April 9, 2025 • 51 mins
Rich Porter owns and operates Porter Cattle Company, a grazing and backgrounding operation, located north of Emporia, Kansas. He receives around 7,000 head of three-weight, high-risk calves from the southeast annually and grows them to roughly 800 pounds.
Rich holds degrees in chemical engineering, business and law, but for the last five decades, he has been a student of agriculture. His knowledge and ingenuity in the areas of beef production, conservation and management are an inspiration for many.
RIch was recently honored with the Livestock and Meat Industry Council's 2025 Stockman of the Year award during their annual Stockmen's Dinner in Manhattan, KS.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Thanks for joining us forepisode 73 of Practically
Ranching.
I'm Matt Perrier, and we're herethanks to Dalebanks Angus, your
home for practical profitablegenetics since 1904.
I've gotten the opportunity tointerview a lot of pretty smart
folks over the years on thispodcast.
I.
I obviously never ask anyonetheir IQ, but this episode's
(00:28):
guest will likely rival nearlyany of them with his level of
intelligence.
Rich Porter is a chemicalengineer.
He has a law degree and an MBA,and he's a generous
philanthropist and supporter ofhis community and civic
organizations.
And for nearly 50 years, he'sbeen growing his family Stocker
(00:49):
business, Porter Cattle company,near Redding, Kansas.
Last month he was honored by theLivestock and Meat Industry
Council as the Stockman of theYear during their annual
stockman's dinner in Manhattan,Kansas.
I got to sit down with Richahead of this, and in this
episode we talk about a lot ofstuff, personnel management,
(01:12):
cattle procurement, general justranch decision making.
But the thing I appreciate mostabout Rich is his selfless
character and his dedication toall those around them.
You know, I think if you lookedup the term"give credit where
credit is due," it would likelysay,"see also rich Porter."
(01:33):
Whether it's Kansas StateUniversity or community
businesses, or even folks in thearea who may just need a helping
hand, Rich is gonna find a wayto support them whenever he can.
You know, sometimes businesseswho get big or successful are
kind of seen as the villain.
Rich Porter is anything but.
(01:55):
Rich and I recorded this episodeminutes before he went on stage
to accept his award, and I thinkthat he might have used me to
test some of his, uh, materialthat he had prepared for his,
acceptance speech.
After we get through that, weloosen up and have a really,
really good conversation and aton of useful wisdom.
(02:16):
You know, like so many of thesesmart guests that we've had on
here.
Rich is one of those folks wholoves to learn, and I think he
loves even more to share thatknowledge with anybody who might
be able to benefit from it.
And I think you'll agree thatthere's a lot that we can all
learn from folks like RichPorter.
Matt (02:38):
Well, I'm gonna start off by saying congratulations, uh,
by the time we air this podcast,you will, it will be way in the
rear view mirror, but you'rebeing honored this evening here
in Manhattan as the Kansas StateUniversity Animal Science
Stockman of the Year.
So congrats on that.
It's a great honor and, and welldeserved.
And I think as we talk here forthe next, uh, little bit, I'd
(03:00):
say folks will understandcompletely why you've gotten
this honor.
So it.
Great deal, and we're lookingforward to tonight to hearing
some of your comments.
Rich (03:08):
Well, Matt, thank you very much.
And I was totally surprised andshocked when I was named and
very humbled by it and, andsuch, but I, I, I graciously
accepted it and, uh, and comingfrom my peers, I, there, there
couldn't have been a bigger paton the back.
Matt (03:30):
Yeah, that's, that's really cool.
Well, for those of you, and alot of people that are listening
to this are from the local areaand, and, and know exactly your
story but for those outside ofthe region and area, tell us a
little bit about Rich Porter andhow you came up through Ly
County and maybe how you cameback and all of the, uh, all the
story that, that lies there in
Rich (03:52):
You bet.
my.
Parents grew up in, in, uh,great families that were totally
hammered by the GreatDepression.
but my parents' families, theyvalued education and they
assisted my, both my, my fatherWalter Porter and my mother
Louise Anderson porter, uh, theygot, they both got teaching
(04:14):
degrees or certificates and, uh,my parents met teaching school
in Junction City, Kansas, andthey, uh, farmed and raised
cattle part-time while they bothtaught until they got big enough
that, uh, they could, uh, farm,uh, full time.
(04:37):
And my father didn't buy his,the, the first land my dad
bought, uh, was only two yearsbefore I was born.
And it's now an 80 now owned byTom Moxley, near Council Grove.
And so dad went ahead and pushedvery hard and, and, uh, grew the
operation, you know, and took alot of risk and worked and
(04:58):
worked very hard and smart and,things did go ahead and work out
Growing up in that environment,I knew I was never gonna be in
agriculture, but there's nothingbut long hours or brutally hard
work for very little pay.
And so when I went to K State, Iwanted to, and I.
Got a degree in chemicalengineering, then I got a law
(05:22):
degree and worked inenvironmental control for
Bethlehem Steel.
And for a number of years my dadkept leaning on me, wanting me
to, to return to the farm.
And finally, at the age of 29,uh, just on a whim, I came back,
and that was in 1979, uh, oneyear before the 1980s hit.
(05:47):
Wow.
And in a few years, I was toopoor to leave the farm, but
things did work out great.
One of my big concerns was howwell my father and I would get
along.
we got along great 99% of thetime, but my dad and I both knew
that we could both be stubborn.
So for every decision to bemade, we first decided which one
(06:11):
of us was a decision maker andwhich one was merely the advisor
if a decision turned out to bewrong.
We never blamed decision maker,though.
Sometimes our tongues bled frombite again, and we knew that
what happened up to that pointin time was merely history.
So we only focused on what isthe best decision going forward
(06:35):
from the day and, uh.
Things worked out well.
I'm beyond blessed to have threegreat children.
It turned out that none of mychildren chose to go into
agriculture and um, uh, daughterRuth is a university professor.
Sons Ryan and Eric both haveadvanced degrees in computer
science and they did very wellin Silicon Valley and are
(07:01):
essentially retired.
Not having anyone returning tothe farm gave me increasing
increased capacity forcharitable giving, and when I
saw the dedication of the KState professors, staff,
students, and alums, it makes meglad to donate because I know K
State spends its money wisely.
(07:23):
Also, I owe huge debt debt toCase State because I returned to
agriculture.
Knowing that I knew nothingabout it.
So I worked very closely with KState and extension for
information.
And some of the K State peoplestill with us would include Gary
Kool, Larry Cora, Frank Brazel,and many more.
Matt (07:43):
I would assume this would've been the same, even if
you'd to come home straight fromcollege and not worked in
chemical engineering and the lawfields.
But you've always been a, just aconstant learner and just every
meeting that you go to,extension, Tallgrass legacy
Alliance, can LivestockAssociation, wherever I see you
on the front row, you know, justsoaking it all in.
(08:06):
How, how do you keep that?
Curiosity always going and, and,um, has that always been there
or is it something just as afteryou came back to agriculture?
Rich (08:18):
Well, curiosity was probably when, you know, when
you know, you know nothing, you,you're a better student because
Yeah.
That's the only person you, theonly person you can't explain
anything to is somebody thatalready knows it all.
So knowing that you don't knowit all, and then probably as.
(08:38):
As I've gotten older, you startrealizing all the important
things that.
Concepts that you may havemissed.
And so you are even more intenton trying to, uh, learn from
others and what practices, youknow, what practices did go
ahead and work.
And now at 75 years of age,well, my mind is not quite as
(09:02):
nimble.
I don't retain, um, uh, uh,details near as well as I used
to.
But being blessed with.
Seven fantastic employees.
And so it's, it's, I used tohave to pretend like my
employees were very important tome.
I no longer need to pretend.
(09:23):
They, they, they, they, theyknow they're important to me
and, and they're also dedicatedto the operation that in those
very rare instances where I feelI need to spur'em on.
I offered to help.
Good.
And they say, no, no, no.
We'll get it.
We'll get it.
Matt (09:39):
That's a great plan.
That's a great plan.
That's funny.
So let's take a step back.
You got back home in 79?
Yes.
The farm crisis of the eightieshit shortly thereafter.
What did Porter Cattle Companyor Porter Ranch, whatever it was
called at the time, PorterFarms, what, what did it look
like then?
How did it change in those firstfew years?
(10:00):
And then just bring us right onup to today as you go forward.
Rich (10:04):
Well, through the eighties with interest rates of 15 going
on up to 20%, uh, you obviouslyyou did not buy, uh.
New equipment you kept theexisting equipment, uh, going
and going into the crisis, uh,used equipment became cheaper.
And what now looking back, wasfool hard.
(10:27):
But, uh, anytime land came upfor sale, my dad was leaning on
me very hard to, uh, to buy it.
I almost didn't have any choiceto not buy it.
And I'd tell my dad what my debtequity ratio was and they said,
oh, you'll look, you'll lookgood in 20 years and such.
(10:47):
So yes, we did make it.
Didn't have to write a singledollar down, but we were blessed
to have a, a, a, a great bankthat we were with, that that
went ahead and stayed with usand, and, uh.
We had a basic plan that thatdid that did make money, right,
and is essentially buying small,cheap cattle that may have odd
(11:11):
on appearance, but it was notgonna affect the final product
and, and.
We had always felt that, uh,when we were buying the, the
plain calves typically weighingthree 50 pounds, high risk
calves outta Southeast, weneeded to take them through
finish to achieve the fullvalue.
'cause we thought they weregonna be at least average
(11:33):
cattle.
But, uh, it's, it's, you know,cattle are like people.
It's what's on the inside thatcounts.
And ugly is only skin deep.
And so.
We, for the first 10 years, I,we carried on with my dad.
We placed all of our cattle in acommercial feedlot, but then I
saw my county seed of Emporiahad a, uh, uh, uh, IBP now Tyson
(11:58):
packing plant that killed over4,000 head of cattle a day.
And so I switched to finishingcattle on the farm and, and
finished cattle at at home for.
20 years until they closed downthe slaughter at Emporia.
And at that point I knew when Ihad to ship my cattle a distance
(12:19):
to a packer that it would nolonger work.
And also the, the grids thatlarge feed lots could have was.
Seemingly better than mine.
And so I started, uh, I evolvedto selling my cattle at, uh, as
feeder cattle.
Typically been, you know,between 850 and 925 pounds, kind
(12:40):
of what are, what we consider tobe the optimal, uh, transition
point.
And, um, um.
So that is our economic modelnow, and in those planer cattle
at Brody Peak, at the Emporiasale barn, he sorts them into
about, we typically deliverthree to 500 head at a time, and
(13:05):
he sorts them into about.
Into typically three differentselling groups in, in weights,
divisible by 50,000 pounds.
