Interview with AAA Board Candidate, Brooke Miller

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This episode captures an informal yet engaging conversation between hosts and their guest, Brooke Miller, who discusses his candidacy for the American Angus Association Board. Brooke shares his background in the Angus cattle breeding, medical practice, and advocacy work, emphasizing the need for transparency, member input, and accurate data in the Association. The dialogue also touches on practical aspect of cattle breeding, like EPD accuracy and genomic data ownership, while highlighting Brooke's commitment to integrity and open communication.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
But is that a, is that a JohnDeere green accent wall behind
you?
Yeah, that uh, where are you?
What are you doing?
That snake room.
It's snake room.
That guy.
Welcome everybody green.
It stinks in there.
Welcome everybody.
Busty in there, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Does it?
It smells like Axe boggy sprayand it dirty sauce.

(00:24):
It smells like a teenage boysroom.
I'll tell you what else.
It smells like Rolos and AlmondJoys, and you're eating all his
freaky candy.
Little sucker's been holding outon me.
Oh my gosh.
He's been going to the storewithout you and picking up candy
and then hiding it in his room.

(00:44):
Yeah.
Look, I mean, what is this?
What's a stash?
We got some Christmas Hersheykisses from Christmas.
Does he have any Starburst inthere or only chocolate?
No.
No.
Starburst.
Mya, will you go get me aStarburst?
Milo's down here.
Myla down here.
Are you gonna, are you guysgonna welcome people to around
the chute?
Oh, you pushed record a longtime ago.

(01:05):
Sweet.
No, I will tell you that accentwall is sweet though.
Somebody put some time intopaint in that bedroom.
Nate do that or is that an Amydeal?
I know you ain't doing that.
No.
There's no way you can that.
And then he's got, he's gottractors up on the wall there
and he's got tractors on thewall back there is shady brick
logo I just saw.
Yeah, it's Does Nate make hisbed every day?

(01:27):
No.
When I came in here, I said I,Amy wanted me to do it in the
record in here, so she kind ofpulled his bed up a little bit
so it didn't look like a slob.
I will say you need to plumbthat, um, either CO2 or smoke
detector back in because he willnot be notified if there's smoke
or that thing will startbeeping.
I'm here to tell you if, if Idon't come in here and wake him

(01:49):
up.
He ain't gonna wake up.
Have y'all seen those?
Oh man.
Okay.
I'm not going there.
Those memes on Instagram withthe smoke detectors, I'm not
going there.
But no, I haven't.
I haven't seen'em, but I thinkif anyone's seen'em, they're
gonna laugh at the phone.
My room was not that cool when Iwas Nate's age.
I will tell you that right now.
Do you know what I had on my,well, when I was Nate's age, I

(02:11):
don't know that I spent muchtime in my room.
Can see those.
But when I was, oh, there's histoys.
Those are those like realsophisticated Legos that comes
with like 3000 pieces and littlescrews.
Oh.
And it's just something for himto do, you know, screws and
trying to put stuff together anddisassemble it and make it work
and reassemble it.

(02:32):
He likes stuff like that.
Yeah, that's that's awesome.
Absolutely awesome.
He's, he's got like amechanical, he's mechanically
brained, which I wish I was morelike that.
My dad is that way.
So if I break something, heloves the idea of getting to fix
it.
Like, did y did y'all see wherethe, we had to hold chopper
disassembled?
Yeah.
Oh my gosh.
I didn't follow up though.

(02:53):
I mean, what, what was the dealthere?
The stupid bearing went out andyou had to disassemble half the
thing just to get to thebearing.
How do you get the bearing onsomething that big?
Do you have to like put it inliquid nitrogen to shrink it or
No, we just, it slid right on.
We clean the shaft up.
It slid right on.
Oh, so it's not pressed, sealedin or anything like that?

(03:15):
No.
Huh?
No.
It slides on it and you put alittle locking collar on it
locks it to the shaft.
How about me talking aboutpressed on bearings, like I know
what I'm talking about.
I was just thinking And the liand the liquid nitrogen Liquid.
What do, yeah, what do you do?
Put that in the freezer for alittle bit.
Yeah.
We put it in the freezer for aminute.
You've never heard that?

(03:35):
You've never heard that?
Yes, I've seen it, yes.
I've just seen it in videos.
I've never seen anybody actuallydo it.
Well, I didn't do this researchon Instagram reels is not what
I'm saying.
Like.
The machine shop who does stufffor us has told us they've done
things like that before.
I don't know.
Those guys could lie to me too,I guess.
Sure.
They did.

(03:57):
That's funny.
So what else?
You guys been doing this, Vince?
You've been packing silage,you've been harvesting?
I've been packing silage.
We finally got all that done.
Got the pit covered today.
So now we have a year's worth offeed in there.
We have, uh.
We've been weaning calves.
I actually kicked the heifersout today and I let the bulls go

(04:18):
over in the heifer pen to cleanup some of their feed that they
didn't.
They had a bunch of hay shookout in there that the heifers
didn't eat.
Um, but I kicked them out tosome grass today, just a little
bit ago, and hopefully when weget done recording and a right
over there, they're all still inthe pasture.
Let me ask you this.
Yeah, because I got time becauseCorbin just stuffed his mouth

(04:40):
full of some Starburst, I think.
And so those take a while to getdown.
Um, what percentage of fellowranchers in your area put up
their own silage?
Oh, nobody.
Nobody.
Um, what do you call my area?
I mean, like the, in my county?
No, no, no, no.
In your region.

(05:00):
Like, oh.
Um, there are some guys that goaround and chop it for folks.
Traveling, um, you know thoseguys that may start in Texas and
end up in North Dakota at theend of the season, right?
There's a few guys that do that.
I don't think they're as extremeas, um, those custom harvesters

(05:23):
that go from Texas to NorthDakota.
Um, but I do think they do it insmall areas.
Like I know meeting had a, a guyfrom like two counties over come
do his and his neighbors.
Um.
When do his me and paint, heplanted some corn too?
Or is he making hay each?
Yeah.
No, the, uh, corn, this is hisfirst time trying it.

(05:45):
Um, there are a few littlefarmers around that do it, you
know, they've done it for 20years or, well, probably 50
years.
But, um, there's not a lot offolks that do it.
So now how many Southeasterntype people do any sort of
farming?

(06:06):
I see like Randall, oh, there'slot.
Randall's got a lot a day jobtoo.
Yeah.
And he's farming a little bit aswell, right?
Yeah.
He plants a lot of seasonalgrasses and makes his own hay.
He'll plant a lot of seasonallike, um, warm weather stuff and
then he rotational grazes a lot.
And then, um.

(06:27):
And then he makes all his ownhay and stuff.
I've got a, maybe tomorrow I'mgonna go, uh, chop some for a
neighbor and then I'll have acouple of neighbors come
throughout the winter, likeevery other day and get a, a
couple of scoops of silage.
They'll feed it and come backand get some more.
And then, um, there was two guysthat do feeder calves.

(06:50):
They'll buy young feeder calvesand they, uh.
They have their own little pitsand we fill their pits up while
we're chopping too.
So, so the reason I asked youthat is out here, I would bet
you 90% of my commercialcustomers buy bulls from us.

(07:11):
They either have a day job andcows, or just cows.
I mean, we're talking don't evenown a, a tractor one, right?
Don't farm anything.
Some of the coastal guys, um.
If they get a big pop of forage,they'll just cut it and leave it
in windrows, and then they'llkind of fence those cows off in
different sections over there.
Oh, that's cool.

(07:31):
That's cool.
Yeah, and and it'll stay niceenough.
It'll even get,'cause it's kindof coastal, it'll get kind of a
black tinge to it on some spots,but then the cows scrape away
and it's all good.
Underneath.
It's like it gets a little crustalmost or something.
Yeah.
But I would say 85, 90% of ourpeople never farm, never do
anything.
They go buy hay if they need to.

(07:52):
See, that's done.
I mean, they don't even have atractor.
No.
Like how do they put their hayout?
They have grass.
Do you load it?
Do like you, you buy?
I would say during the droughtof 14.
12 4, 12 through 14 probablychanged a lot of things and guys
started feeding big balesbecause it was so much cheaper.
But they would buy like little,um, skid steers or something

(08:15):
like that and they could putthose up.
Um, and then they could dig postholes or whatever they had to
with them.
Right.
But most of our guys, up until12 or 14 that I knew of, they
were feeding all small bales,like 85, 90, uh, to a hundred
pound bales of hay that you handstacked on pickups and would
just go feed cows.
Wow.
That is like some archaic stuff.

(08:37):
Yeah, even big and no rounds,nothing round.
Even big squares are coolbecause you can flake'em off
Exactly Like you go buy it andthey'll put it on your truck and
you can them off.
How come?
Uh, which, I mean, I understandwhy, why square barrels aren't a
bigger deal here where we livebecause our hay quality's not
that good.
But you would think that therewould be more people putting up
square bills.
But it seems like mosteverything around here is round.

