Interview AAA Board Candidate, Robert Groom

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This episode features a candid discussion with Robert Groom, a candidate for the American Angus Association Board. Topics include the challenges and responsibilities of Angus breeders, the controversial methane hub issue, the role and duties of the association, and the need for transparent and member focused policies. Robert also shares personal insights into his background, motivations, and family, emphasizing his commitment to improving the Angus breed and supporting the membership.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Yeah.
So, uh, no, don't say it Corman.
I guess we'll just say, Heyguys, how's the weather?
Vince is like, Hey, we're notallowed to talk about anything
fun unless it's Caitlyn Clarkplaying basketball.
Okay.
Okay.
We can't talk about, you got 30seconds.
Go college football juststarted.
It's really fun.
There's a lot of really goodteams.

(00:21):
There's been some upsets today.
I've really enjoyed myself.
Uh, Florida just got beat on alast second field goal.
Uh, Clemson looks terrible.
I'm sorry, Kevin Renwick.
Um, your team sucks, but I hopethey lose every game.
Just kidding.
I don't, I don't.
Okay.
That's it.
I muted him.
Oh God.

(00:41):
Unmute.
He's still going.
He's still going.
Now he has to ask.
Um, he had to ask my permissionto unmute now.
I was like, I had to, I had toprove You muting me, unmuting
me.
What is your, you know what yourbest, the best thing about you
talking about college footballis, is your referencing games
that are like two weeks fromwhen this is gonna air.
I know.

(01:01):
So that's, and so everybody'sgonna be like, Clemson was
awesome and Florida didn't winThe last second Al goal, they
lost Corman.
And so it's outdated.
Yeah.
Corman.
It's outdated.
So nobody we're very, we're veryoutdated.
Um, so do you know what else isoutdated then?
If we were gonna talk, it'slike, okay, let's talk about the
weather where the weather'soutdated.
Uh, let's talk about, let's talkabout what's going on in TMZ

(01:23):
world.
Well, it's outdated two weeksfrom now.
Okay.
You know what's gonna beoutdated two weeks from now?
All these calves that I'm havingborn today, they'll be two weeks
old.
Wow.
Yeah.
They will, we had a frenzytoday.
You'll have in, in two weeks.
I think we have six, but Vince,in two weeks you'll have a
hundred and I'll have a lot.

(01:45):
I'll have a few.
Well hopefully they, hopefullyyou'll have a hundred and in two
weeks you'll be harvesting too.
Harvesting, uh, I hope we'reharvesting at the end of this
week.
I knew we'd get there.
I knew we'd get to harvest inthe weather.
Well look in the cab.
We need rain.
We got rain.
Same old shit.

(02:06):
Different day.
That's all we're allowed to talkabout.
We can't talk about fun stuff.
I want to talk about a certainbasketball player getting
suspended because I think it'shilarious.
Why did you get suspended?
Why did she get suspended?
Angel Reese, as far as I cantell, she got suspended because
she came out and said theyneeded better teammates and they
needed a better team.

(02:27):
Meanwhile, she's like, uh, didyou, okay, was she shoot like
28%?
Oh, it's freaking ter.
And, and I mean, when sheactually shoots like a jump
shot, it's like, holy cow, I'mbetter than that.
I think she misses a lot onpurpose to pad her rebounds.
There's not.
I really do, but okay, so didyou guys see when they were,

(02:49):
okay, so here, I'll just lay itout.
They're down two late.
What the good news is, you knowwhat the good news is, is we
went from the number one thingthat our listeners don't listen
to, to the number two thing ourlisteners don't listen to.
And you know what nobody said.
Welcome to a round the shoot.
Welcome to a round the shoot.
Angel Reese.

(03:10):
Okay, angel Reese down two withlike 12 seconds left.
She's got a free throw, she'sgot one free throw, they're down
two, and she looks over to thecoach and she's like, should I
miss it on purpose so that wecan get the rebound?
And he is like, no, go ahead andmake it.
And then, and then she missesit.
She tries to make it and missesit.

(03:31):
It is like, oh, well you shouldjust, then when you're done your
thing, sweetheart.
Um, it's, it's so much fun.
I, I, I, I really feel bad for,um, the contingency of listeners
that don't care about collegefootball and sports because
she's, it's a great equalizer.
It's a great, she got, she gotit suspended for statements

(03:54):
detrimental to the team aroundthe rim.
What is that?
How do you even budget aroundthe rim, around the, around the
goalposts?
How is that even a thing?
Uh, so.
I do wanna point out that we, weare excited to have our now

(04:15):
third guest.
Our third guest, no, fourth.
Fourth.
Come on.
Fourth guest.
Our third one has not, our thirdone has not dropped yet.
This will be our fourth.
We're a little bit ahead ofschedule because Joe's got a
sale coming up, um, which we'reexcited about.
Joe has a sale coming up.
I think Joe's rocking androlling.

(04:36):
So we're trying to get these inthe can so that as we get closer
to that time, we aren't, uh,pressed.
We aren't pressed and we aren'thaving to stress.
But, uh, um, so the first threehave gone extremely well.
Um, as our listeners listen tothis one, they will have already
listened to, um, Logan, BrookeMiller, Kelly Alrich, and Logan

(05:01):
Sampson.
Uh, for this episode we haveRobert Groom.
Uh, Robert's a an exciting onefor me because I, I don't
personally know Robert, and soit's gonna be really, uh, fun
for me to get to know him.
I've talked to Vince and Joeabout it, and they said, man,
you're gonna really enjoygetting to know Robert because
Robert is a very personableperson and you just give him the

(05:23):
reins and let him go.
And so, um, I'm excited to getyou to know you Robert, and
without further, uh, delay,let's bring in.
Robert, how are you, Robert?
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Well, I appreciate the invite tobe on here.
Um, I, uh, uh, I, I don't thinkI, I'd actually physically met
any of you guys, um, before I,I've maybe only spoken to Vince

(05:47):
and, and Joe maybe once.
Um, but I appreciate what youdo.
Um, I appreciate what you'vedone with the other candidates
that have stepped up this summerto run for the board.
Um.
A little bit about myself.
I, as you can tell, from mypretty thick upstate New York
accent, um, I didn't grow uphere.

(06:09):
Um, I I was super thick.
It's super thick.
They, all the locals talk likeme.
I think they're copied me, but Idon't know.
Um, I, uh, I grew up on a dairyfarm, small dairy farm in
Cheshire, England.
Um, on the farm that mygrandfather bought in 1955.
Uh, he would be the firstgeneration of our family to own

(06:32):
land.
Um, before that, he was a tenantfarmer in SRE and he moved about
30 miles to Cheshire, um, to buythis farm.
And all his neighbors thoughthe'd gone off the end of the
earth.
I mean, someone going 30 milesaway from home was just unheard
of.
Um, and, you know, I descendbasically from, from servants.

(06:55):
I mean, our, our family nameisn't a name at all.
It's a job.
Um.
There's, there's lots of groomsaround the country, um, but none
of us are related because we'rejust the descendants of that
particular groom, of thatparticular area.
And so, um, so anyway, with my,my grandfather, um, from that

(07:17):
farm from 55 until the earlyseventies when, uh, my mom and
dad, um, took over the farm.
Um, my dad was the youngest ofthree brothers.
His older two brothers didn'twanna farm.
And, uh, he worked, worked acouple other jobs to, uh, to
kind of finance it and, and getinto it.
And he bought the farm from mygrandfather.

