's certain

(06:55):
things, A lot of, like yousaid, a lot of pork.
I mean, you could buy porkbutts for $79.
You know, chops in that, theywere still under three bucks.
And so, you know, there's alot of pork, like you said.

(07:15):
Yeah, but the beef, it was afair amount, but not what you're
used to seeing in, in those stores.
And I don't know the reasonfor it because you go other places
and they're full.
So.
Okay, Svengali, tell me whatyou think about that.
Well, I think distribution'sstill broken.

(07:36):
I think.
I really do.
I think these warehouses and,and all this, even though you're
talking about a enclosedsystem, I guess with Fred Meyer and
Kroger and such, but I thinkthat people in warehouses are probably
going to be the last positionsto fill.
Yeah, that'd be the last priceI'd want to have to go work.

(07:57):
But it refrigerated, it'scold, it's dark, you know, all those
things.
And so I think that, I thinkwhen we go to a grocery store today,
we see things that are broken,that Are distribution related.
Just can't get stuff frompoint A to point B.
Well, you can't have.
When you're facing a shelf andmost people knows what.

(08:19):
Knows what.
Know what that means.
Sorry, didn't add that extra Sin there.
But you can't have 10 rows ofNally's chili, the original chili,
and then six rows of pot orsix rows of turkey chili or whatever
the different stuff there is it.
They're just filling shelves.
But the choices are gettingmore limited in some of that.

(08:42):
Or are limited right now, Ishould say, because I know they're
still producing those products.
Leanne, when you're inFlorida, did you notice that?
Have you noticed anything likethat in the.
No, I haven't.
And I guess my question on thedistribution is why is it that Amazon
doesn't seem to have a problem?

(09:05):
The Amazon's got there.
I think they're.
Well, you know, they got aproblem of their own.
But that's the side where theysaid, well, we have warehouses we're
not going to open where wehave warehouse, we have facilities
we're not going to fill.
We got one right across thefreeway here.
Yeah, they've got a couple inSeattle they've built and they're
not, they're not going to putany people in them because they've

(09:27):
just overspent.
Right.
They've over.
Over because they are big.
But I don't, I don't buy food.
Do you buy food throughAmazon, Leanne, to see.
No, I give you just other goodies.
No, I know because I got, Igot an Amazon package coming every
day this week and I've eveneven clicked on the consolidate button
and it still didn't put them together.

(09:48):
I don't know what I did.
But.
But I am curious, you know, Iam curious as to how they do with
the food side of things and,and who's filling that for them.
But yeah, it's probably different.
Yeah, I think they got somepretty cushy, you know, that's all
brand new, right.
And it's all.

(10:09):
If you got a choice, you'regonna work for Amazon.
They advertise on tv, they'regonna put me through college and
they're gonna give me the bestwages and they're gonna do all that.
Or I can work in a groceryscenario where there's, you know,
I mean, you ever been in theback of a grocery store?
Oh, yeah, it's just pleasant.
The distributor is actuallymore is better than that.

(10:30):
But it's, you know, it's got that.
It's cold and it's dark and it's.
It'S all that sticky floor.
Sticky, you know, and all that.
Yeah, well, with Amazon,because I did work for them for a
while.
You and I have talked about that.
And they're dry goods.
I don't, I don't mean like fanbelts or towels or something like

(10:52):
that, but I'm talking about inthe food side.
Spices, dry goods, rubs,prepackaged barbecue sauces, Worcestershire,
whatever.
You know, we, I actually dobuy some seasonings and stuff through
Amazon that I can't get at aregular basis anymore at the grocery

(11:14):
store.
So I buy three packs and fourpacks and stuff like that.
I know they have a, they havea fresh fruit food option in some
areas of the country.
We don't have it here, so Ican't speak to that.
But, you know, because I thinkthey own Whole Foods.
Right, right.