(09:01):
Those big square bailers arevery expensive.
We actually, Nate and I actuallytalked about maybe doing that.
Um, but, and then you gotta beable to handle'em, that's a
whole nother deal.
Like you gotta have a, a littlebit different set of forks and
stuff and Yeah, you do with ataller deal so that you can pick
up more than one at once.
Yeah.

(09:21):
And then like when you go tofeed them, we have a bunch of,
uh, in fence row hay feeders.
And they're square.
And I think you could get'em inthere, but you would have to do
some finagling to turn the balelong ways to shove it up in
there and then be able to getall the strings off of them,

(09:43):
then it wouldn't be, then itdoesn't really make sense.
Well, and then like with thosefeeders or round hay feeders, I
mean, you're gonna throw a bigsquare bale in a round feeder
that don't make a lot of senseeither.
And um, now I can get the squarepeg in the round hole.
But it's not gonna be just, it'snot gonna be just rock.

(10:03):
No.
So that, that drought made guysout here feed enough hay that
they started.
They were competing.
The smaller bales were competingwith the hobby farmers and the
horse hay.
And so you couldn't get it cheapenough.
Whereas the big bales werecompeting more with dairies and
off quality hay that didn't makedairies.
And so you could get it a lotcheaper and those guys started
feeding that, you know.

(10:24):
But it's funny for me to talkabout, I mean, this endeavor of
everyone always feeding cows inCalifornia is relatively new
when I was a kid.
Like we're talking.
200 cow deal that you buy threetons or three semi-loads of hay
a year, and most of it gets fedto horses and bulls.

(10:45):
I mean, they don't, they don'tfeed, they feed to check the
cows and put out some salt,maybe first calf heifers to get
'em a little bit gentle orsomething like that.
But this climate out here, um,is very, very challenging in
some respects, but very, very.
Easy to run cattle comparativelyto other regions.
I mean, we don't get the pop ofgrass like in North Dakota,

(11:05):
South Dakota, but we don't getthe winter, you know?
Yeah.
So I think that part of thereason why you're able to do
that in California is that youdon't have the extreme
temperature changes, right?
Like whenever it's, wheneverit's 15 degrees, those cows burn
a lot of energy just trying tostay warm.
So that's when we burn through,like most of our feed we burn
through whenever it's cold, solike, yeah.

(11:27):
If the weather's really bad,well that's when it's most
important for us to be out therefeeding.
And for us to be, and it'sreally three or four days, the
cattle kind of know what's goingon.
And so three or four days beforeyou've got a big winter storm,
you'll notice that they'll be anuptick in intake.
'cause they can kind of, I don'tknow if it's their bodies or
just mother nature, they, theyknow it's coming, so they start

(11:48):
putting down a little more feed.
And, um, but I think that's thedifference between here in
California is the, are you guys.
You do have the weather, butit's not as extreme in each
direction.
Yeah, and the microclimate I'min is different than all of
California too.
I mean, a lot of the Californiais like what I have, but if you

(12:08):
go to the Northeast, they'dmimic more of Nevada or
something where it's, it's highdesert, and they would have
turnout, you know, March, April,may, they'd still winter those
cows outside, but they gottafeed'em just like you guys.
I mean, yeah, if they don'tfeed, they don't get what's
there.
And there's probably some guysin Tennessee that operate that
way too.
But I would guess their cattleget pretty.

(12:29):
Tough looking at times.
Yeah.
Corbin, what about your guy?
Have you, has he chopped silageyet?
Don't he bring it to you?
Don't he bring it to you now?
Or does you just do it as youfeed it?
The, so the silage deal for meis, is if I can feed hay.
Yeah.
If I, if we've got enough feed,it's so much easier.
And like if feed, but if, ifcorn's eight to, to not feed

(12:52):
silage.
Yeah.
If, if, if corn's$8 a bushel,well then, then I gotta buy
silage.
But when, when, when feed pricesare kind of down, I can just buy
mixed feed, um, and get ittrucked in.
And then if I've got plenty ofhay, um, I can get, so I like
to, but I like to have theoption to do both.
Right.
If, if, if things get reallytough, I like to be able to say,

(13:13):
call a guy.
Um, which I'll have to call himearly on and say, Hey, I'm gonna
need some sage this year.
Go ahead and get it on the booksand get it trucked in.
But Right.
But that's what's unique aboutwhere I'm at is, is if I want
something like si, if I wantsilage or if I want, um, and
just many things that I gottaget it trucked in.
Like we just, it just doesn'tgrow in our climate.

(13:35):
I now, I have thought aboutplanting some wheat.
Uh, we just failed.
Across the road from my house,and I thought about planting
that back in some wheat.
And I, I might need some, uh,direction on that to graze for
grazing.
Uh, it, I, I could, I would beopen to both.
Um, I could graze it, but if it,obviously if it stayed dry
enough and I could wrap it, uh,I would think about that too.

(13:57):
Right.
It's a good, it's a good feed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The, and it's all comes down tomoisture.
And in the right fall of theyear, it's.
It's hit or miss.
Normally we get our fall rains,but then it gets so dang wet
that you wouldn't even, whoknows?
It's, it's be, it'd be a crapshoot.
Right.
But, uh, yeah.

(14:19):
What did you do, Vince?
Did you wait till it got hot towean?
No, we had, um.
We had a week, a freak deal, cocool front come through and we
were like in the upper ninetiesand it brought us down to the
low to mid eighties.
And I said, yeah, let's go forit.

(14:41):
And so we did and we weaned themFriday we, we did do two groups,
two small groups, Thursdayevening.
Last Thursday and then Fridaymorning early we got a, the big
group up and get them andanother little bitty group of
six and then, uh, got all thatsituated and then Amy and I left

(15:03):
and went to the Tennessee AngusField Day.
Ooh, that's awesome.
Uh, yeah.
Did that turn out being as muchfun as you thought it was gonna
be?
Um, it was actually the biggestand best to my knowledge, field
day that Tennessee's ever had.
I mean, ZWT knocked it outta thepark.
They had 18 different states andCanada came.

(15:25):
Can we just give a round ofapplause to Will for setting all
that up?
Hell yeah.
That's right.
That's him and him and his wife,uh, Elizabeth did a lot too.
Um, she, she did a lot of thefiner details, I think, and
yeah, will, did the bulk, Imean, like, dude, they had gift
bags, they had bouncy houses forlittle kids.

(15:47):
Did you get a gift bag?
I did.
What was in there?
I did, uh, there was a c like Icould have put, if I had some
shady Brook stuff and I wantedto put it in the bag, I could
have, I was probably, could havehad it around the shoot sticker.
Those, I was supposed to do thestickers and I forgot.
I'm terrible at this.
Do you know, uh, in regards tothe stickers?
So Lucy just came in here about30 minutes ago and she was like.

(16:12):
Cor, where did Myla get anaround the shoot sticker?
Because she stuck it on her.
She undid it and stuck it on hersister's dresser.
So we've got an, we've, we'vegot a bumper sticker on uh,
Millie's furniture in there, soThat's awesome.
My knows what's up.
She does.
She knew what she was doing.
I don't know where she went.
She was driving nuts.
Mini Hey, so I saw on Instagramor on Facebook or something, a

(16:34):
giant ear tag.
What was that about?
I don't you?
I don't know.
I missed a lot of it.
Like I didn't get to listen tothe panel.
There were several differentpanels.
Um, I didn't get to listen tothose because I was given tours.
I asked Wilson if what I coulddo to help, and he said, if you
could do some of the tours thatwould free me up.

(16:55):
I said, absolutely.
Show me, tell me what I'm doingand show me where I'm going.
And um, so he had a pen of etcat.
Dude, you should have seen allthese blue blood calves that he
had up there.
1508.
Oh man.
Is that his number?
No.
1508, no.
Yeah, 1508.
Yeah.
That was his number because Iwas like, I saw that on a couple
calves somebody sent me and Isaid, oh, those, those, those

(17:15):
look pretty good.
And they said, oh, those areblue bloods.
Yeah, he had pastures full ofthem.
And then there was a bunch of'emthat I liked a lot and I didn't
know what they were or whatturned out they were blue bloods
as well.
Yeah, they used a coupledifferent SI codes there for
blue blood.
He uses, it depends on who wakesup and tags those calves that
day.
Sometimes it just has a numberand there's no SI dam, but they

(17:37):
have a tag in their ears.
Absolutely, absolutely.
So, no, and then he had hisdonors on display.
He had vendors there.
Um, when I say I gave a tour,like I was doing a lot in
rangers, like just a couplepeople, three or three people
here and there, but then, um, Iwent out in front.

(17:58):
They brought two wagon loads ofpeople out there, and then I
spoke with them for just aminute and told'em what all we
were, do you know where we wereat?
It was et calves that were bornin January, February.
Um, kind of what the SIS andstuff were, and it was, it was
really pretty awesome.
Like it, and it was perfectbecause it was spread out.

