#77 - Jason Kraft; Faith, Freedom, Family, and Agriculture - Practically Ranching

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Thanks for joining us forepisode 77 of Practically
Ranching.
I'm Matt Perrier, and we're herethanks to Dalebanks Angus, your
home for practical profitablegenetics since 1904.
My guest this week is JasonKraft.
Jason is the CEO of Compass AgSolutions, a risk management

(00:27):
firm based in Jason's hometownof Fort Collins, Colorado.
In addition, his family owns andoperates Hilltop Hay and
Livestock, a diversified familyoperation that offers high
quality hay, cattle, and beef totheir customers in the front
range throughout Colorado.

(00:48):
Amy and I met Jason and his wifeCheri, thanks to our kids
friendships.
I say kids plural because.
Their four kids are similar inage to our four eldest, and
they've all gotten to be prettygood friends thanks to their
involvement through the NationalJunior Angus Association

(01:08):
programs.
And all of us were in Tulsa lastweek for the Junior Nationals,
and Jason and I took a breakfrom our dad duties in the
stalls and show ring to visitfor just a bit.
We got to talk market risk andleverage, fed cattle price
discovery, and asset protection,and it became clear that

(01:30):
throughout his career, Jason hasgotten pretty good at finding
solutions to market challenges,whether it's his work in
commodity markets and riskmanagement, or hay in livestock
production, or their farm tofork retail business.
The Kraft family knows how toturn these challenges into
opportunities.

(01:51):
We've recorded this episode onIndependence Day, so Jason's
family mantra became a perfecttitle for this one.
Faith, freedom, family andagriculture.
Now, if you know Jason or Cherior any of their family, you know
that this is more than justanother slogan.

(02:13):
I think you'll appreciateJason's perspective.
I think you'll appreciate hisintelligence and his dedication
to helping producers find waysto best protect their
investments.
As always, we thank you forlistening to another great
episode with Jason Kraft.

Matt (02:31):
your kids are showing cattle.
My kids are showing cattle.
You've got a kid on theleadership Junior Angus board.
I have got one running for it.
And so, um, I hadn't envisionedtalking beef industry issues
here, but.
We gotta visit the other day andI thought it'd be perfect.
So

Jason (02:46):
welcome aboard.
Well, thank you very much.
Appreciate you having me, Matt.
It's been a great week so far.
And, uh, looking forward to, uh,the rest of the week that lies
ahead.
It's been a great opportunityfor us to get to know one
another through this venue.
So I treasure the relationshipsthat we've been able to make
through the last number of yearsbeing involved in the, the Angus
Association and the, showingCattle here.

Matt (03:05):
Yeah, it's been fun.
I think regardless of where weare in the beef industry and
where we're working or wherewe're living or ranch and
whatever else, it's a.
Pretty small world.
And, um, the overlap of course,you know, I'd met some folks
that work with you there atCompass and didn't know you
hadn't met your family until mykids introduced me to your kids.

(03:25):
Mm-hmm.
And all of a sudden, there itis.
So, uh, yeah.
It, it's, it's a pretty cooltangled web, but, uh, it's
pretty cool and, and I get anopportunity to sit down and talk
about maybe something elsebesides rinsing cattle and
keeping'em cool in the northeastOklahoma summer here, uh, this
week in Tulsa.
But it's, it's a good, good spotfor the kids to be in a good

(03:46):
spot to, to catch up with otherlike-minded folks.
So if you would, and of course,I'm gonna reference a lot of
times I already had Joe Kovandaon.
What, a year and a half or twoyears ago, I think talking about
LRP, livestock Risk Protection,and Joe works closely with your
all group and, and everything,so we won't get too deep into

(04:06):
LRP, but give us a little ideaof your history and how you got
into this whole space of riskmanagement and why, and kind of
what you've grown there.
And then we'll kind of pick upon some more details from there.
Sure.

Jason (04:19):
Well, I had the, uh, unique privilege of being raised
in production agriculture.
I was raised on a fourthgeneration family owned, farm
and feed yard.
And, and growing up, you see,the likes of things happen that
are fortunate and unfortunateand a lot of'em, which we don't
understand.
You see hail take out crops justminutes before harvest and you
see, some really good cattlethat don't end up making it, and

(04:42):
you just see a lot of misfortuneand you, I started asking a lot
of the questions at a very earlyin age as to why.
Why things happen and, and, uh,I don't always get, uh, the
answers to those questions.
I still have a lot of whyquestions that linger in life
today, but it started to me downa path of just trying to focus
on.
On purpose on Meaning, and I wasone of those weird kids that

(05:04):
read a lot of self-help booksgrowing up and a lot of
leadership books.
I didn't read a lot of fictionand through that phase I really
wanted to see what really movedthe needle in life.
And as I grew up throughproduction agriculture, I went
to Colorado State and playedsome football there and, and had
an opportunity to meet a lot ofgreat folks through agriculture,
I started to understand whatreally makes a difference in

(05:26):
this cattle business.
And that's what I kept askingmyself is what, what is the
thing that moves the needle inthe beef industry?
And, and we heard a lot in ourresearch about maybe different
feed additives or maybedifferent technologies or
sciences that would add a, a10th of a pound of gain or would
add a, a little bit higherpregnancy rate.
And so there's lots oftremendous science out there

(05:46):
that does help us feed thisnation and feed the globe.
But at the end of the day, whatit comes back down to is, is are
we gonna make any money doing itright?
And uh, really what got mefocused on risk management was
it's how we buy cattle and howwe sell cattle is really what
makes a sustainable.
And I, I know that's a wayoverused word, the
sustainability word today, but Ireferenced Dr.

(06:09):
Tom Fields, one of my mentors inlife, and I remember him saying,
there's nothing more sustainablethan.
Than a profitable operation.
Yep.
And when it comes toprofitability, it feels like one
of the things that really drivesprofitability, or at least
protects profitability, is asound risk management and
marketing plan.
And so that's what really droveme into this field is like, I
think this is the thing thatcould move.

(06:31):
The needle more than anythingelse.
I mean, you can feed the cattle,right?
You can do all the nutrition,right?
You can do the reproductiveright, and the market can take
it all away.
And it just seemed, it seemedlike a crime to me to have all
those things go right, and atthe end you'd do it for practice
or for a loss.
So that, that was the thing thatreally drove me to, to the field
of, of risk management.

Matt (06:52):
Yeah.
And that's, that's somethingthat I, we've talked about it on
this podcast time and again,and, and, um, the two things
that cattlemen.
Farmers, any ag producers reallytalk about most the weather and
the markets.
Right.
And the two things that areprobably in and of themselves as
much out of our control asanything around the weather and

(07:13):
the markets.