(11:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you're right.
It's different.
And, and they're dealing with,you know, I mean, food is totally
different.
It doesn't have a long shelflife, especially produce or whatever.
So they aren't dealing withall the ramifications that are involved
with, you know, distributionon that level.
So we are going to take abreak here and be back with Will

(11:55):
Homer on Barbecue Nation and Ms.
Leanne right after this.
Don't go away.
Hey, everybody, it's jt andthis is a special version of Barbecue
Nation.
It is brought to you in partby Painted Hills Natural Beef.

(12:17):
Beef you can be proud to serveyour family and friends.
That's Painted Hills Natural Beans.
Welcome back to the nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
We thank you for listening andletting the hall of Famer and myself

(12:37):
and Mr.
Homer into your ears and homes today.
We appreciate that very much.
If you'd like to email us,just send it somewhere.
We'll find it.
You can send it to barbecuenation, jt.com and we will get it
and we will respond.
Although I feel bad, I saythat every show.
And then about two weeks ago,I got a email from a listener and

(13:01):
I lost it and I can't find it.
And I wanted to respond to thegentleman and I couldn't do it.
So I'm going to keep looking,whoever you are out there.
Anyway, we're on Facebook and,and Twitter and Instagram and Spotify
and all that stuff, and we'rekilling them with impressions and
stuff.
And Leanne's out there onsocial media much more than I am,

(13:22):
so you can find us.
Anyway, we're talking WillHomer, CEO of Painted Hills Natural
Beef.
Great product, terrific product.
Hey, all right, we gonna bringback that.
I'll get this out of the way.
We're gonna bring back that special.
Yeah, sure.
Okay.
I don't even know what it is.
It was 15 off.
Well, all right.

(13:42):
Okay.
What's the code, Jeff?
Do you remember what the code is?
It was BBQ Nation.
BBQ Nation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we can do that.
We'll, we'll start lettingeverybody know that.
Well, you got Father's Daycoming up, you got fourth of July
coming up.
You've got summer barbecues.
You bet.
And yep, it'll get.
Right.
Distributor, that's adistributor I can kick, you know,

(14:04):
get them going.
And so we'll get those, we'llget some action out of them.
Yeah, yeah, just like that.
Just get them in the cheeks,so to speak.
There you go.
Yeah, you're not dealing withsalmon cheeks.
I don't think people realize.
And we've talked about it manytimes when you've been on the show
here.
And I'm not going to give anynumbers, that's up to you.
But I was reading the sheetyou sent me last week.

(14:26):
Oh.
And you know when I rememberjust like a few handful of years
ago and some of the.
Let me give you a made up example.
Okay?
Mm.
Just the flank steak.

(14:48):
All right.
Yes.
Flank steak was never one ofthe, the choice, the big primal pieces,
you know, it's like that typeof thing.
Right, but, but if I'm notmistaken, that over the last 10 years
that price has almost doubled.
Oh, at least.
Yes.
Yeah, like that.
And so, and you've got, youknow, same thing, feed cost, production

(15:11):
cost, packer cost, demand,man, people have learned to eat it.
So when I, when I started 20years ago here, I didn't know anything
about beef.
And as far as the pieces,parts and all those things.
And I have an ag economics degree.
Economics, right.
Supply and demand.
That's the first thing you learn.

(15:32):
And so what I learned was inthe, the big four.
At the time it was fourdifferent ones than it is today,
but it was the big four.
They drove the market and theysold the primary primals, the, the
four rounds off the rear, thetwo chuck, the chuck and the clod
and the chuck tenders off thefront and the ribs and strips and

(15:56):
tenders, all the sexy stuff inthe middle, those were the items
that paid for the steer.
And then everything else wascalled a credit item.
And I never understood whatthe heck did they mean by credit
item and what they were, theywere pricing it based on the whole
value of the carcass.
Tri tips, flanks, skirts, allthose things were two to $3 a pound.

(16:20):
They were cheap.
They were just get them gone,get them out of the way.
We'll focus on paying for thissteer with the ribeyes and the tenders
and the, and the, and the chucks.
And remember, the cattle were82 cents a pound total live cattle.
They weighed 1200 pounds away.
They cost 82 cents a pound life.
And, and so that's how theindustry kind of was back then.