(07:37):
And then in, well, I graduatedhigh school in, uh, 84 and um,
at 16, which is when they'd letme leave.
And so I, I took off running,headed for the first tractor I
could find, and, um, startedraking hay and, and really
haven't looked back since then.
And, uh, about a year afterthat.

(07:59):
My mom and dad didn't reallywanna milk cows for the rest of
our lives, and I really didn'twanna milk cows for the rest of
my life.
And so they started looking fora farm.
They found one in Scotland about300 miles away, and, um, they
bought about a 360 acre farm.
And, uh, we moved there in thespring of 85.

(08:20):
And again, all our neighborsthought that we were completely
off our heads and, and we weregoing to the ends of the earth
traveling 300 miles to themiddle of nowhere.
Um, but my folks, uh, um,sacrificed a lot to, to be able
to make that move and buy thatfarm.
Um, the 1980s in, in the UK werenot a good time for farming or

(08:43):
any of the primary industriesreally.
Um, and it was, you know, I'vesince learned that it was pretty
well true in the states as wellbecause, you know, interest
rates were ridiculous.
High in inflation was high.
Um.
There was farms gettingforeclosed on.
Um, the farm we moved to, ourneighbors had moved into their

(09:03):
place about a year before us.
Um, and they didn't make itoutta the eighties
unfortunately.
Um, and so, you know, it wastough times, but, um, we were
always taught to work hard and,you know, get after it.
And so, uh, so we started with acompletely new way of farming.

(09:23):
We'd been dairy farmers now.
We were growing small grains, wewere raising beef cattle.
Um, we had a bunch of sheeparound.
Um, and we were just, you know,trying to make it.
And, uh, and so we did that, um,several years.
And then about 1987, a goodfriend of my dad's saw that I

(09:45):
was maybe going off the rails alittle bit and maybe spending a
little more time playing rugbyand drinking than.
Going to work.
And that's what I'm talkingabout.
Um, and he, he just casuallysaid to me one day when we were
working sheep, you know, youought to think about getting
into Aberdeen Angus.

(10:06):
Um, and I hadn't really thoughtabout that very much at all, but
I had managed to earn a littlebit of money and I, uh, I went
to a dispersal sale at the endof September, or the end of
August in, uh, 1987.
And, uh, wasn't really sure whatI was looking at, but I, I ended
up coming home with a, a breadheifer that had a calf about a

(10:28):
week later, heif a calf.
And that was kind of thefoundation of my first, uh, t
Fergus herd, which was the nameof the farm in Scotland.
And that's the name I broughtwith me when I came to the
States in 98.
Um, did you bring cows with youwhen you came over here in 98?
No, there was, there wasabsolutely no trade in 1996.

(10:49):
Um, the BSC crisis.
Pretty much come to a head andBritain was banned from
exporting anything really.
Wow.
No embryos or nothing?
No.
And, and honestly, the titankind of cattle that were
prevalent in the UK and popularin the uk, um, wouldn't have

(11:10):
worked in this market and dropsome, uh, drop some pedi.
Like what, what kind of, uh,and, and even if you need to
modernize it, what kind ofgenetics are prevalent there
today?
Or, or were prevalent at thatpoint?
Well, um.
There, there's a lot of us, usinfluence in the, in the
Scottish herd or the, the, theBritish Herd book.

(11:32):
Um, but a lot of that comes viaCanada because it was always
fairly easy to bring genetics infrom Canada, and it was always
very difficult to bring geneticsin from the United States.
Um, there was some notableembryos brought in from, from
the states by a couple differentpeople.
Um, with Scotch Cap.
Um, there were some I gotcha.
Yeah.
Sons of Scotch Cap out of, uh,some evergreen cows from, uh, gt

(11:57):
Well Woodhill, uh, I see.
Yep.
But you know, it, you don't haveto hunt too far in a pedigree in
the UK even today to find bullslike QLC, Winchester, SCR, lone
Star, um, sunset Acres, bangHarang, uh, old ruler.
Um, you know, you can find a lotof the ghosts of the eighties

(12:20):
alive and well in a lot ofpedigrees, um, that, that size.
Um.
To an extent is needed in the UKmarket because of their grading
system, which doesn't considerquality.
It only looks at, um, caucusshape, which is, you know, they,
they look at shape as a measureof quality when it's really just

(12:41):
a measure of yield.
And then they're looking at backfat, which is also just a
measure of yield.
And so, um, there isn't really aquality grade, so there's no
real reward for any highmodeling genetics.
Um, and so, you know, I, I'dbeen fortunate enough to get a,
a kind of young Farmer'sscholarship in 1989 to come and

(13:02):
study Angus cattle in the US Andmost people went to Canada
because they knew they could getgenetics out of there.
But it seemed to me that the USwas where the fountain head of
the breed was now.
Yeah.
You know, it was not like, likein the 1960s, you know, everyone
went to Perth Bull sales.

(13:22):
Um.
In the two thousands and, andnineties and even the late
eighties the United States,because of the volume of cattle
and the types of cattle thatwere available, um, they were
the fountain head and theyremain the fountain head of, of
Angus genetics in the world.
You've only gotta look aroundat, you know, what's making
headlines in Australia rightnow, uh, New Zealand and their

(13:44):
bull sales, American influenceis everywhere.
And after I'd come to the statesin 89, I traveled around, I went
across the country.
I went anywhere from Virginia toOregon.
Um, traveled with some greatpeople, some, um, regional
managers, uh, got to visit a lotof herds.
Went to National Junior AngusShow.

(14:06):
Um, and, and the National JuniorAngus Show honestly was a thing
that really when I got home, itwas like, I want to be able to
give a future family of mine.
The opportunities that the kidsin America have.
Well, I'm glad you brought up,uh, I'm glad you brought up your
family.
So did, when you came across,did you come by yourself or did

(14:27):
your mom and dad come, um, didyou meet your wife here?
Are you married?
What?
How's all that go?
How, what?
Tell us about your family.
Minor details.
Okay.
Um, so yes, I'd say I've kind ofskipped forward.
Now we've gotta, I'm gonnabacktrack a little bit.
So, so I met my wife in the, inthe fall of 1991 in Scotland.

(14:49):
Um, we got married in August of93, so we've just been married
now for 32 years.
Um, our oldest child, our sonwas born in 97, uh, in Scotland.
And then in the fall of 97 I sawan advert in the Angus Journal
'cause I was already subscribingto Angus Journal to kind of keep

(15:11):
track of what was going on here.
And, um, there was an advert, alittle classified in the back of
the book that said, uh, managerpartner wanted for Angus Heard.
So I, there was a phone number.
I picked up the phone, calledthe number, spoke to the folks.
And it was interesting enoughthat I thought, well, I'm gonna
take a trip over and, and have alook at this operation.

(15:34):
Didn't know where it was,nothing.
And apparently it was in upstateNew York.
And so I flew to Toronto, um,rented a car, drove down through
Nigar and across the state.
Um, it was like first week ofDecember.
It was actually my 30th birthdayis what it was when I was
driving.

