August 14, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode of the Growing Our Future Podcast, host Aaron Alejandro sits down with Kade and Morgan Hodges, owners of Hodges Livestock, to share their inspiring journey from meeting in college to running a thriving family ranch.
You’ll hear how they:
✅ Turned major setbacks—like losing half their leased land—into breakthrough opportunities
✅ Pivoted into innovative solar grazing with 1,300 sheep
✅ Built their business on faith, resilience, and creativity
✅ Lead with purpose as stewards of God’s creation
💡 What you’ll learn: Practical leadership tips, how to adapt in challenging markets, and why relationships and persistence are game-changers in agriculture.
🌱 Their mission: To be faithful stewards of God’s creation, producing profitable, productive livestock for consumers and fellow ranchers while preserving the ranching way of life.
🎧 Tune in for a story of grit, vision, and purpose that will inspire anyone chasing a dream.
Learn more at MyTexasFFA.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, ErinAlejandro.
Here is your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or
whenever you may be tuning in tothe Growing Our Future podcast.
You know, we just are soappreciative that we're able to
use a technology like this tobring on special guests to share
insights, experiences, to shareencouragement and hope and
(00:55):
maybe some skills.
And I was recently in Ria Dosa,new Mexico, and I met this
couple and as soon as I met themand I heard their story, I'm
like we got to bring them on tothe show.
So y'all join me in welcomingCade and Morgan Hodges with
Hodges Livestock.
Cade, morgan, good morning andthank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, sir, thank you for having us.
We're happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Yeah, like Morgan said, thank you, we're honored
to be here on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That's awesome.
Yeah, I just love doing this.
By the way, everybody thatknows me, I always say if
agriculture has taught meanything, it's taught me.
If you want to know what thefuture is, grow it.
Well, how do you grow thefuture?
Well, you got to plant theright seeds, you got to take
care of them and then you got toharvest it and then share it
with others.
Y'all's story in this podcast.
(01:45):
I said I got to have thosefolks on because I want them to
share some of your seeds ofwisdom and greatness so that
maybe we can plant some ideas,some vision, some encouragement,
some resilience and maybe thepeople who will hear this
podcast.
So thank you for doing that.
Every podcast, we start offwith the same question, so I'm
(02:06):
going to ask each of you toanswer this question.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Cade Morgan what are you grateful for today?
I guess I can go ahead andstart.
I'm grateful to be sitting heredoing what we love and chasing
our dreams together as a familyCade, myself, and then our
almost one-year-old baby boy,Weston.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah, well, I can't use the same answer exactly, but
no, I'm very fortunate to bedoing what we do with our family
, with my family out hereinvolving Morgan's family as
well.
Just very thankful, veryblessed to get to live this way
of life.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And for the recent rains, we have to add that Well,
that's good stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So one of the things that I like to share with people
is called R2A2.
So I tell people, anytime youhear a speaker or presentation,
listen to a podcast, try to R2A2.
Recognize what they're saying,relate to it because everybody's
going to relate differentlyassimilate it, take it in and
then apply it.
So, if you can, r2a2 things.
Sometimes we find blessings,sometimes we find vision, and
(03:18):
already y'all just got startedand already you've given us some
really good R2A2.
So you talked about a dream,talked about family, you talked
about faith, and we're justgetting started.
So thank you for that.
By the way, I agree with youEverything that you just said.
I love the fact that I live ina country that's got an
(03:40):
incredible abundance.
I love the fact that I get todo life with family and that we
live in a country where we'vegot the freedom and liberty to
chase those dreams that youtalked about.
So, with that, let's go aheadand get started.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Thank y'all for sharing that by the way.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So while we were in Rio Dosa we were at an ag co-ops
managers meeting and I got tohear Morgan and K2 tell kind of
their story.
And when I heard their story itinspired me, because I'm from
the city originally and I'm kindof a transplant to the country
(04:21):
way of life, into agriculture.
But a lot of times we hearpeople say, well, I could never
do that, I couldn't pursue that,there's no way I could make
that happen, and I could alwaysoffer words of encouragement but
I really didn't have anybody Icould point to.
Well, now I have somebody I canpoint to, because when you hear
(04:43):
Kate and Morgan's story, you'regoing to understand that this
is a couple who had an idea, adream that they wanted to do
together, and they wanted to doit for their way of life, they
wanted to do it for theirlifestyle, they wanted to do it
for the fact that they'refeeding and clothing the world,
and so with that I want y'all tokind of take us on that journey
(05:06):
, morgan, if you will.
How in the world did y'all cometogether?
How in the world did you bringyour family interest together?
How in the world did you eversay this is the cattle company
we're going to start and theharvesting of natural resources,
all of the things kind of walkus through what that looked like
.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Absolutely.
So I guess we'll go ahead andstart at the beginning.
We met at Texas A&M Universityand it was kind of love at first
sight for me, honestly and westarted dating my sophomore year
of college and from that momenton we knew that we wanted to
spend the rest of our livestogether and spend it doing what
(05:46):
we loved.
So I guess, to back up even alittle bit further, I did not
grow up on a farmer ranch.
I grew up my dad was anextension specialist in my
younger years in Southern NewMexico.
So I got to bounce around on alot of ranches but I didn't grow
up as a quote unquote ranch kid.
But I always had a passion forthe ranching industry.
(06:07):
We were at a speakingengagement last night and I got
to share the story about how,whenever I was about 10 years
old, my one of my family membersasked me what I wanted to do
when I grew up and I said Iwanted to raise sheep and they
told me that was a bad idea andI didn't like that answer.
So now we raise sheep andcattle and goats for a living.
(06:28):
So, as you can see, I did notheed that advice and yeah,
that's a little bit about mybackground growing up.
Would you like to share some ofyours, gabe?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, I kind of have a little different upbringing.
I'm extremely fortunate I'm asixth-generation rancher out
here in.
Sterling County.
This is what I grew up doing.
My family started out in 1889raising cattle, and then some of
the first sheep were broughtinto our operation in the early
1900s.
They were Merino RambouilletWool Sheep.
(06:57):
That's what my family raisedall the way up until 2016,
whenever we transitioned fullyto Hair Sheep, and that's what
we still continue to do today.
I grew up as that kid stompingthe wool sacks, pushing the wool
into the bags and getting thempacked and load them on the
trailer and then it's down.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So real quick for our audience, because this is good
stuff.
What's a wool sheet?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
It's just a breed of sheep that produces fiber.
There's several breeds of sheepthat do that, rambouillet,
merino being two of the mostcommon, but there's several
others as well.
But that fiber is produced andit goes into making clothing or
other wool-based products likearmy blankets felt all the way
up to your high-end Italiansuits.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Wow fell all the way up to your high-end italian
suits.
Wow.
And on the other end of thespectrum, hair sheep are ones
that don't produce wool there'swool.