Jason (07:14):
Exactly.

Matt (07:15):
And, and so often, I mean, you mentioned a couple just
broad areas of management thatwe can part or participate in
risk management and technology.
Yep.
And.
I think that at least in the cowcalf segment, I think the feed
yard segment has adoptedspecifically well, both risk

(07:35):
management and technology wayquicker.
Mm-hmm.
The dairy end of things wayquicker.
That's cow calf guys, and we'repretty leery about some of these
in we have to turn somethingover or pay someone in Chicago
or at the Mercantile, or abroker or a, some company that
owns the patent for whatevertechnology.

(07:55):
A, I guess why is that, and B,how can we do a better job of
trusting those folks that areoutside of our ranch borders,
outside of our county line, ourstate, we may not know them, but
sometimes we have to trust thembecause they're gonna be able to
help us out.
We may have to pay'em a littleto do it, but.

(08:15):
How, how do we break that fear,I guess, of technology and of
risk management and things likethat?
Uh, and, and put that to use.

Jason (08:24):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think about how many yearshave, has it been pounded into
our head that we need to be alow cost operator?
Right.
And I'm definitely not against alow cost operation or operators,
but, uh, there needs to be atime where we need to protect
the equity or the asset that we,uh, that we're raising.
And because I think a lot of usdon't realize how these cattle.
Really represent themselves.

(08:45):
Our cattle or crops for thatmatter, uh, represent themselves
in our balance sheet and howevery day as markets move up and
down, our balance sheets arechanging.
But because we don't think ofthat, we've got more urgent, uh,
issues.
We've got more pressing issueson the ranch or the feed yard
that are attending our, thoughtsand our, our attention.
We don't spend a lot of timethinking about that.
And so we, we tend to just dealwith the urgent more than the

(09:07):
important.
And so I, I think the, theanswer to that lies in, in a
couple of things.
I think building a great networkof people and finding, you know,
these trade associations are agreat way to get involved and
meet people, whether at thecounty level, the state level,
or even the national level.
Building that great network hasbeen something that I've really
benefited from even back into mycollege days, I've been working

(09:28):
on just trying to get to knowmore, more and more people in
this industry.
And so as you build thatnetwork, those relationships
oftentimes get referred to aslike, Hey, I've really found
value in this organization or inthis service provider that can
provide service for me.
And so those trusted referralsare worth a lot in our business.
I think that's a great big thingof it.
The other thing I would add isthere's never been a better time

(09:51):
at these price levels to investsome time and some energy to
learn risk management because,uh, the last thing you wanna do
is learn risk management afterthe, the barn, the horses escape
the barn door.
Right, right, right.
This is a great time to spendsome, some extra effort to see
what you can do to protect someof this swell in our balance

(10:12):
sheet, if you will.
That's happened within our, uh,beef industry.
So, great timing.
You couldn't ask for a bettertime to invest right now, as
opposed to what tends to be thecase is, we a crisis happen and
then we start looking for peopleto blame and the things that are
broke instead of investing inthings that we can do to today
when everything's going our way.

(10:34):
To protect the equity growththat we've experienced.
So

Matt (10:37):
Anybody who is, well, almost anybody who's listening
to this today has 2015 and 202021 and all those over the last
10 years or so that left such anindelible mark on our brains
that if we didn't participate inrisk management then, I would

(10:57):
hope that this would be a timethat we would use those lessons.
'cause they were hard ones on alot of us.
Indeed.
And we, prior to that, again,we've talked about this, but
prior to that, we'd probablygone a couple decades without a
true, clear cattle cycle, and alot of folks, even me included,
said, you know what?
We may never see one againbecause of value-based

(11:19):
marketing, because of, of all ofthese forward contracting, all
of these different things thatwe, we had implemented in the
marketing of, of all classes ofcattle.
And yet here we are, we've seena classic 10 year cycle once
again.
And, um, from a pricestandpoint, what we didn't have
in 2014 and 15, or at least atthe level of subsidy that it is

(11:41):
today, is this livestock riskprotection program.
And, that's a way that all of usthat remember thinking, oh, 14,
those prices are gonna lastanother year to two years,
nearly every economist, nearlyevery, anybody that had any
notion of supply and demandfundamentals said, yeah, we've,
we've got a good 12 to 18 monthsat least of these levels of
prices.

(12:02):
And there it went.
And, and so yeah, that's a waythat we can lock in some things.
And again, we can go back and,um, listen to that podcast with
Joe and get how you do thosethings.
But yeah, I think, I think thetough part is not just going
through the forms and.
Paying the premiums on some kindof an option or some kind of a

(12:24):
hedge or, or, um, riskmanagement.
But it's breaking that paradigmand for the first time saying,
yes, I'm gonna do this.
I never have before Dad andgrandpa never used the board or
the Merck or anybody else to, tocover their risk.
But now I've got an opportunitythat they didn't have.
So that brings in something thatI have always sensed from the

(12:46):
time I was a kid.
A lot of times it was around myown family dinner table, but
this, this distrust with, ifit's on the farming side,
Chicago Board of Trade, if it'son the cattle side, the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange.
How do we get past that?
Because, you know, especially,and everybody can point to the
reason, well, it's just whatevertraders feel like that morning

(13:07):
when they walk out the door inChicago or whatever the last
weather report they saw, or nowthat we've pulled the floor
traders out, it's all just abunch of computer, BS that's,
that's driving this market.
How do we make sense and buildenough trust that we believe
that these things that are basedoff of those prices can work?

Jason (13:27):
Yeah, I appreciate that question.
You know, it's, it's been anarrative for decades.
Oh yeah.
Because, because mainly becauseI think markets don't make
sense.
Markets oftentimes don't makesense.
And so if you think about it,with all due respect, all the
people that try to forecast andpredict markets, I truly believe
that nobody really knows Oh, no.
Where the market's going.

Matt (13:45):
Most of them will

Jason (13:45):
admit that for sure.
For sure.
It's just we

Matt (13:47):
want an answer and we hold them to one little thing they
said, sure.