Sure.
And so people buying'em, eachlot's gonna be two trucks or
three trucks making it easy forthe buyer to, to handle them.
And uh, Brody Peak also sortsoff.
(13:26):
The ugliest all typically fouror 5%.
The last truck down to theEmporia sale barn at my county
seat, uh, brings the re thequote, re reject cattle back.
And as we assemble enough for apen, and then we, we place them
into commercial feed lot.
Okay.
And, uh, those cattle, um.
(13:47):
They sell quite well.
Many of the cattle are rejectedfrom being sold in the auction
barn because they're short andsquatty, but quite a few of
those cattle will end up as, uh,prime, CAB or there there's more
that bring a premium than bringa discount.
And so you think, well, there'sredemption in death that calf at
(14:09):
uh, 350 pounds.
He was in selling in the bottom20% of the, of the, uh, price
bracket.
And then at 875 pounds, he wasin the bottom.
5% of that bottom 20%, and heends up at an$80 plate
steakhouse and such.
(14:31):
And, and it, it's great.
Our, our packing industry, theycan, uh, identify those cattle
that are gonna bring a premium.
Of course there are some cattlein there because they're being
ag or some dairy influence thatwould, that would, would bring a
discount, but typically thepremiums will, will, will offset
the discounts.
Matt (14:51):
It's fascinating to me the numbers that you are talking
about, both purchasing, sellingthroughout the year, and you
know this as well as anyone youcould quote unquote, and I know
Brody's gonna be listening, butyou could quote unquote, cut out
the middleman and a lot ofpeople would say that it'd be in
your best interest of doing thatbecause you're paying so much
(15:12):
for all these extra commissionfees and transportation and
handling and everything else.
What are your reasons, and Ithink I know what mine would be,
but what are your reasons forracking those and selling them
at auction as yearlings to thengo onto the feed yard?
Rich (15:29):
You're precisely correct, Matt.
That was my plan A.
Okay.
did that a little bit, but I hadto sort the cattle into various
groups.
We had to determine a, aweighing conditions and a price,
and it is more cost effectivefor me to have Brody who is a
(15:51):
specialist at doing it.
Sure.
And there's a, a lot of truth inthe old adage that it's easy to
eliminate the middleman, it ismore difficult to eliminate what
the middleman does.
And I am glad to use thatperson.
Brody Peak Emporia sale barnlivestock sales.
They, they, they produce vastlymore value for me Yeah.
(16:16):
Than what the commission isthat, that I pay him.
Matt (16:19):
And that's, that's well said.
I mean, when, when that middleman is providing a service that
exceeds what it is that youcould have made on your own,
then yeah.
He's, he's worth every pennyyou're paying.
Rich (16:32):
Yeah.
And a, a little similar story.
In the first five years I wasback the, uh, we, I carried on
and we put up our own silage.
Mm-hmm.
And we had our own cutters andtrucks, and one time we got
rained out.
(16:52):
Okay.
Custom cutters was operating ona neighbor five miles south of
us, and they got about three anda half inches of rain.
And so they were shut down, butwe only got a quarter inch.
And I went down and asked'em ifthey, they would come up and cut
on me for a two thirds of theinitial rate if they wanted to
do that.
And they said no.
(17:13):
And so I started to walk off andhe said, no.
We said, we.
We don't want to, but we will.
And they, they came up and theycut for about three days until
it dried out enough that theycould cut back there on their,
on, on their place.
And I studied things and, andwhat have you.
(17:34):
And so then I, I contacted thecutters and I said, next year
I'd like you have to come up andcut my, all of my silage at the
full rate.
Because I said, I cannot competewith you on my own ranch putting
up corn silage, and it's been.
The same outfit, FRAs Brothersout of Inman, and they've cut my
(17:59):
silage for 35 years and I'm nowdealing with a grandson of the
first people that cut for us.
Wow.
But it's a, a, a greatrelationship, but.
One of the things that you, anoperator, a producer cattleman,
has full control over isdeciding what he's gonna do
himself and what he's gonna hiresomebody else to do.
(18:21):
Right?
Be it putting in fence, uh,auction barn for selling cattle,
corn, silage, or haying.
In fact, we, we hire somebody toput up our hay and such,.
We do a lot of the mechanicalwork ourselves.
I, you know, things that peoplemight normally go to a, a, a
commercial repair shop to do,but a bearing goes out of the
(18:44):
rear end of a large truck, myguys, that's, it's, they don't
break a sweat tearing the rearend down and replacing the ings
and putting it back together, orleaf springs or on the, Air
brake systems or what have youand, and a number of the
components on the external ofthe engine that they will go
ahead and tear into.
But there's a a few things thatwe don't go in inside of an
(19:08):
engine, we'll pay somebody elseto do that and such, so, but any
event that, of deciding what youdo yourself and what somebody
else can do for us moreefficiently.
Matt (19:18):
How, how do you make those outsourcing decisions?
That's always a tough one forme.
And I think it varies sometimeswith the labor that's available.
Correct.
And, and their abilities andthings like that.
But that's always a tough one.
I mean, even just, you know,fixing tires and things like
that.
Uh, do you have.
A formula or that you do thatcost benefit analysis, or do you
(19:40):
just have that innate naturethat you can make the decision
yourself?
Well,
Rich (19:45):
yeah, I, I'd like to say that I have a Excel spreadsheet
that gives me the answer, butno, it's more of a little bit on
the back of the envelope andwhat do I think it's gonna cost
us to do it and uh, and forsomebody else to do it and
having the labor availabilityand even.
Of hauling manure is somethingthat we have manure truck and we
(20:07):
have several loaders.
We always have a spare, uh,wheel loader.
Uh, but many cases we end uphiring more manure hauled than
we haul ourselves merely becausewe just don't allocate the labor
to go ahead and do it.
And so, and.
It's difficult to always makethe perfect decision, but it's
(20:31):
fairly easy to make what do Ithink is the best decision today
on that decision, on that halfmile fence that really needs to
get replaced and you might makea different decision tomorrow.
Matt (20:44):
Yeah, I heard a, uh, I heard a Navy Seal one time say
in a, I think he was given atalk at National Cattlemen's
Convention or something.
Plan for perfection, but don'twait for the perfect plan.
Oh, very good.
We never get, yeah, get anythingdone.
And, and I think that's kind ofwhat you're saying.
I mean, sometimes it may makesense economically to do it
(21:06):
yourself, but time-wise, the,things you won't get done when
you got fresh calves coming inthat need attention or whatever
else.
It's, it's more important to dothose priority things and you
can farm the other stuff out.
Rich (21:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
And on rare occasions, like if.
Replacement calves are just waytoo high and we're taking a two
or three month pause on bringingin calves, waiting for the
spread between the calf and thefeeder to return to normal.
We will have some additionallabor or somebody, uh, neighbor,
(21:39):
some somebody is between jobsand he's available.
For a couple of months will wehave a job for him?
And so yeah, we'll go in andtear into a, a large fence
project.
Mm-hmm.
Or put'em on hauling manure.
And so occasionally you willhave the, the labor and rather
than having people going out anddoing make work jobs, you know,
trying to have'em do somethingthat is, is quite good, but also
(22:02):
what you do yourself or hireout, you know, my.
Great long-term employees, youknow, they're, they're probably
a, a bigger decision maker onthat than I am in today's world.
Matt (22:14):
Yeah.
Good for you.
So let's talk a little aboutbuying those calves and
everything from the economics ofit.
Like you said, sometimes itdoesn't make sense to be buying
those new calves that whatthey're bringing.
Um, are you typically, if themarket allows it or, or.
(22:34):
Elicits it.
Are you typically buying calves12 months of the year, or is
there certain times that you'rebuying outta the southeast and
other times that you're not?
Rich (22:42):
Yeah, I, I, I'm, I'm typically buying cattle about
nine months out of the year.
Okay.
From January up to October, and,uh, we shut off then.
Middle of October, November, andDecember.
Most of my cattle come from thesoutheast, and so it makes no
sense to shift those cattle to acolder environment.
(23:04):
At the same time, they're goingthrough the, the stress, the
horrible health stress of, ofthat first 30, 45 days.
So that, that's one aspect of itAlso.
At that timeframe in October,November, we're bringing the
cattle in off of grass.
And so my, my cattle pins aregonna be the fullest at that
(23:25):
point.
And my, the pins where wereceive the cattle, well those
are very handy for us sortingthe cattle, coming, coming in
off of grass.
And our grazing program is thatwe supplement, uh, with
distillers give the cattle abouta third or fourth, their diet of
wet distillers fed.
It, uh, almost every day outthere on pasture.
(23:48):
And so we can be out there untilThanksgiving time or so and
still have adequate, uh, andstill receive adequate gains.
And this also, uh, allows us tonot buy most of our cattle in.
March and April right ahead ofgrass when the calves are the
(24:09):
highest.
Mm-hmm.
And we're buying'em throughoutthe year and also with the labor
of, uh, starting calves oftrying to buy all the calves in
a two month period.
Right.
It, it becomes, you know, it'sspread out over about 10 months.
And so both the labor and thepens are not overloaded.
I have tried, uh, trying astarting lot in Georgia,
(24:33):
thinking that, uh, one of my twobuyers is in Georgia and he's
within a hundred miles where thecattle are purchased.
And that, uh, with it beingcloser that you'd have a health
improvement and also.
Of going through the wintertime.
They're gonna be warmer downthere than they are up here.
(24:55):
They are great people, veryhardworking, very dedicated, but
it's, it's yet to be determinedwhether it's gonna be a net
financial benefit or not.
Right.
But I am dealing with greatpeople, but whether it will work
long term, that's yet to bedetermined.
Matt (25:13):
Yeah.
So what, so most of those calvesyou're buying are coming outta
the southeast, weighing thatthree and a half page.
It, it,
Rich (25:20):
it can be three and a half.
There's times that the marketsays four, four and a half,
right?
And, but I have a spreadsheetfor everything.
For what I would pay foreverything for 200 pounds to 700
pounds.
And I give that to my twobuyers.
And incidentally.
Virtually a hundred percent ofmy cattle for 30 years have come
(25:42):
from just two buyers.
Wow.
In some cases, I'm working thenwith the next generation of that
operation because, uh, uh,there's, there's so much trust
because you're, you're buying.
Plain ugly cattle, or not ugly,but you know, not, not, not
fancy cattle and, uh, and, andhow the health is gonna play out
(26:03):
is very important.
And so it's a, it's a long-termdeal, uh, uh, from them.
and also when the, the cattlethat come to me that they may
weigh 300 and.
50 pounds, but there's cattle onthe load.
Everything from 200 to 500pounds.
Right.
So what kind of, what was ableto be bought more cost
effectively?