(18:21):
It wasn't all wadded up in alittle tight area.
The day was awesome.
I mean, I think it was maybe 80.
Maybe dang and overcast all daylooked like it was gonna rain
any minute.
The whole day.
It was never hot.
It never did hot.
It did about three o'clock andthat's when it was over.
And it kind of made everybodyleave a little, you know,

(18:43):
instead of lingering around sothey could get things cleaned up
and, and put away.
And that was a great day.
It was a great day.
It looked to me like you spent alot of time with Old Bob there,
old Bobby.
How Mr.
Whitaker is is one of, uh.
It was one of the gifts of theworld.
So how, how was, how was hangingout with Robert?

(19:03):
Listen, we had at, at the endwhen it was, when it was, um,
all over before we left, um,Robert said, um, well, I think
I'm gonna go.
I said, all right.
He said, have you seen Tony orWill?
I can't, I can't interpret hisvoice, but he said, have you
seen Tony or Will?
And I said, well, I'm actuallygonna go find Will right now.

(19:25):
Uh, he had a few calves that hewanted to show me outta some
stuff that wasn't in the tour.
Yeah.
Some, some other stuff.
So he said, well, I'll just gowith you.
I know that's not what Bobsounds like, but that's the best
I got.
And uh, so we went and then hehad.
Scott Boris and Ryan Dorn withhim.

(19:49):
So we all piled in this rangerThat was way overloaded.
With my big butt in there andlike, Hey, everyone else needs
to sit on the other side.
Vince on the right.
No, I got in the middle.
I got in the middle.
Yeah.
You gotta keep the, uh, centerof gravity.
Right.
You know, and I gotten onwheel's side.

(20:09):
We could have flipped over.
There was a couple of places wewent.
There was kind of steep.
Um, but no, we had a, we had aball and uh, Robert was just
having a big time and just, youknow, being another one of the
guys and, um.
No, we had a, we had a good,good trip.
A really good trip.
That's fun.

(20:29):
Me, me and Amy actually got awayfor a day or two and went on up
to the mountains and wanderedaround and Gatlinburg and just
you Nice to get away for a day,Orly.
Yeah.
But no, they did top notch.
I, I, I highly, I think therewas over 400, 4 50 people there.

(20:50):
That's a lot of people's.
A lot of people, I mean 18states, did they feed that many
people?
Yes.
I cannot imagine feeding 450ribeye sandwiches.
And banana pudding.
The banana pudding was prettygood.
I ain't gonna lie.
Did you, did you have some?
I did.
I should have had two, but I didnot.
Oh.

(21:10):
And Amy and I judged the mooingcontest.
Oh.
Oh.
That's what our dude, that's notfair.
Missed out.
We got missed out on the lastone.
Yeah, because, because we had amovie.
So you We had a movie.
Yeah.
Was Amy and another lady, Idon't remember the other girl's
name.
Was there anyone that's like,okay, be honest.
Was there anyone that's as goodas me?

(21:31):
Corbin, yours was terrible.
Whatever.
Not these kids were like eightand under and they were blowing
you away.
Well that's'cause they, they'remore like cows than I am.
They little crazy, crazy kid.
One, this one little boy came upthere and she stuck the mic in
his face and he just put hishead down.
He froze.
Like he was, I think he startedgetting scared.

(21:53):
I can imagine.
Uh, okay, let's move on.
Because like, I feel like he wasfixing to have a meltdown, but
he got, he got stage fright.
I feel like he could have wonthe whole deal had he not gotten
stage fright.
I just got that vibe from him,you know, have, have you energy.
He had that more energy.
Do you remember?
Uh, I don't remember which statefair it is, but they have a, uh,
husband calling contest thatit's, it's these older women

(22:20):
who, they sit there and theycall their husbands and they're
like, go through these calls ofhow they get their attention.
It is hilarious.
They're like, Bob, Bob, come on.
Bob Seen that clip of Seinfeldwhen they're in the restaurant
and um, oh, what's the guy'sname?
The weird guy, Kramer.

(22:40):
Yeah.
Kramer's trying to get theattention of the waitress and he
is slapping the table and thenhe is going.
Have you ever seen that?
No.
It's hilarious.
And then, and then she comes,she turns and looks at him and,
uh, he tells Jerry, he is like,see, told you I could get her
attention.
That show is interesting becausethere's moments where it's so

(23:02):
funny, but then you can watchlike three episodes in a row and
you.
This is the dumbest thing I'veever seen.
Well, it was the, you know, thewhole premise of it was, it was
a show about absolutely nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No plot, no nothing, no plot.
Just kind of like this show.
I said Exactly.
That's the tie in.
So we both did a pretty good jobof, uh, connecting, you know,

(23:25):
Hey, but I have a tie in becausethe new editing, it's like a
editing software Amy uses, tookout the mo.
The last episode.
It was the it.
I think it was that same dealthat was messing up my audio
with the fan or whatever when itflattens it out.
Yeah, like it thought it wasbackground noises.

(23:48):
Oh no.
Well, I won.
I'm sure I won.
You won.
You didn't do anything.
Well, there's no, you think Ineed to, I've got the fan on
right now.
Do you think it's blocking outeverything I say right now?
No.
No, no, it's fine.
It's fine.
It is.
I had to turn my fan off.
Anybody want to guess what thetemperature it is in the house
when we got home from church?
I don't have to guess.
I just dunno how you do it.
I don't know how you sit in an82 degree room with no air flow.

(24:14):
You wanna know what's crazy?
I just came in from checkingheifers before we press play,
and it felt cool.
Like, I was like, man, it feelskind of chilly in here.
It is blazing outside right now.
Chilly.
It's hot.
It's so chilly.
What's the, what's thetemperature out there?
Um, I think that, I think it's.
My, my wife's car is dark, so Idon't know Corbin, but it said

(24:36):
104 coming home from church.
Jesus.
And, and on the irrigated wherethose heifers are, Calvin.
I mean, you gotta figure, it'sjust like the humidity's.
Insane, right?
It's irrigated.
Yeah.
'cause it's, yeah.
Oh yeah.
So it, it is just nasty outthere.
It's suffocating.
But anyways, I wanna encouragethe listeners don't even look at
the Weather channel.
It's gonna say like, 94 Corbin.

(24:58):
It's, it's wrong.
It's wrong.
S It's 92.
It's 92 here.
It says it's 100 where you'reat, Joe, and it feels, feels
like, yeah, I guarantee you itfeels like like 204, two.
Oh, it's hundred.
Okay, so here it is, 95 andfeels like 1 0 8.
Yeah, I'm the coolest of all.
I know that's weird.
I'm like 80, 86 and 92.

(25:19):
Yeah, those mild winters in 86and 92.
So you think about this, yourhouse is, is less than 20
degrees cooler than it isoutside.
Mine is more than 20 degreescooler than it is outside.
No, because it's actually ahundred and it's 18 degrees Joe.
The ratio, I dunno.

(25:41):
I dunno what These headphoneshave got me sweating in here
like it's.
70.
It's probably'cause you keepeating all that candy.
You've eaten like six pounds ofrolos since we've been on here.
Is that box.
I wish I'd have never looked inthat stupid bag.
'cause now I can't quit eatingthem.
Oh my gosh.
They're so good though.
I know.
They're so good.
Thank you.
Thank you for to the listenersthough, for all the feedback of

(26:03):
our last episode.
I can't even remember what itwas called.
What was our last episode about?
Lots of positive feedbackthough.
I think it was, it was calledThe Grind or something.
It was, was I there?
It not called The Grind.
It was definitely not called toGrind.
That's a new app.
You have the Grind Edge.
What gets your blood pumping?
Grinder?
Grinder.
Using Grinder Getting, I gotta,oh my God, I Pain grinder.

(26:28):
Not the Grinder app.
There you go.
I'm not that good of weld.
Tall, dark, and handsome.
I'm not that good of a welder.
I mean, sirs uh, go back andlisten to that episode.
Listeners, if you want anyquality feedback.
Corbin's g Corbin.
Um,'cause we have a lot to coveron this episode.
We've been talking for about 25,30 minutes, right?

(26:50):
Just kind of some banterleading.
You guys confess forwardthrough, Hey, did you guys
notice, by the way, on Spotifynow they automatically put us in
chapters.
No.
Have you seen that?
No.
That's cool.
Yeah, they sort us by chaptersand so it's kind of cool.
It doesn't.
It doesn't get us completelyaccurate, but for our listeners,
if you're like, man, I'm tiredof hearing Joe just talk and
talk, or, I'm tired of Corbinscrewing off, or Nobody's ever

(27:12):
tired of Vince for some reason,everybody loves him, but you can
go through the chapters.
Yeah.
Like, what do you mean?
Nobody's ever tired of Vince?
Whatever.
Because look at the Amy.
Amy is tired of Vince.
I mean, I guarantee that if youlook at the delegate voting
list, you can tell who isfavored.
Most of of anyone look at allthe votes Vince got in that

(27:35):
deal.
Isn't that crazy?
Well, uh, not, not to take awayfrom any of my fellow delegates,
but I'm just saying there's alot of good folks in Tennessee
that weren't on that list.
Oh, absolutely.
That's the first thing I thoughtwhen I saw California is that I
was an alternate and I was like,man, there's so many good people
that are on here and there'ssome good people.