(16:42):
Beef was cheaper and, andthat's the way it went.
And so when I stepped in here,we were kind of in the beginnings
of something new with Painted Hills.
Mel Coleman had started theidea with Wild Oats and Whole Foods
in Denver.
Do cattle without hormones,without antibiotics.

(17:04):
Doc and Connie Hatfield, we'restarting to drive the country natural
and we're talking 60 head ofcattle once a week.
This is, this, that's the kindof, that was the beginnings of any
kind of branded.
Put your name on product atall and do something different.
And that's the values they were.
And then I came in here andsat down and said, I'm not going

(17:24):
to say I changed the world,but I, but I sit down, I said, well,
gosh, if, if I have customerswho want 25 cases of flanks a week
and I can only make seven,maybe I ought to charge more than
350.
Why, why do you get away with350 if, if you have this many people
asking for it, right?

(17:44):
So we started pushing thosenumbers in the middle there, those,
those credit items.
And, and I've, you know, andthen the industry's followed.
We have bistros today insteadof steakhouses.
We have ribs.
Used to be short ribs.
We collected them in thefreezer and then sold them to the
warehouse that we stored at,hoping they would find an exporter

(18:07):
to send them to or somethingbecause nobody knew how to do with
a short rib here in the States.
And now they're, they're likegold, right?
A bony.
That bone in short rib youshowed us behind you there a minute
ago is $7 and 50% of it is bone.
So that's the, that's themarket that we've, we've generated
over time.

(18:27):
And, and on the other side ofthat, I have messed that up in the
past.
One time, flanks, I got flanksto 999.
And I went right on thinkingthis is, you know, we just demand
is demand and away we go.
And I priced them out of thecounter and what happened was as
soon as I priced them out ofthe counter and, and it happened

(18:49):
to everybody all at once.
It was weird.
It was a weird thing becausewe work with lots of retailers scattered
all over the northwest and thecountry and they all dumped it at
the same time.
So I had all the flanks in mylap at the same time.
We might have been talkingabout only about 50 cases, but 50
cases a week, five cases, fiveweeks in a row gets to be a big problem
in a hurry.
Right.

(19:10):
But, but once you've lost.
Once I lost that space forflanks in the case and the meat guy
said I'm not buying them andhe filled that spot in, I had to
drop the price all the waydown below generic to buy my way
back in that case to get backand start over again and start the
march over again.

(19:30):
So right now, as we talk aboutcattle have reached $80.
Not just 80, but a $80.
And my flanks and some of mysexies tri tip and the flanks and
such, you see them on thatlist up in the nines.
Right, Right.
I'm scared to go to 12.
Although I need to pay forthis car somehow.

(19:51):
I'm scared to go on becauseI'm scared that I'm going to lose
the.
I'm going to buy my.
I'm going to fall out of thecase again.
Right.
And have to buy myself back inand start over.
And we're going to pick thisup on the other side of break because
I got too long winded there.
But we're going to be backwith Will Homer, COO of Painted Hills
Natural Beast Beef, Ms.
Leanne and myself, right after this.

(20:22):
Hey, are you ready to fire upyour grill and get ready to taste
the difference this spring and summer?
Hi, I'm JT and I'm thrilled toannounce our further collaboration
with Painted Hills NaturalBeef to bring you your best barbecue
experience.
As a special treat, BarbecueNation listeners get a 15% off discount
by just typing in the codeBarbecue Nation when you check out.

(20:43):
So all you got to do is go tothe Painted Hills Natural Beef website,
click on the store, place yourorder and one that has discount or
code at the bottom, type inBBQ Nation.
Don't miss out on this reallyjuicy deal from Painted Hills Natural
Beef.