(26:23):
'cause after, after 30 days onour operation, we sort them in a
hundred pound weight increments.
Okay.
And so having uniform weightgroups coming in adds no value
to me, but gives moreflexibility from my buyers.
Matt (26:39):
So as those calves hit your starter yard, they will be
unloaded.
Processed on arrival.
Do you wait a couple of days?
What's your
Rich (26:49):
Lots of debate?
We typically, many times mycattle arrive on Friday.
Three, four o'clock in themorning.
And so they're there when, when,when we get there.
And we'll typically go ahead andprocess the cattle, process the
cattle at Friday afternoonbecause I, we typically don't
(27:12):
process new cattle on Saturdayand Sunday because I try to have
my employees have.
Every other weekend off and theweekend they're on only working
there in the mornings.
And so it's just a, managementdecision of.
To keep fantastic employees.
We just try not to be processingon Saturdays.
(27:32):
So that kind of forces us toprocess those cattle on a
Friday, maybe a little quickerthan we would've liked.
And there's a lot of debate outthere of whether waiting or not.
But typically on our numbers, wedo wait till Monday.
The health tends to be a littleworse.
Yeah.
Matt (27:50):
Then they'll spend how long in the yard before they'll
go out to traps and on, ontograss, or does it depend on the
time of year
Rich (27:57):
Typically, uh, the cattle retain, are retained in their
same group.
You don't want to add anythingto them for the, for 30 days and
30 days.
We give'em a final round ofvaccines and the first shot of
black leg, we delay that to nothave stress up front.
And at day 30, they're, they're,they're sorted.
(28:18):
They get through the, the, uh,vaccine and then kind of hold
them for about two weeks or so.
Another two weeks, and toobserve and.
Pull anything.
And then at that point they'rehauling out to grass.
But we do have some smallergrass traps in 65 acres, uh, in
right next to my starting lot.
(28:40):
Right.
And so the cattle are kind ofgetting adapted to being out in
grass and it's a grazingsituation and receiving some
supplement and the cattle goingon, going out to grass.
Matt (28:50):
So basically a 45 day time that they'd been in the lot and
then out to grass regardless oftime of year.
that wet DDG supplement, willyou feed that through the summer
when they've got green grass infront of'em as well?
Rich (29:05):
Yeah, you know, we typically start about the middle
of June and it's really nodifferent than.
Uh, range cubing cattle.
Sure.
But it's the very same practiceand, uh, and such, but because
you're using wet product, it'scheaper per unit of, so rather
than giving'em one or two poundsof dry matter a day, you're,
(29:29):
you're, you're giving'em A thirdof their diet, right?
A third, a third of the totaldiet.
And University of Nebraska hasdone a huge amount of research
on this, and surprisingly itdidn't make any difference if
you were, Delaying or you'refeeding it on good pasture or
poor pasture, you got about thesame gain response, which seems
(29:53):
illogical, but it's solid,highly replicated research, and
so we will typically startfeeding in the middle of June in
part because prior to that, yes,the grass is quite green, but
also we're busy planting andspraying crops, and a lot of
times the pastures are too wetto go out there.
(30:13):
Mm-hmm.
And then when we do feed, we'refeeding with a, a conventional
feed truck.
Well, there are 900 cubic feetand they'll, they'll carry 20.
5,000 pounds.
And so they'll carry a, thatfeed truck will, will carry a, a
half a semi load of feed outthere and it's the distillers
and we mixed this, thesupplement that has rumensin and
(30:36):
the trace mineral mixed in withit and, and feeding out there.
And that way, you know, thecattle are getting their
mineral.
Matt (30:43):
When you.
You mentioned that Feedadditive, not to make this a
commercial for Rumensin, but Iremember one time, and this was
one of the first times I everactually had a conversation with
you.
I had moved home and been back acouple years and we had a group
of weaned calves of our own thatwe thought were Bulletproof, had
great health, and they startedgetting sick on us and they kept
(31:04):
getting sick on us.
And just a, just a frustratingdeal for a kid just getting back
into the swing of things.
And I talked to somebody, endedup being coccidiosis.
Yeah.
And I talked to somebody andthey said, you know who you
ought talk to is Rich Porter.
He starts a lot of his highstress calves and he never talks
about having a coccidia problem.
(31:24):
And so I called you and uh, Idon't know if you remember this,
but your exact words to me were,"Matt, I love problems, that
have a solution.
And I have one." And, and youtold me that day get 200
milligrams of Yeah.
Resin in them daily and you willnot see co acidosis issues.
(31:45):
And you were right.
And uh, you turned aroundthough, and I, I think I called
you a month or two later andmaybe saw you at a meeting and I
said, rich, I just, I can'tthank you enough for giving me
that suggestion.
'cause it made all thedifference in the world.
And you said, well.
Since I helped you, I need youto help me with the problem.
Do you remember this?
Rich (32:03):
I'm not pulling it up, but I'm 75 years old too.
You go ahead Matt,
Matt (32:07):
you said?
Um, I've been trying to figureout.
Why I can't get my cowboys tospend an hour working on fence
before we turn cattle out, andthen in turn have to spend a
half day getting them back inand sorting'em up because that
out the first time and I, Ihaven't figured that one out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(32:29):
That, that's an age old issue.
I think that all of us, uh, meincluded sometimes.
Yeah.
But
Rich (32:34):
I have solved that problem.
Okay.
When I have.
Much more responsible employeeshere for the last 13 years, and,
and so that, that has becomeless of one.
But swinging back to Coccidiosisas preventative, we use, uh, a
round of corid on arrival.
Okay.
The first, the first five days.
(32:55):
And, uh, just as a, as apreventative and, and, uh, from
all year round we do it.
It takes a little while for thecattle to come up on intakes
efficiently that they're gettingenough Rumensin or BoviTeck; an
ionophore for, to control it andsuch.
And then the, sometimes whenpeople are reluctant to use
Rumensin on newer cattleconcern, it might pull back
(33:18):
intake a little bit.
Right?
And that, I, I don't thinkthat's, uh, enough of an issue.
I think it, of controlling coacidosis is far more important
than if it would very slightlydecrease intake.
Matt (33:30):
So are you using that Corid as a crumble in the feed
or are you putting it throughthe water?
Rich (33:36):
Uh, we're using it as a crumble.
Okay.
Crumble top dressed on the feedfor the first five days.
Okay.
Matt (33:42):
On that treatment level for Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
And then after that five days,you won't use a preventative
level of it, you'll just let theRumensin take care of that?
Rich (33:51):
Correct.
Okay.
And, and, and the cattle are,are slowly ramping up on their
adaption feed, so Yeah.
Matt (33:56):
Well, well, I don't want to ask you to share all your
trade secrets.
No, but.
For those that are in thestocker business and may be
curious, what if you can, andshare and are willing to share,
what is your standard processingof those calves on, you know,
day after arrival and from avaccine standpoint, medication.
(34:17):
What, what are you using thereif you're willing to share?
Rich (34:20):
Yeah.
I, I certainly am.
And whether I'm only have thetop of my mind, I will get you
our complete protocol.
Okay.
And, and, and also I might haveyou talk with my, uh, cattle
foreman, Stephanie Anderson.
Great.
And she can talk you throughand, and, and that way you can
go ahead and get it, get itcorrectly.
Okay.
Yeah.
But when the cattle.
Arrive, well, one, we have a, afantastic consulting
(34:44):
veterinarian, Bob Smith.
Mm-hmm.
Who will be speaking heretonight.
And then also a, a great localveterinarian.
There's many greatveterinarians, but the one we
work with is Scott Gordon fromEmporia.
Yep.
And so they can kind of helpboth outline our program, but we
do use the modified live vaccineon arrival and we.
Uh, mass treat, they're on, onarrival.
(35:06):
Right.
And, uh, uh, and such, so, uh,yeah.
But, but the complete protocol,uh, Stephanie can give you that
with precision.
Matt (35:13):
Good.
Good.
Thank you.
I'll try to get that and, and ifI can put it in the notes here
on the podcast, and people canlook at that if they're, if
they're, yeah.
Interested the cattle thatyou've been buying.
For the last 35 years, how havethey, if at all, how have they
changed?
It sounds like the weight rangeis still pretty similar to what
you've been buying for decades.
(35:34):
Have the cattle themselveschanged?
Good, bad, indifferent, um,performance, uh, health hide
color, you name it.
What, what did it look liketoday compared to 1979?
Rich (35:46):
Yes.
The cattle have improveddramatically and that bought
and, and.
If people ever wonder if we'vemade improvements in the cattle
industry, all you've gotta do islook at the bottom 20% of the
cattle today is vastly betterthan the bottom 20%, 25 years
ago.
In fact, they may be, you know,somewhat comparable with the,
(36:09):
the top 20%, 25 years ago interms of, growth performance.
And of course every, you know,most everybody's gone ahead and
gone black.
and even from the marbling, thegenetics have been dramatically
improved.
That is the good news.
The bad news is that animalhealth, by most metrics has
(36:29):
gotten worse in terms of, uh,sickness and uh, mortality and.
Nobody knows why.
Some of the brighter, the peopleI trust a lot speculate that it
may be that we have bred so muchimprovement into the cattle in
terms of uh, how fast they willgain marble calving ease and and
(36:53):
such.
But we have not improved thelung size or the immune system.
We don't know.
But, and, and there haven't beenany real new, real new classes
of, of, uh, antibiotics,
Matt (37:05):
Yeah.
And that's a struggle.
I mean, you, it doesn't matterif we're talking about feed
yards even I'm hearing more cowcalf and seed stock producers
talk about the need to get atthis health issue and, and
figure out, uh, especially forthose of you who are taking
those calves and, and yearlingsto the next level.
And I even read a deal yesterdaythat was saying that colostrum
has a large, amount of the blameand that poor colostrum, for
(37:30):
whatever reason, is not settingthat calf up early on to develop
their organs and develop theirimmune function and even the fat
reserves that they need thosefirst few days of life.
So yeah, you ask 10 different.
Folks within the industry, whyis it these cattle aren't as
healthy as they used to be?
And, and you may get 12different answers it seems
(37:51):
today, but it's something that alot of us genetics providers all
the way through feed yards are,are trying to figure out how to
address and hopefully we cancome to some
Rich (38:00):
answers.
It's great that people arelooking at that.
Both from an economicstandpoint, but also reducing
the, any pain and suffering fromYeah, animal welfare from that,
from animal welfare, from thatanimal, from that animal welfare
to do it.
And uh, one example of anillustration of how health has
gotten tougher was K State, uh,puts out a focus on feedlot
(38:23):
publication each month of gainsand cost of gain and mortality.