(15:55):
Um, and, uh, I rocked up at thisplace and, um, met those folks.
We went through the cow herd.
It was basically travelerretail, scotch cap, some pine
drive, Shoshone.
It was fundamentally, um,pasture base.
Pasture raised, um, you know,pretty common genetics at the

(16:18):
time.
They were using some bulls that,that I used in some embryo work
I'd done previously in, inScotland.
Um, so I knew a lot of thebloodlines.
I kind of gotta see the cows andI was, it, to me it was a good
enough herd.
It was a good enough opportunitythat I was prepared to sell up
everything we'd built in Britainand start again.

(16:39):
And so, um, so almost a yearlater we, we, we moved to the
states.
We had our dispersal in lateSeptember of 98, and we gathered
up all the money and everythingwe put together.
I mean, we didn't own propertyor anything like that, we just,

(17:00):
our assets were a cattle and afew bits and pieces of machinery
that we'd, that we put together.
So we just cashed it all in.
Um, we packed some furnitureinto a shipping crate and, um.
With the clothes on the back ofa couple suitcases.
We, we, we, we left.
And so, so Robert, I got a quickone and, and just, just 30

(17:22):
seconds to a minute.
Um, is it, we don't have to godeep into this'cause it's
outside of the context of thereason you're here, which we all
want to get to, but we havelisteners reach out to us all
the time saying, what would youdo if you were starting over?
What would you do?
You know, and, and we'vethreatened to have a whole
podcast on this and we've trieda whole podcast on it.
You've actually started over,but in a completely different

(17:44):
foreign land, literally.
Um, what advice would you giveto anyone in 30 seconds to a
minute that wants to start over?
You have to just do it.
I mean, you don't, you don'tstart the journey until you've
taken the first step.
And so at, at some point, youcan't just be a bystander if you

(18:06):
ever want to accomplishanything.
You have to take that step.
You have to buy that cow.
You have to take thatopportunity.
Um, all through my life, I, I'vesaid that the only regrets I
have are the things I didn't do.
Hmm.
Um, because so, so on the otherthing I live by, and which is

(18:30):
why I've ended up on yourpodcast, is because when, if
someone asks me to do somethingand I can't think of a
compelling reason to say no,then I'll say yes.
What happens?
Well, that's actually pro that'sprobably a great segue into, so,
so I'm assuming somebody askedyou to run for the board.
Is, is that kind of where you'regetting to?
Right.

(18:50):
That, uh, and that's, that'salways been the case.
I mean, and I had no plans torun for the board this year.
I, um, I did get called in lateMay, early June when this whole
methane thing was kicking off.
Um.
Quite a few people called me andsaid, you know, you gotta run,
you gotta run.
And I was like, nah, I don'tthink I do.

(19:11):
I think there's enough peopleout there that, that are, that
think the same as me, that, thatsee this the way I see it, that
I don't need to be in this race.
I've done it before.
You know?
I said never, ever, ever againafter the last time.
And, um, and so here I am,never, ever, ever doing it

(19:33):
again, doing it again.
So, so you did it, uh, you'vedid it once before.
Is that one time before or morethan once?
Four times.
Four times You've run for theboard?
Um, successfully, yes.
Now tell, tell us, tell us alittle bit about that experience
because, well, go ahead Vince.
Well, I was gonna say, I knowyou ran from the floor once.

(19:56):
Did you run from the floor?
All?
I've never run from the floor.
I Oh, you didn't?
I've always, I've always run,um, a full.
Oh, okay.
And I've kind of learned alittle bit along the way.
Um, but the first time I ran wasin 2003, and that was entirely

(20:17):
result of the Advantage CattleServices site.
I, I was posting on there fromearly on.
There was a lot of gooddiscussions on there, and at
some point that first summer,2003, I people just started
randomly calling me and saying,you should run for the board.
You should run for the board.
Ah, and I didn't know anydifferent or know any better.

(20:39):
And so I did.
Um, I didn't really do probablyhalf of what I probably should
have done, but I, I showed up, Iran, I gave a speech.
I tried to answer questions asbest I knew how.
Um, and I, I, you know, I gotbeat.
So that was that.

(20:59):
And so I, I left it be the nextyear.
People say, well, you know, youought to run again.
You know, you, you were justunlucky the last time you, you
get on again.
And I said, I'm not really, notreally for that.
And then Phil Trobridge, uh,said that he, he wanted to run
at it.
And, um, and I said, well,there's no way on earth that I'm

(21:21):
gonna run against Phil for myown state.
Um, I'm, I'm just gonna stepback and, and you know, he can
go for it.
And he, he got on and, and thatwas very fortunate.
He did a great job as a boardmember, um, did a great job as
president.
And, um, and, and so when heturned out in 2010, I again got

(21:44):
approached to, to run.
And, um, I said, well, Phil'sterm's up and no, I don't see
anybody else sticking their handup.
And, and then all of a suddenthere was like 10 or 12
candidates that year.
And so, uh, it ended.
Like the previous occasion.
And, um, so I, you know, I, I, Imean everyone can, you know, run

(22:11):
for their own reasons, whatever,but I, I don't, I don't try and
take it personally.
I just, you know, it is what itis.
Um, Angus politics can be alittle dirty sometimes, and I
know there's absolutely thingsthat were said, and I, I, I
store that stuff away, but I, Idon't need to rise to the bait.

(22:33):
Um, and so anyway, that was alldone.
And then, then four years later,there was the big blowup over
the, um, firing of the regionalmanagers and all that kind of
stuff in 2014.
And again, people were rattlingmy cage and asking me to, to
run, and I, I couldn't reallythink of a good reason to say no

(22:55):
then either.
So I, okay, well I'll, I'll,I'll do it.
And, um.
That was, you know, that was atough campaign.
That was a tough, um, experiencebecause the only person I really
feel real sympathy for at thatdeal is Kathy Watkins, because I

(23:19):
think she was denied anopportunity to lead our
association, and she did notdeserve what happened to her.
Um, and so I, I went away fromthat one a bit sore.
I, I did not, did not appreciatethat.
And I think our association as awhole took a bit of a hammering
for a few years there with theresults of some of those, those

(23:42):
actions.
But anyway, time moved on.
And then three years ago, wellsame, same thing again.
I just started getting callsand, and several people
approached me and said, and Inever expected'em to, because I
don't necessarily class'em asfriends.
They're associates, they'repeople I know, but I wouldn't

(24:02):
call'em my big pals in the Angusbusiness.
And they were saying to run, andI thought, well, even if people
are potentially opposed to meare saying run, maybe I oughta
listen.
So I mean, so I did and, um, uh,you know, we got shuffled out
again and, and so, so we move onagain.

(24:23):
But, um, so Robert, Robert, the,the big question, I think that,
that, that what's different thistime, I mean, obviously we've
been, as you describe it, uh, alot of these things are, are
things that predate me, uh, towhere I don't, I don't really
have recollection of, of, um,the state of the American Eagles

(24:44):
Association in 2010 or, um, even2014.
But what, what's different thistime?
What is it about this time whereit seems.
And maybe it doesn't, maybe itdoesn't seem more, it seems like
a bigger deal now than, than ithas.

(25:06):
I mean, it seems like this ismore important.
Where at, if it's possible, moreof a crossroads.
What is different about this goaround in 2025?
I think one of the things isthat, um, I think the, the four
of the guys that have steppedup, and I only knew one of them

(25:28):
personally before this started,um, Brooke Miller.
'cause I've served on the USCAboard with him for several years
now.
Um, you know, he's a veryintelligent, very sincere, um,
very articulate man who, um,just, you know, is, he's

(25:48):
passionate about his businessand the Angus business and he,
he's about the individual andabout.
You know, whether it's hispatients or whether it's, you
know, his fellow members of ourassociation, I think he's very
passionate about the, you know,the individual and the rights of
the individual and the rights ofthe member.
And, and I, I agree with that.