Jason (13:51):
And so what happens is, is people assign a narrative in
the rear view mirror, a marketthat something's happened that
nobody understands.
They try to explain it with anarrative looking backwards, and
oftentimes they make up anarrative that creates distrust
in a, in a crowd of people thatthey don't understand or they
don't know, but truthfully.
The market needs a, aspeculative community to accept

(14:11):
the risk of that US cattlemenneed to shift the risk to
somebody.
There's, there's ev, there'salways a seller for every buyer
and a buyer for every seller.
That's the way the system works.
And so when, when US cattlemenneed to offset our risk, we need
to transfer that risk tosomebody, right?
Somebody needs to absorb thatrisk, and so we desperately need
a speculative community that'slooking to take on or absorb our

(14:33):
risk.
And so it has to function in away with somebody that wants to
add risk and somebody that wantsto reduce risk.
And oftentimes we don'tunderstand why they want to add
risk, but they're, they'relooking for a return on their
capital.
And it's, it's an integral partof our system.
As is the clearing house andthe, the systems that are put in
place.
So that performance happens withthese contracts, uh, whether

(14:55):
it's a CME contract or, or theLRP that you've got the, you got
the United States governmentsitting behind an LRP, policy,
so you know that they're gonnamake good on, on those policies.
And so I think the trust is thatyou've got, you've got a
clearing house, you've gotyou've got counterparty risk of
the US government and behind ourLRP, those are, those are solid
counterparts, probably thesawest one in the world,

(15:15):
hopefully.
And so, hopefully, so I wouldprobably go with that one.
Yeah.
And, Again, it, the, the, if youstart, if you have a starting
point of that you really trulydon't know where the market's
going, then I think that reallyhelps that concept of risk
management of saying, I need totake on, take less risk.
And, and I think if I may just,uh, sidetrack for a little bit

(15:35):
here.
When we talk risk management atour firm, we oftentimes don't
talk whether you're somebody'slong or short or, um, what their
position is, but typically ascattlemen, we're always long in
the market.
We always have inventory.
Sure.
So as we apply risk management,whether it be a LRP contract or
a CME contract, we're just lesslong.
We're not really short, we'rejust less long.

(15:57):
We're less exposed.
So that's all we're doing iswe're becoming less exposed to
the market move, and evensomebody that's a hundred
percent hedged or a hundredpercent protected with LRP, we
look at that person as they'reneutral because they have a
physical asset.
Yep.
That goes up and down with themarket.
And a derivative that goes upand down the market.
And those two, if theycompletely offset each other,

(16:18):
the worst you can be is neutral.
And, and that's the, that's thespot where you're not impacted
by market flows up or down.

Matt (16:26):
Yeah.
And that's, I, I think that'swhen we get to looking at
things, you know, like basis orwhatever the case may be.
I mean, we just feed a fewcattle with a group of folks and
you know, some of these cattlehave come out and.
Would've made three, four,$500 ahead, and yet we hedged them way

(16:46):
back when.
Mm-hmm.
And on that hedge, you're givenback three,$400.
And so they're barely profitablebecause of that.
Now, hopefully we had thosehedged three, four years ago and
it worked in our favor.
But yeah, that's, that's whenthat neutrality it's tough to go
down to the coffee shop mm-hmm.
And brag about the fact that.

(17:07):
You broke even because you usedrisk management, right?
Uh, it's a lot more fun to godown there and say you hit a
home run, but you don't talkabout the times when you lost
your right, lost your rearbecause you weren't taking care
of business.
So to drill down a little bitmore on the Merc, you've seen a
lot of change in the commoditymarkets.
So you would've started in what?

(17:28):
Around 2000.
Yep.
Right around there.
Early two thousands.
How have things like you know,electronic trading as a, as
opposed to floor traders thehedge funds that have taken such
a speculative position and, uh,added to the open interest?
I mean, I remember there werediscussions early in my career
that.

(17:48):
You know, these, these commoditymarkets may go away, not because
producers didn't like howvolatile they were, but because
there wasn't anybody to take theother side and then all of a
sudden Wall Street and a lot ofthese hedge funds found out that
they could use commodities and,and diversify their portfolio.
How have those two things and,and if there's anything else
that you've seen that would be apretty major shift in how

(18:11):
commodity markets are funded andopen interest and all the, the
money that comes through those,how, how have those changed
things from a productionstandpoint?
A hedging standpoint?
Mm-hmm.

Jason (18:20):
Well, I think it was just November of a year, this last
fall where the live cattlecontract turned 60 years old.
So we've had the live cattlecontract now for 60 years.
Wow.
And we do work closely with theCME and, and it's that contract
keeping, that contract specs,uh, reflective of, our everyday
production is, is somethingthat's incredibly important,

(18:40):
right?
Because if, if they start todeviate, uh, the job of the
contract is not to direct theindustry, but it's to reflect
the industry.
I always say our contractsshould mirror what production
is.
It shouldn't try to leadshouldn't try to guide our, our
production practices, but, buteconomics should drive
production practices and thenthe, the CME Live cattle

(19:02):
contract, or the feeder cattlecontract, any of the contracts
should be just a mere reflectionof what really occurs in
production agriculture.
And so the CME had just finishedrecently, just finished a live
cattle contract review, and theywent through the contract and
said, Hey, where in what areasshould we adapt our contract to
make it more reflective of whatgoes on in, in live cattle

(19:23):
production.
Because think about how, how thelive cattle production has
changed just since COVID.
Yeah.
We've added way more days onfeed, right?
Yeah.

Matt (19:31):
Big

Jason (19:31):
time beef on dairy, a whole entire different, beast
that we're feeding todaycompared to what we were 10, 15
years ago.
So as our production systemschange, we need to make sure
our, our contracts, our riskmanagement tools change in, in
reflection of that.
And I, I think we're about toundergo a feeder cattle contract
review too.
So the, the CME is verydedicated in making sure our
contracts remain updated andthey're dynamic because our

(19:54):
production system's dynamic.
And so that's, uh, that's beenan investment that our industry
con continues to do.
And I think it's serves our riskmanagement tool as well.

Matt (20:02):
Yeah, and I mean, we're, we're in such a a higher trading
range, and, uh, from apercentage standpoint, I mean,
I, I saw that, I think it wasCME that expanded their limits
on both live and feeder cattlecontracts.
And I thought, my goodness, how,and I don't even remember now
what it was, but we're in thedouble digits for sure.
And, and I'm like, how couldthey do that?

(20:23):
And then I get to thinking as apercentage, that's no different
than it was when it was a buckand a half on a 60 cent market
or whatever it was, you know, 30years ago.
But.
I mean, you look at a chart andsee how long the beef industry
sat in there and traded in arange of, you know, 60 to$80 for
fed cattle for decades anddecades and decades.

(20:46):
Maybe it was 50 to 70, honestly.
But then when we hit that low inbeef demand and prices in 96, 97
time period.
And started, in my opinion,focusing on the consumer and
trying to make better beef andtrying to deliver what it was
they said they wanted instead ofjust making'em eat what we were
gonna make.
It's just been a rocket ship.
I mean, it's absolutelyphenomenal from a business

(21:08):
standpoint to see what hashappened to these prices.
The downside of that is there'sgoing to be more volatility,
especially just from a dollarsstandpoint.
I mean, you know, we.
It took$5 off the cash marketlast week and you went, eh,
doggone it.
I kind of hate to see that, butNah, big deal.
I mean, a$5 move in a week,right?