They, specifically are targetedat producing meat.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yep there you go see.
That's why I asked thatquestion, because I know there
will be somebody that will watchthis and they're going to, in
their mind they you know they'llnever email me, but in their
mind they're going to want toknow what that answer is Okay.
So y'all you meet, you cometogether and you said, hey, I've
got a little background in this, I've got some aspiration for
(08:15):
this.
How do we pursue this?
Take us down that path of howy'all began to unpack and put
the bricks of the foundation ofthis dream that y'all had
together in place.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Well, I think we started laying the foundation
whenever we were in high schooland in our elementary years in
the 4-H and FFA programs.
We were really, really activein both of those programs and
built some exceptionalleadership skills there and I
think that is kind of the padfrom which we launched that, in
addition to our amazing mentors,our amazing family that helped
(08:52):
instill in us some exceptional Iguess an exceptional life
outlook and just general skills.
But we took that love ofagriculture.
But we took that love ofagriculture and as we
transitioned into our collegecareers, I majored in animal
science, minored in business atA&M and then went on to pursue a
(09:12):
master's degree at Universityof Nebraska-Lincoln, with a
undergraduate degree in animalscience and then a master's
degree in animal science with afocus in small room and
nutrition.
So obviously very applicable.
(09:35):
And we got married in 2021.
And I worked in town for aboutsix months.
The San Angelo Stock Show hadan exceptional time there.
The San Angelo Stock Show hadan exceptional time there, but
we decided as a family that wewanted to take this time to give
it our best shot and pursueboth of us full time in our
ranching business and took areally big note out from Capital
(09:58):
Farm Credit and a lot of hours,a lot of sweat, a lot of tears
and dreams, and now we're here.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I think there's something here that really
caught my attention when I heardy'all's story, and it was how
zeroed in and focused that youwere, that this agricultural way
(10:28):
of life, this farming andranching way of life, was
something that y'all were soldout to.
At least that's what I heard.
When I heard you tell yourstory, I heard that everything
has been very intentional, that,no matter what hurdle presented
itself, it was to never give up.
Presented itself.
It was to never give up.
It was to always say how do weovercome, how do we continue to
(10:54):
pour into our faith and leaninto our faith?
Everything that I heard y'allsay was you had a goal, you had
a dream, you wanted to do ittogether.
You wanted your families to bea part of that, and so you
pursued it.
Something tells me that, asy'all and where you're at now,
by the way, because you sharedsome of this, I want you to
share this.
It was not without challenges.
It's been not without some realhurdles that you've had to
(11:17):
overcome.
Can you walk us through kind ofwhat that looked like as you
got started and then you raninto some of these hurdles, and
then how you navigated andovercame those?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
yeah.
So I mean I was talking aboutthese hurdles.
I mean it's farming, it'sranching, there's gonna be
hurdles.
I mean it's not so much ifdrought's gonna hit, it's when
drought's gonna hit, right, Iwish my crystal ball worked a
whole lot better than it reallydid, but no, yeah.
So when we first started outranching, we started out by
acquiring lease country,reaching out to landowners and
(11:50):
we operated that said leasecountry.
We had multiple years on land,run these lease country back up
a little bit.
So we operate 98% lease country.
Currently only 2% of it isowned.
It is some family land thatMorgan and I purchased from our
family and everything else.
(12:12):
You have 98%.
It's all lease contract.
But whenever we were early onin our ranking careers, we had
the unfortunate event of losinga lease which at the time was
approximately half of ouroperated acreage, which that was
a huge blow to both of us andwe knew that was going to
significantly reduce our incomepotential and that really made
(12:35):
us think hard like, ok, how arewe both going to be able to
continue to ranch together?
and be, sustained by it,together to be sustained by it.
And if we don't figuresomething out soon, well, one of
us is going to have to buy ajob in town or find a part-time
job somewhere until we can makeends meet otherwise.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
We were.
Also.
I was two months pregnant withour first child at the time, so
talk about a perfect storm ofscary circumstances.
But I remember once we got thecall and got off the phone and
we learned we were going to losethe lease, and I looked at Kate
and I said we're going to makethis the best thing that ever
(13:12):
happened to us.
We just don't know how yet andwe tried to hold true to that
promise.
We got down and did the toughwork.
You know.
We started making cold calls topeople.
We got a white pagessubscription and uses county
used, county appraisal, districtdata and started making cold
calls down the list oflandowners in the county and
(13:34):
surrounding counties.
And I don't know if y'all haveever done cold calls, but it is
probably at the very bottom ofmy list of favorite activities
and stuff.
We, you know, put up flyers andtractor supply in search of
release country.
We posted stuff on social mediaand really tried to get out
(13:56):
there and you know it ended upbeing the best thing that ever
happened to us because wepivoted into some really
exciting stuff.
I guess we'll get to talk aboutit a little bit later, but we
offer targeted grazing servicesto solar farms through sheep, so
we are able to provide andmanage sheep in hybrid grazing
(14:18):
mowing systems on solar farms tohelp manage vegetation, and the
reason that we pivoted to thatwas because we lost that leased
country and eventually weactually replaced that leased
country with another propertythat we're leasing and now we're
way ahead of where we startedand it truly was the best thing
(14:41):
that ever happened to us.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
I guess way back, but it sure slingshotted us about
10 steps forward, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Again, I hope everybody's picking up out of
this great interview what I'mgetting.
Number one again.
I'm going to go back to yourlaser focus.
I absolutely admire that and Ilike the fact that, like you
said, kate, it's not a matter ofwe're going to have a drought.
We're going to have droughts.
I live in North Texas, whereyou know we were on the verge of
(15:08):
becoming the first major city,ghost city in the state of Texas
, because we had three combinedlake levels that were down to
17%.
I mean it got scary.
And what are you going to do?
You're going to have.
It's like COVID I mean in theworld that we dealt with.
Right, covid comes along.
Nobody saw that coming.
It's like Zig Ziglar and TomZiglar say.
(15:30):
They say expect the best,prepare for the worst and
capitalize on what comes.
And I love that quote.
Expect the best, prepare forthe worst and capitalize that's
what y'all did best.
Prepare for the worst and cap.
That's what y'all did.
We didn't see COVID come.
I'm in the world of development,so I do know what you mean when
you talk about cold calls.
But, to your point, you expectthe best.
(15:53):
Y'all have a dream that was notbuilt on.
What are we going to have toovercome.
Your dream was based on theblessing of what it's going to
provide, and so, when thechallenges come, we prepare for
that and then we capitalize onit, and I think that's the
beauty of y'all's story is, youwere hit with some serious
(16:14):
setbacks, but they were neverreally a setback because you
looked at it as an opportunityto say how are we?
What are we going to do next?
By the way, I do share that.
So all the CEOs, all the peoplethat I've been very fortunate to
work with, I tell everybodythey've got one word that's in
their vocabulary that I love Oneword.