(26:10):
That's why I serve on the USCAboard.
I, I'm all about the individual.
Um, and then the other threeguys that have stepped up, I've,
I've spoken to'em allpersonally.
I think they're all people whohave tremendous integrity, who
have tremendous knowledge.
Um, they just strike me as, aspeople with character and depth

(26:32):
and, and I think they're sincereabout their objectives for the
association.
And I think the nature of what'soccurred there with this whole
Bezos deal and the way it's beenkind of parlayed out to the
membership, I, I think we're allin this fight for the right
reason.
Is it, is there more of a, isthere more of a, uh, help me

(26:56):
with the words guys.
Is there more of a, what is theword I'm looking for?
Like, received?
No, that's not it.
Okay.
That's not it.
Like a ground swell orsomething.
Like a more of a, uh, what is,say like a rally of the troops.
How do you, how, what's the wordI'm looking for?
Like more of a, yeah, like agroundswell or a incentive.
Like more, like, people seemmore empowered.

(27:19):
They feel, I, I, I justpassionate.
It feels louder.
It feels louder, for lack of abetter term.
It feels louder.
Why is it like that now, Robert?
Because I think the way thatthis whole thing has been
portrayed from the associationstandpoint is not entirely

(27:40):
believable.
It's not resonating with themembers.
I think that, you know, the ideathat there were 17 people in the
room.
They all agreed unanimously,that doesn't sit well with me.
You know, I, I know quite a fewpeople on the board and I cannot
believe they would just sitthere and go along with this

(28:02):
with no dissent and there, andthere's nothing wrong with
passing with something by amajority vote, but there, there
has to be the evidence of aserious debate that there has to
be evidence that, you know, tome, this, this whole thing on
principle is wrong because bydoing what they've done, they've

(28:26):
basically said to this methaneharbor or whoever these people
are that are funding this deal,Bezos is of the world.
Um, yes, we're a problem, butwe're not as bad as you, you
know, as you think we are.
And I just think that's an awfulposition to put yourself in.
I think that's, that's, that's,that's accepting defeat.

(28:47):
It is correct before the battlesgoing forward.
And what I'd far rather say is,you know, no, we don't believe
that the result of a naturallyevolved process is a problem in
this world.
I don't think carbon is aproblem in this world.
I don't think methane is aproblem in this world.
I think the naturally evolvedworld that we have, if we've

(29:11):
screwed it up, is because we'venot utilized resources.
We've not allowed, like farmersand ranches in the west to graze
those hills that are burning.
We've not allowed the loggingindustry to manage our
woodlands.
So they're burning, the, thethings that are happening are
not as a result of some, uh,shift in the climate.

(29:33):
They're act, they're because ofsome shift in policy and the
lack of people on the land andultimately.
If, if we don't have thrivingrural industry, whether it's
farming or logging or whateverit is, we will have no rural
America.
And when we have no ruralAmerica, we will have no
America.

(29:54):
That's right.
Absolutely.
I 100% agree with that.
So, so I guess, I guess, goahead Vince, or are you messing
with your Well, I, no, no, no.
I was gonna ask what otherthings outside of the, the Bezos
methane deal, what other thingswould you like to see possibly

(30:18):
changed or, um, maybe tweaked orupgraded or, you know, what,
what other things would you liketo see happen?
I think obviously the firstorder of business in my mind is
that we have to kind of.
Somehow divest ourselves ofthat, that methane hub business.

(30:44):
But after that, I think we haveto take a hard look at a GI and
the ownership of the DNA becausewhen a GI was first set up, the
pitch from the association wasone, that it's better for us to
own our own DNA, have our ownlibrary.
We provide it then to thirdparties who will run whatever,

(31:07):
like genomic tests, geneticdefect tests, whatever it is.
But we will have the ownershipand we will have the identity of
those samples, and these othercompanies will contract to
utilize that DNA to, to give usa result that works for us.
But that was my understanding ofit.

(31:28):
Right.
And it was better that we had itrather than a Pfizer or Zoetis
or, OR Identity had that.
Yet now, uh, it appears thatessentially when we submit all
those samples and we pay for thesubmission of those samples, all
of a sudden that now isassociation property and they
can parlay that into gettingrethinking grants, getting, um,

(31:53):
research grants.
They can use our property thatmay end up working against us.
So I think that whole thing hasto be revis revisited.
And I did look on the, the boardagenda, and it looks like
there's gonna be some discussionof that in the upcoming board
meeting.
Um, and I'm gonna be interestedto see what shape that takes

(32:14):
after that because I, you know,we've been doing some of this
genetic testing for quite a longtime now.
And, um, you know, we, my myimpression was always that, you
know, that, that I, it was myproperty correct, and that they
were storing it for us.
And I know people have said,well, you know, there's a,
there's a legal document thatyou check off and, and sign

(32:37):
every time you do submission.
Well, yeah, of course there is.
But I thought, I, I guess I, inmy naivety I assume that that
was, um, you know, just usuallegalistic cover your rear kind
of stuff rather than Right.
Than, than me signing away my,my rights.
Correct.
So, um, so that's something thatI absolutely has to be, uh, you

(33:00):
know, readdressed.
Because if, if we're still amember association, then that's
how a member association wouldoperate.
They would do things that werein the interest of their
membership and they wouldsafeguard their members'
interests and not allow it to beused for things that were, were
not approved.
Correct.
And, and a GI essentially didthat with the methane, it seemed

(33:22):
like they took it and then theboard were asked after the fact
to kind of validate it.
Um.
Which they did.
I, I'm not sure where to go withthat.
Yeah.
So, so essentially what we'vegotten into is, is we're unsure

(33:42):
of what the role of a GI andwhat the role of the American
Inga Association even is.
I mean, what are they supposedto be providing for members?
So I guess my next question foryou is, what is the job of the
American Indian Association?
What should they do for themembers?
Well, I think at the basiclevel, our, our, our charter,

(34:03):
um, pretty much speaks to that,um, that, you know, they're the
keeper of the pedigrees.
Um, you know, maintainunimpaired, the purity of the
breed.
I think that's still, uh, anessential, um, part of their,
uh, duty.
Um, and, and honestly, that'ssomething they do extremely
well.
I mean, the turnaround in, intime on, on getting weights

(34:25):
processed, getting paperworkdone is, is.
Without comparing the industry,it, they have the simplest
online system.
Um, I was very reticent early onto, to adopt, um, online storage
of certificates because in my,um, I can't say skeptical mind.

(34:49):
If you're not printingcertificates, then you can start
writing pedigrees for anything.
And you can say, technically,I'm not printing a certificate
on that, and all of a suddenwe're registering cross breads.
I don't want that to happen.
No.
And so, you know, I, I kind ofresisted that for a while, but
now, you know, we've gone allelectronic storage because it's
makes simple the transfer ofanimals, um, back in two.

(35:13):
It makes, you know, it makeslife a lot simpler.
I, you know, I don't need tostore all that paperwork at
home.
I don't need to find aregistration certificate on a
cow 15 years old ago to, youknow, affect some.
Or transfer.
So, um, anyway, I, I think thatthey do extremely well.
I think the girls in the office,um, do a phenomenal job.