(21:29):
Would be crazy.
10, 20 years ago.
And now as a percentage of$2 and20 or 30 cents, it's, it's not
near that big.
And so I think sometimes the,the raw moves in terms of
dollars and especially when youmultiply it across the board,
that makes folks a little bitanxious as well as they, as they
look at using some of thesefutures and, and stuffed price

(21:52):
cattle.

Jason (21:53):
Yeah, they, they sure do.
These are, these are, uh,unnerving times with this
increasing volatility.
But I will tell you one of thethings that's important is, is
the, for the speculativecommunity and these hedge funds,
index funds to continue toparticipate, in our markets,
they need to be able to havemarkets that trade

Matt (22:09):
right

Jason (22:09):
and markets that get lock limit really discourages our
counterparties from being ableto participate and willing to
participate in our markets.
And so one of the, the reasonswe have these dynamic limits
that are set on a percentage,like you say and then expanded
limits that once a market locklimits one day it expands the
following day.
The reason we we allow them totrade like that is the index

(22:31):
funds and some of these, uh,speculative funds need to have
the ability to move in and outof our markets Right.
On a regular basis.
And if they feel like they'relocked out or they, they have an
inability to trade, theirwillingness to participate goes
right out the window.
Yeah.
They're gone.
They're going.
And so we, we need to have theselimits.
Unfortunately, they are, um,they're challenging for some of

(22:51):
the producers with margin callsand, and, uh, the line of
credits that are required tosubstantiate these margin calls.
They are, are substantial forsure.
But, largely it's, it's not the,the disciplined hedger that runs
into challenges with thesemargin calls.
And no doubt they arechallenging.
But, uh, most of these guyshave, have an incredible
agriculture finance institutesthat, that stand behind them and

(23:13):
back them as long as it's, it'strue disciplined hedging.
Right?
And it's not, uh, games or, or,uh, other, other trading that
they do on the marketplace thatcauses that need for, uh, for a
margin call.

Matt (23:24):
Yeah, I, I didn't, I didn't spend a lot of time in
commodities future and tradingclasses when I was at Kansas
State, but I think that that'swhere I first heard the term
speculative hedging and, and notactually taking that offsetting
position when you put the cattleon feed or when you purchase the
calves or whatever the case maybe.

(23:44):
But waiting for a, you know, adip in the market or a high in
the market or whatever,depending on whether you're
going long or short.
And yeah, that's, that's not.
That's not necessarily as ahedge, right?
But, uh, yeah, that, that's whatprobably gets us into trouble
sometimes too.
So from a pricing standpoint,and, and you mentioned, you

(24:06):
know, at times that the, let'stake the live cattle fed cattle
complex that futures will leadcash and other times cash are
gonna lead futures.
And I think that's just probablyin different times of that
cattle cycle and how demand orsupply or whatever the case is,
is leading those.
That brings up anotherconversation that we haven't had

(24:27):
in a while, and that is how dowe or are we today in your
opinion able to do a decent jobof pricing fed cattle from a
base standpoint so that we canmove these grids up and down
and, and, and have a place toestablish that base typically

(24:47):
and con.
And traditionally we've used thequote unquote cash cattle price,
Western Kansas, Eastern Nebraskawhere Texan or wherever the case
may be, to base a lot of thesegrids.
Is that still.
A good enough trade to establishthat for all those other cattle.
Is there a better way in youropinion, and, and you know this,

(25:09):
this may not be right in yourwheelhouse, but I think it is
good, especially when prices areas good as they are right now,
and as many cattle as aretrading cash.
To have these discussionsbecause usually when they come
out is when everybody's cattleare on a formula and there's
less than 20, maybe less than 10in some regions, percent cattle

(25:30):
that are traded in the cash andwe don't like the price that
they're being traded at.
Any thoughts there or do we needto do a better job as an
industry?
What?
What are some things from yourstandpoint as a trader that may
help or hurt that?

Jason (25:45):
Right.
I really appreciate your timingon this subject because it, uh,
it always feels like we have towait for a crisis to happen.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Before we try to solve someproblems instead of being
proactive.
So why not use these record highprices to, to talk a little bit
about price discovery.

Matt (25:59):
Yep.

Jason (25:59):
You know, a couple of thoughts on that.
I mean, the futures market isthe most, um, transparent price,
discovery, um, vehicle we haveit, it trades second by second.
Everybody can see it, and it'svery widely.
Broadcasted on, on where supplyand demand is for.
For live cattle futures, feedercattle futures or, or any other
market for that matter.
And so it's, it's often referredto as the most transparent price

(26:22):
discovery mechanism.
The challenge you get into is,is it starts to separate itself
from the cash market duringcertain regions.
Yeah.
And during certain times of theyear, and most recently we've
seen a, uh, a cash market on thefed cattle side, particularly
between like the, the South orTexas and Kansas, and what we
call the North and be Colorado,Nebraska, and Iowa.
And we've seen, uh, a spread asmuch as 10,$12 difference per a

(26:45):
hundred weight on any given weekhere recently.
And we've gotten a lot ofquestions.
Well, well, how come we'reseeing such a big price
differential between North andSouth because the, the freight
spreads shouldn't allow that tohappen.
We should be able to truck thosecattle from that distance, for
that price spread.
Economically, you, you'd thinkthat that wheels or freight
would solve for that problem,right.

(27:06):
So there's a, there's a coupleof, I mean, it's a complex issue
like you said, and, and I'm, I'msure not gonna be able to solve
this with, uh, with a new rocketship or anything like that.
But I would tell you thatthere's a, there's definitely a
quality difference between thecattle in both of those regions.
I mean, you can see that throughthe data, but there's also a big
difference on how many cattleare negotiated in, in the north
versus how many cattle areturned on a formula in the

(27:27):
south.
And by all means, I fullyunderstand why feed yards, turn
cattle on a formula from ascheduling standpoint, from an
efficiency, from a penutilization standpoint, from a
collaborative, uh, work with apacker, there's a lot of
benefits and frankly,negotiating for cash cattle is
very time intensive.
Yeah, it is very hard work.

(27:48):
And it takes the rightpersonality to sign up for that
week in and week out.
Yeah.
But largely, we'll have morenegotiated cattle in the North
than we do the south.
And so we've got a, we've got a10,$12 spread between those two
markets recently.
And partly a lot of that isbecause the Packers have a
smaller inventory to start theweek with.
Right.