And I saw a chart of that overthe 25 years that they've had it
and the, uh, death loss in feedloss is about doubled.
Yeah.
And we've had improvements ofvaccine and antibiotics, but yet
the death loss has creeped up.
(38:44):
I even hear of people that havevery high end, high performing
in terms of gain and, percentchoice in prime.
Cattle of having deaths atfinishing in, in some cases even
toward the, toward the tail end.
Yeah.
But that has, has become whatwas hardly an issue.
Has become a greater issue.
But I, I do think of, you know,you know, of trying to figure
(39:06):
out what.
What we can do to improve theinnate health of cattle is, is,
is important.
Matt (39:13):
Yeah.
No doubt about it.
For, for all the reasons thatyou just listed.
Yeah.
And I'm glad that folks are, areworking on that and we'll
continue to see, I think a, aindustrywide effort in trying to
address some of those concerns.
This kind of goes along withthat.
A few years ago, you and I weretalking about, uh, traceability
(39:33):
and animal identification, andit was a big, discussion point,
fight sometimes with in industrymeetings and, and different
places, and you kind of chuckledand said, well, I have a pretty
good traceability program of myown.
Tell us how you have been ableto kind of see where cattle from
certain regions and certainbarns, maybe even certain
(39:55):
buyers, how have you tracedthose cattle yourself and known
maybe a little bit more about'emthan, than what the average Joe
knows about himself?
Yeah, and
Rich (40:06):
my cattle foreman's very adept and so.
When we receive these calves,typically one or two truckloads
of calves each week for the ninemonths out of the year.
But we tell the buyers to leavethe sale barn identifying tags
on them.
And so when the cattle are goingthrough to be branded and the
(40:26):
first round of shots that, uh,and we record.
The identification from the glueon back tag.
Typically a three or four digitlarge number, then a smaller
number that's identifies thespecific sale barn.
Mm-hmm.
We put that into our computeralong with the, uh, ear tag, uh,
(40:49):
identification number, and sothen we're able to, my.
Cattle foreman, she's able todownload the information from
our computer program, put in DExcel, and then, and then work
with the data.
And so we, we sort it by salebarn or origination, and so we
(41:10):
know the mortality.
By individual sale barn.
And then I provide that to mytwo cattle buyers.
And so we can see which salebarns are having more health
and, and, uh, more healthtroubles and better health.
Uh, uh, and what happens to richPorter's cattle is probably from
(41:30):
the other customers.
So they're very appreciative ofgetting that information.
But another thing is, is thatif, if we would have some.
Terrible disease pop up one oneof these things that you kind of
squint your eyes at night andsay, I hope I never see this.
If that would come up, we wouldbe able to cooperate with our
full database, may mail madeavailable to the whatever
(41:52):
government agency was workingwith us, and so they would know
precisely where that animal camefrom and they would know it came
from Sale Barn XY in Georgia.
On a certain day, on, on acertain date, uh, where it was,
and that sail barn would knowwho brought the animal in,
(42:13):
right?
And so the, the animal healthexperts, they, they would be
much better off ma able to trackthings on back.
And another reason why startedthis program was when we were
finishing cattle ourselves.
If there should have been anillegal drug residue in one of
our cattle, right.
(42:34):
I would merely tell thegovernmental agencies.
All of my veterinary productscome from my, my veterinarian
and my veterinary supplier.
I'm releasing all my records ofwhat's, of what's there.
And oh, by the way, the animalwith the illegal residue he was
bought in.
Timbuk two Alabama on thus andsuch a date.
Matt (42:56):
Right.
So you had the liability, yourisk off.
Rich (43:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It, it would be off a littlebit.
And there was a couple of timessomething would happen, like,
uh, day after the cattlearrived, two head that looked
very similar.
They were dead, you know, uh,uh, from new cattle and looked
at their, uh, uh, sale barn,back tags, and they were
sequential, meaning they camefrom the same farm, right?
(43:22):
And so I told my buyer, I gavethem that information, and they
talked with the sale barn owner,and I said, tell them I'm not
wanting one pennyback for theanimal, but I'm wanting the sale
barn owner to know that.
Two head of cattle from them.
They were dead the next day,right?
And uh, and they were veryappreciative.
(43:42):
I didn't ask for what was goingon, but I did hear the sale barn
operator was extremelyappreciative to have this
information.
Matt (43:50):
I got the opportunity to sit in on the Cattle Feeders
Hall of Fame Awards, uh, back amonth or so ago down in CBA.
And, um, one of the folks that Ivisited with afterwards was
talking about the fact, youknow, everybody.
Says that, nobody knows about,nobody will know about my cattle
if I don't have RFID tag in it.
(44:12):
Yeah.
Or something like that.
And he said, we know more aboutyour cattle than you know about
your cattle.
And, uh, and there's a lot oftruth in that, and I don't think
we realize that, but he, just,like you said, from a liability
standpoint, from just a, um,knowledge for the future of
buying those cattle, you can, Doa lot of good for yourself to go
and pay more for the ones thathave worked and not maybe pay as
(44:35):
much or not buy'em at all forthe ones that don't.
Rich (44:37):
Correct.
And I'm gonna stuck my neck outabout the whole thing about
cattle id.
Um, many other nations are doingthis.
And my personal opinion is if,if I'm not proud enough of the
animals that I produce, that I'mwilling to have my name or my
identification so tracked backto me.
(44:58):
Maybe I shouldn't be in thecattle business.
Yeah.
And, and if something would comeup, I mean, I, I wouldn't go out
and buy a pickup with no brandname, on it.
Right.
you know Ford, Chevy, they puttheir name on it.
And, and they want to, you know,and they are, you know, they're
willing to be held responsiblefor what they produced.
Sure.
(45:18):
And also with, uh, people say,well, I don't want people to
know how many cattle I have.
Well, my, my banker knows ahundred exactly how many cattle
I have, and many of my neighborscould probably guess within 10%
of how many cattle I have.
So.
If, if somebody chooses to havea different opinion, they,
they're, they're totallyentitled to that opinion.
But I'm of the opinion that ifI'm not proud enough to hold my
(45:41):
head up and this is what I'mdoing, I think I may ought to
drop outta the cattle business.
Yep.
Matt (45:46):
I, I would agree.
And after the last 10 or 12years of drought, money and
government Oh, yeah.
And payments and things likethat, rest assured Uncle Sam
knows.
Quite a little bit about howmany cattle we do or don't have
in the, in the beef industrytoday, whether we like it or
not.
tell us real quickly about youremployees.
(46:08):
You said you've got sevenemployees today.
Yeah.
Um, age.
You know, I think it's reallyinteresting the team that you've
put together there at PorterCattle Company.
Rich (46:16):
Yeah.
Uh, one employee's been with menearly 40 years and he's now,
he's foreman for most of those40 years, and he's now, until
he's got semi-retired and nowthey have a, a, a new foreman
who's fantastic.
And, uh, those seven people, theshortest tenure years about.
Eight years.
Okay.
And, uh, so needless to say,they, they know their jobs far,
(46:40):
far more than I do.
And, and occasionally I'll starttrying to explain when the next
season hits and I'll start kindof explaining what we need to do
and, and the employee will kindof look at me with a sly smile
and I'll realize he knows moreabout that job than I do.
That's true.
So maybe I just let him go aheadand do his job.
And for, for a variety ofreasons have have probably been
(47:02):
both lucky in hiring, you usedto hire, you know, focus on
hiring people that hadexperience, hardworking and
would show up.
And she'd pick up a lot ofpeople that changed jobs every
few months because everybodythere was idiots, so they
(47:23):
couldn't get along with them.
And probably the, what Iconsider the most important is,
you know, most important issafety.
And second most important isthat they can work productively
with other people.
And, uh, there's other job,details that that can be picked
up.
But if, if people are, ifemployees are encouraging and
(47:48):
helpful toward each other ratherthan undercutting and demeaning,
uh, let's just say.
One, everybody's a lot happier.
And two, the work gets done awhole lot better.
Matt (48:00):
That's great.
Uh, you have, you seem to have awell-oiled machine there, and
I've only been there once ortwice, but, uh, it was
impressive to me.
It, it, um, maybe was a littlenon-traditional workforce.
Rich (48:12):
Well, I have, uh, uh, one female and two Hispanics.
And such, so,
Matt (48:17):
yeah.
Well, I was just, I, I wasimpressed with your, foreman.
Yeah.
The
Rich (48:21):
cattle foreman is a female.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Matt (48:23):
And, and that's, that's a little different than what Yeah.
Some of us would think of in a.
Conventional traditional role.
But I mean, she knew her stuffand everybody respected her and
knew she knew her stuff.
And it was, like I said, awell-oiled machine it looked
like to me.
and like yourself, was verycurious and always wanting to
learn something more.
And that's what I appreciate.
Um, you know, not just the, thesmarts and the work ethic and
(48:48):
the willingness to do the job,but also.
Willingness to learn that we maybe able to do it better
tomorrow.
Y
Rich (48:54):
yeah, I, and all, all my employees are more dedicated and
hardworking than I am.
But, but, and something in thenews a lot about, uh, DEI and
yada, yada yada.
My attitude is that I'm, I amwanting to hire.
The best people available forthe job, and it would make no
(49:18):
sense for me to exclude anybody.
Everybody comes in, they're,they're not hired because of, or
excluded for anything about thatindividual person, race, gender,
uh, or anything else.
And so of course it makes senseto not exclude anybody.
Matt (49:40):
Well, I think that sums up what you've done throughout the
years at Porter Cattle Companyand your life.
I mean, so, so very well and.
Here we are sitting.
I, I believe that you told methat we're sitting in Dr.
Dave Nichols office here atKansas State Yes.
At Dr.
Don Good's desk.
(50:01):
Correct.
That Dave commandeered in themove.
And, um, I'd say both of thosegentlemen and those are
household names amongst anybodythat's been to a cattle
exhibition or any BIF meetingsor anything else.
I'd say, in the presence of, ofthose greats, they would, echo
that, sentiment.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, appreciate everythingthat you've done.
(50:21):
Correct.
Rich (50:21):
And, and, and there's just a fantastic series of people of
leadership at K State AnimalScience professors and staff
mm-hmm.
And the students up here.
So it's, uh, I, I feelincredibly blessed to be a part
of the K state animal science.
Matt (50:40):
Well, what a, what an honor to get to talk with you
today as you receive this awardfrom department animal science
and, uh, yeah.
Keep up the great work and, uh,we look forward to visiting
again soon.
Rich (50:51):
Matt, thank you so very much.
You
Matt (50:52):
bet.
Thank you, rich.
Thanks for tuning in toPractically Ranching, brought to
you by Dalebanks Angus.