(35:34):
They're always, um, you know,answering questions and, and,
and dealing with issues andgetting things straightened out.
Um, I think that part of thebusiness is phenomenal.
Um, you know, I I some of thisother stuff, I think when it
comes down to, you know, dataownership, uh, DNA ownership,
um, I, we have to remember we'rea member association because if

(35:59):
we're just a corporation thatcan, you know, auction off our
assets to whoever for whatever,just to maintain the
association, I'm not sure thatthat's what a lot of people
signed up for.
Right.
Yeah.
So I have a question for you,Robert, a little different vein.
I mean, you mentioned, uh, thesheet and, and the disclaimer,

(36:23):
and it really made me, the wordthat popped into my head or the,
the phrase was, in good faith, alot of us just kind of sign that
in good faith.
Yep.
And I do think that when youevaluate, um, the past six
months, the trust in themembership of the organization
has been rattled.
What are some things that theboard could do effective

(36:43):
immediately to start to buildback trust with the members?
I think there's, there's acouple things.
One is there, of thecommunications that came out as
a result of this uproar thatoccurred on online mainly of
about the, the methane grant,their initial response wasn't to

(37:08):
kind of step back and reevaluateit was to come back to us with
a.
You obviously don't understandthis well enough, so let us
explain it to you a bit more.
Well, I don't know that Iunderstand the whole role of
methane in the whole picture ofthings, but fundamentally, I
don't have to.
'cause that's something that'sconcocted by my enemies to

(37:30):
eliminate me from beefproduction.
And so to my enemies who want toeliminate me and, and, and my
fellow cattlemen from the, fromthe countryside, um, we're gonna
stand against you and we're notgonna give you ammunition, uh,
to destroy us.
And so when that firstcommunication came out, and then

(37:53):
there was the Oprah Winfreyquote quote, you know, it, it
just appeared tone deaf and itseemed a bit too formulaic and
not enough.
Hmm.
We might have a problem here.
You know, there, there wasn't,that there wasn't a full
recognition of that, that maybethis was a step too far.
And I think, and I don't wannaharp on the methane thing, but I

(38:16):
think people should understandthat the rest of the world has,
has mostly bought into thisnonsense and they're engineering
their, their lives aroundaccommodating it.
And the only country that'sreally speaking out and speaking
back on these issues aroundclimate is the US because we

(38:36):
have free speech, because wehave independent thinkers,
because we have people who havea, who have skin in the game,
who are uh, outraged that thisthird party entity could
essentially shut us down.
And I don't wanna see thathappen.
And I think, you know, insteadof worrying about having a seat

(38:58):
at the table with people whowant to destroy our way of life,
maybe we ought to think aboutbuilding our own table and
inviting some people to come sitat it.
But we'll stand in the fightwith us.
And we need a lot more of thatin agriculture.
There's far too many people highup in a lot of different

(39:18):
associations who seemcomfortable selling us out to go
along and get along and pretendthat this is all okay and it's
not okay.
It's absolutely not.
Okay.
Absolute well.
Yeah.
So you, so you talk about, uh,you say, Hey, how, how have we
gotten to this point wherewe're, we're worried about

(39:41):
having a seat at the table on aworld, on a grand scale, when
the everyday member is justsitting back like, man, I didn't
even know we wanted to, I justwanted a seat at our own table.
I just wanted to have my, myvoice be heard within the
American Angus Association.
I wasn't worried about aworldview of how I am viewed by

(40:03):
the world.
I just want to have a seat atour own table.
So how do we.
Um, in essence, how, how do wemake the members feel heard?
How do we bridge that gapbetween the membership and the
board?
Uh, so if you're, if you're aboard member and you, and you
get elected, how do you includemembership in ways that they're

(40:28):
not being included today?
I think we could probably havemore direct communication.
I think probably, um, you know,a lot of school boards and, and
that now have, um, theirmeetings in public, um, supplied
on Zoom.
I don't think that's a big ask.
I don't think that's anunreasonable, um, expectation in

(40:50):
this, in this day and age.
Um, you know, most people have aphone that's that's capable of
streaming a, a, you know, a a aboard meeting.
Um, that would be an easy wayto, and it would work, work for
the board as well, because itwould.
It would allow that scrutiny tosay, yeah, these guys are
discussing the issues.

(41:10):
Yeah, they are.
Chew this stuff over.
It would take, it doesn'tmatter.
It would take, it wouldabsolute, absolutely.
It would take the target off ofyour back as a board member.
It would, it would, it would.
Shed light that, Hey man, I, Iam in this fight for you.
I want you to be on my side.
I'm on your side.
So I don't understand why, whywe've lost this ability to be
transparent.

(41:30):
But, and, and in that spirit,how do we, uh, aside from
letting the, you know, puttingthem on Zoom, there's other ways
we can be more transparent.
Do you have any ideas beyondputting the, putting the board
meetings on Zoom?
I mean, obviously we could, uh,make the votes, um, make
everybody's vote, be heard.

(41:50):
I mean, everybody can have avote.
We don't have to have adelegate.
I mean, do you have any ideasthat, that you kind of think
might be something that wouldwork for that?
Yeah, the, I, I mean, thedelegate system, uh, has been in
place now for probably about ahundred years.
And it replaced a system thathad become corrupt with the use
of proxy votes.

(42:12):
You know, a couple guys wouldshow up the annual meeting in
Chicago and basically decide howthings were gonna go.
Um, and so it was replaced witha delegate system, which is a
great system because it, itmirrors our country's, um,
organizational system for ofgovernment where each state
elects some, uh, representativesthat will go and work on behalf

(42:34):
of their membership in their, intheir district at the annual
meeting to, you know, uh, choosethe leaders, choose a new
leadership, uh, whatever it isto conduct the businesses
association.
Um, and that was a great systemand it probably still is a great
system.
However, it is also become, uh,politicized and there's, there's

(42:55):
a fair bit of horse trading goeson between states.
Um, to ensure that, you know,uh, people get elected or
reelected.
Um, that's not something we'regonna change today.
I'm not certain the system hasto change, but I am fairly
convinced that there there couldbe a better way to, um, you

(43:16):
know, encourage people to becomedelegates or, or, or take on
that commitment.
Um, how do we, uh, how do weencourage membership engagement?
I think that's one of the biggerquestions that, that we haven't
really been able to dive deeperon with, with, and, and we
haven't done as good a job withour other interviews, but how do
we get the rest of ourmembership?

(43:39):
Because what are there guys,there's 22,000 members or
something like that.
I think that's a padded number.
That's a, i I agree.
That's a padded number.
I agree.
That's a padded number, but howdo we, how do we.
Get to where we hear from morethan just the core.
I, I don't know guys, probably2,500, 3000 core.

(43:59):
How do we get, how do we, how dowe branch out and, and, uh,
encourage the other members tobe a part of the association?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, I would guess that, Ithink there's 12 to 15,000
actual members that are Yeah.

(44:21):
They're active.
Yeah.
Um, I don't know what the othersare.
Um, but that's a good questionbecause like you say, if there's
12, let's say there's 12, Imean, probably a third of them
are involved.
Yeah.
How do you get the other twothirds to be involved?
And, and like, a lot of'em mightbe like me, I just want a ranch.