(21:08):
Welcome back to the nation.
That's Barbecue Nation.
We'd like to thank the folksat Painterdale's Natural Beef.
We just happen to have WillHomer on the show with us today.
That is beef the way natureintended and they have really beefed
up.
Haha.
Their Online store.
So if you go to paintedhillsnaturalbeef.com and you pick

(21:28):
an order, pick some, you know,whatever you want, T Bones, what
have you.
When you go to check out,there's a little thing on the bottom
left hand of your screen, typein BBQ Nation and you get 15 off.
You heard it here first.
You bet.
And also I want to tell youabout, because certain holidays are

(21:49):
coming up, pig powder, Ms.
Leanne.
This is a infomercial showhere today, folks.
Yes, it is.
Ms.
Leanne's dad, whose nicknamewas Trim Tab, created this wonderful
dry rub called Pig Powder.
I've used it.
Did you get it in yet, Will?
I did.
It's delicious.
Yeah, Gabrielle thinks it's ahit too.

(22:10):
So it's.
Yeah.
Very good.
Very good.
You bet.
It really.
It really is a good rub.
I'm not just saying thatbecause my dad developed it, but
it won best rub on the planetamongst a lot of other awards.
And a lot of my friends thatcompete use it and that says a lot
because, you know, they'recompeting and they've tried a lot

(22:30):
of products out there.
So it really is.
So you can go to pigpowder.comand I will personally ship it out
for you because that's what Ido all day long.
Good.
That's good.
And check this out.
Somebody actually, you knowhow I tease her and say she'll sign
an autograph or autograph apicture for you.
Somebody ask her for one of those.

(22:52):
Yep, I ordered my pig powder,but I didn't see a way that I could
ask for an autograph.
And so, but there is a, youknow, an email thing that we get.
So if you have any questionsregarding it, you know, just go to
our.
Site and bigpowder.com sothere you go.
Beef and pig powder dot com.
It's quite the deal.

(23:13):
And you can find us on socialmedia, but we were talking about
retailers and different thingsin the previous segment.
And you've always PaintedHills, not to sound redundant, but
has always held quality kindof your first priority.
I know that's how your dad didit when he, when he started Painted

(23:34):
Hills with the other ranchers.
And they did that and theyhigher quality of meat because people
will pay for quality products.
Now, we want consistency.
We want to, we want you toknow what you're going to get.
You're, you're going to beconfident when you buy it that you
had a good experience lasttime and you're going to have a good
experience the next time.
And so we want consistency andwe want it to be good, of course.

(23:56):
But yeah, we want it to be.
It's, it's kind of, that'skind of how we built the thing.
So now, besides myrelationship with you guys, I can
honestly say that I have triedand been sent samples of and I even
gave you some samples of somebeef that came from not of this world.

(24:17):
And.
It really is amazing.
So our tradition for Christmasis, you know, bone in prime rib.
And it was the most amazingprime rib that my whole family and
every year.
So we're comparing.
Yes.
And it was the best prime ribthat we've ever had.
It was just remarkable.

(24:39):
And yeah, you might pay asmidgen more than, you know, commodity
stuff.
It is so worth it.
So worth it.
I'm guessing now that that'swhy people like to come to my house
at Christmas.
They're not particularlyinterested in my smiley face, but
they know they're going to getPainted Hills prime rib and they

(25:00):
line up at the front door.
We're going to have to makesell tickets or something going forward.
You said your family shows upwith Tupperware though?
Yeah, they true.
That's the best.
Yeah, they do.
They, they come in and I won'tsee them all year and they'll come
in and they'll say, oh, Ithought I'd bring this back for you.

(25:21):
You know, like a $50 piece ofTupperware that I bought at the Dollar
General or whatever, which isnow a buck 50 general.
But the point is, is then Idon't see it for another year.
So there you go.
There you go.
What are the.
You're in a non enviableposition, Will at times.

(25:46):
Yeah, I would say it's quite trying.
I'm sure when you sit in aboard meeting.
Yes.
Or you're talking to.
I've been to a lot of eventswith you and you're talking to not
only people that work withPainted Hills, but other ranchers
and stuff.
And the, the, if you've beenaround ranchers, which I grew up

(26:10):
around, they were always, oh,the price of fuel is killing me.
This was back in the 60s and70s when I was a kid.
You know, they're.
Oh, the price, oh, the feedprice has gone.
I don't know how I'm going tomake any money.
It hasn't changed.
Nope.
That attitude hasn't changed.
They're great people, but theybitch a lot.
Well, they don't, they don'tcontrol any of their costs.