I love this word.
(16:35):
It's called next.
It does not matter if they havea success, what's next?
It doesn't matter if they havea setback, it's what's next.
And I think that's the reasonwhy God put our eyes here and
not back here, because he wantsus to keep looking forward and
up and doing the things that weknow are the right things to do,
(16:55):
and y'all are proof of that.
So I love your resiliency.
I think resiliency is a traitthat more people need to have,
especially young people.
That's the reason why I hopethe young people are listening
to this.
You're not always going to geta blue ribbon.
I tell people I learned just asmuch getting the gate as I did
(17:17):
getting a trophy for a calf or asheep, whatever it may be a pig
.
That's the beauty of resiliency, is you learn, and y'all have
learned, and I love the word, ofcourse, pivot.
No pun intended, but y'all diddo that.
And so when y'all began to makethose pivots, those changes,
(17:39):
where did this idea come from ofwhy don't we utilize our sheep
here?
How did you vet this out?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
On the solar grazing side of things.
It had been an idea that hadbeen brewing for a long time.
I think that I checked my notesin my phone and October 24th of
2021 was whenever we had alittle bullet point written down
that said solar grazingquestion mark and, for lack of a
better word, the fire was putunder us to find something new.
(18:10):
So that's when we really, fullsteam ahead, tried to pursue it
and we got to utilize somereally awesome connections and
mentors that we have, and theywere able to point us in the
right direction to the AmericanSolar Grazing Association, where
we were able to becomecertified solar grazers.
And then we got to work withone of Cade's longtime family
(18:31):
friends to get on our first site, and now we've got how many
sheep on solar?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
About 1,300 ewes currently grazing on two sites
in East Texas.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Wow, what a story.
So something else that you saidin Rio dosa that got my
attention um, there was a greatmotivational speaker named zig
ziggler and, uh, zig passed away, but his son, tom ziggler, is
now on my board of directors.
So tom and I have a lot ofthese discussions and we were
(19:02):
talking one day and we weretalking about coincidence and I
just made the comment thatcoincidence is God's way of
remaining anonymous.
And then Tom Ziegler said Aaron, he goes.
In Hebrew there is no such wordfor coincidence.
There is no word forcoincidence.
And I remember when you weresharing your story, you shared
(19:23):
the story about how y'all wereat a moment in time where you
were looking for property andyou happened on to a gentleman.
Can you tell that story of whathappened and how that began to
unpack itself?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Absolutely so.
This was I met this wonderfulmentor of ours before we were
even searching for lease countryvery hard, so it was probably
in at the end of 2021, maybebeginning of 2022.
I was sitting there, I wasgetting my oil changed at our
(19:59):
local Ford dealership and I juststruck up a conversation with a
gentleman next to me Forddealership and I just struck up
a conversation with a gentlemannext to me and we talked
probably for the entire hourthat it took for us to both get
the work done on our vehiclesand we.
He ended up being one of themost exceptional mentors we've
ever had, just one of the mostkind hearted people I've ever
(20:20):
met, and whenever we lost thatlease, he was one of the first
people I mentioned to like, hey,if you know of anyone who is
looking to lease out theirproperty, please let us know.
And about two or three monthslater, he gives me a call.
I think that Cade and I wereputting in a water tap at a
solar farm and I answered it andhe said hi, morgan, I am here
(20:44):
with so-and-so and they'relooking at leasing out their
family ranch.
You're on speakerphone, tellthem about yourself.
And that got our foot in thedoor that got us to the lease
interview and the biddingprocess and we were able to come
through and secure the lease.
And all because of that oneconversation we happened upon
(21:05):
one of the biggest opportunitiesto our operation.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Yeah, and just kind of expound on that a little bit.
I mean, you never put yourselfout there, you never know who
you're going to meet, you neverknow what might happen, what
might come from that, and justbe genuine.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, every single conversation is an opportunity,
an opportunity to make aconnection or an opportunity to
help someone, and whether you'resitting in line at the grocery
store or the doctor's office,there is always opportunity in
the conversations you can haveand your ability to help someone
or have someone help you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I can tell you in my career, one of the programs that
we run at the Texas FFAconvention is we've got a
program called the FoundationAmbassadors and we have about
300 kids apply.
We take 70.
And for a week we train themand they host all of our
sponsors, all of our dignitaries.
They do all that for the week.
But one of the awards that wegive is called the Three Foot
(22:03):
Award and we teach the kids getto know anybody that's within
three feet of you, Becauseanybody that's within three feet
(22:26):
of you could become a customer,a client, a colleague, a
constituent, a consultant, amentor, an encourager.
But think about it, Just likeyou said, both of you said you,
you put yourself out there andyou build connection.
Because God didn't create us tobe the lone ranger.
Uh, he created us to be inrelationship, and the more of
those that we have, uh, we'reable to solve problems quicker,
we're able to take advantage ofopportunities quicker.
So the fact that y'all areliving proof that getting an oil
(22:46):
change was a moment that youjumped out there and look at
what happened.
So I appreciate you sharingthat story.
I just wanted to share thatwith you, that I really valued
that For the young people thatmay be listening, or the ag
teachers or agents.
Or, by the way, the podcastgoes nationwide Just out of
(23:08):
curiosity.
Are there opportunities?
Do y'all see a future inagriculture?
Do y'all see a future infarming absolutely you're gonna
touch on that one yeah, no,absolutely.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
I mean like agriculture today doesn't sure
does not look the same as it did100 years ago, but it's not
necessarily a bad thing.
I mean you always gotta lookback, respect the tradition,
respect what was done, learnfrom the older, older folks that
have been in this professionfor 50 plus years, listen to
them, listen to their mentorship, take their advice, but at the
same time too, look forward toother opportunities like solar
(23:42):
grazing, for example.
What we're doing now.
This is relatively new and on alarge scale in texas.
I mean this is something that'sbeen going on the east coast
for 15 years now, on smallerscale, more community scale
sites that are 15 20 acres, butlarger utility scales.
Grazing sheep under those inTexas is probably the past five,
eight years, realistically, soit's times have changed a little
(24:07):
bit.
But I mean, grab thoseopportunities and hang on tight.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Exactly.
You know you can look at yourcircumstances and find
challenges and opportunities inany single circumstance, and we
choose to understand thechallenges because they're there
and they're real and it wouldbe silly to ignore them.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
but we chose to have laser focus on the opportunities
and how we can use those tohelp put high quality protein on
people's plates I just want youto know, morgan, that when we
do podcast interviews, I'malways listening for what the
title of this podcast is goingto be, and you've already y'all
(24:44):
have already given me threedifferent titles that I've
written down throughout thiswhole time.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
So that you just threw another one out there to
make this even more challengingto find the right one.
Let's talk from the standpointagain.
