Ranching Returns Podcast

174: Rory Londer - Bonus Episode with Crack Addict Who Broke Free

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the first bonus episode which admittedly has very little to do with grazing, livestock, farming or ranching. Rory Londer shares his story of d...

173: Steve Kenyon - Custom Grazing on Leased Land

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Kenyon of Greener Pastures Ranching is somebody I've wanted to get on for a while and finally had the opportunity. He's built a business...

172: Jared Sorensen - Profitable Steward

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jared Sorensen is a rancher and host of the Profitable Steward Podcast! He shares his story of building a successful ranch discusses all the enterpris...

171: Rylan Crawford - 600 Cow Ranch by 31 Years Old

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rylan has built a large successful cow/calf operation on his own at only 31 years old! Currently owning over 600 cows and acquiring his own land base ...

170: Nic De Castro - Monetizing Recreation on Your Farm or Ranch

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nic De Castro is the founder of Land Trust which partners with farmers and ranchers to help them stack enterprises and monetize different agricultural...

169: James Holz - Livestock on Cropland

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James is an Iowa farmer and cattleman discovering ways to integrate feeder and stocker cattle on cropland in unique and profitable ways! We discuss hi...

168: Taylor Moyer - Profit First Grazier

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Taylor isn't afraid to sit down and do the numbers, he looks at each enterprise opportunity and does what makes sense not just what everybody else doe...

167: Adam Ledvina - Generating Profit on Land Others Can't

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you are a cattle guy, please don't skip past this episode when I mention that todays guest is a goat producer from Iowa. Adam Ledvina shares ho...

166: Cal Hardage - Grazing Grass Podcast

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cal is a fellow grazing podcaster and farmer/rancher from Oklahoma. We discuss his career and how he's shifted to a low input, grazing management ...

165: Noah Taylor - Profitable Cows in the Midwest

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Noah and his family have a diversified farming operation running 180 cow/calf pairs, several hundred hogs for Niman Ranch, feedlot beef and crops. The...

164: Rachelle Meyer - Running a Farm and Raising a Family

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rachelle and her family are crushing it at life and farming down in Southeast Minnesota! Rachelle talks about how they manage to run a dairy farm, 500...

163: Allen Williams - Epigenetics and Profitability

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Allen and I discuss how important epigenetic selection is for building an adapted herd of livestock for your farm or ranch. It's when you have a p...

162: Ariel Greenwood - New Mexico Ranching

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ariel and I discuss her journey to her current ranch in New Mexico. We talk about the differences in the regions and production models they've exp...

161: Aaron Helmick - First Generation Farming Wisdom

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron has an awesome story of finding a way to build a first generation farm capable of supporting his family! He shares his story in this episode wit...

160: Dr. Richard Watson - 2000 Acre Grazing Dairy

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Richard Watson started a grazing dairy business in 2007 which has since expanded to 3 sites totaling over 2000 acres with a capacity to milk over ...

159: Kit Pharo - Building a Business

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kit Pharo has built an incredibly successful ranch and seedstock business as one of the top ten in the seedstock 100 for several years in a row and se...

158: Jared Knock & Justin Fruechte - Roots and Ruminants

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Fortunate to have the opportunity to have a collaborative podcast with Jared Knock and Justin Fruechte, hosts of the Roots and Ruminats podcast. We di...

157: Will Harris - A Bold Return to Giving a Damn

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Will Harris is one of those guys who pioneered much of regenerative agriculture, direct to consumer marketing, vertical integration on the family farm...

156: Drew Bruner - First Generation Rancher Story

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Stories like Drews are some of my favorite to share on this podcast! Drew didn't grow up on a family ranch, but over the course of the last 15 yea...

155: Gage Iverson - Grazing through the Winter in Montana

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Gage Iverson is a rancher who has successfully grazed his cowherd all winter long for several years in a row in an environment where so many think it&...

154: Dallas Mount - How to Make Cows Profitable

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For many, when they look at the economics of their cow/calf enterprise and see the lack of profitability, their assumption is that the cow/calf busine...

153: Ryan Bruski - Trying it Out with 4700 Stockers

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan and his family have decided to make the shift from cow/calf to stockers to improve the profitability of their Montana ranch and they are jumping ...

152: Jesse Womack - Getting Paid for Good Management

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jesse and I discuss tips for managing many different obligations, we discuss his experience with TCU Ranch Management. But most of our time is spent o...