(26:30):
Right.
And they don't control theirsales Yeah, I mean, they can't sell
things.
You know, they, when therubber hits the road, they sell a
steer just like the neighbordoes and everybody else.
And they need to differentiatethe best they can.
And they can, they can wherethey can.
And they, and some are doing areally good job and some are still
doing the same thing they'vebeen doing, but that's the, that's

(26:50):
their biggest.
That's the biggest thingworking against them is they don't
control their sale.
But they're, they're.
Right now, I think we're justkind of breaking free to kind of
catch up with all those costswe've talked about over the past.
How long?
Years.
I mean, they feel like they'vebeen beat up now for years, which
they have.

(27:11):
And so money's kind of goingto come their way.
But, boy, the next guy inline, the corn price because of this
war thing and, and the fueland the expenses and.
Oh, my goodness.
I just, I don't know who.
There's nowhere in the, in thechain yet to find the slack.

(27:31):
You know, the, the rope'stight and it's going to get tighter
and, and it either needs topull the consumer along and get them
to pay more.
I, I don't know.
I just don't know wherethey're open the, the slack in the
rope is, or, or we just getmore cattle people out of the business,
which is hard because, youknow, we've talked about, you talked
about last time.

(27:52):
We're at the lowest cattlenumber since 1962.
But in 1962, we had a.
I think a fed steer was athousand pounds.
And, you know, and today I fedsteer, a 1600 pound, a hormone, a
regular generic steer in Nebraska.

(28:12):
1600 pounds.
I'm not doing anything like that.
But, yeah, that's the difference.
So.
Well, that was my nextquestion, and you kind of touched
on it.
Is there enough cattle?
Because Pat from Cattle Facts,the bovine verse version of Carfax,
gave a speech last year, yourdeal last year, and I love that.

(28:43):
And he said, we're going to bea million head short.
And I was sitting behind himbecause I was trying to stay out
of the way, and I went, amillion head.
That's a lot of.
That's a lot of beef on thehoof, man.
Is there enough.
Is there enough cattle we export?
I think the United States hasgotten up to export 18% of the beef
they produce.

(29:03):
Yeah, so you in the UnitedStates just have to outbid the, the
export market, which is prettyeasy to get.18 back.
That's.
That's a big deal.
One million is a week and ahalf's production.
So I'm not going to run thecalculator here, but yeah, it'll

(29:25):
balance out.
It's okay.
It's.
Yeah.
Where do we export from?
Australia?
Export to two.
You mean, is it.
We're going to.
I'm sorry, import.
Import.
Import.
We export.
We export beef and we importbeef both.
And it's because the fact thatwe have so many different types of
beef that come off a carcass.

(29:47):
So we export a lot of beef toAsia and value high value items and
items we taught the Japaneseyears ago to eat.
Chuck, rolls, ribeyes, shortribs, briskets.
Some things that.
This was a long time ago.
They slice real thin, see?

(30:09):
Yeah.
See, now all of a sudden,briskets, you know, but, but way
back when the brisket was thesame way.
We'd wait for them to ball upin the freezer and then sell them
to somebody who could sellthem to Texas for a dollar and a
half a pound because nobodyknew what to do with them.
So then, now they've worked onChina because they think China was
going to be the answer.
And so they've worked onChina, but when they worked on China,

(30:29):
they taught them to eat moreof the whole carcass as a whole.
Not altogether, but the roundmeat and the chuck meat along with
the middle meats.
Because in China, years ago,this was before COVID I don't have
any recent examples, but Ilistened to a guy on here that talks
about China all the.
They would take that nice bigheavy T bone that we, we eat here

(30:51):
and we try to.
Ten years ago I consumed thewhole thing, right?
Well, in China they take thatbig thing like that, they throw it
on the table there in front ofyou for $300 and then four or five
people eat on it.
And so that's.
We've taught them to eat.
We've taught me beef.
But.
And then, and then export.
We don't export a lot ofcattle to the EU and such.