(44:44):
I just want to have my calves, Iwant to send my information in
and I want them to send me apaper.
And, and that's it.
I want'em to stay outta all thisstuff.
They're supposed to be a simplebreed registry.
That's what it was started as.
And now I believe we're far frombeing a simple breed registry.

(45:08):
So how can we get back to justbeing a simple breed registry,
which is what their job is.
Is that Yeah.
Incorrect.
Is that an incorrect assessmentof the Angus Association?
No.
And, and what is their job,Robert?
What is their Yeah, I mean,seriously, I I, I'm, I'm fairly

(45:32):
traditional and, and my, mybasic, um, outlook on a, on a
breed association is, you know,you keep the pedigrees, um, you,
you act in the best interest ofthe membership.
Um, I think the problem that.
Angus has kind of got a problembecause of its success.
Absolutely.
There's an expectation in theindustry that, because the Angus

(45:54):
breed is so large, I mean, we'reregistering over 300,000 calves
every year.
I think that's almost more thanall the others put together.
It is, it's a massive absolutelyinfluence.
It's a massive, and, and, andwith that influence comes some
responsibility, but Correct.
But the responsibility does not,should not mean engaging in

(46:15):
politics.
It should.
And, and that's what this wholeuh, methane global warming stuff
is.
It's a political issue.
It's not a, a breed improvementissue.
Um, I mean, I'm sure thatthere's differences if you wanna
examine some of this stuff, uh,there is in most things, but you
can't change things withoutchanging things.
So what are you gonna change?

(46:36):
That's right.
Absolutely.
So, so the next question Iwanted to ask you is like, so
Angus is at the epicenter ofeverything.
Um, so they feel like theycan't, we feel like we have to
have a, we have to be at theforefront of every decision
made.
Um.

(46:58):
I am of the belief that we canbe at the forefront.
We can be in the middle ofeverything while still
controlling the narrative.
Do you have an idea as to how wecan control the narrative
without outsourcing that andwithout taking money from other
people?
I mean, yeah, clearly I'm thelayup answer is, yeah, we could,
we could fund this ourselves.
But is is that the simpleanswer?

(47:22):
I, I think because of this, youknow, we're the biggest.
We believe we're the best.
Therefore, uh, everyone willfollow us.
Well, there's no evidence tosupport that.
Um, you know, to an extent, somebreeds followed us by painting

(47:42):
themselves black to exploit CAB,um, okay.
That doesn't really affect theaverage angst breeder.
I think, um, you know, that,that, that kind of.
Homogenization as in the longterm, has not, um, eroded Angus
market share.

(48:03):
I mean, we, back in the lateeighties, um, early nineties, I
think it was a fairly close callbetween Angus and Herefords and,
and ALS for, you know, marketshare.
And since that time, um, theAngus share has just increased
exponentially.
And, and, and most of the breedshave just kind of fallen back a

(48:26):
little bit.
Um, and then now they're kind ofexploiting our, our dominance
by, you know, tapping into that,you know, the Herefords are
making a big deal about blackBaldy again, like, like that,
that's a new invention.
And that's, it's a good thing.
I mean, the Baldy cows hascarried a lot of operations.
Um, but I think the fact thatbecause we have the most, we're,

(48:47):
we're not obligated to putourselves in the forefront all
the time.
I think.
If we allow the breeders to dotheir job, whatever they see
their job as, whatever marketthey're targeting, and we all
have different customers withdifferent, you know, needs and
wants.
Um, some people are serving the,the show heifer industry.

(49:09):
Some people are commercial bullsin high countries.
Some people are, you know,whatever it is, whatever your
sector you are servicing, have alittle more confidence in the
breeders that are out theredoing the job.
Correct.
Because most of them know whatthey're doing.
They, they, I, I think that,that the push for data is an

(49:31):
association driven thing,whereas the push for good cattle
is a breeder driven thing.
And with all these differenttraits to focus on, you can't
focus on them all.
You can't devote yourself tothem all.
And you also can't devoteyourself to only one.
So we've, we've, we've justgotta pick our battles within

(49:53):
our own breeding programs thatwill accomplish our customer's
goals.
My customers generally havefairly simple, straightforward
coal goals.
I want a bull that will sirecalves that don't give'em carbon
trouble, that will, uh, not tryto kill them and, and, and be
easy to work with, um, and willbe marketable to wherever they

(50:17):
want to market those calves.
That's pretty simple targets andwe also be able to meet those.
Then we can add some of theother bells and whistles as we
go along.
But I think in reality, a littlemore confidence than the
breeders and a little less, um,you know, making it just about
association programs, um, I feelwould benefit the breed in the

(50:39):
long run.
I think that's, I think I'msorry to cut you off, but I
think that's beautifully saidand a few times when you guys
were going back and forth andthen I feel like all three of
you use the word best a lot,which just got me thinking as I
was a fly on the wall here,Robert.
Um, I wonder if a lot of thesethings are being implemented
because of the long rangestrategic plan that we

(51:00):
implemented, uh, several yearsago.
I, this is kind of off the wall.
This wasn't on any potentialquestion, but you've handled
questions so well.
Do you think it's time that wereevaluate the long range
strategic plan and what the roleassociation is?
I think so.
I think so.
I, there's a tendency, and I'veseen it a couple of times over

(51:22):
the last 20 years since I'vebeen here.
For the association to trendtowards corporatism.
Um, in the, in the early twothousands, you know, there was a
push for derivatives along with,you know, um, uh, I, they, they,
during one annual meeting, they,they had this deal and, and they

(51:44):
kept using this tagline and wecan't stop now.
And my blood rung cold becauseit was like, this is just about
the association.
This is not about themembership.
And that's happened a coupledifferent times since then.
And I think anytime that we're,you know, we're focusing more on

(52:05):
the corporation instead of onmember service, that's when
things start to go awry.
Because, you know, well, we're a$60 million business.
Okay, and who built that?
Who built that?
That came from the membershipthat came from my dues, that
came from my registration fees,came from my, uh, genetic

(52:27):
evaluation fees that came from,you know, all our participation
in this.
And the thing about Angusbreeders is that none of us are
ambivalent about this breed.
Uh, you said earlier on about,you know, being dragged back
into this caring about what theassociation's doing, and, and
that's rooted in the fact thatwe're not ambivalent about our

(52:47):
association.
We're not, um, ambivalent aboutthe Angus breed.
We're passionate.
All of us we're deeply investedin it financially and
spiritually.
I mean, I, I'm a firstgeneration Angus breeder, but
I've had Angus cattle now forpushing on 40 years.
And we might run a few ofdifferent colors around here

(53:09):
alongside that.
But first, last, and always I'man Angus breeder and.
When I see something that's notright, I'm gonna stand up and
say it's not right.
And if I'm the only personsaying that, that's okay, I can
live with that.
Well, I think that's, I thinkthat's an important point to
make because one of thequestions we had from our
listeners was, was, what are yougonna do?

(53:31):
What are you gonna do if all theall just stacked against you?
What are you gonna do?
If you're sitting in a boardroomand we've got, uh, something
brought to the table?
Um, I wish I could come up withan example that wasn't the
methane deal.
I wish it was like, uh,something else.
That's like a politicized thing.
Should we, should we change thewhite rule?
Should we change the white rule?
Uh, nah.