I said if you want to know whatthe future is, grow it.
So hopefully we're plantingsome seeds in the imagination of
young people that life's not asolo project.
(25:10):
You've got to dream big.
You've got to work hard to makeyour dreams come true.
That takes leadership, andleadership is not easy.
Y'all have said it already.
You've already talked about thechallenges that come with
leadership, but give us threeleadership tips.
If you were going to give ayoung person or a teacher or a
colleague or somebody close toyou a leadership tip, what would
(25:31):
be three leadership tips you'dgive them?
Speaker 3 (25:34):
The number one, most important one that I would share
is lean on your faith in theLord.
The Lord is the sole reasonCaden and I are here today.
We are not here by our ownactions, by our own doing.
We are here because it is God'swill and he has placed us here
and in our mission statement,which we have built around the
(25:56):
Lord is.
Our mission is to be goodstewards of God's creation by
producing profitable andproductive livestock for both
consumers and fellow ranchers,and my favorite part of that is
good stewards of God's creation.
So, my number one tip would belay on your faith in the Lord
and just let him see what he'sgoing to do in your life,
(26:17):
because it's going to be prettyexceptional whenever you fully
trust him.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Yeah, I'd say for me, and big one, is resiliency.
I mean, like I mentionedearlier, it's not if drought's
gonna hit, it's when.
And just be prepared, bethinking ahead, think towards
the future.
Um, don't get your head down.
Whenever circumstances justkind of take a turn on you, keep
your head down, keep going,power through it or find
(26:42):
something else, find a newopportunity, and you got to go
out and look for them.
They may not necessarily allfall in your lap.
You got to pursue them.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Exactly.
And I think the third one thatwe would probably say is
creativity.
You know, one of the biggestskills you can have is for
finding creative solutions tocomplex situations, and your
ability to adapt and be creativein tough times and good times
(27:12):
is one of the biggest skills Ithink you can have as a young
person or a more tenured farmeror rancher.
I really think that creativityis highly, highly important by
the way, everything that y'alljust said.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
The reason I love all this is because if we do read
the bible and I tell people youcan read it as a history book,
you can read it as a religiousbook, I don't care which
direction you read it, but it'sreally got some great content in
it.
I would agree.
There's a lot of agriculture inthere, a lot of agriculture in
(27:51):
there, and so it tells me thatthere must be a lot of life
lessons that come out of growingthings and planning things and
expecting things and nurturingthings and weeding things and
calling things.
There's just a lot of wisdomthat I think comes out of that.
And y'all, just y'all said it.
You know, I asked the youngpeople a lot of times to name
(28:14):
the most successful people theycan, and they'll name movie
stars and athletes and businessleaders, and I always ask them,
I said just name one of those,just one that every day gets up
and makes their own heartbeat.
Somebody allows us to be herebecause there's a purpose.
(28:34):
That purpose is going to befaced with some challenges.
And I tell people if you want aplace that it never rains, I can
take you there.
It exists.
It's called a desert, and Itell people if you want a place
that it never rains, I can takeyou there.
It exists.
It's called a desert andnothing grows.
But you show me somebody that'shad a little rain and I'll show
you somebody that's had anopportunity, will have an
opportunity to grow, and that'sresiliency, and y'all are proof
(28:58):
of that.
And then, lastly and y'all areproof of that and then lastly,
you know, we have to beinnovators and not imitators.
We've got to be creative, we'vegot to be thinking.
You know what, if what's next?
And I just appreciate y'allsharing your story, because your
(29:19):
story is a story of a vision,of a dream, of family, of faith,
of resiliency, of creativity.
Again, when I heard y'all atRia Dosa, I said I've got to
have them on this show becauseit's everything that I hope
young people, teachers, canembrace.
I call it the three E'sencourage, equip and empower.
(29:42):
And that's what life's about.
We, you know it's crazy to thinkthat maybe why we're here today
is that your child, my child,my grandchildren they may have
to lean on each other one day.
We don't know that they mayhave to lean on each other one
(30:04):
day.
We don't know that.
But maybe it's because of whatwe did today that we pour into
their futures, because weplanted seeds that taught them
these very essences ofleadership.
So I just want to say thank youto both of you.
Thank you for sharing yourstory, thank you for being
willing to share your story.
Not everybody wants to sharethat.
(30:24):
They had challenges or setbacks, but I think it's inspiring to
hear those that found ways toovercome and that you did it
together.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I found that very inspiration, so thank you for
doing that.
I found that very inspiration,so thank you for doing that.
All right, so let's wrap thisup.
This is all good stuff, though.
I mean we.
I keep talking to y'all all daylong.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Everybody gets a fun question at the end of the show.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
So here's your fun question.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Hey, Morgan what's the best concert y'all ever been
to?
Oh man, I was not expectingthat one.
Uh hey, do you want to go first?
I think the last concert youknow we don't make it off the
ranch very often for those kindof things, but I would say
(31:21):
probably in college I reallyenjoyed um Shane Smith and the
Saints.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I think that's the first concert Kate and I ever
went to together, so there yougo at the now, uh, or the no
longer standing HurricaneHarry's in Colton which I now I
think is a parking lot yeah,yeah it, it's your change.
I'll say that.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, now I get to say you're dating yourself a
little bit yeah.
That's great, that is absolutelygreat.
Yeah, I think it's a funquestion and the spectrum is
unbelievable Everything fromMetallica to Pitbull to the
(32:02):
greatest showman, and then, ofcourse, george Strait's, always
popular.
Oh yeah, I'm sure it's alwaysfun to ask people, because I
think it's just another insightinto life, that the same thing
that motivates you, motivates meFamily, friends, a good song,
good movie, a good book and so Ithink it's fun to ask people
(32:22):
what's your best concert?
And there have been some reallygood responses to that.
Well, cade Morgan, I just wantto say again, thank you, thank
you for your story, thank youfor your testimony, thank you
for your example, thank you foryour willingness to share.
I'm hopeful that whoever tunesin and God's going to have tune
(32:45):
in, who God wants to hear themessage I hope that when they do
tune in, that they're going toget those three E's, they're
going to be encouraged, equippedand empowered to go out and
grow a better future for them,their families, their
communities, our state and ourcountry.
So the fact that y'all arewilling to share today, it means
a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Well, thank you.
We're super excited to havebeen here.
Thank you for the invitation.
It means a lot to us as well.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
Thank you much.
We really appreciate theopportunity.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Sure and okay for all the listeners.
Thank you for stopping by.
I meant time you can't save it,you can only spend it and the
fact that y'all are willing tospend a little bit of your time
with us today.
We hope you found something ofvalue here, maybe some seeds
that you can plant in your life,that you can grow it even
better tomorrow.
So until the next time we meet,go out and do something great
(33:37):
for somebody.
You'll feel good about it andguess what?