If you liked this show, share itwith someone else, give us a
five star review and a commentso we can keep cranking'em out.
We still have a handful ofprivate treaty bulls and April
calving registered females forsale.
So if you'd like information onany of these groups, email me at
(51:16):
mattperrier@dalebanks.com.
God bless you all.
I look forward to visiting againsoon.
Thanks for joining us forepisode 73 of Practically
Ranching.
I'm Matt Perrier, and we're herethanks to Dalebanks Angus, your
home for practical profitablegenetics since 1904.
I've gotten the opportunity tointerview a lot of pretty smart
folks over the years on thispodcast.
I.
I obviously never ask anyonetheir IQ, but this episode's
(00:28):
guest will likely rival nearlyany of them with his level of
intelligence.
Rich Porter is a chemicalengineer.
He has a law degree and an MBA,and he's a generous
philanthropist and supporter ofhis community and civic
organizations.
And for nearly 50 years, he'sbeen growing his family Stocker
(00:49):
business, Porter Cattle company,near Redding, Kansas.
Last month he was honored by theLivestock and Meat Industry
Council as the Stockman of theYear during their annual
stockman's dinner in Manhattan,Kansas.
I got to sit down with Richahead of this, and in this
episode we talk about a lot ofstuff, personnel management,
(01:12):
cattle procurement, general justranch decision making.
But the thing I appreciate mostabout Rich is his selfless
character and his dedication toall those around them.
You know, I think if you lookedup the term"give credit where
credit is due," it would likelysay,"see also rich Porter."
(01:33):
Whether it's Kansas StateUniversity or community
businesses, or even folks in thearea who may just need a helping
hand, Rich is gonna find a wayto support them whenever he can.
You know, sometimes businesseswho get big or successful are
kind of seen as the villain.
Rich Porter is anything but.
(01:55):
Rich and I recorded this episodeminutes before he went on stage
to accept his award, and I thinkthat he might have used me to
test some of his, uh, materialthat he had prepared for his,
acceptance speech.
After we get through that, weloosen up and have a really,
really good conversation and aton of useful wisdom.
(02:16):
You know, like so many of thesesmart guests that we've had on
here.
Rich is one of those folks wholoves to learn, and I think he
loves even more to share thatknowledge with anybody who might
be able to benefit from it.
And I think you'll agree thatthere's a lot that we can all
learn from folks like RichPorter.
Matt (02:38):
Well, I'm gonna start off by saying congratulations, uh,
by the time we air this podcast,you will, it will be way in the
rear view mirror, but you'rebeing honored this evening here
in Manhattan as the Kansas StateUniversity Animal Science
Stockman of the Year.
So congrats on that.
It's a great honor and, and welldeserved.
And I think as we talk here forthe next, uh, little bit, I'd
(03:00):
say folks will understandcompletely why you've gotten
this honor.
So it.
Great deal, and we're lookingforward to tonight to hearing
some of your comments.
Rich (03:08):
Well, Matt, thank you very much.
And I was totally surprised andshocked when I was named and
very humbled by it and, andsuch, but I, I, I graciously
accepted it and, uh, and comingfrom my peers, I, there, there
couldn't have been a bigger paton the back.
Matt (03:30):
Yeah, that's, that's really cool.
Well, for those of you, and alot of people that are listening
to this are from the local areaand, and, and know exactly your
story but for those outside ofthe region and area, tell us a
little bit about Rich Porter andhow you came up through Ly
County and maybe how you cameback and all of the, uh, all the
story that, that lies there in
Rich (03:52):
You bet.
my.
Parents grew up in, in, uh,great families that were totally
hammered by the GreatDepression.
but my parents' families, theyvalued education and they
assisted my, both my, my fatherWalter Porter and my mother
Louise Anderson porter, uh, theygot, they both got teaching
(04:14):
degrees or certificates and, uh,my parents met teaching school
in Junction City, Kansas, andthey, uh, farmed and raised
cattle part-time while they bothtaught until they got big enough
that, uh, they could, uh, farm,uh, full time.
(04:37):
And my father didn't buy his,the, the first land my dad
bought, uh, was only two yearsbefore I was born.
And it's now an 80 now owned byTom Moxley, near Council Grove.
And so dad went ahead and pushedvery hard and, and, uh, grew the
operation, you know, and took alot of risk and worked and
(04:58):
worked very hard and smart and,things did go ahead and work out
Growing up in that environment,I knew I was never gonna be in
agriculture, but there's nothingbut long hours or brutally hard
work for very little pay.
And so when I went to K State, Iwanted to, and I.
Got a degree in chemicalengineering, then I got a law
(05:22):
degree and worked inenvironmental control for
Bethlehem Steel.
And for a number of years my dadkept leaning on me, wanting me
to, to return to the farm.
And finally, at the age of 29,uh, just on a whim, I came back,
and that was in 1979, uh, oneyear before the 1980s hit.
(05:47):
Wow.
And in a few years, I was toopoor to leave the farm, but
things did work out great.
One of my big concerns was howwell my father and I would get
along.
we got along great 99% of thetime, but my dad and I both knew
that we could both be stubborn.
So for every decision to bemade, we first decided which one
(06:11):
of us was a decision maker andwhich one was merely the advisor
if a decision turned out to bewrong.
We never blamed decision maker,though.
Sometimes our tongues bled frombite again, and we knew that
what happened up to that pointin time was merely history.
So we only focused on what isthe best decision going forward
(06:35):
from the day and, uh.
Things worked out well.
I'm beyond blessed to have threegreat children.
It turned out that none of mychildren chose to go into
agriculture and um, uh, daughterRuth is a university professor.
Sons Ryan and Eric both haveadvanced degrees in computer
science and they did very wellin Silicon Valley and are
(07:01):
essentially retired.
Not having anyone returning tothe farm gave me increasing
increased capacity forcharitable giving, and when I
saw the dedication of the KState professors, staff,
students, and alums, it makes meglad to donate because I know K
State spends its money wisely.
(07:23):
Also, I owe huge debt debt toCase State because I returned to
agriculture.
Knowing that I knew nothingabout it.
So I worked very closely with KState and extension for
information.
And some of the K State peoplestill with us would include Gary
Kool, Larry Cora, Frank Brazel,and many more.
Matt (07:43):
I would assume this would've been the same, even if
you'd to come home straight fromcollege and not worked in
chemical engineering and the lawfields.
But you've always been a, just aconstant learner and just every
meeting that you go to,extension, Tallgrass legacy
Alliance, can LivestockAssociation, wherever I see you
on the front row, you know, justsoaking it all in.
(08:06):
How, how do you keep that?
Curiosity always going and, and,um, has that always been there
or is it something just as afteryou came back to agriculture?
Rich (08:18):
Well, curiosity was probably when, you know, when
you know, you know nothing, you,you're a better student because
Yeah.
That's the only person you, theonly person you can't explain
anything to is somebody thatalready knows it all.
So knowing that you don't knowit all, and then probably as.
(08:38):
As I've gotten older, you startrealizing all the important
things that.
Concepts that you may havemissed.
And so you are even more intenton trying to, uh, learn from
others and what practices, youknow, what practices did go
ahead and work.
And now at 75 years of age,well, my mind is not quite as
(09:02):
nimble.
I don't retain, um, uh, uh,details near as well as I used
to.
But being blessed with.
Seven fantastic employees.
And so it's, it's, I used tohave to pretend like my
employees were very important tome.
I no longer need to pretend.
(09:23):
They, they, they, they, theyknow they're important to me
and, and they're also dedicatedto the operation that in those
very rare instances where I feelI need to spur'em on.
I offered to help.
Good.
And they say, no, no, no.
We'll get it.
We'll get it.
Matt (09:39):
That's a great plan.
That's a great plan.
That's funny.
So let's take a step back.
You got back home in 79?
Yes.
The farm crisis of the eightieshit shortly thereafter.
What did Porter Cattle Companyor Porter Ranch, whatever it was
called at the time, PorterFarms, what, what did it look
like then?
How did it change in those firstfew years?
(10:00):
And then just bring us right onup to today as you go forward.
Rich (10:04):
Well, through the eighties with interest rates of 15 going
on up to 20%, uh, you obviouslyyou did not buy, uh.
New equipment you kept theexisting equipment, uh, going
and going into the crisis, uh,used equipment became cheaper.
And what now looking back, wasfool hard.
(10:27):
But, uh, anytime land came upfor sale, my dad was leaning on
me very hard to, uh, to buy it.
I almost didn't have any choiceto not buy it.
And I'd tell my dad what my debtequity ratio was and they said,
oh, you'll look, you'll lookgood in 20 years and such.
(10:47):
So yes, we did make it.
Didn't have to write a singledollar down, but we were blessed
to have a, a, a, a great bankthat we were with, that that
went ahead and stayed with usand, and, uh.
We had a basic plan that thatdid that did make money, right,
and is essentially buying small,cheap cattle that may have odd
(11:11):
on appearance, but it was notgonna affect the final product
and, and.
We had always felt that, uh,when we were buying the, the
plain calves typically weighingthree 50 pounds, high risk
calves outta Southeast, weneeded to take them through
finish to achieve the fullvalue.
'cause we thought they weregonna be at least average
(11:33):
cattle.
But, uh, it's, it's, you know,cattle are like people.
It's what's on the inside thatcounts.
And ugly is only skin deep.
And so.
We, for the first 10 years, I,we carried on with my dad.
We placed all of our cattle in acommercial feedlot, but then I
saw my county seed of Emporiahad a, uh, uh, uh, IBP now Tyson
(11:58):
packing plant that killed over4,000 head of cattle a day.
And so I switched to finishingcattle on the farm and, and
finished cattle at at home for.
20 years until they closed downthe slaughter at Emporia.
And at that point I knew when Ihad to ship my cattle a distance
(12:19):
to a packer that it would nolonger work.
And also the, the grids thatlarge feed lots could have was.
Seemingly better than mine.
And so I started, uh, I evolvedto selling my cattle at, uh, as
feeder cattle.
Typically been, you know,between 850 and 925 pounds, kind
(12:40):
of what are, what we consider tobe the optimal, uh, transition
point.
And, um, um.
So that is our economic modelnow, and in those planer cattle
at Brody Peak, at the Emporiasale barn, he sorts them into
about, we typically deliverthree to 500 head at a time, and
(13:05):
he sorts them into about.
Into typically three differentselling groups in, in weights,
divisible by 50,000 pounds.
Sure.
And so people buying'em, eachlot's gonna be two trucks or
three trucks making it easy forthe buyer to, to handle them.
And uh, Brody Peak also sortsoff.
(13:26):
The ugliest all typically fouror 5%.
The last truck down to theEmporia sale barn at my county
seat, uh, brings the re thequote, re reject cattle back.