(31:13):
Their EU has pretty strict protection.
They're protectionists.
They protect their ownindustry, protect their own people
there.
You know, you, you can't talkabout tariffs and all that stuff
anymore, but there is.
And then we send livers and,and some other non typical items
to Egypt and we sell lots ofother non typical items to Mexico.

(31:36):
I think Mexico process furtherprocesses it, sells it back to us
really.
But.
And then we import lean beef,which is, which is like that crap
I brought over to you worn out cows?
Worn out dairy cows, which weharvest here in the States about
a hundred thousand a week.
But we also bring lean beeffrom Australia, New Zealand, Brazil.

(32:01):
Now, beef that we wouldn't grill.
You couldn't chew it.
To grill it, you grind that togo with the fat.
The excess fat we make here inthe States, and that fills in some
of the demand for hamburgers.
Oh, interesting.
So we.
We have a huge demand forhamburger, and our hamburger's gone
up in value a little bitbecause actually, Japan has moved

(32:25):
to eating more hamburger.
They figured out we've beenfooling them into eating rib steaks
all this time, and now theyfigured out hamburger's cheaper,
so they're buying morehamburger and grind items now, too.
Yeah, yeah, I'm rumbling on stuff.
No, no, no, that.
That makes a lot of sense.
But speaking of not working,we gotta take a break so we don't
have.
And we're going to be backwith Will Homer from Painter Hills

(32:46):
Natural Beef right after this.
Oh, goodness.
Hey, everybody, it's jt, andthis is a special version of Barbecue
Nation.
It is brought to you in partby Painted Hills Natural Beef, beef
you can be proud to serve yourfamily and friends.

(33:08):
That's Painted Hills NaturalBeef, everybody.
Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
I'm JT along with Ms.
Leanne Whippen.
She's been a busy girl.
You can see her on qvc.

(33:29):
She's been out there smiling.
Yeah, she's had severalappearances on there lately, working
with her folks at pit boss,and it's a wonderful thing.
And the day I flew back, I didmore training for my food truck and
then opened up my food truckon Saturday.
Yeah, she's a go getter, I'lltell you that.

(33:53):
She runs circles around me, so.
And that's not very hard to do.
They're just big circles,though, to get around.
Anyway, we're talking withWill Homer from Painted Hills Natural
Beef.
You know, I don't want thelisteners to think that it's all
doom and gloom.
It's not.
I don't think it is.

(34:14):
We tend to cycle through thesethings every few years, and then
we come out on the other side.
Changes are made.
Some procedural changes aremade along the way, but, you know,
there's still going to bePainted Hills and.
And other quality meats on theshelf for them.
Is that not true?

(34:35):
You're talking about anindustry that's awful big and it's
got awful deep pockets.
And we were talking aboutearlier, talking about board members
sitting around a boardroom atA board table.
And they've been doing it for25 years.
They're still the same peopletoday that they were 25 years ago.
There's no war chest.

(34:56):
There's no buckets ofbackground, background money.
There's just.
We've been in a scramble and astruggle to be in business for 25
years and it's going to bethat way.
That's the commodity business,that's the industry we're in.
So when you get in thesedownturns that go with the upturns.
Yeah, we went through anupturn recently that was a good,

(35:17):
that was a good year and a half.
This is a downturn that wedon't know yet where the bottom is.
And that's the side.
That's the, the biggestquestion is this isn't just down
here in a, a week or two.
We, we've been down quite awhile and we don't.
And we're on, still on that trajectory.
So.
And we kind of put it in printnext month when we buy calves next

(35:41):
month we'll buy calves forbeef for next April and that'll be,
it'll be set in stone at that point.
The decisions made.
So the decisions made.
How many head of cattle andhow many head of cattle will you
need when and how much we have to.
Sell it for part of thatreason though, those same people

(36:03):
for the last 25 years, it's,to me it's self explanatory.
If you just look at thepicture behind Will, when they can
live in that beautiful countrythat gets a little cold in the winter
and hot in the summer and it'skind of dry, but it's the most scenic
place and there's a lot offreedom that goes with that.