By doing so you'll just makeour world a better place to live
, work and raise our children.
So thank y'all for joining ustoday.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yes, sir, thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
Welcome to the Growing Our Future podcast.
In this show, the Texas FFAFoundation will take on a
journey of exploration intoagricultural science, education,
leadership development andinsights from subject matter
experts and sponsors who providethe fuel to make dreams come
true.
Here's your host, ErinAlejandro.
Here is your host, AaronAlejandro.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, good morning, good afternoon, good evening or
whenever you may be tuning in tothe Growing Our Future podcast.
You know, we just are soappreciative that we're able to
use a technology like this tobring on special guests to share
insights, experiences, to shareencouragement and hope and
(00:55):
maybe some skills.
And I was recently in Ria Dosa,new Mexico, and I met this
couple and as soon as I met themand I heard their story, I'm
like we got to bring them on tothe show.
So y'all join me in welcomingCade and Morgan Hodges with
Hodges Livestock.
Cade, morgan, good morning andthank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, sir, thank you for having us.
We're happy to be here.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Yeah, like Morgan said, thank you, we're honored
to be here on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That's awesome.
Yeah, I just love doing this.
By the way, everybody thatknows me, I always say if
agriculture has taught meanything, it's taught me.
If you want to know what thefuture is, grow it.
Well, how do you grow thefuture?
Well, you got to plant theright seeds, you got to take
care of them and then you got toharvest it and then share it
with others.
Y'all's story in this podcast.
(01:45):
I said I got to have thosefolks on because I want them to
share some of your seeds ofwisdom and greatness so that
maybe we can plant some ideas,some vision, some encouragement,
some resilience and maybe thepeople who will hear this
podcast.
So thank you for doing that.
Every podcast, we start offwith the same question, so I'm
(02:06):
going to ask each of you toanswer this question.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Cade Morgan what are you grateful for today?
I guess I can go ahead andstart.
I'm grateful to be sitting heredoing what we love and chasing
our dreams together as a familyCade, myself, and then our
almost one-year-old baby boy,Weston.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
That's awesome.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah, well, I can't use the same answer exactly, but
no, I'm very fortunate to bedoing what we do with our family
, with my family out hereinvolving Morgan's family as
well.
Just very thankful, veryblessed to get to live this way
of life.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And for the recent rains, we have to add that Well,
that's good stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So one of the things that I like to share with people
is called R2A2.
So I tell people, anytime youhear a speaker or presentation,
listen to a podcast, try to R2A2.
Recognize what they're saying,relate to it because everybody's
going to relate differentlyassimilate it, take it in and
then apply it.
So, if you can, r2a2 things.
Sometimes we find blessings,sometimes we find vision, and
(03:18):
already y'all just got startedand already you've given us some
really good R2A2.
So you talked about a dream,talked about family, you talked
about faith, and we're justgetting started.
So thank you for that.
By the way, I agree with youEverything that you just said.
I love the fact that I live ina country that's got an
(03:40):
incredible abundance.
I love the fact that I get todo life with family and that we
live in a country where we'vegot the freedom and liberty to
chase those dreams that youtalked about.
So, with that, let's go aheadand get started.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Thank y'all for sharing that by the way.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So while we were in Rio Dosa we were at an ag co-ops
managers meeting and I got tohear Morgan and K2 tell kind of
their story.
And when I heard their story itinspired me, because I'm from
the city originally and I'm kindof a transplant to the country
(04:21):
way of life, into agriculture.
But a lot of times we hearpeople say, well, I could never
do that, I couldn't pursue that,there's no way I could make
that happen, and I could alwaysoffer words of encouragement but
I really didn't have anybody Icould point to.
Well, now I have somebody I canpoint to, because when you hear
(04:43):
Kate and Morgan's story, you'regoing to understand that this
is a couple who had an idea, adream that they wanted to do
together, and they wanted to doit for their way of life, they
wanted to do it for theirlifestyle, they wanted to do it
for the fact that they'refeeding and clothing the world,
and so with that I want y'all tokind of take us on that journey
(05:06):
, morgan, if you will.
How in the world did y'all cometogether?
How in the world did you bringyour family interest together?
How in the world did you eversay this is the cattle company
we're going to start and theharvesting of natural resources,
all of the things kind of walkus through what that looked like
.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Absolutely.
So I guess we'll go ahead andstart at the beginning.
We met at Texas A&M Universityand it was kind of love at first
sight for me, honestly and westarted dating my sophomore year
of college and from that momenton we knew that we wanted to
spend the rest of our livestogether and spend it doing what
(05:46):
we loved.
So I guess, to back up even alittle bit further, I did not
grow up on a farmer ranch.
I grew up my dad was anextension specialist in my
younger years in Southern NewMexico.
So I got to bounce around on alot of ranches but I didn't grow
up as a quote unquote ranch kid.
But I always had a passion forthe ranching industry.
(06:07):
We were at a speakingengagement last night and I got
to share the story about how,whenever I was about 10 years
old, my one of my family membersasked me what I wanted to do
when I grew up and I said Iwanted to raise sheep and they
told me that was a bad idea andI didn't like that answer.
So now we raise sheep andcattle and goats for a living.
(06:28):
So, as you can see, I did notheed that advice and yeah,
that's a little bit about mybackground growing up.
Would you like to share some ofyours, gabe?
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Yeah, I kind of have a little different upbringing.
I'm extremely fortunate I'm asixth-generation rancher out
here in.
Sterling County.
This is what I grew up doing.
My family started out in 1889raising cattle, and then some of
the first sheep were broughtinto our operation in the early
1900s.
They were Merino RambouilletWool Sheep.
(06:57):
That's what my family raisedall the way up until 2016,
whenever we transitioned fullyto Hair Sheep, and that's what
we still continue to do today.
I grew up as that kid stompingthe wool sacks, pushing the wool
into the bags and getting thempacked and load them on the
trailer and then it's down.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So real quick for our audience, because this is good
stuff.
What's a wool sheet?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
It's just a breed of sheep that produces fiber.
There's several breeds of sheepthat do that, rambouillet,
merino being two of the mostcommon, but there's several
others as well.
But that fiber is produced andit goes into making clothing or
other wool-based products likearmy blankets felt all the way
up to your high-end Italiansuits.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Wow fell all the way up to your high-end italian
suits.
Wow.
And on the other end of thespectrum, hair sheep are ones
that don't produce wool there'swool.
They, specifically are targetedat producing meat.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yep there you go see.
That's why I asked thatquestion, because I know there
will be somebody that will watchthis and they're going to, in
their mind they you know they'llnever email me, but in their
mind they're going to want toknow what that answer is Okay.
So y'all you meet, you cometogether and you said, hey, I've
got a little background in this, I've got some aspiration for
(08:15):
this.
How do we pursue this?