(27:56):
You go through the delegate listof what we've got.
Um, coming up in the convention,I see a lot of really, really,
really cool people.
I absolutely do some reallysmart people, talented people.
Um, there's some programs Idon't know about and then
there's some more that's kind ofmore of the same.
I think, but, um, it'll beinteresting to see.
I'm most excited.
I think, uh, I can't remember.

(28:17):
I, I'm gonna give Corbin thecredit just'cause he's the
millennial that needs thepadding.
But, um, what, aren't you amillennial?
You're a millennial.
Are you a Gen Z Corbin?
We talked about this episode.
You're a millennial four yearsolder than me.
I know, I know.
You just act old.
I know.
I feel old, but, um, I thinkpeople voted for me'cause I have

(28:38):
a charming smile.
I think it's'cause they saw youon the grinder.
No, it's the grinder.
It's the grinder.
Okay.
It's probably a calendarsomewhere.
Uh, Mr.
January.
But no, Corbin had the, I thinkit was Corbin or we all had kind
of the idea of, of doing theseinterviews of director
candidates.
Um.
If we know that you're adirector candidate, we're gonna

(28:59):
try to reach out to you, but wearen't begging people to come on
here.
You gotta reach out to us alittle bit.
Corman, how many reservations doyou have and, and what do you
have planned?
And then you guys want to, areyou ready to kind of wrap up and
tee up this segment that we'regonna do?
Just so the listeners, I, I'llnot confuse it.
I guess I'll go back and say,this is Sunday, we're recording
a little intro together, like wedo on most Sundays.

(29:22):
Um, that's when we do most ofour recordings, but.
In order to coordinate some ofthese board candidates, they
maybe does, they have someconflict on a Sunday or on a
Monday.
And so Tuesday afternoon we willbe interviewing two board
candidates.
But I think we're good to, towrap this little segment and
Corbin, why don't you give us anintro into the whole, what the

(29:43):
next few episodes around theshoot are gonna look like.
So, uh.
It'd be too late for me tomention now, but we posted on
our Facebook page, uh, askingsome questions what people kind
of wanted to hear from theirboard members.
So what we'll do is we're goingto apply some of these questions
to, to some potential boardmembers and just see where they

(30:03):
stand.
Um.
In general right now, I thinkthe candidates that we have are
pretty one-sided as far as theway they're gonna think.
So hopefully we get some,hopefully we get some dollar
meth people to, to reach out tous and, and say they want to
come on.
But right now, um, it just kindof seems like it, it's people
that we're gonna want to hearfrom.
So for our first episode, we'regonna have Kelly Albrecht and

(30:26):
Brooke Miller.
Um, they're both, uh, Brooke isfrom Virginia.
He's a doctor there.
And then Kelly runs cows inWauk, Oklahoma, which is right
in my backyard about 30 minutesaway.
So, um, they're both really goodcandidates and I think
everyone's gonna really like tohear from them.
Uh, and I can't wait to hearwhat they have to say.

(30:46):
Uh, I know that, uh, havingtalked to both of them, that
they have some really goodopinions and some good, good
advice for direction.
For, and Vince, uh, why don'tyou share what our, when we were
bannering around about this,what's, what's our goal like, I
mean, and then I'll share minetoo, but what was our goal here?
We going to, we aren't gonnagrill'em a bunch of questions or
anything.
No, I, I think, I think we justwanna let'em, let'em get out and

(31:10):
say, you know, give them, givetheir little, give a little bio
about themselves, not a 45minute.
Deal about, you know, they'vebeen doing this when they were
three, they got hit by a trainor whatever it might be, but.
Just a little bio and what theywould like to see the Angus
Association look like versus howit looks now.

(31:34):
Some things that they would hopeto try to change.
And, um, you know, Corbin, Idon't, you said it, you thought
it might have been a little toolate.
I don't think it's too late forfolks to put those questions
'cause there'll be morecandidates.
Come on.
Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Um, and we got, we got a lot ofresponse too.
Yeah.
Before we came on, Amy saidthere was already a lot of.

(31:55):
Questions on there.
Yeah.
Um, a lot of response, likepeople ask, this is what I'd
like to hear.
That's what I'd like to hear.
So, but I mean, that's, that'smy goal for people just to get
to know him a little bit better.
What do you think, Joe?
Because I didn't know any ofthese.
I, I knew Albert A.
Little bit.
I knew Logan Sampson a littlebit.

(32:15):
Um.
Yeah, I guess we should mentionthat, but I really didn't.
Logan, Logan will be on a laterepisode of Mr.
Groom.
Yep.
Right?
Is that his, yeah, Mr.
Groom.
And then there was one other onewho was the other?
Brian Palmer.
Brian Palmer.
Yeah.
Brian Palmer.
So we've got those five that arelocked in and I would sure love
to get, um, as many, as manycandidates as we, as we can.
We have until November to getthese, these interviews out and,

(32:37):
and, yeah.
And we don't even know yet ifany of the incumbents are gonna
try to run again.
Right.
And if they wanna come on,they're more than welcome to
come on too.
Um, or anybody else.
Yeah.
And you said, uh, what are mygoals if you're$4 meth?
I wanna hear that like the, thegoal of this platform is to just

(32:58):
find out the truth, right?
And to, to be able to tell ourlisteners, you know, when you
spend some time, I learned this.
Um, we aren't trying to be JoeRogan.
We aren't trying to be TheoVaughn.
We're just trying to be aroundthe shoot here.
But I learned from watchingthose guys with the presidential
race and stuff, with thoselonger form just visits with
people.
And I'm not saying we're talkingto'em for an hour.

(33:20):
You get to know who the peopleare.
Right.
You can bs some answers and somecrap for a question and answer
for 15, 20 minutes.
But if you just dig in and visitwith some people, you figure out
if you're comfortable with thepeople, if you're not
comfortable with the people.
And, and I honestly think thatthat's what we need.
We need more comfortability withthe people we're electing to
represent us, um, and theseassociations because then I

(33:42):
think you get more memberfeedback.
Um, and so this is a realopportunity to Vince's point
about the incumbents.
If there are incumbents running,I'd love to get to know them
too.
I don't even know who those fivewill be.
I don't either.
And chances are, gentlemen, bythe time this episode airs
there, there is a chance thatit'll be out in the journal.
Don't they usually put littlebios out in the journal of who's
running?
Yeah, but I don't get thejournal.

(34:04):
So what do I do then?
Well, somebody will send it tous.
Somebody will send it to me.
I mean, it should be online.
Like the delegate deal was, Iwould think the And I would
guess so too.
And can we just point out how.
The delegate deal is so odd.
It's so odd.
It's so weird that in 2025, ifyou're on the delegate list as
an alternate, you have to go.

(34:26):
There's people that live 12 hourplane ride away from Kansas
City, Missouri, but yet we'veall gotta make our way to Kansas
City, Missouri.
It, it just seems interestingthat, that this is still the way
we're doing things whenever.
You and I, you, the three of ustalk every single week and we
see each other on a video.

(34:47):
Uh, it just seems like we're notusing the resources that we have
available to make this better.
It just seems like we're, exceptfor, you know, accepting grants.
I mean, we're doing that for,for research, but as far as
moving forward with thetechnology we have to make our
association more user friendly.
Like, I don't know, it's just.

(35:08):
No Corbin.
I, I think that's fair because Ithink we just learned, and I, I
already had my little confessionof where I failed, um, you know.
Nominate yourself.
If you wanna instill change, youbetter nominate yourself.
'cause you better get on Ensure.
Or if you don't feelcomfortable, call someone from
your state and say, nominate me.
Are you interested?
I'll nominate you.

(35:29):
But make sure you get yourselfon the printed list.
I think it's important tonominate other people too.
'cause I think, you know, upuntil this year, I've just kind
of put, put it to the side, likeI don't care.
I don't know those people thatare running.
I don't need to know them.
They're not like me.
They're not running, they're notdoing this like I'm doing it, so
I don't need to be, I just canstay out of it.

(35:50):
Maybe they ought to say, you canvote for yourself and one other
person, and if you wanna votefor yourself, then you're in.
And if you want to vote foranother person to put them on
the ballot, they should let youinstead of just giving you one.
I also think that, uh, that'sinteresting.
I also think that there's a,there's a.