(28:08):
And so that's a, that's a bigpiece of it.
So you're seeing some pricediscovery rewarding going on
through the marketplace.
There's actually a rewarding ofthose people who are willing to
take on the basis risk, I meanthis very strong basis in the
north.
Yep.
And be rewarded for the hardwork of price discovery of, of
negotiation.
So I think the, I think what wewanna do is, is continue to

(28:29):
maintain some negotiation in, inhow we market our fed cattle.
But we also want to bring alongwith it the value-based
marketing of the, of the grid.
So in my view, a negotiated gridis still one of the highest and
best places to do do some pricediscovery through our fed
cattle.
'cause you get the best of bothworlds.
You get some negotiation, youeliminate the captive supply and

(28:50):
then you, still get to bringtogether the value based carcass
merchandising of these highquality cattle.

Matt (28:56):
Yeah.
And that, that's something thatmy bias, my perspective, my
opinion says whatever the answeris to this price discovery,
status quo, new mouse trap,whatever the case may be, we
can't not use the ability tohave some type of value-based
marketing in concert with it.

(29:16):
Right.
Um, and, and, and that's thething.
Sometimes people that arearguing this that we don't have
enough price discovery.
Say we just gotta get away fromthe grid.
Absolutely not.
And maybe it's, maybe it's notthe classic old conventional
grid that we've used for thelast 30 years, but we've gotta
have something that rewards thecarcasses, the cattle that are

(29:38):
making what the consumer wants.
You.
You mentioned the bid the grid,negotiated grid selling.
For folks that maybe haven'tseen that done, can you give us
a.
1 0 1 fed cattle marketing onwhat bid, what negotiated grid
selling looks like.
Sure.
So,

Jason (29:56):
and this is very high level, and, and I'll give you
kind of my view on it.
Sure, sure.
But basically it's a, a, aformula or a grid merchandising
of our cattle are rewarded for,for carcass quality.
Mm-hmm.
But the, the specs of it arenegotiated, so you might
negotiate a.
A certain, uh, discount forchoice, uh, or a certain
discount for select or thechoice.

(30:18):
You might, you might negotiate adifferent, uh, freight
agreement.
You might negotiate a differentdiscount for fours and fives or
an allowance or something likethat.
Um, and then the base priceitself is actually negotiated,
right?
And typically these cattlearen't, contract to clear out in
advance so you have the abilityto pass.
That's, as a cattle owner, youcan say, well, I don't think I
wanna take that price.

(30:38):
And so you can say no.
And so those cattle aren't knownto be in the Packer Supply House
until the negotiation iscompleted and they agreed upon.
And then typically they'remerchandise within seven days.
They don't have to be withinseven days, seven to 10 days.
But they're, they're typicallynot, uh, negotiated, clear out
in front, therefore more of ashort term delivery period.

Matt (30:57):
So it's probably of all those different pieces that are
being negotiated.
It's probably the negotiation ofthe base price that is as
critical as any of the otherpremiums and discounts.
It might.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And do you have any idea todaywhat that percentage breakdown
is?
Of what we'd call traditionalcash cattle.

(31:20):
To, I guess all formula and gridcattle.
And then within that formula andgrid cattle, how many, I mean, I
have no idea what, what thenegotiated grid type percentage,
if it was five or if it was 25%of those cattle.

Jason (31:34):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I do think it's, uh, I have notlooked recently, but it is a,
uh.
One of the growing, growingcategories.
Okay.
It, it's not growing as fast aswe would hoped or would like to
see it, but I would say it's,it's trending higher.

Matt (31:46):
And is that done more in the north still or is that
something that the Kansas andTexas Yards are using to try and
give a little bit moreopportunity or to themselves to
try to negotiate instead ofjust.
Selling more cash cattle likethey would in Iowa or something.
Right?
I, I would

Jason (32:03):
say it's done more in the north just because that's where
more of the negotiated rightcattle trade are, but it's
definitely available to anybodynorth or south for that

Matt (32:10):
matter.
So here's a hard one.
You mentioned that it's verylabor intensive.
It takes a lot of time.
I mean, I remember.
In my early days coming outtaschool, a feed yard manager
spent, I don't know, I'm gonnasay a third of his time.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe half of his time.
Sure.
Selling cattle and as we sawvalue-based marketing come into

(32:33):
practice, I don't think that wasthe intent.
I think the intent was, was verynoble and that was let's reward
the good cattle and let's givefinancial incentives for people
to produce'em.
But a byproduct of that wasthese feed yard managers found
out that every Friday theydidn't have to be sitting there
hammering on the packer.

(32:55):
They could be, you know, doingsome strategic planning.
They could be working withemployees, they could be, you
know.
Going to a meeting, they'd begoing golfing, whatever,
whatever the case may be.
And, and I think that at leastin the region that you're
talking about, with a fewexceptions, the art of marketing

(33:15):
fed cattle is almost a lost one.
I can we relearn that if thattruly is the best way we can go
forward.
Can they ride around in thetruck with somebody at an Iowa
yard and, and learn it again Oris that gone and, and.
Never to be brought back.

Jason (33:33):
That is a very good question and a great concern of
ours.
We, we talk about that a lot.
Who is gonna be the nextgeneration right of negotiators
in this industry?
Like how do you, how do youlearn that?
How do you get brought up intothat space?
That's a, that's a very validconcern and I, I wish I had an
answer to that, but I, I don'tknow, uh, how we're going to
develop that next generation,but I definitely think that's

(33:54):
something that needs done and,and we need to think about and
invest in now again, at thesehigh levels, at these high
prices and not try to fix it inthe valley of the cattle cycle.
We don't need to wait tillnobody can sell any cattle to
solve that problem.

Matt (34:10):
Yeah.
The, the last couple of months,maybe not the last couple of
weeks, but the last couple ofmonths would've been a fun time
to learn, quote unquote, how todo that because it probably
looks.
Like, I, I don't wanna say itwas easy, but, uh, yeah, you
just be patient and, and you'regonna make more money.
That's not always been the wayit was.
And, and, you know, I.