(36:26):
As far as, you know, Costcoisn't come to Fossil anytime soon.
Do you think that, you know,with the presidential election looming
that that affects the pricing?
Like everyone's worried aboutcosts and you know how much food
is and you know thesecandidates might push for lower food

(36:47):
prices as part of their platform.
How will they do that?
I don't know.
Usually when they talk aboutit, like when Biden talks about,
oh he's going to get gas to godown, we know how he does that.
He pulls it out of thereserve, whatever.
But I don't know is what theysay, does the industry try to follow

(37:08):
suit and make us believers or what.
Is it.
So politics really doesn'taffect it?
I don't know.
I don't, I have a, you know,let's talk about Fuel for just a
half a second.
We do the, we have a fueljobber here in Fossil.
My parents do it.
It sells about two semi loadsof of fuel a week.

(37:33):
It used to sell 10 and when itdid that's how Painted Hills had
the money to get started.
And, and, but anyhow, my pointis barrels today are under 80 bucks
and fuel is $4 at the pro pump.
Go back in time we used topay, we used to pay a set dollar
seventy with four dollar fuel.

(37:55):
So there's other costs thathave eaten that margin up.
And I don't know, I'm notgoing to begrudge anybody and say
they've, they've, they'reputting in their pocket.
I'm just going to say there'sother costs that have eaten that
a lot, eaten that up.
That's the same kind ofpressures we're dealing with.
When it takes, when we takethat steer off that mountain back
there in the back and put himin a place to make him weigh 1500

(38:18):
pounds and make him edible,make him eat that, have the best
eating experience you've had,those costs have increased just like
that fuel cost and used tofeed it.
We used to take that steer offthat mountain for 55 cents a pound
gain and today we put him onand we, we give him a two dollar
a pound gain.
Wow.
And he gains and he gains £500and that's the cost that's just really

(38:43):
eating this up.
How do we get that money back?
The corn guy has to havebumper crop and he has to be, he
has to be swimming in corn.
Now the downside to that, Ispent some time with some corn guys
out of the Midwest about twomonths ago and they're the same farmer.
They're saying good God, Ihope it doesn't get below 5.

(39:04):
Buc will never make it work at that.
Yeah.
So they're the, they're a farmer.
They're a commodity guide setagainst the commodity guy.
So there we are.
Yep.
Absolutely.
Will is going to stick aroundfor after hours.
Don't forget that you can nowget Painted Hills beef barbecue nation

(39:24):
discount by going to PaintedHills Natural.
I had a question and thenwe're almost out of time.
What is the.
There's a couple ways peoplecan get online and go to, you know,
naturalbeef.com or whatever.
Yeah.
Natural-beef.com because wegot beat to naturalbeef.com sorry,
somebody else.
It's paintedhillsbeef.com orpaintedhillsnaturalbeef.com so okay,

(39:48):
I don't do phnb.com becausesomebody's got it scalped and they
want 25, 000 out of me to buy it.
And I want.
I want you.
And they've had it for.
They've had it for 20 yearsand they're still waiting.
Maybe you should send me totalk to them.
They've had it for 20 yearsand they're still holding out.
Yeah, we had.
We had that good year a coupleyears ago, and I said, mess.

(40:10):
I'm gonna give them 1500 bucksand get them go away.
I'm gonna take my name.
They didn't budge.
All right, well, now that wegot everybody fired up for.
There you go.
Q season coming up.
We are going to get out ofhere because we're out of time for
the regular show.
But Will is going to stickaround for after hours.
That's always the.

(40:31):
Ms.
Leanne's food truck is open.
Don't forget about her pig powder.
And me, I just got a newHawaiian shirt.
So that's the big highlightsof the week.
Anyway, we thank you forlistening, Will.
Thanks for being with us, Leanne.
Great job as always.
And we'll be back next weekwith another edition of Barbecue
Nation.
Take care, everybody.

(40:56):
Sam.

(41:42):
Barbecue Nation is produced byJTSV, LLC Productions in association
with Salem Media Group.
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