(36:12):
Uh, former board members have anunfair advantage to where it's
almost like they have that seatautomatically.
Yeah.
So it, it just seems like we'vegot, almost like the US
government, we've got careerpoliticians sitting as
delegates, like that needs tochange.
That guy's 75 years old and he'sbeen in the middle of this for
50 years.
Like, can we move on to someonethat's younger and that has a, a

(36:34):
mind for, for moving in adirection that's not the same
way we're going.
I think that's the hope.
I think.
I hope that over the next, Idon't know, it's probably gonna
take us a month to work throughall these episodes and podcast
timeline, and so maybe you getsome people who are willing to
try some different things onthat board.

(36:54):
And I do think, I mean, thiscurrent board man, they've gotta
be so tone deaf to not take someof these suggestions.
I still feel like, I know peoplewill argue with me and that's
okay.
They're gonna do some changes ontheir own no matter what
happens.
I, I think they have to, I gottabelieve in the good in people,

(37:14):
right?
They're gonna do something.
See, no.
I don't even think so.
I don't think so, Joe, youmight, you might be right.
The ball's in their court rightnow, and I don't mean to hammer
on'em, but man, it's been realquiet out st out of, uh, St.
Joe.
I haven't heard anything.
Well there, and I'm not eventalking, I'm not even
necessarily talking about theboard on this.
Everyone el, everyone that'sgetting paid a lot of money to,

(37:35):
to do a job there that they'renot doing their job.
I'm sorry, you're not doing yourjob.
I don't feel like I knowanything.
I can't refute that.
So, sorry.
Yeah, I mean, they can hate meall at once.
It's, it's do better.
Do your job.
I I I It's too bad that, that,that can't be refuted, um, to be
honest with you.
'cause you're right Corbin.
Um, I still wanna stayoptimistic though that they'll

(37:58):
tweak something in the process.
And I think that getting a fewpeople that are different, just
little different voices in therewho are strong personalities, I
think that, um, you know, thediversity of thought, some of
that stuff, the thoughts justneed to be brought up and they
aren't thought when everybodythinks the same way.
Well, and then there's anotherthing that, that, that I would
challenge anyone that's wantingto run for, uh, a board

(38:21):
position, a board position, aboard member position, you
cannot be scared to be theopposition.
You cannot be scared to have anopposite opinion of your peers.
You have to be able to, you haveto have the stones, for lack of
a better term to disagree.
You have to, but then you, thegroup thinks a thing.

(38:43):
Then you don't get unanimous.
Decision.
Sorry, that's, that's, that'slife.
Well, yeah.
You know, a lot of this problemgoes back to transparency and
they do not wanna betransparent.
But before, I mean, there'sbeen, there's been lots of folks

(39:04):
asking questions from what Ihear, I, I wasn't one of the
ones asking the questions.
There's been lots of folksasking questions about the
contract of this methane hubdeal, this methane deal, and to
my knowledge, nobody hasreceived it.
They won't give it to anybody.
No.
And if that's true, that's allhearsay.

(39:26):
If that's true, what do theyhave to hide?
Why?
Why would you not just let thatbe public knowledge?
There's a lot of things that Ifeel like everything should be
in a, in a, in the age.
I feel like we're in the age oftransparency where you can't
hide things risk and things arebeing hidden from me.

(39:47):
And this is a breed mem, uh, uh,a breed registry.
It's not, we're supposed to ownthis dang thing.
It's a breed registry memberowned.
We're not making nukes.
We're not got doing top secretmilitary stuff.
It's a read registry.
What are we hiding?
But y'all are gonna really enjoyKelly's interview because we, me

(40:08):
and he and I talked about thisfor a little bit, and, uh, y'all
are gonna really enjoy what he,he has to say about it.
So, um.
I'm gonna enjoy it, Corbin,because, um, I have not talked
to any of the candidatesspecifically about what their
thoughts are.
I will say in full disclosure,uh, Logan called me early on
before he was even announcingand just ran some stuff by me

(40:31):
and then asked what I thought ofhis bio.
And Brooke has been, um.
Had a very, very direct line ofcommunication with me.
We talked about a lot of things,um, from, he called me when he
heard that I was on a panel and,and, um, you know.
We, Brooke and I have a goodrelationship I think, so I'm

(40:51):
excited to hear what these guyshave to say.
And I've talked to Robert backin the five bar x, uh, chat,
online forum, days, or advantagecattle service maybe.
That's crazy.
It was, um, talked to Robertback in those days and always
really appreciated his worldviewof, of membership, governance,
um, and how he thinks aboutthings that way.
So, Corbin Juano to Vince, areyou good to wrap this and let

(41:15):
Corbin tee up the next segment?
Yeah.
All right, Corman, go ahead andjust lead us in, uh, to our
exciting board memberinterviews.
Well fir folks, first up, we'vegot, uh, somebody that, that
you're gonna really enjoygetting to know Brooke Miller
from Virginia.
A lot of you have heard from,from him before, but he has some
very interesting perspectives,some very interesting points of

(41:36):
view.
Um, a very sharp guy that that'svery worldly and, and knows a
lot of things about a lot ofthings.
and he's our first guest ever.
Right?
Ever, ever.
Which is fitting because I thinkon that other podcast we were
on, he was either the first orsecond guest.
He was first we ever had.
Yeah.
This is our first guest ever.
So, um, uh, without further ado,let's, let's invite Brooke in.

(42:00):
Well, thanks for having me on.
I really appreciate this, thisopportunity to, uh.
Uh, hopefully address, uh, themembership and let them get to
know me.
But, uh, I really appreciate theopportunity.
Um, I'm a small town guy.
I grew up in a small town calledWashington, Virginia.
Um, probably one of the mostleast populated counties in, in
the state of Virginia.

(42:21):
Um, I was born into cattle.
I was born into Angus cattle.
Um, I've been raised in Anguscattle ever since I can
remember.
Uh, we, our family started outwith a commercial.
Set of cows, mostly Angus cows.
And we transitioned and movedinto, uh, purebred cattle in
the, you know, late fifties,early sixties.

(42:41):
Um, and.
You know, some of my fondestmemories are, are traveling the
country with my father and mygrandfather, um, looking at
different herds and, uh, and youknow, learning when I was a
young man and continuing tolearn.
My wife and I, uh, own GingerHill Angus.
Um, we are third generation, orI am third generation cattle

(43:04):
breeder.
Um.
We have an annual sale everyyear, a bull sail and a female
sale every year.
Um, we are very much focused onthe commercial cow calf industry
and trying to raise cattle thatare, uh, profitable for our
customers that, that are in thecommercial cow calf interest
cur, commercial cow calf, uh,producers.

(43:26):
I have a very diversified life.
Uh, I grew up in Washington,Virginia.
I went to Virginia Tech and.
I was on the livestock judgingteam, but majored in biology and
went to University of VirginiaMedical School and graduated
from medical school in 1986.
Finished, completed my familypractice residency in 8 19 89,

(43:47):
and now have, you know,including my last two years of
clinical experience in medicalschool.
I have over 40 years of.
Experience in clinical medicineas well.
I'm very active in advocacy,both in the cattle business and
on the medical freedom front.
I'm a board member of theAmerican Conservative Union.
I'm a a founding member of theUnited States Cattlemen's

(44:08):
Association.
I'm the immediate past presidentof the United United States
Cattlemen's Associa Association,and I'm very much in tune with.
What's, what's going onnationally and globally and how
it affects, uh, you know, notonly medicine, but how it
affects ranch farmers andranchers.
And I've been a strong advocatefor farmers and ranchers and

(44:29):
improving the profitability offarming and ranching in this
country because I think it's thebackbone of, of our nation, our
food supply.
And I think it's a criticalnational security issue.
United States Cattlemen'sAssociation is, is a member
driven organization, completelydecentralized.
Our members pretty much vote onall of our policy, and I'm a

(44:51):
decentralized guy.
I, I think if you study historyand you look at, whether it's
governments or whatever, whenyou start having centralized
control of an entire industry,it's, it's doomed to failure.
And nobody, uh, better to decidewhat is best for you other than

(45:13):
the the individual personthemselves.
So that's a little bit about meand what I'm all about.
I'm a very, I'm a, I'm areligious person, believe in
Jesus Christ.
That helps guide me.
I've been through a lot of toughsituations over the last four
years through the COVIDPandemic.

(45:34):
I was working for a largehealthcare corporation and I
felt they were trying to make medo things and make decisions
that weren't in the bestinterest of my patients.
And so I, you know, so therewere some questions on people
wanting to know if I would beable to make the tough
decisions.
If it wasn't popular, and itcertainly wasn't popular then
with the powers that be in themedical industry, but I, I was

(45:56):
one of those physicians thatstood up for our patients and
treated them.
And did what was be in theirbest interest.
And eventually I get ended upgetting fired, but that was fine
because I landed on my feet.
My wife and I own and operateMiller Family Health and
Wellness here in Washington,Virginia, and that's sort of the
dream, dream come true for us aswell.