Take us down that path of howy'all began to unpack and put
the bricks of the foundation ofthis dream that y'all had
together in place.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Well, I think we started laying the foundation
whenever we were in high schooland in our elementary years in
the 4-H and FFA programs.
We were really, really activein both of those programs and
built some exceptionalleadership skills there and I
think that is kind of the padfrom which we launched that, in
addition to our amazing mentors,our amazing family that helped
(08:52):
instill in us some exceptional Iguess an exceptional life
outlook and just general skills.
But we took that love ofagriculture.
But we took that love ofagriculture and as we
transitioned into our collegecareers, I majored in animal
science, minored in business atA&M and then went on to pursue a
(09:12):
master's degree at Universityof Nebraska-Lincoln, with a
undergraduate degree in animalscience and then a master's
degree in animal science with afocus in small room and
nutrition.
So obviously very applicable.
(09:35):
And we got married in 2021.
And I worked in town for aboutsix months.
The San Angelo Stock Show hadan exceptional time there.
The San Angelo Stock Show hadan exceptional time there, but
we decided as a family that wewanted to take this time to give
it our best shot and pursueboth of us full time in our
ranching business and took areally big note out from Capital
(09:58):
Farm Credit and a lot of hours,a lot of sweat, a lot of tears
and dreams, and now we're here.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I think there's something here that really
caught my attention when I heardy'all's story, and it was how
zeroed in and focused that youwere, that this agricultural way
(10:28):
of life, this farming andranching way of life, was
something that y'all were soldout to.
At least that's what I heard.
When I heard you tell yourstory, I heard that everything
has been very intentional, that,no matter what hurdle presented
itself, it was to never give up.
Presented itself.
It was to never give up.
It was to always say how do weovercome, how do we continue to
(10:54):
pour into our faith and leaninto our faith?
Everything that I heard y'allsay was you had a goal, you had
a dream, you wanted to do ittogether.
You wanted your families to bea part of that, and so you
pursued it.
Something tells me that, asy'all and where you're at now,
by the way, because you sharedsome of this, I want you to
share this.
It was not without challenges.
It's been not without some realhurdles that you've had to
(11:17):
overcome.
Can you walk us through kind ofwhat that looked like as you
got started and then you raninto some of these hurdles, and
then how you navigated andovercame those?
Speaker 4 (11:29):
yeah.
So I mean I was talking aboutthese hurdles.
I mean it's farming, it'sranching, there's gonna be
hurdles.
I mean it's not so much ifdrought's gonna hit, it's when
drought's gonna hit, right, Iwish my crystal ball worked a
whole lot better than it reallydid, but no, yeah.
So when we first started outranching, we started out by
acquiring lease country,reaching out to landowners and
(11:50):
we operated that said leasecountry.
We had multiple years on land,run these lease country back up
a little bit.
So we operate 98% lease country.
Currently only 2% of it isowned.
It is some family land thatMorgan and I purchased from our
family and everything else.
(12:12):
You have 98%.
It's all lease contract.
But whenever we were early onin our ranking careers, we had
the unfortunate event of losinga lease which at the time was
approximately half of ouroperated acreage, which that was
a huge blow to both of us andwe knew that was going to
significantly reduce our incomepotential and that really made
(12:35):
us think hard like, ok, how arewe both going to be able to
continue to ranch together?
and be, sustained by it,together to be sustained by it.
And if we don't figuresomething out soon, well, one of
us is going to have to buy ajob in town or find a part-time
job somewhere until we can makeends meet otherwise.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
We were.
Also.
I was two months pregnant withour first child at the time, so
talk about a perfect storm ofscary circumstances.
But I remember once we got thecall and got off the phone and
we learned we were going to losethe lease, and I looked at Kate
and I said we're going to makethis the best thing that ever
(13:12):
happened to us.
We just don't know how yet andwe tried to hold true to that
promise.
We got down and did the toughwork.
You know.
We started making cold calls topeople.
We got a white pagessubscription and uses county
used, county appraisal, districtdata and started making cold
calls down the list oflandowners in the county and
(13:34):
surrounding counties.
And I don't know if y'all haveever done cold calls, but it is
probably at the very bottom ofmy list of favorite activities
and stuff.
We, you know, put up flyers andtractor supply in search of
release country.
We posted stuff on social mediaand really tried to get out
(13:56):
there and you know it ended upbeing the best thing that ever
happened to us because wepivoted into some really
exciting stuff.
I guess we'll get to talk aboutit a little bit later, but we
offer targeted grazing servicesto solar farms through sheep, so
we are able to provide andmanage sheep in hybrid grazing
(14:18):
mowing systems on solar farms tohelp manage vegetation, and the
reason that we pivoted to thatwas because we lost that leased
country and eventually weactually replaced that leased
country with another propertythat we're leasing and now we're
way ahead of where we startedand it truly was the best thing
(14:41):
that ever happened to us.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
I guess way back, but it sure slingshotted us about
10 steps forward, yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Again, I hope everybody's picking up out of
this great interview what I'mgetting.
Number one again.
I'm going to go back to yourlaser focus.
I absolutely admire that and Ilike the fact that, like you
said, kate, it's not a matter ofwe're going to have a drought.
We're going to have droughts.
I live in North Texas, whereyou know we were on the verge of
(15:08):
becoming the first major city,ghost city in the state of Texas
, because we had three combinedlake levels that were down to
17%.
I mean it got scary.
And what are you going to do?
You're going to have.
It's like COVID I mean in theworld that we dealt with.
Right, covid comes along.
Nobody saw that coming.
It's like Zig Ziglar and TomZiglar say.
(15:30):
They say expect the best,prepare for the worst and
capitalize on what comes.
And I love that quote.
Expect the best, prepare forthe worst and capitalize that's
what y'all did best.
Prepare for the worst and cap.
That's what y'all did.
We didn't see COVID come.
I'm in the world of development,so I do know what you mean when
you talk about cold calls.
But, to your point, you expectthe best.
(15:53):
Y'all have a dream that was notbuilt on.
What are we going to have toovercome.
Your dream was based on theblessing of what it's going to
provide, and so, when thechallenges come, we prepare for
that and then we capitalize onit, and I think that's the
beauty of y'all's story is, youwere hit with some serious
(16:14):
setbacks, but they were neverreally a setback because you
looked at it as an opportunityto say how are we?
What are we going to do next?
By the way, I do share that.
So all the CEOs, all the peoplethat I've been very fortunate to
work with, I tell everybodythey've got one word that's in
their vocabulary that I love Oneword.
I love this word.
(16:35):
It's called next.
It does not matter if they havea success, what's next?
It doesn't matter if they havea setback, it's what's next.
And I think that's the reasonwhy God put our eyes here and
not back here, because he wantsus to keep looking forward and
up and doing the things that weknow are the right things to do,
(16:55):
and y'all are proof of that.
So I love your resiliency.