151: Trevor Burian - From $100,000 Loss to $39,000 profit

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Merry Christmas!! In episode 101 we discussed Trevors decision to switch from cow/calf to custom grazing. We catch up a year later to discuss how his ...

150: Best of the First 150 Episodes

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the 150th episode I listened back to the top 5 episodes by listens and clipped some of my favorite parts of those conversations. There is so much ...

149: Chad Peterson - Stockers, Grazing, Moving Ranches

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chad Peterson has a wealth of experience in a variety of different grazing based enterprises now in multiple states. We discuss many of his learning e...

148: Logan Mannix - Mannix Family Beef

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Logan Mannix along with his father, uncles and several cousins run Mannix Family Beef in Montana. They have a diversified, large scale, vertically int...

147: Amos Troester - Cover Cropping for Profit

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Amos and his wife Tina have a diversified business in Northeast Iowa where they crop farm, run livestock, sell cover crop seed and offer custom seedin...

146: Matthew Menke - Transitioning to Profitable Ranching at Scale

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew ranched like most people in his area but after learning a little about low input ranching and regenerative management and it's potential t...

145: Sage Askin, Vannie Collins, Chris Baggott - Building a First Generation Ranch

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many say that today it's impossible to become a full time farmer or rancher if you aren't born into it or marry into it. But I've got three past guest...

144: Connor Laukant - Farming Full Time at 24 Years Old

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Connor is a grazier in Wisconsin who at only 24 years old is already a full time farmer and a land owner. He has a diversity of livestock enterprises ...

143: John Innes-Smith - Journey to Farm Ownership

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John spent several years moving from farm to farm taking advantage of opportunities to build equity in land and cows until he got to where he is today...

142: Al DeWit, Weston Walker, Rob Pierce - Heat Tolerant Genetics Program

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I brought back three past guests who all are working to develop composite genetics that will offer adaption to the heat, humidity, and parasite pressu...

141: Joel Salatin - Successful Farming

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Joel Salatin is one of the most popular farmers in the world. He has written 16 books, is the editor of the Stockman Grass Farmer, and owns and operat...

140: Rachel Twogood - Raising Crops, Cattle and a Family

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel and her husband farm and ranch in Nebraska and have a diversified operation consisting of no-till crops, organic crops, cow/calf enterprises as...

139: Elaine Froese - 3 Conversations Necessary Before Farm Transition

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elaine is an internationally known farm transition expert! The topic of transition is something that every farmer will have to deal with at some point...

138: Tom Krawiec - Ranching Like a 12 Year Old

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tom is author of the book "Ranching Like a 12 Year Old" where he shares his story of developing a ranch template to help simplify the manage...

137: Chris Baggot - Grazing Profitably on Cropland

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chris is a first generation farmer who has managed to grow a large and successful direct marketing enterprise and grazing based farm on row crop land ...

136: Jared Luhman - Q&A

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I get questions from folks quite often via email or social media. I appreciate people reaching out and over the years a few questions have come up mul...

135: Al Dewit - Ranching Everywhere

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Al and his family have a pretty unique ranching story. He started in Indiana as a crop farmer and had the opportunity to take over a ranch there, he l...

134: Clint Fischer - Farm Succession

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Clint is an ag business advisor who acts as a third party board member for farms and ranches. Today we discuss some of the experiences he's had in...

133: Carl Whitworth - Goat Grazing at Scale

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Carl and his family own a diverse farm and ranch operation. They implement no-till and cover crops on their farmland and manage goats in multiple stat...

132: Kit Pharo - Kits Big Concern

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Even with record prices, many are not finding the best of times as good as they would expect. Operations dependent on high levels of feed inputs, a fu...

131: Sean McGrath - Profitable Cow/Calf in Canada

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sean McGrath is a Canadian rancher running cattle in an environment where most people have to feed 200+ days a year yet feeding less than many do in t...

130: Jordan Thomas - Part 2

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

My first conversation with Jordan was way back on episode 80 and he generated a lot of good discussion! Today we dig into some of those topics about h...

129: Nevil Speer - Cattle Market Update

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nevil and I discuss things affecting the cattle market today including the weather, cattle numbers, prop 12 in California, the general economy, consol...

128: Weston Walker - Ranching in Missouri

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The heat, humidity and endophyte infected fescue found in Missouri and throughout the southeast present a real challenge to cattle producers there. We...