(53:52):
I don't, that's, that's not whatI'm going for at all, Vince.
But, uh, uh, I mean, I do getthat.
But, but let's say somethingfrom the outside, like, like
some, some outside pushes from apoliticized point of view where
we're getting pushed by a, uh.
Left, this sort of thing wherewe're like being told we should

(54:14):
do things a different waybecause the world's changing.
Um, that's gonna be a reallytough predicament because you're
gonna be sitting there in aboardroom and you're gonna, you
know, there's a good chance thateverybody's gonna be just going
right along with it.
How in those situations, is itgonna be easy for you to just
say, you know what, this isn'tme.
This isn't me.

(54:35):
I think that's one of the thingsour listeners want to hear.
We want to hear you stand up andsay, I'm gonna do what I
think's.
Right.
I, I think that's the easiestthing in the world for me to say
that because, you know, I, uh,how to say this?
I, um, when I came to America in1998, I didn't fully understand

(55:00):
this country.
I came because of Angus cattle.
Hmm.
But over the last 25, 27 years.
Um, as I went through theprocess to become a citizen and
understood the founding of thecountry, understood what the
founders meant with a lot ofwhat they, they wrote and what

(55:21):
they laid out in theconstitution.
Um, our basic rights, ourinalienable, inalienable rights,
our um, our role in the world,all these things made so much
sense to me.
And then the realization that,that, that creation that

(55:42):
occurred almost 250 years agowas in the hands of probably
only 3% of the population.
That's awe inspiring.
And it, and it should call onall of us when we see something
isn't right to stand up and sayit's not right.
We have the right to freespeech.
We have the right to say what wethink.

(56:05):
And not be punished for it.
And I'm perfectly happy to saywhat I believe, and if people
disagree with me, I'm perfectlyhappy for them to disagree with
me.
But on a point of principle, I'mgonna fight to the death because
if you lose your principles, youlose your life.
Absolutely.

(56:25):
Very well said.
Absolutely.
I just thought of another one,Robert, um, and another curve
ball, but you've handled themwith such a, a, a great thought
process.
I want to get your thought onthis one.
Do you think we should havepolicy on who, um, the
association chooses to alignwith or do business with?

(56:48):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Do we have policy?
I mean, maybe I'm talking outtaturn.
I I haven't dove hard, hard intothat.
I don't think we do.
And I, I think it's, it's one ofthose things that we ought to be
able to recognize who.
Is a good partner and who isn't,you know, unfortunately,

(57:08):
unfortunately, common sensecan't, can't control every
narrative.
So you have to write thesethings down, you know?
I mean, that's the unfortunatereality of that.
It is.
And, and you would think like,if we have 17 people in a room
that are elected by ourmembership, that one, there

(57:29):
would be differing opinions andtwo, that at the end of a decent
discussion you could come outwith, um, a reasonable position.
And, and that, you know, again,I don't wanna harp on the me
thing, thing, you know, toomuch, but it's, if you can't see

(57:52):
where, where the threats arecoming from, how are you gonna
deal with them?
And if you can't recognize whoyour enemies are, how, how are
you gonna position yourself forthe battle ahead?
I don't think we've reallypositioned ourself for the
battle ahead.
We've kind of tried to defer it.
And the, and the problem withsome of the stuff that's being

(58:12):
used against animal agricultureis that if we don't fight it, if
we don't push back on it withall our might, we're just gonna
get steamrolled.
And if we can only make one ortwo people think twice about
what's going on, then thatmessage will grow exponentially.

(58:36):
And we don't have to just takeit on this stuff.
We can, we can push back.
And so, um, you know, and that,and that's why, you know, say I,
I was hesitant to jump into thisdeal, but I, you know, when I
see who I'm, I'm alongside inthis battle, I, I have a lot of
confidence.

(58:57):
Um, and I hope that.
When we get to November, thatthe delegates to our convention,
um, will hear us out and we'llrecognize, you know, why we're
here and, um, and why we'redoing this and that we're for
the membership.
You know, and I don't, you know,I, and I know that we, we might

(59:18):
get painted as radicals, but I,I, I don't know what the
compromised position is betweenworking with people who
ultimately want to see ourdestruction and us continuing in
our way of life.
I don't see where there's a, acompromised position there.
I do have some really strongopinions about that,

(59:41):
particularly because I actuallythink that that's often, um, a
way for people to diminish thevoice of the opposition.
Um, just say, oh, you're justradicals.
But I do have a couple questionsthough as we wrap up here.
Um, you know, Robert, let's justsay, God willing, you're elected
to the Angus board.
Um.

(01:00:01):
And, uh, you're sitting here ayear from now, how would you say
that we had a successful year,or Robert Groom had a successful
year, felt really good about hisservice on the board.
Um, I think if we straighten outthe ownership of the DNA and and
and what that means for how it'sutilized by the association in

(01:00:26):
the furtherance of goals of themembership, that would be a
success.
I think extricating ourselvesfrom this grant and making a
strong statement that, no, wedon't believe that cows are a
problem, uh, in this world.
We don't believe that animalagriculture is a, um, is a

(01:00:49):
problem to be fixed.
Um, something along those linesthat, that I would, I would see
that as a success.
I think there's a lot of other.
Um, things that the associationdoes really well.
I'm actually, um, heavilyinvolved with organizing the,
uh, Eastern Regional Show that'sgonna come to Hamburg, New York,
first time it's been in, in thenortheast in 20 years.

(01:01:12):
First time it's been in New Yorkin 30 years.
And so, you know, I, I'm anAngus breeder and I'm, I'm, I'm
working for, you know, basicallythe, the future of our industry
to have an opportunity to, to dothose things that I saw 30 odd
years ago and, and just plantedthat seed in my head that
compelled me to say, if I everget the chance to come to the

(01:01:34):
States and do this, I'm gonna doit.
I'm not gonna worry aboutwhether it's successful or
failure.
I, I'm just going to, to do itbecause I think the
opportunities are just so great.
And so, um, that would, to me,that would be a success.
You know, being able to, youknow, get that show off the
ground and, and, and, andestablish something for New York

(01:01:55):
Juniors for the future.
In terms of scholarship, youknow, those four things, that
right there I think would be a,a successful year.
Um, but you know, if there'smore to be done, let's do more.
Robert, I wanna ask you, um, soobviously you've run before, but
you, you've got a wife and soher reaction to you running and

(01:02:19):
putting so much time, is shejust like, you do what you gotta
do?
Or is she like, oh gosh, Robert,are we really doing this again?
What is her reaction to thewhole situation?
Well, I, I, I run it by herbecause, you know, she works a
full-time job as well and, um,you know, we.
We're kind of empty nesters now.

(01:02:40):
Our youngest one graduated highschool, um, last year.
She's coming up on finishing herassociates.
And so, so all our kids are kindof off doing their thing.
And, um, and I, you know, I'mwell 57 now and I'm, I'm
planning to spend like the next,you know, eight or so years.

(01:03:04):
I, I just wanna kind of devotemyself to try and make things
better for, for the nextgeneration coming up, you know,
and, you know, if, if, if that'sall, oh, that's gonna cost me
some time, um, then I'm morethan willing to do it.
And I, I do the same with uscattlemen.
We we're involved in a couple ofthings right now that, you know,

(01:03:24):
are gonna take up some time.
But, but I think in the long runwill be very beneficial for, for
the independent US cattlemenand.
You know, we're, we're gonnakeep working together.
We keep the farm going.
And, uh, when I'm gone, youknow, she picks up the, up the
slack and, and, uh, you know, wekind of work as a partnership
and it's not easy.