I think resiliency is a traitthat more people need to have,
especially young people.
That's the reason why I hopethe young people are listening
to this.
You're not always going to geta blue ribbon.
I tell people I learned just asmuch getting the gate as I did
(17:17):
getting a trophy for a calf or asheep, whatever it may be a pig
.
That's the beauty of resiliency, is you learn, and y'all have
learned, and I love the word, ofcourse, pivot.
No pun intended, but y'all diddo that.
And so when y'all began to makethose pivots, those changes,
(17:39):
where did this idea come from ofwhy don't we utilize our sheep
here?
How did you vet this out?
Speaker 3 (17:49):
On the solar grazing side of things.
It had been an idea that hadbeen brewing for a long time.
I think that I checked my notesin my phone and October 24th of
2021 was whenever we had alittle bullet point written down
that said solar grazingquestion mark and, for lack of a
better word, the fire was putunder us to find something new.
(18:10):
So that's when we really, fullsteam ahead, tried to pursue it
and we got to utilize somereally awesome connections and
mentors that we have, and theywere able to point us in the
right direction to the AmericanSolar Grazing Association, where
we were able to becomecertified solar grazers.
And then we got to work withone of Cade's longtime family
(18:31):
friends to get on our first site, and now we've got how many
sheep on solar?
Speaker 4 (18:37):
About 1,300 ewes currently grazing on two sites
in East Texas.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Wow, what a story.
So something else that you saidin Rio dosa that got my
attention um, there was a greatmotivational speaker named zig
ziggler and, uh, zig passed away, but his son, tom ziggler, is
now on my board of directors.
So tom and I have a lot ofthese discussions and we were
(19:02):
talking one day and we weretalking about coincidence and I
just made the comment thatcoincidence is God's way of
remaining anonymous.
And then Tom Ziegler said Aaron, he goes.
In Hebrew there is no such wordfor coincidence.
There is no word forcoincidence.
And I remember when you weresharing your story, you shared
(19:23):
the story about how y'all wereat a moment in time where you
were looking for property andyou happened on to a gentleman.
Can you tell that story of whathappened and how that began to
unpack itself?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Absolutely so.
This was I met this wonderfulmentor of ours before we were
even searching for lease countryvery hard, so it was probably
in at the end of 2021, maybebeginning of 2022.
I was sitting there, I wasgetting my oil changed at our
(19:59):
local Ford dealership and I juststruck up a conversation with a
gentleman next to me Forddealership and I just struck up
a conversation with a gentlemannext to me and we talked
probably for the entire hourthat it took for us to both get
the work done on our vehiclesand we.
He ended up being one of themost exceptional mentors we've
ever had, just one of the mostkind hearted people I've ever
(20:20):
met, and whenever we lost thatlease, he was one of the first
people I mentioned to like, hey,if you know of anyone who is
looking to lease out theirproperty, please let us know.
And about two or three monthslater, he gives me a call.
I think that Cade and I wereputting in a water tap at a
solar farm and I answered it andhe said hi, morgan, I am here
(20:44):
with so-and-so and they'relooking at leasing out their
family ranch.
You're on speakerphone, tellthem about yourself.
And that got our foot in thedoor that got us to the lease
interview and the biddingprocess and we were able to come
through and secure the lease.
And all because of that oneconversation we happened upon
(21:05):
one of the biggest opportunitiesto our operation.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
Yeah, and just kind of expound on that a little bit.
I mean, you never put yourselfout there, you never know who
you're going to meet, you neverknow what might happen, what
might come from that, and justbe genuine.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah, every single conversation is an opportunity,
an opportunity to make aconnection or an opportunity to
help someone, and whether you'resitting in line at the grocery
store or the doctor's office,there is always opportunity in
the conversations you can haveand your ability to help someone
or have someone help you.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
I can tell you in my career, one of the programs that
we run at the Texas FFAconvention is we've got a
program called the FoundationAmbassadors and we have about
300 kids apply.
We take 70.
And for a week we train themand they host all of our
sponsors, all of our dignitaries.
They do all that for the week.
But one of the awards that wegive is called the Three Foot
(22:03):
Award and we teach the kids getto know anybody that's within
three feet of you, Becauseanybody that's within three feet
(22:26):
of you could become a customer,a client, a colleague, a
constituent, a consultant, amentor, an encourager.
But think about it, Just likeyou said, both of you said you,
you put yourself out there andyou build connection.
Because God didn't create us tobe the lone ranger.
Uh, he created us to be inrelationship, and the more of
those that we have, uh, we'reable to solve problems quicker,
we're able to take advantage ofopportunities quicker.
So the fact that y'all areliving proof that getting an oil
(22:46):
change was a moment that youjumped out there and look at
what happened.
So I appreciate you sharingthat story.
I just wanted to share thatwith you, that I really valued
that For the young people thatmay be listening, or the ag
teachers or agents.
Or, by the way, the podcastgoes nationwide Just out of
(23:08):
curiosity.
Are there opportunities?
Do y'all see a future inagriculture?
Do y'all see a future infarming absolutely you're gonna
touch on that one yeah, no,absolutely.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
I mean like agriculture today doesn't sure
does not look the same as it did100 years ago, but it's not
necessarily a bad thing.
I mean you always gotta lookback, respect the tradition,
respect what was done, learnfrom the older, older folks that
have been in this professionfor 50 plus years, listen to
them, listen to their mentorship, take their advice, but at the
same time too, look forward toother opportunities like solar
(23:42):
grazing, for example.
What we're doing now.
This is relatively new and on alarge scale in texas.
I mean this is something that'sbeen going on the east coast
for 15 years now, on smallerscale, more community scale
sites that are 15 20 acres, butlarger utility scales.
Grazing sheep under those inTexas is probably the past five,
eight years, realistically, soit's times have changed a little
(24:07):
bit.
But I mean, grab thoseopportunities and hang on tight.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Exactly.
You know you can look at yourcircumstances and find
challenges and opportunities inany single circumstance, and we
choose to understand thechallenges because they're there
and they're real and it wouldbe silly to ignore them.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
but we chose to have laser focus on the opportunities
and how we can use those tohelp put high quality protein on
people's plates I just want youto know, morgan, that when we
do podcast interviews, I'malways listening for what the
title of this podcast is goingto be, and you've already y'all
(24:44):
have already given me threedifferent titles that I've
written down throughout thiswhole time.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
So that you just threw another one out there to
make this even more challengingto find the right one.
Let's talk from the standpointagain.
I said if you want to know whatthe future is, grow it.
So hopefully we're plantingsome seeds in the imagination of
young people that life's not asolo project.
(25:10):
You've got to dream big.
You've got to work hard to makeyour dreams come true.
That takes leadership, andleadership is not easy.
Y'all have said it already.
You've already talked about thechallenges that come with
leadership, but give us threeleadership tips.