And as we assemble enough for apen, and then we, we place them
into commercial feed lot.
Okay.
And, uh, those cattle, um.
(13:47):
They sell quite well.
Many of the cattle are rejectedfrom being sold in the auction
barn because they're short andsquatty, but quite a few of
those cattle will end up as, uh,prime, CAB or there there's more
that bring a premium than bringa discount.
And so you think, well, there'sredemption in death that calf at
(14:09):
uh, 350 pounds.
He was in selling in the bottom20% of the, of the, uh, price
bracket.
And then at 875 pounds, he wasin the bottom.
5% of that bottom 20%, and heends up at an$80 plate
steakhouse and such.
(14:31):
And, and it, it's great.
Our, our packing industry, theycan, uh, identify those cattle
that are gonna bring a premium.
Of course there are some cattlein there because they're being
ag or some dairy influence thatwould, that would, would bring a
discount, but typically thepremiums will, will, will offset
the discounts.
Matt (14:51):
It's fascinating to me the numbers that you are talking
about, both purchasing, sellingthroughout the year, and you
know this as well as anyone youcould quote unquote, and I know
Brody's gonna be listening, butyou could quote unquote, cut out
the middleman and a lot ofpeople would say that it'd be in
your best interest of doing thatbecause you're paying so much
(15:12):
for all these extra commissionfees and transportation and
handling and everything else.
What are your reasons, and Ithink I know what mine would be,
but what are your reasons forracking those and selling them
at auction as yearlings to thengo onto the feed yard?
Rich (15:29):
You're precisely correct, Matt.
That was my plan A.
Okay.
did that a little bit, but I hadto sort the cattle into various
groups.
We had to determine a, aweighing conditions and a price,
and it is more cost effectivefor me to have Brody who is a
(15:51):
specialist at doing it.
Sure.
And there's a, a lot of truth inthe old adage that it's easy to
eliminate the middleman, it ismore difficult to eliminate what
the middleman does.
And I am glad to use thatperson.
Brody Peak Emporia sale barnlivestock sales.
They, they, they produce vastlymore value for me Yeah.
(16:16):
Than what the commission isthat, that I pay him.
Matt (16:19):
And that's, that's well said.
I mean, when, when that middleman is providing a service that
exceeds what it is that youcould have made on your own,
then yeah.
He's, he's worth every pennyyou're paying.
Rich (16:32):
Yeah.
And a, a little similar story.
In the first five years I wasback the, uh, we, I carried on
and we put up our own silage.
Mm-hmm.
And we had our own cutters andtrucks, and one time we got
rained out.
(16:52):
Okay.
Custom cutters was operating ona neighbor five miles south of
us, and they got about three anda half inches of rain.
And so they were shut down, butwe only got a quarter inch.
And I went down and asked'em ifthey, they would come up and cut
on me for a two thirds of theinitial rate if they wanted to
do that.
And they said no.
(17:13):
And so I started to walk off andhe said, no.
We said, we.
We don't want to, but we will.
And they, they came up and theycut for about three days until
it dried out enough that theycould cut back there on their,
on, on their place.
And I studied things and, andwhat have you.
(17:34):
And so then I, I contacted thecutters and I said, next year
I'd like you have to come up andcut my, all of my silage at the
full rate.
Because I said, I cannot competewith you on my own ranch putting
up corn silage, and it's been.
The same outfit, FRAs Brothersout of Inman, and they've cut my
(17:59):
silage for 35 years and I'm nowdealing with a grandson of the
first people that cut for us.
Wow.
But it's a, a, a greatrelationship, but.
One of the things that you, anoperator, a producer cattleman,
has full control over isdeciding what he's gonna do
himself and what he's gonna hiresomebody else to do.
(18:21):
Right?
Be it putting in fence, uh,auction barn for selling cattle,
corn, silage, or haying.
In fact, we, we hire somebody toput up our hay and such,.
We do a lot of the mechanicalwork ourselves.
I, you know, things that peoplemight normally go to a, a, a
commercial repair shop to do,but a bearing goes out of the
(18:44):
rear end of a large truck, myguys, that's, it's, they don't
break a sweat tearing the rearend down and replacing the ings
and putting it back together, orleaf springs or on the, Air
brake systems or what have youand, and a number of the
components on the external ofthe engine that they will go
ahead and tear into.
But there's a a few things thatwe don't go in inside of an
(19:08):
engine, we'll pay somebody elseto do that and such, so, but any
event that, of deciding what youdo yourself and what somebody
else can do for us moreefficiently.
Matt (19:18):
How, how do you make those outsourcing decisions?
That's always a tough one forme.
And I think it varies sometimeswith the labor that's available.
Correct.
And, and their abilities andthings like that.
But that's always a tough one.
I mean, even just, you know,fixing tires and things like
that.
Uh, do you have.
A formula or that you do thatcost benefit analysis, or do you
(19:40):
just have that innate naturethat you can make the decision
yourself?
Well,
Rich (19:45):
yeah, I, I'd like to say that I have a Excel spreadsheet
that gives me the answer, butno, it's more of a little bit on
the back of the envelope andwhat do I think it's gonna cost
us to do it and uh, and forsomebody else to do it and
having the labor availabilityand even.
Of hauling manure is somethingthat we have manure truck and we
(20:07):
have several loaders.
We always have a spare, uh,wheel loader.
Uh, but many cases we end uphiring more manure hauled than
we haul ourselves merely becausewe just don't allocate the labor
to go ahead and do it.
And so, and.
It's difficult to always makethe perfect decision, but it's
(20:31):
fairly easy to make what do Ithink is the best decision today
on that decision, on that halfmile fence that really needs to
get replaced and you might makea different decision tomorrow.
Matt (20:44):
Yeah, I heard a, uh, I heard a Navy Seal one time say
in a, I think he was given atalk at National Cattlemen's
Convention or something.
Plan for perfection, but don'twait for the perfect plan.
Oh, very good.
We never get, yeah, get anythingdone.
And, and I think that's kind ofwhat you're saying.
I mean, sometimes it may makesense economically to do it
(21:06):
yourself, but time-wise, the,things you won't get done when
you got fresh calves coming inthat need attention or whatever
else.
It's, it's more important to dothose priority things and you
can farm the other stuff out.
Rich (21:18):
Yeah, absolutely.
And on rare occasions, like if.
Replacement calves are just waytoo high and we're taking a two
or three month pause on bringingin calves, waiting for the
spread between the calf and thefeeder to return to normal.
We will have some additionallabor or somebody, uh, neighbor,
(21:39):
some somebody is between jobsand he's available.
For a couple of months will wehave a job for him?
And so yeah, we'll go in andtear into a, a large fence
project.
Mm-hmm.
Or put'em on hauling manure.
And so occasionally you willhave the, the labor and rather
than having people going out anddoing make work jobs, you know,
trying to have'em do somethingthat is, is quite good, but also
(22:02):
what you do yourself or hireout, you know, my.
Great long-term employees, youknow, they're, they're probably
a, a bigger decision maker onthat than I am in today's world.
Matt (22:14):
Yeah.
Good for you.
So let's talk a little aboutbuying those calves and
everything from the economics ofit.
Like you said, sometimes itdoesn't make sense to be buying
those new calves that whatthey're bringing.
Um, are you typically, if themarket allows it or, or.
(22:34):
Elicits it.
Are you typically buying calves12 months of the year, or is
there certain times that you'rebuying outta the southeast and
other times that you're not?
Rich (22:42):
Yeah, I, I, I'm, I'm typically buying cattle about
nine months out of the year.
Okay.
From January up to October, and,uh, we shut off then.
Middle of October, November, andDecember.
Most of my cattle come from thesoutheast, and so it makes no
sense to shift those cattle to acolder environment.
(23:04):
At the same time, they're goingthrough the, the stress, the
horrible health stress of, ofthat first 30, 45 days.
So that, that's one aspect of itAlso.
At that timeframe in October,November, we're bringing the
cattle in off of grass.
And so my, my cattle pins aregonna be the fullest at that
(23:25):
point.
And my, the pins where wereceive the cattle, well those
are very handy for us sortingthe cattle, coming, coming in
off of grass.
And our grazing program is thatwe supplement, uh, with
distillers give the cattle abouta third or fourth, their diet of
wet distillers fed.
It, uh, almost every day outthere on pasture.
(23:48):
And so we can be out there untilThanksgiving time or so and
still have adequate, uh, andstill receive adequate gains.
And this also, uh, allows us tonot buy most of our cattle in.
March and April right ahead ofgrass when the calves are the
(24:09):
highest.
Mm-hmm.
And we're buying'em throughoutthe year and also with the labor
of, uh, starting calves oftrying to buy all the calves in
a two month period.
Right.
It, it becomes, you know, it'sspread out over about 10 months.
And so both the labor and thepens are not overloaded.
I have tried, uh, trying astarting lot in Georgia,
(24:33):
thinking that, uh, one of my twobuyers is in Georgia and he's
within a hundred miles where thecattle are purchased.
And that, uh, with it beingcloser that you'd have a health
improvement and also.
Of going through the wintertime.
They're gonna be warmer downthere than they are up here.
(24:55):
They are great people, veryhardworking, very dedicated, but
it's, it's yet to be determinedwhether it's gonna be a net
financial benefit or not.
Right.
But I am dealing with greatpeople, but whether it will work
long term, that's yet to bedetermined.
Matt (25:13):
Yeah.
So what, so most of those calvesyou're buying are coming outta
the southeast, weighing thatthree and a half page.
It, it,
Rich (25:20):
it can be three and a half.
There's times that the marketsays four, four and a half,
right?
And, but I have a spreadsheetfor everything.
For what I would pay foreverything for 200 pounds to 700
pounds.
And I give that to my twobuyers.
And incidentally.
Virtually a hundred percent ofmy cattle for 30 years have come
(25:42):
from just two buyers.
Wow.
In some cases, I'm working thenwith the next generation of that
operation because, uh, uh,there's, there's so much trust
because you're, you're buying.
Plain ugly cattle, or not ugly,but you know, not, not, not
fancy cattle and, uh, and, andhow the health is gonna play out
(26:03):
is very important.
And so it's a, it's a long-termdeal, uh, uh, from them.
and also when the, the cattlethat come to me that they may
weigh 300 and.
50 pounds, but there's cattle onthe load.
Everything from 200 to 500pounds.
Right.
So what kind of, what was ableto be bought more cost
effectively?
(26:23):
'cause after, after 30 days onour operation, we sort them in a
hundred pound weight increments.
Okay.
And so having uniform weightgroups coming in adds no value
to me, but gives moreflexibility from my buyers.
Matt (26:39):
So as those calves hit your starter yard, they will be
unloaded.