(46:17):
So I'm a guy that wants to hearfrom other people to get their
points of view.
To help, it helps shape my pointof view.
I won't always agree withpeople, but I do wanna know what
their point of view is and wherethey're coming from.
So if elected to the board of,of the American Angus
Association, I certainly wouldencourage people to contact me

(46:39):
if they have a problem or anissue and listen to their point
of view.
So, Brooke, I got a question foryou.
Sorry to cut you off, but Ithink this is incredibly
interesting.
I mean, we're gonna run thisaround the shoot style, like we
kind of give you a littlemonologue in the beginning
almost, but let's just have aconversation getting to know
you.
Um, I think, I think ourlisteners will really resonate

(46:59):
with that.
As you're talking, I'm comparingand contrasting kind of your two
lives and how they're wovetogether by your faith.
Maybe explain.
How you tie together yourprofession as a family practice
doctor, and then also raisingAngus cattle, how they have
their similarities, how theyshare challenges and things like
that.

(47:21):
They're both full-time jobsthat's very similar.
Both of'em, uh, are, are a lotof work.
Um, you know, I just love what Ido.
Um, all right.
Pretty much don't have much, ifany, free time.
We don't watch any tv.
I love being out in the pasture,taking care of cattle, but I

(47:44):
also love talking to people and,and taking care of people.
And, um, you know, I feel, and Ifelt this way for a long time,
that we as beef producersproduce the healthiest, safest,
and most nutritious food on theplanet.
And I fought that battle for along time.
With a lot of people in themedical community and now it

(48:05):
seems to be coming around.
Uh, so, you know, I I, I'm abeef producer and I believe in
what I do and I walk the walk asfar as my patients go.
I try to show them how to behealthy.
By example, and beef is a bigcentral part of my diet.
So I guess, uh, I look at it asa health food and I certainly

(48:29):
promote it to everybody thatcomes in my office.
I don't know if that's theanswer you were looking for.
No, no, it's fine.
I think it's all pertinent.
I think, you know, I, I searchfor truth both in medicine and
in the cattle business, and Itry to find my own way and I try
to look at, uh, look at the bigpicture and I have, uh, the
faith in myself and faith inJesus Christ.

(48:50):
That he will, he will guide meand help me make, uh, those
tough decisions.
I think having those values issomething that's great and, and
it's something that, uh, we'vekind of longed for from our
board members.
We wanna see that, you know,that what you are personally and
what things mean to you.
Um, so we kind of know what yourvalues are.

(49:13):
How do you incorporate thosevalues into what the American
Inc Association has been doingand, and what does that path
forward need to look like?
I mean, I mean, we can go as farinto the mistakes they've made
or, or the things for the futurethat, that we can do to prevent
mistakes.
Well, I think you have to betrue to yourself and you have to
be truthful what in whateversituation that you're, you're

(49:35):
dealing with.
And you have to be open andtransparent and you have to be
confident in yourself and whatyou're doing enough to be open
and transparent with everybody.
And I think that's the biggest,uh.
Problem that I hear amongstbreeders or the biggest gripe
that they have is, is there's,there's really a lack of
transparency and there's a lackof input, uh, from the average

(49:58):
breeder.
And, um, uh, I want to try toheal that divide and, and, um,
make it so it's not that way tostrengthen our association.
We already have the greatestbreed of, uh, cattle.
In the history of the world, uh,the Angus breed we're number

(50:18):
one.
I want to keep it number one,but if you look at, uh, you sort
of draw a parallel betweenwhat's happening in the United
States.
Um, it's no secret that up untilrecently farming and ranching
has been not very profitable andwe've been losing farming farms
and ranches, uh, at a alarmingrate.
And we currently have those asof Jan, uh, July one, according

(50:41):
to USDA statistics, we have thesmallest national cow herd ever
on record.
And that's really alarming tome.
And, um, that's probably whyour, our prices are so good
right now, but.
Uh, the reason for the smallestcow herd on record is that it's
been so unprofitable.
We have, uh, severeconcentration.

(51:02):
Uh, in the meek packingindustry, which has destroyed
competition and it's destroyedcompetition so much that we now
have a shortage of cattle and wehave become a net importer of
beef in this country.
And that's, that's very alarmingand that's a national security
issue as far as I'm concerned.
You look at the American AngusAssociation, our membership

(51:23):
peaked in 2005, and then we'vesort of been on a steady decline
ever since.
We've lost about 12,000 memberssince 2005, and we are
registering 50,000 fewer, uh,animals in the American Angus
Association, uh, currently.
So that tells me that, you know,it's mirroring uh, the
profitability of the averageAngus beater breeder is

(51:44):
mirroring what's happening allacross America, um, in the c
commercial cow calf business andin the feedlot business.
Um.
So, I know I'm rambling now, butthose are things that are very
important to me that I think asa breed association we should be
involved in.
Because if we're not, we're notgonna have anybody to sell our
seed stock to.
Uh, if we, so Brooke, you, uh,you mentioned one that everybody

(52:07):
wants to know, and I've said,uh, about transparency.
It's an easy choice to make.
It's hard to put into practice,um, because it's a choice made
every day.
How do we improve thetransparency and increase member
input?
We have to want to do it for thefirst thing, and there's, if
there's a will, there's a way.
So we have to want to do it.
And, and I, I, that's one of thethings that I'm running on is

(52:30):
to, in increase transparency,um, I think one thing that we do
is we make the board meetings,we, we, we make them available
online.
We, we stream'em online.
Um, that's way they can see whatis being discussed and there are
no surprises three months laterwhen they find out that the

(52:52):
board made a decision that theymay or may not be happy with.
So that keeps, uh, themembership much more engaged.
I think currently we have a hugeapathy in our membership because
they feel like they aredisenfranchised and they feel
like they do not have any inputand they do not feel like, uh.
The board members are listeningto them too often.

(53:14):
I get somebody telling me, yeah,they, they call their board
member and then they just say,oh yes, just trust us.
We know what we're doing.
And that's a big no-no.
Um, and you know, and my.
Track record as President of theUnited States Cattlemen's
Association.
I think, uh, our, our membershipand our openness in our board
meetings and, uh, the fact thatour members select our policy is

(53:39):
a good example of what I standfor and what I would like to
achieve if elected to, uh, theboard of the American Angus
Association.
So, with such a diversemembership, Brooke, how do we
choose the things that are.
In AAA's wheelhouse and thethings that shouldn't be in
AAA's wheel wheelhouse?

(54:00):
Well, I, I am a decentralizedguy.
Okay.
I've already talked about that.
And I think the breeders, thebreeders of this breed should
control the direction that thebreed goes, and that should be
based on the commercial cowcalf, uh, rancher.
I think unfortunately theAmerican Ag Association has done

(54:23):
a gr, fortunately they've done alot of very, very good things,
but unfortunately, they'vemorphed into, uh, an
organization that I thinkcontrols the breed and controls
the breeding program.
Uh, people feel like they mustdo this or do that based on.
The programs that they have comeup with, the EPDs that they have

(54:44):
come up with, I think thereneeds to be more transparency in
what it is involved in producingthose EPDs.
I think we need to go back tomore empiric data, uh, more
actual phenotypic data andempiric data, and if, and if we
have scientific data than itneeds to be verified in a, in a
blinded situation.
Um, we, we rely too much, Ithink, on formulas and

(55:07):
assumptions and not enough onempiric data.
So I would like to improve theaccuracy of the EPD system.
Um, I think we probably have toomany EPDs right now.
I don't think we need any more,and I definitely don't think we
need a methane EPD.
I think we need to improve theaccuracy of the EPD, so the

(55:28):
cattle match the numbers and thenumbers match the cattle.
We also have to, I think,improve our data and our
adjustments.
I live in a differentenvironment than you do.
Everybody in here, Vince and I,I live in a similar environment.
We have.
He's the only one I really know,knows what I'm talking about
when he talks about fescuepasture.
Um, but you can bring a lot ofreally good cattle into the

(55:49):
state of Virginia and state ofTennessee where there's fescue,
paddle pasture and they don'tlook real good.
But, um, our adjustment factorsI think are way off and I think
they should look at the datafrom each, um, region and each
management system and eachcalving season and come up with
more of a, uh, an adjustmentfactor on birth weight.

(56:12):
You know, age of dam adjustmentfactor.
Just a little story, a personalstory about us when, you know,
about 25 years ago we switchedfrom a, a spring calving herd to
a fall calving herd.
And we fed our cows some cornsilage, uh, through the winter.
Um, but those calves were 150,200 pounds heavier.
Uh, those spring Calvin caveswere ca caves were, uh, 250

(56:34):
pounds heavier.
But what we did see is we sawabout 80% of our 2-year-old
heifers would ratio above 100.
We switched to a fall Calvinprogram.
About 40, 30 to 40% of thefemales would ratio above 100
when we took the silage awayfrom'em and we just went to a

(56:55):
strict grass and hay operation,about 20% of the 2-year-old
females or less.
Ratio a hundred or above andabout 80% of the mature cows do.
So that's a glaring thing there,that, that really skews.
Uh, I think our, the accuracy ofour EPDs, because we have, uh,
age of dam adjustment factorsthat is one size fits all and,

(57:17):
uh, we should work really hardto try to.
Uh, get as a accurate of age ofdam adjustment factor as we can,
no matter what region we're in,what management system we are,
we are in, and the association,I think should, should work to
try to level that and, andimprove that.
Um, did that answer yourquestion?