127: Riley Shay, Sean Weinert, & Brian Munger

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I get three guys I have a ton of respect for together to discuss ranching. We talk about drought, grazing management, apple cider vinegar, and m...

126: Laura Burandt - Profitable Cow/Calf Production

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Laura joins me for part 2 of our conversation of her Texas ranch, listen to part one on episode 122 to hear her story and their grazing management. In...

125: Sage Askin - Startup to Scaled Ranching

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sage is somebody who I have wanted to get on the podcast for the longest time! His story is one that has inspired me and continues to every time I hea...

124: Jill Winger - Old Fashioned On Purpose

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jill Winger is an entrepreneur. She is an author, podcaster, restaurant owner, blogger, social media influencer, direct marketing and first generation...

123: Gene Goven - 450% Increase in Forage Production

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gene Goven is a farmer/rancher in North Dakota who has an incredible story of building soil and profitable ranching in North Dakota. He now leaves mor...

122: Laura Burandt - Journey Home to the Ranch

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Laura has a pretty awesome story of education and work experience to getting back to her family ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Today she is running the...

121: Logan Duvall - Marketing Regenerative Food

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Logan Duvall and his family run a privately owned outdoor farmers market where they source and purchase food from local farmers and ranchers and marke...

120: Hobbs Magaret - Fire and Salt Part 2

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I'm joined again by Hobbs Magaret. In our past conversation on episode 110, we left a lot of topics undiscussed and so today we hopped back on a c...

119: Greg Judy - Profitable Ranching in Missouri

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Greg Judy is somebody who has personally impacted me and my farming career through his books and youtube videos! I'm honored to have him on the po...

118: John Pahlow - Building a Ranch

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John and his wife have always wanted to run a ranch, and so after years of saving and with a slight push from Covid, they sold their home, equipment f...

117: John Haskell - Managerial Accounting

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Haskell of Ranch Right LLC walks us through his process of helping farmers record and understand their financial information. This financial info...

116: Jared Luhman - Expensive Lessons

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A couple weeks ago in my episode with John Haskell and Wally Olson, they reminded me of an expensive learning lesson I had purchasing my first herd of...

115: Chris Kerston - Land to Market

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Kerston is CEO of the Land to Market program which is working to create new markets for farmers who are working to improve and regenerate the la...

114: Bart Morris - Oxbow Cattle Company

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bart Morris runs a first generation conception to consumption beef ranch on the edge of Missoula, Montana. We discuss how he built a successful ranch ...

113: Ray Marxer - Cowboy in a Corporate World

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is an incredible conversation with Ray Marxer who spent 37 years working for and managing one of America's largest historic ranches the Matad...

112: Wally Olson and John Haskell - Prospering in Good and Bad Times

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Current market conditions are looking up for cattle producers. With low inventory and forecasts pointing towards rain ranchers are feeling some optimi...

111: Kit Pharo - Bringing in the Next Generation

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kit and I discuss how we can make our ranches more profitable and more enjoyable to not only make it possible to bring in the next generation, but to ...

110: Hobbs Magaret - Fire and Salt

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In just a short few years Hobbs built a ranch and marketing brand, sold the brand, moved to a new state and started from scratch building a new ranch ...

109: Colton and Ethan Munger - Rural Entrepreneurship

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Colton and Ethan Munger are brothers who grew up on their families ranch in Nebraska. To learn more about their family ranch you can listen to my conv...

108: Shawn Freeland - Profitable and Enjoyable Ranching

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shawn has one of those inspiring stories that prove it's still possible to start and grow a ranching business from scratch. He shares his journey buil...

107: Alejandro Carrillo - Turning Desert to Grasslands

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alejandro manages the 30,000 acre Las Damas Ranch in the Chihuahua Desert of Mexico. Through his management in under twenty years he has increased his...

106: Kit Pharo - Whatcha Gonna Do With All That Money

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cattle herd numbers having steadily been declining for the past several years due to lack of profitability and drought. This has been resulting in a s...

105: Clay Conry, Brian Alexander, Jason Medows - Ag Podcaster Roundtable

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join Clay, Brian, Jason and myself as we discuss our podcasts, what we've learned through them and questions we have surrounding ranching and agricult...

104: Lance Klessig - On Farm Rentals

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lance Klessig has been involved in agriculture his whole life in a variety of roles from working on a dairy farm, to working for the Soil and Water Co...