Processed on arrival.
Do you wait a couple of days?
What's your
Rich (26:49):
Lots of debate?
We typically, many times mycattle arrive on Friday.
Three, four o'clock in themorning.
And so they're there when, when,when we get there.
And we'll typically go ahead andprocess the cattle, process the
cattle at Friday afternoonbecause I, we typically don't
(27:12):
process new cattle on Saturdayand Sunday because I try to have
my employees have.
Every other weekend off and theweekend they're on only working
there in the mornings.
And so it's just a, managementdecision of.
To keep fantastic employees.
We just try not to be processingon Saturdays.
(27:32):
So that kind of forces us toprocess those cattle on a
Friday, maybe a little quickerthan we would've liked.
And there's a lot of debate outthere of whether waiting or not.
But typically on our numbers, wedo wait till Monday.
The health tends to be a littleworse.
Yeah.
Matt (27:50):
Then they'll spend how long in the yard before they'll
go out to traps and on, ontograss, or does it depend on the
time of year
Rich (27:57):
Typically, uh, the cattle retain, are retained in their
same group.
You don't want to add anythingto them for the, for 30 days and
30 days.
We give'em a final round ofvaccines and the first shot of
black leg, we delay that to nothave stress up front.
And at day 30, they're, they're,they're sorted.
(28:18):
They get through the, the, uh,vaccine and then kind of hold
them for about two weeks or so.
Another two weeks, and toobserve and.
Pull anything.
And then at that point they'rehauling out to grass.
But we do have some smallergrass traps in 65 acres, uh, in
right next to my starting lot.
(28:40):
Right.
And so the cattle are kind ofgetting adapted to being out in
grass and it's a grazingsituation and receiving some
supplement and the cattle goingon, going out to grass.
Matt (28:50):
So basically a 45 day time that they'd been in the lot and
then out to grass regardless oftime of year.
that wet DDG supplement, willyou feed that through the summer
when they've got green grass infront of'em as well?
Rich (29:05):
Yeah, you know, we typically start about the middle
of June and it's really nodifferent than.
Uh, range cubing cattle.
Sure.
But it's the very same practiceand, uh, and such, but because
you're using wet product, it'scheaper per unit of, so rather
than giving'em one or two poundsof dry matter a day, you're,
(29:29):
you're, you're giving'em A thirdof their diet, right?
A third, a third of the totaldiet.
And University of Nebraska hasdone a huge amount of research
on this, and surprisingly itdidn't make any difference if
you were, Delaying or you'refeeding it on good pasture or
poor pasture, you got about thesame gain response, which seems
(29:53):
illogical, but it's solid,highly replicated research, and
so we will typically startfeeding in the middle of June in
part because prior to that, yes,the grass is quite green, but
also we're busy planting andspraying crops, and a lot of
times the pastures are too wetto go out there.
(30:13):
Mm-hmm.
And then when we do feed, we'refeeding with a, a conventional
feed truck.
Well, there are 900 cubic feetand they'll, they'll carry 20.
5,000 pounds.
And so they'll carry a, thatfeed truck will, will carry a, a
half a semi load of feed outthere and it's the distillers
and we mixed this, thesupplement that has rumensin and
(30:36):
the trace mineral mixed in withit and, and feeding out there.
And that way, you know, thecattle are getting their
mineral.
Matt (30:43):
When you.
You mentioned that Feedadditive, not to make this a
commercial for Rumensin, but Iremember one time, and this was
one of the first times I everactually had a conversation with
you.
I had moved home and been back acouple years and we had a group
of weaned calves of our own thatwe thought were Bulletproof, had
great health, and they startedgetting sick on us and they kept
(31:04):
getting sick on us.
And just a, just a frustratingdeal for a kid just getting back
into the swing of things.
And I talked to somebody, endedup being coccidiosis.
Yeah.
And I talked to somebody andthey said, you know who you
ought talk to is Rich Porter.
He starts a lot of his highstress calves and he never talks
about having a coccidia problem.
(31:24):
And so I called you and uh, Idon't know if you remember this,
but your exact words to me were,"Matt, I love problems, that
have a solution.
And I have one." And, and youtold me that day get 200
milligrams of Yeah.
Resin in them daily and you willnot see co acidosis issues.
(31:45):
And you were right.
And uh, you turned aroundthough, and I, I think I called
you a month or two later andmaybe saw you at a meeting and I
said, rich, I just, I can'tthank you enough for giving me
that suggestion.
'cause it made all thedifference in the world.
And you said, well.
Since I helped you, I need youto help me with the problem.
Do you remember this?
Rich (32:03):
I'm not pulling it up, but I'm 75 years old too.
You go ahead Matt,
Matt (32:07):
you said?
Um, I've been trying to figureout.
Why I can't get my cowboys tospend an hour working on fence
before we turn cattle out, andthen in turn have to spend a
half day getting them back inand sorting'em up because that
out the first time and I, Ihaven't figured that one out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(32:29):
That, that's an age old issue.
I think that all of us, uh, meincluded sometimes.
Yeah.
But
Rich (32:34):
I have solved that problem.
Okay.
When I have.
Much more responsible employeeshere for the last 13 years, and,
and so that, that has becomeless of one.
But swinging back to Coccidiosisas preventative, we use, uh, a
round of corid on arrival.
Okay.
The first, the first five days.
(32:55):
And, uh, just as a, as apreventative and, and, uh, from
all year round we do it.
It takes a little while for thecattle to come up on intakes
efficiently that they're gettingenough Rumensin or BoviTeck; an
ionophore for, to control it andsuch.
And then the, sometimes whenpeople are reluctant to use
Rumensin on newer cattleconcern, it might pull back
(33:18):
intake a little bit.
Right?
And that, I, I don't thinkthat's, uh, enough of an issue.
I think it, of controlling coacidosis is far more important
than if it would very slightlydecrease intake.
Matt (33:30):
So are you using that Corid as a crumble in the feed
or are you putting it throughthe water?
Rich (33:36):
Uh, we're using it as a crumble.
Okay.
Crumble top dressed on the feedfor the first five days.
Okay.
Matt (33:42):
On that treatment level for Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
And then after that five days,you won't use a preventative
level of it, you'll just let theRumensin take care of that?
Rich (33:51):
Correct.
Okay.
And, and, and the cattle are,are slowly ramping up on their
adaption feed, so Yeah.
Matt (33:56):
Well, well, I don't want to ask you to share all your
trade secrets.
No, but.
For those that are in thestocker business and may be
curious, what if you can, andshare and are willing to share,
what is your standard processingof those calves on, you know,
day after arrival and from avaccine standpoint, medication.
(34:17):
What, what are you using thereif you're willing to share?
Rich (34:20):
Yeah.
I, I certainly am.
And whether I'm only have thetop of my mind, I will get you
our complete protocol.
Okay.
And, and, and also I might haveyou talk with my, uh, cattle
foreman, Stephanie Anderson.
Great.
And she can talk you throughand, and, and that way you can
go ahead and get it, get itcorrectly.
Okay.
Yeah.
But when the cattle.
Arrive, well, one, we have a, afantastic consulting
(34:44):
veterinarian, Bob Smith.
Mm-hmm.
Who will be speaking heretonight.
And then also a, a great localveterinarian.
There's many greatveterinarians, but the one we
work with is Scott Gordon fromEmporia.
Yep.
And so they can kind of helpboth outline our program, but we
do use the modified live vaccineon arrival and we.
Uh, mass treat, they're on, onarrival.
(35:06):
Right.
And, uh, uh, and such, so, uh,yeah.
But, but the complete protocol,uh, Stephanie can give you that
with precision.
Matt (35:13):
Good.
Good.
Thank you.
I'll try to get that and, and ifI can put it in the notes here
on the podcast, and people canlook at that if they're, if
they're, yeah.
Interested the cattle thatyou've been buying.
For the last 35 years, how havethey, if at all, how have they
changed?
It sounds like the weight rangeis still pretty similar to what
you've been buying for decades.
(35:34):
Have the cattle themselveschanged?
Good, bad, indifferent, um,performance, uh, health hide
color, you name it.
What, what did it look liketoday compared to 1979?
Rich (35:46):
Yes.
The cattle have improveddramatically and that bought
and, and.
If people ever wonder if we'vemade improvements in the cattle
industry, all you've gotta do islook at the bottom 20% of the
cattle today is vastly betterthan the bottom 20%, 25 years
ago.
In fact, they may be, you know,somewhat comparable with the,
(36:09):
the top 20%, 25 years ago interms of, growth performance.
And of course every, you know,most everybody's gone ahead and
gone black.
and even from the marbling, thegenetics have been dramatically
improved.
That is the good news.
The bad news is that animalhealth, by most metrics has
(36:29):
gotten worse in terms of, uh,sickness and uh, mortality and.
Nobody knows why.
Some of the brighter, the peopleI trust a lot speculate that it
may be that we have bred so muchimprovement into the cattle in
terms of uh, how fast they willgain marble calving ease and and
(36:53):
such.
But we have not improved thelung size or the immune system.
We don't know.
But, and, and there haven't beenany real new, real new classes
of, of, uh, antibiotics,
Matt (37:05):
Yeah.
And that's a struggle.
I mean, you, it doesn't matterif we're talking about feed
yards even I'm hearing more cowcalf and seed stock producers
talk about the need to get atthis health issue and, and
figure out, uh, especially forthose of you who are taking
those calves and, and yearlingsto the next level.
And I even read a deal yesterdaythat was saying that colostrum
has a large, amount of the blameand that poor colostrum, for
(37:30):
whatever reason, is not settingthat calf up early on to develop
their organs and develop theirimmune function and even the fat
reserves that they need thosefirst few days of life.
So yeah, you ask 10 different.
Folks within the industry, whyis it these cattle aren't as
healthy as they used to be?
And, and you may get 12different answers it seems
(37:51):
today, but it's something that alot of us genetics providers all
the way through feed yards are,are trying to figure out how to
address and hopefully we cancome to some
Rich (38:00):
answers.
It's great that people arelooking at that.
Both from an economicstandpoint, but also reducing
the, any pain and suffering fromYeah, animal welfare from that,
from animal welfare, from thatanimal, from that animal welfare
to do it.
And uh, one example of anillustration of how health has
gotten tougher was K State, uh,puts out a focus on feedlot
(38:23):
publication each month of gainsand cost of gain and mortality.
And I saw a chart of that overthe 25 years that they've had it
and the, uh, death loss in feedloss is about doubled.
Yeah.
And we've had improvements ofvaccine and antibiotics, but yet
the death loss has creeped up.
(38:44):
I even hear of people that havevery high end, high performing
in terms of gain and, percentchoice in prime.