If you were going to give ayoung person or a teacher or a
colleague or somebody close toyou a leadership tip, what would
(25:31):
be three leadership tips you'dgive them?
Speaker 3 (25:34):
The number one, most important one that I would share
is lean on your faith in theLord.
The Lord is the sole reasonCaden and I are here today.
We are not here by our ownactions, by our own doing.
We are here because it is God'swill and he has placed us here
and in our mission statement,which we have built around the
(25:56):
Lord is.
Our mission is to be goodstewards of God's creation by
producing profitable andproductive livestock for both
consumers and fellow ranchers,and my favorite part of that is
good stewards of God's creation.
So, my number one tip would belay on your faith in the Lord
and just let him see what he'sgoing to do in your life,
(26:17):
because it's going to be prettyexceptional whenever you fully
trust him.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Yeah, I'd say for me, and big one, is resiliency.
I mean, like I mentionedearlier, it's not if drought's
gonna hit, it's when.
And just be prepared, bethinking ahead, think towards
the future.
Um, don't get your head down.
Whenever circumstances justkind of take a turn on you, keep
your head down, keep going,power through it or find
(26:42):
something else, find a newopportunity, and you got to go
out and look for them.
They may not necessarily allfall in your lap.
You got to pursue them.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Exactly.
And I think the third one thatwe would probably say is
creativity.
You know, one of the biggestskills you can have is for
finding creative solutions tocomplex situations, and your
ability to adapt and be creativein tough times and good times
(27:12):
is one of the biggest skills Ithink you can have as a young
person or a more tenured farmeror rancher.
I really think that creativityis highly, highly important by
the way, everything that y'alljust said.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
The reason I love all this is because if we do read
the bible and I tell people youcan read it as a history book,
you can read it as a religiousbook, I don't care which
direction you read it, but it'sreally got some great content in
it.
I would agree.
There's a lot of agriculture inthere, a lot of agriculture in
(27:51):
there, and so it tells me thatthere must be a lot of life
lessons that come out of growingthings and planning things and
expecting things and nurturingthings and weeding things and
calling things.
There's just a lot of wisdomthat I think comes out of that.
And y'all, just y'all said it.
You know, I asked the youngpeople a lot of times to name
(28:14):
the most successful people theycan, and they'll name movie
stars and athletes and businessleaders, and I always ask them,
I said just name one of those,just one that every day gets up
and makes their own heartbeat.
Somebody allows us to be herebecause there's a purpose.
(28:34):
That purpose is going to befaced with some challenges.
And I tell people if you want aplace that it never rains, I can
take you there.
It exists.
It's called a desert, and Itell people if you want a place
that it never rains, I can takeyou there.
It exists.
It's called a desert andnothing grows.
But you show me somebody that'shad a little rain and I'll show
you somebody that's had anopportunity, will have an
opportunity to grow, and that'sresiliency, and y'all are proof
(28:58):
of that.
And then, lastly and y'all areproof of that and then lastly,
you know, we have to beinnovators and not imitators.
We've got to be creative, we'vegot to be thinking.
You know what, if what's next?
And I just appreciate y'allsharing your story, because your
(29:19):
story is a story of a vision,of a dream, of family, of faith,
of resiliency, of creativity.
Again, when I heard y'all atRia Dosa, I said I've got to
have them on this show becauseit's everything that I hope
young people, teachers, canembrace.
I call it the three E'sencourage, equip and empower.
(29:42):
And that's what life's about.
We, you know it's crazy to thinkthat maybe why we're here today
is that your child, my child,my grandchildren they may have
to lean on each other one day.
We don't know that they mayhave to lean on each other one
(30:04):
day.
We don't know that.
But maybe it's because of whatwe did today that we pour into
their futures, because weplanted seeds that taught them
these very essences ofleadership.
So I just want to say thank youto both of you.
Thank you for sharing yourstory, thank you for being
willing to share your story.
Not everybody wants to sharethat.
(30:24):
They had challenges or setbacks, but I think it's inspiring to
hear those that found ways toovercome and that you did it
together.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I found that very inspiration, so thank you for
doing that.
I found that very inspiration,so thank you for doing that.
All right, so let's wrap thisup.
This is all good stuff, though.
I mean we.
I keep talking to y'all all daylong.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Everybody gets a fun question at the end of the show.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
So here's your fun question.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Hey, Morgan what's the best concert y'all ever been
to?
Oh man, I was not expectingthat one.
Uh hey, do you want to go first?
I think the last concert youknow we don't make it off the
ranch very often for those kindof things, but I would say
(31:21):
probably in college I reallyenjoyed um Shane Smith and the
Saints.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I think that's the first concert Kate and I ever
went to together, so there yougo at the now, uh, or the no
longer standing HurricaneHarry's in Colton which I now I
think is a parking lot yeah,yeah it, it's your change.
I'll say that.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah, now I get to say you're dating yourself a
little bit yeah.
That's great, that is absolutelygreat.
Yeah, I think it's a funquestion and the spectrum is
unbelievable Everything fromMetallica to Pitbull to the
(32:02):
greatest showman, and then, ofcourse, george Strait's, always
popular.
Oh yeah, I'm sure it's alwaysfun to ask people, because I
think it's just another insightinto life, that the same thing
that motivates you, motivates meFamily, friends, a good song,
good movie, a good book and so Ithink it's fun to ask people
(32:22):
what's your best concert?
And there have been some reallygood responses to that.
Well, cade Morgan, I just wantto say again, thank you, thank
you for your story, thank youfor your testimony, thank you
for your example, thank you foryour willingness to share.
I'm hopeful that whoever tunesin and God's going to have tune
(32:45):
in, who God wants to hear themessage I hope that when they do
tune in, that they're going toget those three E's, they're
going to be encouraged, equippedand empowered to go out and
grow a better future for them,their families, their
communities, our state and ourcountry.
So the fact that y'all arewilling to share today, it means
a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Well, thank you.
We're super excited to havebeen here.
Thank you for the invitation.
It means a lot to us as well.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
Thank you much.
We really appreciate theopportunity.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Sure and okay for all the listeners.
Thank you for stopping by.
I meant time you can't save it,you can only spend it and the
fact that y'all are willing tospend a little bit of your time
with us today.
We hope you found something ofvalue here, maybe some seeds
that you can plant in your life,that you can grow it even
better tomorrow.
So until the next time we meet,go out and do something great
(33:37):
for somebody.
You'll feel good about it andguess what?
By doing so you'll just makeour world a better place to live
, work and raise our children.
So thank y'all for joining ustoday.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yes, sir, thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Growing Our Future podcast.
This show is sponsored by theTexas FFA Foundation, whose
mission is to strengthenagricultural science education
so students can develop theirpotential for personal growth,
career success and leadership ina global marketplace.
Learn more at mytexasffaorg.
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