(57:38):
Yeah, I think that was good.
That was real good.
Um, we're just trying to makesure that I don't get in too
much of a conversation.
So if you see us looking down,we're texting each other saying,
okay, Corman, you go and he'ssaying, okay, you go.
But no, I think you touched onsome things we've talked about
here on, around the shoot, some,some concerns that I've had.
Um, some, uh, it's, it's s well,I don't need to editorialize.

(58:01):
This is your interview, but Iwould say that we have
sympathized with a lot of thosethoughts in the past, but
Corbin's got another one for youthat's a little bit different
topic in kind of the same vein.
Go ahead Corbin.
A little bit earlier youmentioned healing, and I think
that's something that, uh.
Amongst I mentioned what?
I'm sorry.
I was, you mentioned healing.
Healing.
Healing.
Okay.
The three of us have, have kindof talked about that.
Like, the way that we're goingabout things is sometimes, uh,

(58:23):
maybe more cantankerous than,than unifying.
So, so if you become elected tothe board of directors, how do
you transmit that healingfeeling to the membership to
where they feel like they'renot, uh, disenfranchised?
So, so how do we make everyonefeel like.

(58:43):
Uh, we're in this togetherbecause right now there's this
big divide.
So how do we get people to cometogether where we're trying to
obtain the same things?
Well, I think increasingtransparency and, and providing
ways for them to pro, providefeedback and also have the
staff, uh, and the boardmembers, uh, very sensitive to,
uh, their concerns.

(59:04):
I know a couple of times I've,I've called in and, and talked
to the director of performanceprograms and voice my concern
about the age of dam adjustmentfactors, and it basically, it
was well ratio them separate.
I'm, you know, I don't have, Imean, that's, that's not a good
answer as far.
That's not a, i I find that avery disingenuous.

(59:27):
Answer.
It's not trying to solve a pro aproblem.
Um, and so I think we need justneed to be more responsive to
people when they call in andthey talk.
I certainly may not always agreewith someone, but I will listen
to their point of view.
I had a call today with someone,uh, on some issues and we

(59:48):
probably had a little bit ofdifferent point of view, but uh,
he explained his position and itmade me understand his position
a little bit better.
And I think, uh, I think that'salways a good thing to open up
communication and listen to oneanother even if you don't agree.
Uh, but at least listen and,and, and be interested in their,

(01:00:10):
in their experiences becausethose, their experiences are
real and they're their own.
And we all have differentexperiences.
Brooke what, uh, you weretalking a minute ago about maybe
making the EPD system moreaccurate and maybe not spend
quite as much time looking fornew EPDs and just work on the
system that we have.

(01:00:32):
What are your thoughts on thegenomic system and us not being
able to own our own data and ourown DNAI find it.
I find it somewhat of a conflictof interest, to be quite honest,
to to have a GI own the data.

(01:00:52):
Uh, we're pretty much if youwant to sell semen in this
breed.
Um, you must do genomicinformation on your cattle.
They force you into that, andthen you, you lose control of
your own data.
So I think that's a conflict ofinterest.
I think they're in it forprofit, obviously, and, uh, I, I
think they're making a very,very good profit.

(01:01:14):
Uh, personally I think the, uh,the, uh, genomic tests are
probably too expensive unlesssomeone can show me why they're
not.
Uh, but I don't think.
A GI should own my data on myanimal that I have raised and I
have 12, 13, 14, 15 generationsof cattle that have grazed the

(01:01:36):
pastures here at Ginger Hill.
Um, and in order for, and inorder for me to, uh, be able to
get genomic information, I haveto give away that data and I
have to pay'em in order to doso.
Exactly.
Well.
I don't, I agree with exactlywhat you said and, but that's

(01:01:58):
my, I mean, that's my personalopinion, but do you think that
the genomics are as accurate asthey lead you to believe?
Absolutely not.
Not in my cattle.
They may be in a certainpopulation of cattle, but breed
wise, I think they're not, Ithink, uh, um.

(01:02:20):
There are lots of breeders cantell you that they have this
animal that had EPDs and theyset submitted genomics in them.
Uh, some of'em go way up, but alot of'em go way down.
And no matter how muchphenotypic data they, um, uh,
they.
Turn in on that bull or thatfemale, they cannot overcome

(01:02:40):
that genomic data.
Correct.
And the genomic and CPDs, um,I'd like to see, you know, maybe
they have it, maybe they don't.
But I would like to see thescience, uh, that shows that
their genomic data is, is ac isactually accurate.
Um, and I would like to see someblinded studies done on a

(01:03:02):
diverse population of animals.
And then follow'em along and seehow accurate their individual
performance, uh, and theirindividual traits match up with
what they call the genomicinformation.
And, uh, uh, I think right now,you know, genomics is an extreme

(01:03:23):
as a, as a medical physician andespecially being through what
we've just been through in, inthis pandemic genomics is a
very, very complex.
And we are just scratching thesurface in our understanding of
genomics.
There are billions of genes.

(01:03:44):
There are genes that turn othergenes on and off.
There are environmental factorsthat turn genes on and off.
And to think that we can measurea certain finite number of genes
and have an accurate.
Description of what thoseanimals will do.
I think we're not even close tobeing there, and I don't think

(01:04:07):
we'll be close to being there inmy, in my lifetime, um, or
anybody's lifetime on this show,to be quite honest.
And you guys will probably livea lot longer than I am.
Uh, but I don't know.
You're pretty healthy.
Yeah, I was just thinking I'mthe first one to go.
But no, I think genomics is alot more, a lot more, uh,
complicated than, than what weare.

(01:04:29):
Uh, what the genomic push tryto, uh, lead us to believe.
And I think you can look at thecattle and there are too many
instances of, of cattle notmatching genomics and, and
genomics, not matching cattle.
So.
I think we need to get backmore, more back to, uh,
phenotypic, uh, data.
And again, that's anotherconflict of interest as far as
I'm concerned with a GI, uh,because the genomics, um,

(01:04:53):
influenced the geno, the EPDs somuch that everybody feels like.
They have to do it right.
That's a moneymaking thing forfor a GI and, uh, there
shouldn't be any conflicts ofinterest is my, in, in my, my
mind.
We, we have enough conflicts ofinterest in this world.
We've seen what the conflicts ofinterest do in, in our

(01:05:14):
bureaucracies, um, uh,especially in medicine and, uh,
the CDC and the FDA and howthey're tied to the big
pharmaceutical companies.
So, um, those are my thoughts onthat.
Brooke, what are some servicesthat the American Angus
Association offers that youvalue as a producer right now?
Well, I think, uh, I value theirability to, to keep track of the

(01:05:40):
performance data and thepedigrees.
I, I like that they obviouslypromote Angus genetics through
CAB.
I think we could improve CAB,uh, but I certainly think it
makes in general Angus cattle.
More valuable, but unfortunatelyall the other breeds are copycat
breeds now and they're allblack.

(01:06:02):
And a lot of them that may ormay not be significantly Angus,
if they meet the carcassspecifications, can certify, can
qualify for certified Angusbeef.
So I think we need to reallylook at that.
And is certified Angus beef,does it need to do some?
We do.
We need, need to do some changesin certified Angus beef so we
can enhance the ability orpromote the ability of yours and

(01:06:25):
mine and, and Angus producersall over the country to sell,
actually sell Angus bulls tocommercial cow calf ranchers,
um, and not just, uh, one or twopeople selling semen to the
dairy industry.
So I got an interesting one foryou and I've, I've caught myself
in this situation before.
Brooke, talk about fiduciaryduty and talk about, you know,

(01:06:48):
I'm sure there was a time at USCattleman's Association where
you were faced with some sort ofdecision that.
What was good for the entity ofUS Cattleman's Association had
some sort of effect on themembership.
How do you balance where you fiyour fiduciary duty lies, and
maybe walk some of our listenerswho've never been through a

(01:07:10):
situation like that, um, throughnavigating that from a, from
your perspective.
Well, you look at the missionstatement and what your, what
your purpose is, and then youlet your moral values.
Um, and your faith guide youand, uh, into making the right
correct decision for what youare charged to do.

(01:07:31):
Um, in the case of the UnitedStates Cattlemen's Association,
our stated mission is to improvethe bottom line and the
profitability of commercial cowcalf ranchers.
So everything that we do in theUnited States Cattle Association
has to have that in mind.
In the American AngusAssociation, I feel everything
that we do should be for thebenefit.