Cattle of having deaths atfinishing in, in some cases even
toward the, toward the tail end.
Yeah.
But that has, has become whatwas hardly an issue.
Has become a greater issue.
But I, I do think of, you know,you know, of trying to figure
(39:06):
out what.
What we can do to improve theinnate health of cattle is, is,
is important.
Matt (39:13):
Yeah.
No doubt about it.
For, for all the reasons thatyou just listed.
Yeah.
And I'm glad that folks are, areworking on that and we'll
continue to see, I think a, aindustrywide effort in trying to
address some of those concerns.
This kind of goes along withthat.
A few years ago, you and I weretalking about, uh, traceability
(39:33):
and animal identification, andit was a big, discussion point,
fight sometimes with in industrymeetings and, and different
places, and you kind of chuckledand said, well, I have a pretty
good traceability program of myown.
Tell us how you have been ableto kind of see where cattle from
certain regions and certainbarns, maybe even certain
(39:55):
buyers, how have you tracedthose cattle yourself and known
maybe a little bit more about'emthan, than what the average Joe
knows about himself?
Yeah, and
Rich (40:06):
my cattle foreman's very adept and so.
When we receive these calves,typically one or two truckloads
of calves each week for the ninemonths out of the year.
But we tell the buyers to leavethe sale barn identifying tags
on them.
And so when the cattle are goingthrough to be branded and the
(40:26):
first round of shots that, uh,and we record.
The identification from the glueon back tag.
Typically a three or four digitlarge number, then a smaller
number that's identifies thespecific sale barn.
Mm-hmm.
We put that into our computeralong with the, uh, ear tag, uh,
(40:49):
identification number, and sothen we're able to, my.
Cattle foreman, she's able todownload the information from
our computer program, put in DExcel, and then, and then work
with the data.
And so we, we sort it by salebarn or origination, and so we
(41:10):
know the mortality.
By individual sale barn.
And then I provide that to mytwo cattle buyers.
And so we can see which salebarns are having more health
and, and, uh, more healthtroubles and better health.
Uh, uh, and what happens to richPorter's cattle is probably from
(41:30):
the other customers.
So they're very appreciative ofgetting that information.
But another thing is, is thatif, if we would have some.
Terrible disease pop up one oneof these things that you kind of
squint your eyes at night andsay, I hope I never see this.
If that would come up, we wouldbe able to cooperate with our
full database, may mail madeavailable to the whatever
(41:52):
government agency was workingwith us, and so they would know
precisely where that animal camefrom and they would know it came
from Sale Barn XY in Georgia.
On a certain day, on, on acertain date, uh, where it was,
and that sail barn would knowwho brought the animal in,
(42:13):
right?
And so the, the animal healthexperts, they, they would be
much better off ma able to trackthings on back.
And another reason why startedthis program was when we were
finishing cattle ourselves.
If there should have been anillegal drug residue in one of
our cattle, right.
(42:34):
I would merely tell thegovernmental agencies.
All of my veterinary productscome from my, my veterinarian
and my veterinary supplier.
I'm releasing all my records ofwhat's, of what's there.
And oh, by the way, the animalwith the illegal residue he was
bought in.
Timbuk two Alabama on thus andsuch a date.
Matt (42:56):
Right.
So you had the liability, yourisk off.
Rich (43:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It, it would be off a littlebit.
And there was a couple of timessomething would happen, like,
uh, day after the cattlearrived, two head that looked
very similar.
They were dead, you know, uh,uh, from new cattle and looked
at their, uh, uh, sale barn,back tags, and they were
sequential, meaning they camefrom the same farm, right?
(43:22):
And so I told my buyer, I gavethem that information, and they
talked with the sale barn owner,and I said, tell them I'm not
wanting one pennyback for theanimal, but I'm wanting the sale
barn owner to know that.
Two head of cattle from them.
They were dead the next day,right?
And uh, and they were veryappreciative.
(43:42):
I didn't ask for what was goingon, but I did hear the sale barn
operator was extremelyappreciative to have this
information.
Matt (43:50):
I got the opportunity to sit in on the Cattle Feeders
Hall of Fame Awards, uh, back amonth or so ago down in CBA.
And, um, one of the folks that Ivisited with afterwards was
talking about the fact, youknow, everybody.
Says that, nobody knows about,nobody will know about my cattle
if I don't have RFID tag in it.
(44:12):
Yeah.
Or something like that.
And he said, we know more aboutyour cattle than you know about
your cattle.
And, uh, and there's a lot oftruth in that, and I don't think
we realize that, but he, just,like you said, from a liability
standpoint, from just a, um,knowledge for the future of
buying those cattle, you can, Doa lot of good for yourself to go
and pay more for the ones thathave worked and not maybe pay as
(44:35):
much or not buy'em at all forthe ones that don't.
Rich (44:37):
Correct.
And I'm gonna stuck my neck outabout the whole thing about
cattle id.
Um, many other nations are doingthis.
And my personal opinion is if,if I'm not proud enough of the
animals that I produce, that I'mwilling to have my name or my
identification so tracked backto me.
(44:58):
Maybe I shouldn't be in thecattle business.
Yeah.
And, and if something would comeup, I mean, I, I wouldn't go out
and buy a pickup with no brandname, on it.
Right.
you know Ford, Chevy, they puttheir name on it.
And, and they want to, you know,and they are, you know, they're
willing to be held responsiblefor what they produced.
Sure.
(45:18):
And also with, uh, people say,well, I don't want people to
know how many cattle I have.
Well, my, my banker knows ahundred exactly how many cattle
I have, and many of my neighborscould probably guess within 10%
of how many cattle I have.
So.
If, if somebody chooses to havea different opinion, they,
they're, they're totallyentitled to that opinion.
But I'm of the opinion that ifI'm not proud enough to hold my
(45:41):
head up and this is what I'mdoing, I think I may ought to
drop outta the cattle business.
Yep.
Matt (45:46):
I, I would agree.
And after the last 10 or 12years of drought, money and
government Oh, yeah.
And payments and things likethat, rest assured Uncle Sam
knows.
Quite a little bit about howmany cattle we do or don't have
in the, in the beef industrytoday, whether we like it or
not.
tell us real quickly about youremployees.
(46:08):
You said you've got sevenemployees today.
Yeah.
Um, age.
You know, I think it's reallyinteresting the team that you've
put together there at PorterCattle Company.
Rich (46:16):
Yeah.
Uh, one employee's been with menearly 40 years and he's now,
he's foreman for most of those40 years, and he's now, until
he's got semi-retired and nowthey have a, a, a new foreman
who's fantastic.
And, uh, those seven people, theshortest tenure years about.
Eight years.
Okay.
And, uh, so needless to say,they, they know their jobs far,
(46:40):
far more than I do.
And, and occasionally I'll starttrying to explain when the next
season hits and I'll start kindof explaining what we need to do
and, and the employee will kindof look at me with a sly smile
and I'll realize he knows moreabout that job than I do.
That's true.
So maybe I just let him go aheadand do his job.
And for, for a variety ofreasons have have probably been
(47:02):
both lucky in hiring, you usedto hire, you know, focus on
hiring people that hadexperience, hardworking and
would show up.
And she'd pick up a lot ofpeople that changed jobs every
few months because everybodythere was idiots, so they
(47:23):
couldn't get along with them.
And probably the, what Iconsider the most important is,
you know, most important issafety.
And second most important isthat they can work productively
with other people.
And, uh, there's other job,details that that can be picked
up.
But if, if people are, ifemployees are encouraging and
(47:48):
helpful toward each other ratherthan undercutting and demeaning,
uh, let's just say.
One, everybody's a lot happier.
And two, the work gets done awhole lot better.
Matt (48:00):
That's great.
Uh, you have, you seem to have awell-oiled machine there, and
I've only been there once ortwice, but, uh, it was
impressive to me.
It, it, um, maybe was a littlenon-traditional workforce.
Rich (48:12):
Well, I have, uh, uh, one female and two Hispanics.
And such, so,
Matt (48:17):
yeah.
Well, I was just, I, I wasimpressed with your, foreman.
Yeah.
The
Rich (48:21):
cattle foreman is a female.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Matt (48:23):
And, and that's, that's a little different than what Yeah.
Some of us would think of in a.
Conventional traditional role.
But I mean, she knew her stuffand everybody respected her and
knew she knew her stuff.
And it was, like I said, awell-oiled machine it looked
like to me.
and like yourself, was verycurious and always wanting to
learn something more.
And that's what I appreciate.
Um, you know, not just the, thesmarts and the work ethic and
(48:48):
the willingness to do the job,but also.
Willingness to learn that we maybe able to do it better
tomorrow.
Y
Rich (48:54):
yeah, I, and all, all my employees are more dedicated and
hardworking than I am.
But, but, and something in thenews a lot about, uh, DEI and
yada, yada yada.
My attitude is that I'm, I amwanting to hire.
The best people available forthe job, and it would make no
(49:18):
sense for me to exclude anybody.
Everybody comes in, they're,they're not hired because of, or
excluded for anything about thatindividual person, race, gender,
uh, or anything else.
And so of course it makes senseto not exclude anybody.
Matt (49:40):
Well, I think that sums up what you've done throughout the
years at Porter Cattle Companyand your life.
I mean, so, so very well and.
Here we are sitting.
I, I believe that you told methat we're sitting in Dr.
Dave Nichols office here atKansas State Yes.
At Dr.
Don Good's desk.
(50:01):
Correct.
That Dave commandeered in themove.
And, um, I'd say both of thosegentlemen and those are
household names amongst anybodythat's been to a cattle
exhibition or any BIF meetingsor anything else.
I'd say, in the presence of, ofthose greats, they would, echo
that, sentiment.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, appreciate everythingthat you've done.
(50:21):
Correct.
Rich (50:21):
And, and, and there's just a fantastic series of people of
leadership at K State AnimalScience professors and staff
mm-hmm.
And the students up here.
So it's, uh, I, I feelincredibly blessed to be a part
of the K state animal science.
Matt (50:40):
Well, what a, what an honor to get to talk with you
today as you receive this awardfrom department animal science
and, uh, yeah.
Keep up the great work and, uh,we look forward to visiting
again soon.
Rich (50:51):
Matt, thank you so very much.
You
Matt (50:52):
bet.
Thank you, rich.
Thanks for tuning in toPractically Ranching, brought to
you by Dalebanks Angus.
If you liked this show, share itwith someone else, give us a
five star review and a commentso we can keep cranking'em out.
We still have a handful ofprivate treaty bulls and April
calving registered females forsale.
So if you'd like information onany of these groups, email me at
(51:16):
mattperrier@dalebanks.com.
God bless you all.
I look forward to visiting againsoon.
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