(34:32):
Again, I didn't spend any timein, in a commercial feed yard
growing up.
My great uncle had fed somecattle out in Dodge City and,
and, um, so I heard stories andyou go to meetings and you hear
some things and, but my firstbrush, and I've probably told
this story for podcastlisteners, I my kids say, I tell
the same stories over and overand over.
So I probably told this one 15times, but my first brush with

(34:54):
live cattle market.
Was with a guy that knew what hewas doing.
Mm-hmm.
And I mean, he was good at it.
I won't say who it was, but itwas in Texas Panhandle and
sizable corporate feed yard.
And I didn't know beans aboutfeeding cattle in Texas and I
was working down there for theAngus Association and I was
trying to get these guys tostart thinking about buying some

(35:14):
black hide Angus cattle in anarea where they never paid
premiums for Angus side cattle.
So it was, I was going downthere as an Angus rep, but I
also personally wanted to learnmore about the feeding industry
and cold called this guy'soffice and secretary put me in
touch with him.
I told him what I was up to.
I wanted to just visit with himfor an hour or so if he had it,
and he said, yeah, come Fridayafternoon.

(35:36):
We're not gonna trade any cattlethis week, so I'll have, I'll
have some time.
This was like on a Wednesdayafternoon or Thursday and um, so
we're bouncing around.
I mean, this guy's in thegreatest mood around and he's
showing me all these cattle andI'm asking him questions and
he's just as jovial as could beand as big mobile phone back
when we had the great big threewatt phones and pickup rings and

(35:58):
he said, you gotta be kiddingme.
And he goes to cussing, I can'tbelieve it.
And he.
Hangs it up and makes aboutthree calls and sold, I don't
know how many thousands ofcattle at, and of course, we're
in a 60 cent market.
It was a huge discount to whateverybody said they were gonna
do that week and hold out.
And one guy sold one pen 30miles down the road and tens of

(36:24):
thousands traded just like that.
Um, because somebody got weakneed.
and, and man, he, his, hisattitude changed.
He couldn't get me outta thattruck fast enough'cause he was
so mad that they'd had to do it,but he felt like he had to do it
or he wasn't gonna get cattlesold for two, three weeks.
And so when I hear people harkenback to, we need to get back to
trading cattle like we used to,when, you know, when we could

(36:45):
make some money when we weretrading cattle and hammering on
this packer, I, I remember thatday in 1997 and go.
It didn't look very profitableto me when we were having to do
it that way.
'cause and or transparent, Imean, you talk about, I don't
see how that could be consideredprice discovery because one

(37:06):
group of junk cattle sold 30miles down the road and
everybody felt like, well.
They had to sell or they may notget'em traded in the next couple
weeks.
And so it wasn't perfect either.
Hindsight always is 2020.
But, uh, yeah, it's, I I thinkwe can do better.
And that's, that's an area thatTexas, panhandle and Kansas, um,
that yeah, when you look at thedata, it's, that's where we

(37:29):
probably are barely tradingenough, in my opinion or in a
lot of folks' opinion toestablish that market.
Now, if we can find somecomparison and maybe.
Do you remember, what was it?
Steven Coons, was that the guyat Colorado State?
Mm-hmm.
That said we need to, we need topay feed yards for the public
good.
We need to pay feed yards whoare still willing to trade

(37:50):
cattle.
And the first time I heard that,I thought that's the dumbest
idea in the world.
I thought, you know.
It may make some sense.
Uh, but yeah, that was one ofthe many ideas thrown, thrown
about

Jason (38:01):
we Yeah.
When you consider the time and,and expertise.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's involved there.
It's, it's, uh, not cheap by anymeans.
Yeah.
But the, the thing that'sdifferent too, think about the,
since 1997, how much informationflow and how the speed at which
information flow has changedinto today's world.
And, and I think that that hasto weigh into our price
discovery mechanism is'causecattle are, get more, uh.

(38:24):
Value differentiated or, ormore, uh, identified.
Uh, that information flow thattravels with the cattle, I think
is really what helps this pricediscovery process as we move
away from just commoditymarketing into these different
areas of value based pricediscovery.

Matt (38:40):
I think I know your answer to this'cause I've asked it of a
lot of people, but is talkingabout that in that information
flow.
If technology is able today, andI think it is through barcode
scanning and everything else tolink a pound of beef at retail
or all of the seven or 800pounds of carcass that end up

(39:03):
going through, can we back upfrom what the cash register says
that consumers are paying forbeef to a live price and what
risks are there in terms ofvolatility and everything else
in trying to do that?

Jason (39:20):
Yeah, that's a, that's a way more complex question than
it sounds like on the surface,because you've got a number of
profit centers in between thosetwo points.
Yeah.
From live cattle to consumerand, and who's to say at what
profit margin each of thoseprofit centers should be allowed
to run at.
And so I, I think as you startto break that down and think
about, uh, the details in that,it, it becomes a little bit more

(39:42):
challenging to understand.
Because the job of any marketis, is to clear supply and
demand.
It's to balance supply anddemand.
And so as we think about thesehigh prices that we're
experiencing now in the cattlebusiness, its job is, twofold,
attract more supply...we need toencourage more beef production,
or we need to destroy somedemand.
We have too much demand for thesupply that we have, so we need

(40:03):
to limit some of our demand thatwe have for beef and attract
some additional supply.
And if it does that well enough,long enough.
We'll fix these high prices.
Yeah.
And the same things can be saidfor low prices.

Matt (40:15):
Yeah.
And it's just, we talk about itmore when we are taking that
price that's less than, I mean,I, I the talk about a retail
price index that prices fedcattle or usually it's, it's: we
want to get more of our share,quote unquote, of the retail

(40:36):
dollar.
But that always happens whenlive cattle and calves are low.
Mm-hmm.
And retail beef prices are alittle bit higher.
You know, you talk about marketleverage and where that demand
is trying to ration itssupply...
Right now it is square in thecow calf segment.
Right.

(40:56):
And I haven't heard us beingaccused of price gouging yet,
but if, if it was the retailer,like what we were, when the
retailer was making as muchmoney, or the packer was making
as much money per head, it wouldprobably be fair if they didn't
understand markets, i.
For them to say those cow calfguys are price gouging, they're

(41:18):
charging me or feed yards, arecharging us way too much for
these calves.
In fact, I had a feed yard justthis week.
I sent information to a, to a, asizable yard about groups,
cattle of customers of ours thatare selling superior next week,
and, and he said, sorry, I'mout.
I'm not buying any cattle.
I don't care how good they are.
I'm not buying cattle right now.

(41:40):
So I guess he kind of isaccusing that calf market of
price gouging, but it's a marketthat they say I can't make it
pencil.
And it won't take long for verymany people to say that before
all of a sudden prices, youknow, get back to where their
equilibrium are and they rationthat supply and demand
accordingly.
Right.

Jason (42:00):
I never hear a lot of talk about the retail price
demand in periods where packersare losing$200 a head, 150,$200
a head.
What happens in, in that mix?
I mean, that makes that, uh,whole model a whole lot more
challenging.
Yeah.
Because of that, those, thoseprofit centers that are involved
in, in our distribution of ourproduct.