(01:07:52):
Of the breed and the breedersthat make up that breed.
And you have to have, uh, themoral code and, and a lot of
times the faith that, uh, a, adifficult decision.
Um.
Is gonna be the right decision,even though you may have some
negative consequences toyourself.

(01:08:13):
Case in point, when we wentthrough the, uh, pandemic that
we just went through, I made alot of decisions that were the
best interest of my patients andfrom a personal standpoint, uh,
in the short term, they harmedme in the long term.
They obviously, uh.
Repaid me not in monetary, uh,aspect, but in self-respect and

(01:08:36):
and respect from, uh, the peoplethat I was serving.
I think I speak for all three ofus.
When I say it's, it's great tohave a, a candidate that is
willing to step on on a limb andmake decisions that may affect
their bottom line.
And it may end up costing youmoney to make some of the
decisions you make, but I thinkthat, uh.

(01:08:59):
Brooke's case, I think he'swilling to stand on that ground
and make that decision even ifit's not easy.
Thank you, Corbin.
I really appreciate that and Iagree with you.
Uh, I've, I've lived it, um,been there and it's, and it's,
and I couldn't live with myselfif I didn't.

(01:09:19):
You know, to be honest with you,I, I may have shared the, the
one really big one that I hadthat was like that, and in the
moment it felt hard for yourpersonal operation.
But then wouldn't you say thatin the wisdom of time, it's
proved to actually not be thathard?
It was just that decision thatwas like a bandaid.
But once you got down that roadright is right and wrong is

(01:09:40):
wrong.
And it was kind of easy at thatpoint.
Well, believe me, I struggledwith this.
It was the most stressful timein my life.
In 2020 and 2021 and, um, I, I,I struggle with it and
thankfully, um, I have a greatwife who supported me and.

(01:10:05):
Help guide me and help keep mymind and, and the conscious
straight.
And no, it can be a verydifficult thing, but in the end,
uh, it is so much better to dothe right thing than it is
something that is self-servingpoint in time in my life where I
don't, I'm, I'm looking, I gotmore in the mirror than I do in

(01:10:25):
the front.
Well, Brooke, I have one thatactually, because you cracked
it.
I'm going to, I'm going to ask,um, obviously you have her
blessing because I know whatmarriage means to you, but what
was your wife wife's reply whenyou told her you were gonna run
for the board or when you, youasked her, should I run for the
board?

(01:10:45):
However that worked Well.
You know, it's, it's funny thatyou asked that because I was
really on the fence and peoplewere calling me, and one day I
was feeling one thing.
One day I was feeling the next.
And uh, you know, not only did Ithrow it out there to my wife,
but I threw it out there to myentire family.

(01:11:06):
Good for you.
And she said, you should do it.
So it was a group decision.
And we made the decisiontogether.
And if she had probably told menot to do it, I probably
wouldn't have done it.

(01:11:27):
That's awesome.
My wife would've said, don't doit.
Yeah.
But see, seeing that you, youcan hear the passion in your
voice and you can tell that, um,this means everything to you and
your family.
And so it's, uh.
I'm, I'm proud to have someonethat, that it means so much to,
but I think Vince had had kindof a last question that, that

(01:11:49):
might kind of help us wrap up.
I, we had asked, we had askedlots of folks to maybe ask some
questions of what their, whatthey would like to hear you guys
addressed, and one of them was,what are your top three concerns
that you have with AAA?
And, you know, what would you doto correct them?
Uh.
Transparency is number one.

(01:12:11):
Yep.
Um, feedback and, um, involvingthe membership in the more, in,
in the decision making process,um, a decentralized approach to,
um, the direction of the breed,which I think I'm, I'm
passionate aboutdecentralization.

(01:12:31):
Um, let the people that are,that are feeding the cows,
cutting the hay.
Having the cows at midnight, letthem make the decisions on
which, what, where the breedshould go and what are the best,
what are the best cattle.
Um, those are the two mainthings.
And, and I think, uh, we need toown our own own data and a GI.

(01:12:53):
Sweet.
I think that's been a heck of aconversation.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Brooke.
We've been friends since.
The interesting thing aboutBrooke is, is he's kind of a
friend from the first time youmeet him.
Um, so I, I can say that and I'mvery thankful.
You and I had had someconversations about running, not
running, both of us, and, um.

(01:13:16):
It's easier to find excuses torun than it is to find ex or to
not run, than it is to findexcuses to run.
And, um, this is one time whereI've said it before, man, we've
gotta get a YouTube feed becauseif you could, if the, if the
viewers could have seen yourface as you navigated responding
to that question aboutdiscerning the question with
your family.
Um.

(01:13:38):
It is interesting.
I, I think a lot of peoplewonder why this cuts so deep,
but to a lot of us, this is ourretirement.
This is our 401k, this is ourchildren's education.
This is everything.
It's, it's our passion, but it'salso our business.
Yeah.
And, um, I think you did areally nice job for the past
half hour of sharing with ourlisteners about your passion.
Listeners.
I would encourage you to listento everyone who will take time

(01:14:00):
to visit with us and, and, um.
You know, Brooke mentioned he'sfrom Ginger Hill, Angus.
We, uh, we don't need to put outphone numbers here.
It's easy to do a Google searchand find out how to get ahold of
Brooke, but I would encourageyou to get ahold of him and ask
him some questions.
He really is a people person andenjoys visiting with people.
Um, and frankly, everyone shouldbe reaching out to every

(01:14:21):
delegate or every, uh,candidate.
I would really encourage that.
Brooke, one last one though.
Uh.
Are you gonna be in the journal?
Did you get an official, um,like put a bio in the journal
and stuff like that?
Or where will people see moreinformation on you in print?
I, I will be in the journal.
Okay.
I.

(01:14:41):
Sent in my email to the Americanags Association before the
deadline.
Actually got a phone call fromMark McCulley, uh, making sure
that he had my email.
I think it went to the junkmail, uh, folder Once.
I appreciate you all having meon.
I would like to, to say onething to listeners.
Um, I do love talking to people,uh, in, in reality, I'm a little

(01:15:03):
bit shy, uh, when I first meetyou and, um.
There are a lot of delegates outthere that I don't know.
There are a lot of members outthere that I don't know, but I
would encourage you to pick upthe phone and gimme a call, uh,
to have a discussion if you haveany questions.
Um.
We thought about, okay, do westart calling delegates?

(01:15:25):
Um, and I find that a little bitintrusive.
I'm not sure that I would, if Iwas the delegate, I would want,
um, a, a candidate to call me.
I'm not sure that I wouldn'twant it, but I'm a little bit
hesitant if I don't know thedelegates to, uh, reach out.
Uh, so if anybody is listeninghere, either member or delegate

(01:15:47):
or alternate.
I encourage you, I want to hearfrom you.
Um, I'm not gonna be able tocall everybody.
I don't feel like that, um, frommy personal standpoint, I would
think that would be a little bitintrusive, uh, to just start
cold, cold calling people.
But, uh, I'd, I'd love to hearfrom you and I'd love to have a
discussion with you.

(01:16:08):
Awesome.
Awesome.
Well, I think, uh, I think thatpretty much does it for Brooke.
I, I really appreciate youcoming on and, and getting and
letting.
The Angus world get to know youbecause I think it's important
for a candidate to be known andfor the people to feel like they
can trust someone, they have tohear their voice and they have
to be able to put some wordsbehind what they see.

(01:16:30):
And like you can write, readsomeone's name, you can look,
look'em up on Facebook, you canlook up their program, but to
hear their voice.
To hear their, uh, you know, youcan hear the emotion in your
voice, you can hear, uh, yourpoints of view and everything.
I think it's just reallyimportant for, for people to
hear that.
So we really appreciate youcoming on and spending time with
us, and, uh, we look forward tohear hearing you, hearing from

(01:16:50):
you again, maybe as a boardmember and maybe not.
Thank you.
Hope so.
All right.
But I'll be here regardless ofwhether I get elected or not.
That's right.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Thanks a lot, Brooke.
Really appreciate it.
Thanks, Brooke.
Hey Siri.
I got the, Hey, Siri.
What does, what does fiduciarymean?

(01:17:12):
So, uh, uh, so we reallyappreciate everyone for
listening this week.
Um, we got a couple potentialboard members that, that decided
to come on, um, and, and we'rereally thankful for them giving
us, giving us, uh, theirevenings because I know how much
of a time and, and they're alsogonna give us.
So much more than if they getelected to the board of

(01:17:32):
directors.
But, uh, we really appreciateeveryone for, for hanging with
us and listening.
And I guess, uh, Vince, what dowe say?
I bet you know, before I say,take it away, Tim.
I bet those guys cannot waituntil Joe calls'em with some big
words and asking, oh, thesequestions, they aren't my words.

(01:17:55):
Now that you got elected, whatis the super duper.
Trooper.
I mean, good Lord, Joe, you,Joe, are we gonna start to put
together a pool of what animalthey'll be riding on the next
me.
Oh, that's.

(01:18:19):
We will see you next time aroundthe shoot.