(01:03:45):
Um, you know, it, it, it is a,it is gonna be a drain, but, um,
I think the ultimate, um,objective is to, to improve
things for, for my fellow Angusbreed and for my fellow
cattlemen.
That's, that's my, my objective.
Robert, we kind of breezed bysome of this.
How many kids do you have?

(01:04:07):
So I've got three.
I got, um, my son's 28.
Uh, he's, um, a militaryhistorian.
He's working on his PhD rightnow.
Um, my older daughter is, uh,has a master's, um, from, uh,
um.
Sacred Heart in Connecticut.

(01:04:28):
Uh, but she is actually now, uh,managing, um, several CVS stores
up here in our area again, andshe's actually heading out to
Oregon on Monday to go and traina bunch of people to run stores
out there.
And so that's really far.
Yeah.
That's about as far away as youcan get.
Yeah, no kidding.
Pretty much.
And still be in the Continental,I mean, that's, you could, uh,

(01:04:51):
is, it almost would be closerfor you guys to go back home
than it would be to go toOregon.
Section two.
Threes is about 3000 either way,so, yeah.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
That's a long way.
Yeah.
But it's, um, yeah, it's, uh,uh, she's gonna head out there
to do that for a, a couple ofweeks and so she's, she's
getting into that.
And then my, I say my youngest,uh, just graduated high school

(01:05:14):
last year.
Um, she was big time showingcattle.
We were traveling all over goingto the junior show, national
junior show and all that kind ofstuff.
And then, um.
She kind of decided to step awayfrom ag a little bit and she's
going to do, uh, early childhoodeducation, so Oh yeah.
She's working on, uh, on, ongetting her associates and then

(01:05:34):
doing her bachelor's.
Um, but I think she's probablygonna end up working full-time
as well.
And if she can be a teacher, shecan have summers off so she can
still show cattle if she wants.
And, uh, yeah, are, wellhopefully.
Do you have, do you have any Goahead, Vince.
I was gonna say, are any of theminterested in keeping tele
parkas going?

(01:05:54):
Well, kinda, um, my youngestprobably, um, but we've also,
about 10 years ago we had a, ayoung lady over from Scotland,
um, uh, called Gemma Walk nowGemma McDonald, who, uh, came
and worked for us for a coupleof summers and, um, we actually
have shipped some embryos overto her and she is, and we

(01:06:17):
released the Fergus name overthere.
The society for her to use.
And so she's essentiallyrestarted the Holly Fergus herd
over there.
That's cool.
Um, and that is awesome.
Kind of, that's kind of, um, youknow, following our pattern of,
you know, we're looking atmaternal, we're looking at, you
know, easy care cattle that, youknow, just go how to do the job

(01:06:39):
and, and, and still produce aquality carcass and all that
kind of stuff.
So, um, so we kind of got, gother started with that.
And then, um, there's anotherkid locally that's been helping
me do hay for the last few yearsand grow crops, and he's trying
to get started in farming, sowe're helping him kind of get
going a little bit.
And, um, you know, it's justkind of a work in progress.

(01:07:00):
I mean, I, I've never set out tobuild a dynasty.
I'm the first generation of myfamily to raise, raise the Angus
cattle.
Um.
If I'm the last, but there'sothers that have benefit from
what we've done, and then I'm,I'm comfortable with that, you
know?
That's awesome.
That's just Okay.
Yeah.
That's just Okay.

(01:07:21):
Yeah, I think everyone shouldjust do what they do, what they
want to do.
They should, they should findtheir path in life.
I, you know, my dream is nottheir dream, so, you know,
you've gotta, you've gotta give'em the, the space to go and
find out what it is they reallywanna do.
Sometimes they'll come back andsometimes they won't, but,
right.
Well, hopefully to somecapacity.

(01:07:42):
I, I really think these thingshave a way of working themselves
out in the end, and, and I likeyour approach of just letting
things come to you.
Yeah.
We've got some contingency plansin place.
If it works out, it works out.
If it doesn't, it doesn't,generally it, it either will or
it won't.
Um, hopefully it does, but, uh,uh, I think I, I think.

(01:08:03):
If we've got to a good pointhere, I really appreciate the
time you've given us.
I, I think we've, we've answereda lot of questions.
People have learned a lot aboutyou.
Um, if Vince doesn't have anymore questions, I, I wanted to
ask, uh, is your bio gonna be inthe journal?
Yes.
Yes.
You made the deadline.
Okay.

(01:08:23):
You made the deadline.
So you've got your bio in thejournal, um, with like a video.
There's like a video and stuffin there too, isn't there?
Well, they do an interview.
They interviewed you.
Yeah, they did do the interview.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And there's actually out thereon the internet is a very old I
am Angus segment that, uh Oh,yeah, yeah, yeah.

(01:08:44):
I am Angus.
They came back in 2008.
So, you know, honestly, that wasone of the greatest things that
the association has done interms of, you know, producing
something that, that reallyresonates people.
I think it gives, it gives, itgives the every man the
opportunity to, it gives peoplethe, the chance to get to know
people that, that kind of, theyhave more in common with.

(01:09:07):
Yeah.
Well then, then they never wouldever get to meet because they
don't have even know where theyexist.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, Robert, how can, uh, if, if,short of giving out your phone
number, how could everybody getahold of you?
Well, um, I'm on Facebook,Robert b Groom.
Um, I'm, uh, my, my phonenumber's out there.

(01:09:28):
I don't, I don't mind giving itout here.
It's, uh, 3 1 5 5 7 3 2 5 6 9.
Don't have a problem with anyonecalling me.
Um, I will caution you if youcall me from a number that my
phone doesn't recognize and youdon't answer when I say hello, I
will put the phone down on you.
Yeah.
So you don't have to try againbecause I don't put up with

(01:09:49):
telemarketers.
Um, uh.
Email, you know, um, I'm onTwitter, I guess I don't really
follow that too much Twitter, Idon't think.
I don't know that, don't call itTwitter.
I don't, I don't think ourcontingency of guests is going
to be looking you up on XI thinkwe're gonna So, but Robert b

(01:10:09):
groom on Facebook and Robertgave his phone number, if
anybody wants to get ahold ofhim, uh, you know how to get
ahold of him.
I think, I think Robert wouldbe, if you guys want to get more
information from Robert, youjust reach out to him.
'cause I think he'd answer and Ithink he'd answer any question
that anyone might have.
And, uh, if Vince doesn't haveanything else Joe had to check
out here.
But Vince you got nothing else.

(01:10:31):
I just wanna say thank you forrunning and thank you for taking
the time to come on our show.
Absolutely.
No problem.
Not a problem, Robert.
Robert, we thank you for I, Iknow it's a time commit, commit
a time commitment, and, and wereally appreciate you coming on.
We appreciate you running,appreciate you sticking your
neck out there, uh, for theassociation time and time again,

(01:10:51):
and for having the right thingsin mind and for, for doing
things for the right reason.
Uh, ladies and gentlemen, RobertGroom, it was nice to get to
know you and, uh, we will seeyou, me and Vince and I think
Joe, we will all see you inNovember at the convention.
Um, until next time, we will seey'all next time.

(01:11:13):
Uh, let's take it away to.
We will see you next time aroundthe shoot.