Matt (42:17):
Yep.
So in the beef industry, we'repretty independent minded, all
segments, but probablyespecially the cow guys.
One of the things that we arefearful of is becoming
vertically integrated and goingthe way that the hogs and the
chickens and everything elseare.
But the irony of it is withoutthese big volatility and these,

(42:43):
you know, big changes inleverage and things like that, I
mean.
The opposite of the ad is afully integrated, contracted one
price, you know, maybecontracted for a year in
advance.
And it would take some of thosehills and peaks and valleys and,
and, margins in between eachsegment of the industry.
But, uh, yeah, the, thealternative is not one that I

(43:04):
think that very many beefindustry folks want to, uh, want
to embrace.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
That, and that's.
I guess we wouldn't haveanything to talk about.
We'd just be talking about theweather at the coffee shop if we
couldn't talk about these crazymarkets.
So, it is, I think, easier totalk about now and figuring out

(43:24):
ways if we do need to improve orsubtly change or whatever else.
Because as a friend of mine saysemotions have a.
IQ of zero.
And so when we can talk aboutsomething like price discovery,
when times are good, I think wecome to a more rational
approach.
And again, maybe that is, Hey,if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

(43:48):
But when we're getting our headhanded to us, we'll be looking
again at that, uh, bettermousetrap.

Jason (43:53):
Yeah.
I had a friend of mine, uh, acattleman, said The worst time
to develop a a drought.
A disaster plan is in the middleof a drought for sure.
And so I think these are somevery critical times, some
important times for us to lookat our industry and say, where,
what are some things that we canprevent?
What are some things that wecould do today while we have
some margin to make this nextdownturn be less painful?

Matt (44:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's, that's just it.
And, and sometimes some of thoseanswers may require a pretty
significant shift in how wemanage or scale or size or
whatever the case may be.
I mean, I think, and I guess youcould probably shed some light
on this from the clients withwhom you work, but I think we're

(44:39):
seeing a huge consolidation inthe commercial cow calf segment
right before our eyes and don'teven realize it.
I think a lot of folks aremoving out.
Had been now this year, last 16,18 months, maybe not, but the
last five years because ofdrought, because of prices,
because of labor, or not havinga next generation come back or

(45:01):
whatever the case may be, aremoving outta cows and maybe in
stocker cattle yearlings or outaltogether and selling that
ranch to another cow calfoperation or even moving it into
farming or real estatedevelopment, or whatever the
case may be.
And, and I, I think that's adynamic that none of us realize
is just how much, how powerfulthat's going to be is.

(45:25):
We see probably that middle areaand that's, that bothers me a
lot.
Mm.
And there are a lot of folksthat are working on that, but,
but those folks thathistorically have run 150 to 350
commercial cows that I would sayare the bread and butter of a
lot of folks.
Seed stock producers, livestockmarket, feed store on Main

(45:48):
Street, all these things'causethey're not necessarily big
enough to contract, you know,50,000 pound loads of whatever
feed, animal health products,whatever the case may be.
And yet they're not the smallhobbyists that's running 25 cows
in a job in town.
I think both extremes are gonnastay, but it's that middle one.

(46:09):
And I, I don't know.
Um, I think things like LRP, Ithink there's a lot of things
that have, can help alleviatethat, but, um, that's a shift
that I see coming and I don'tknow your thoughts on that or
if, if you've seen the same ornot.

Jason (46:24):
Yeah, I, I agree.
The, uh.
The sad part is we can't do alot about the weather or the,
uh, the labor situation.
But the reason our companyexists is to create financial
stability mm-hmm.
For families namely that segmentthat you're talking about right
there.
Right.
Cattle owning families in NorthAmerica so that their legacies

(46:47):
can be passed from onegeneration to the next and
without some sort of price riskmanagement tool that creates
financial stability, that, thatchore gets a whole lot harder.
So, uh, the good Lord Aboves,uh, the one that takes care of
the rain.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, to, to a extent, a lotof the other challenges we have,
the labor challenges, thegenerational challenges, those
are all still, still be there.

(47:08):
But if we could help create somefinancial stability, I think
those next generations wouldtake a little closer look at
this opportunity that liesbefore them and says, wow, this,
this really could be a great wayto raise our family.
Because at the end of the day.
These, that segment is some ofthe, the best people in our
industry, some of the bestfamilies, some of the best high

(47:28):
school basketball teams.
Some of the best communities aremade up of these people.
And those are the people thatwe're trying to create financial
stability for.
'cause they're such amazingpeople.

Matt (47:37):
Yeah.
And it, I think that's mostlywho is listening to this.
And I think everybody would nodtheir heads in agreement.
It's, it's the people that arein these aisles at, at.
Junior show or the county fair,or like you said, ball game or
everything else.
And so, yeah, I think we have todo everything we can to make
sure that we give them theopportunity, and then I think

(47:58):
the we, those same people needto do everything they can and we
can to take that opportunity.
So one thing, totally differentthan what we've been talking
about in terms of prices and,and, um, risk management.
You're in an area, Fort Collins,Colorado.
Mm-hmm.
That has changed quite a littlebit, uh, since you have been

(48:21):
there.
What does development and urbansprawl and, and everything
that's associated with that?
Cultural shifts, politicalshifts.
What has that done becauseyou're kind of a bellwether of,
I think, the rest of the nationin that corridor from Denver
North, what does, how has thatchanged life in production ag

(48:45):
and what can we do?
What can learn maybe from whatyou all have seen the last few
decades, um, to make sure thatwe do still have these
communities and these people towork the ground and, and what do
we need to do there?

Jason (48:59):
there are a variety of ways to, uh, solve for that, so
to speak.
Okay.
Uh, I could just tell you alittle bit about our family's
path and the path that we'vegone down and Sure.
And how we've cho chosen tosolve for that.
A couple fold.
Uh, the, a number of years agowe entered into some, uh,
conservation easements thathelped maintain some of the, um.
The ground and our family'sname.
And so we've been able to, so tospeak, retire the development

(49:22):
rights from the ground, butstill maintain the agriculture
value of the ground so we cankeep it in production
agriculture.
Right?
That's one methodology thatwe've used.
Some people like'em, some peopledon't.
There's, uh, plenty ofcontroversy around conservation
easements and, and their use.
Um, but that is one tool thatour family has, has utilized.
Another thing that comes to mindis, more recently our family

(49:43):
has.
utilized the population to ourbenefit.
Mm-hmm.
We've, uh, our family is, sincewe had young boys and, and young
gals too, raising up in ourfamily, we started a hay company
and we put up small bales of hayand used a bale barren that put
'em into bundles.
And then we started sellinghorse hay to the horse community
along the front range.

(50:03):
And so that was a way that wecould utilize the population to
our advantage and, and leverageit, so to speak.
And more recently, uh, along theIGAs, breed and and association.
We become certified to sellcertified Angus beef through the
program through CAB.
And so we're one of the fewpeople that can, from pasture to
plate, can sell certified Angusbeef.
And so we've, we've startedselling beef quarters wholes and

(50:26):
halves to consumers along, alongthe front range, through, uh,
through hilltop hay andlivestock.
So that's been a, a, a way thatwe've been able to.
Utilize a, uh, this growingpopulation to our benefit rather
than to our detriment.
So, times always seem to changeand, and we just try to find
ways to change with them and,and leverage what we can.

(50:47):
For our, for our, our family'swellbeing.

Matt (50:51):
Yeah.
And that's, that's somethingthat it's easy for us to sit
back here and say, well, we'vejust gotta keep these urban and
suburbanites out of our businessand we gotta keep'em out of our
county and we've gotta keep themfrom driving up our land prices.
And again, it's kind like theweather in the markets.
It's, I guess it's a lot easierto gripe, but you've kind of
staked your claim, whether it beon using futures and options for

(51:14):
risk management or.
Selling hay.
That's probably way overpricedfor any cow guy.
Don't feed that.
The cows.
Yeah.
Um, or selling beef or whateverthe case may be.
You've seen an opportunity rightthere in your backyard.
And I would guess that when youhave taken that initiative,
taking that risk, put yourselfout there, front and center to

(51:38):
those people I would guess thatnot only have you improved,
hopefully your family'slivelihood and.
Marketability and demand foryour products and the things
that you raise, but I wouldguess you've also made a
believer out of those peoplethat you worked with, those
consumers that may have been thefirst ones on Pearl Street in

(51:58):
Boulder to be protestingagainst, you know, beef
production.
But when they meet you and whenthey get to sit down and talk
with you and see why it is thatyou act and do and think like
you do, it's.
It's usually pretty beneficial.
And I think anytime we get thatopportunity, whether we're doing
business with them or justtalking with them at the local

(52:18):
rotary club or the schoolfestival or whatever else, it's,
it's beneficial.

Jason (52:23):
It is.
I, I'm incredibly blessed tohave a, a great wife that helps
in that area and four great kidsthat, that take a lead role in
that.
And, and I just really beenblessed to, uh, have the, the
opportunity to be a part of amultiple generation operation.
And our hope and our dream isthat we can do a couple things:
we can pass on the love ofagriculture to our kids and, uh,

(52:46):
support them in what they'redoing.
And you're exactly right.
When, when we have anopportunity, either myself or my
wife or kids to interact withthe, the people that understand
how and why production happensthe way it does.
It really makes a lot of senseto'em and they really value it.
And we, we don't even have tosell'em on it.
We just have to educate'em.
Yeah.
There's, there's really nothingto sell.
Yeah.
It's just teach.

Matt (53:07):
Yeah.
And, and when you do that, it,it helps us all.
I mean, it honestly does.
I, I think any time that any ofus can put a face and a contact
and a personal experience to aproduct or to a program, or to
whatever the case may be, apolitical issue, it's easier to

(53:30):
believe that we can.
Get along with that person orthat industry or, or whomever it
is.
And, and, um, I think it's thesame way.
I mean, I, I was prior togetting to go on a tour with
with a group through the ChicagoMercantile Exchange, I was one
of these guys that sat in theFlint Hills of Kansas and went,
ah, those guys.

(53:50):
They're, they're just having funwith somebody else's money that,
that doesn't benefit me.
And once you go through that andsee how it is and why it is, and
how complex it is, and yes, itcan be ugly and yes, it, it's
different than anything I hadever seen in terms of actually
trading a product or a serviceor whatever the case may be.

(54:14):
But when you, you hear thosefolks talk, you realize, okay.
Yeah, it seems like it's outtamy control, but there is an
opportunity to use this forgood, and I think the same way.
I mean, we as a farming andranching production segment, we
are as foreign or more foreignto that suburban housewife

(54:35):
that's going to the grocerystore as what some floor trader
or broker or whatever else inChicago is to us, and they don't
they don't hate us because ofwhat we do.
They just have some questionsand distrust'cause they've never
seen it happen.
And, and I think that we need,that's a double-edged sword I
think here in agriculture.
We, we, we gripe when somebodydoesn't trust us, but then we're

(54:59):
pretty distrustful of folks thatwe don't know either.
And so anytime we can make thatrelationship and that bond, I
think it's, it's healthy for allof us.
So what else?
Anything we've missed?

Jason (55:10):
Well, I think it's just a fitting today just to, to talk
about, I mean, 4th of July, thefreedoms of this country and
what an amazing country we livein.
Sure it's not perfect, but, uh.
Man, I, it would be a disservicefor us not to recognize the, the
people that have gone before us.
Yeah.
And, uh, all that we're, duethem.
I mean, uh, our values and ourfamily are faith, freedom,

(55:33):
family, and then agriculture.
And that's, that's really the,uh, the why behind much of what
we do.
So,

Matt (55:40):
yeah.
Yeah.
What a, what a perfect day to behaving that discussion and all
of these things, I mean, we're,if it weren't for those founding
fathers in 1776, we wouldn't bedoing any of the stuff that
we're talking about doing today.
And, and yeah, what a fittingtribute to them.
And, and I applaud you and Cheriand all your kids and family,

(56:01):
um, the great things that you dofor ag.
So appreciate you being here.
And, um, I'll, I'll have someinformation for everybody
listening, if they wanna reachout and.
Either visit further or youknow, talk about any other
services that you all providethere at Compass.
We'll have that info in thenotes too.
So thanks a bunch for beinghere, Jason.
No, thanks again for having me,Matt.
It's been very enjoyable.
Thank you.

(56:22):
You bet.
Thanks for tuning in toPractically Ranching, brought to
you by Dalebanks Angus.
If you like this show, share itwith someone else.
Give us a five star review and acomment so we can keep cranking
'em out.
We'll be offering a nice set offall calving registered
Dalebanks bred cows at privatetreaty this summer.
So call, text or email me forinformation on these cows.

(56:46):
Have a great summer.
Be sure to get our annual bullsale on your calendar.
November 22nd, 2025.
God bless you all, and we'lltalk again soon.

All Episodes

#77 - Jason Kraft; Faith, Freedom, Family, and Agriculture

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

The Joe Rogan Experience

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#77 - Jason Kraft; Faith, Freedom, Family, and Agriculture