103: Jacob Wolki - The Business of Regenerative Ag

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacob Wolki brought a unique business perspective from managing several different retail businesses and dozens of employees before starting his farm i...

102: Dave Pratt - Retirement and Succession

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dave Pratt is past owner of Ranching for Profit and author of my favorite book "The Turnaround: A Ranchers Story".  In this weeks podcast he give...

101: Trevor Burian - Cows to Custom Grazing

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Trevor went to Ranching for Profit in February of 2022 and came home ready to make big changes. By the time summer came around he had sold his cows an...

100: Allan Savory - Holistic Managagement

02 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Allan Savory has a lifetime of experience developing what he has termed Holistic Management. He shares in this podcast a brief overview of his history...

99: Dayton Steelman - Genetic Fly Resistance

26 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dayton Steelman is a veterinary entomologist responsible for doing the research around genetic fly resistance. He shares in this podcast how over his ...

98: Joe Tomandl - Scaling Regenerative Dairies

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many dairy farms when considering the opportunities to expand a dairy choose to build larger building and grow more feed to bring to the cows, and sca...

97: Nevil Speer - Cattle Market Update

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nevil Speer writes for Drovers magazine and has experience ranging from cattle production, to business management consulting and cattle market data. H...

96: Cooper Hibbard - Sieben Livestock

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cooper Hibbard manages his generational ranch in Adel, Montana and shares how his family through grazing management, changes in their calving season, ...

95: Eunice Williams - Stockmanship and Marketing

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Eunice Williams shares the story of how Bud, through observation, learned how animals respond to humans and developed his principles of stockmanship t...

94: Lance Gunderson - Building Healthy Soils

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lance Gunderson is owner of Regen Ag Labs and he joins me to discuss soil health, why it's important to test, which tests to perform, how often and so...

93: Michael Groot - Regenerative Farming in Canada

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Groot had the opportunity to take over his in-laws farm and quickly got to work transitioning to a regenerative crop farm and direct market me...

92: Rob Pierce - Part 2 Heat Tolerant Cattle

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this weeks episode we follow up on our conversation last week with Rob Pierce and discuss in more detail his heat tolerant cattle breeding program....

91: Rob Pierce - Finding Ranch Success

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rob Pierce quit ranching in 2008 and after a member of his church signed him up for Kit Pharo's PCC Updates and Newsletters he found hope that there m...

90: Mark and Sara Hewitt - Leaving What Was Comfortable

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark and Sara Hewitt from Minnesota joined me in this episode to share their story of taking the bold step of leaving the family farm where they were ...

89: Jason Medows - Ag State of Mind

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Medows is a rancher in Missouri and also the host of the Ag State of Mind Podcast. We discuss his transition to an intentional low input ranch b...

88: Eric Barth - Polyface Farm Manager

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Barth is the Farm Manager largely responsible for managing the steward program which is their internship program. In this episode we discuss his ...

87: Missy Bonds - Bonds Ranch

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

By running their ranch as a business and focusing on return on equity they have expanded their business to owning livestock in 26 counties in Texas an...

86: Andy Junkin - Working With Stubborn Farm Families

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Andy Junkin of Stubborn.farm specializes in working with stubborn farm families to get out of crisis, or begin the conversations around farm successio...

85: Bobby Thoman - Grass Finished PCC 4H Show Steers

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bobby Thoman was first on the Herd Quitter Podcast back on Episode 16, check that out to hear about his ranch history and context. But today we discus...

84: Brad Reese - Ranching, Hunting and Being on a TV Show

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Brad Reese is owner of the Rockin 7 Ranch near Shawnee, Wyoming. They manage beef cows, a hunting lodge, an outfitting business and farming enterprise...

83: Dale Strickler - Part 2 Preparing for Future Drought

05 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In last weeks episode, Dale and I discussed managing while in a drought. Today we discuss how to prepare for future drought to be more resilient when ...

82: Dale Strickler - Part 1 Managing within a Drought

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In part 1 of this two part episode with Dale Strickler we talk about managing while in a drought. He talks about emergency feed resources and land man...

81: Kit Pharo - Diversification

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we discuss the idea of diversification. Is it truly best to be diversified? Does it help or hurt a business?  As always, check us out at H...

80: Jordan Thomas - Cattle Reproduction and Profitability

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This one was way beyond my level of expertise and I felt like I learned a ton! Jordan talks about how our breeding management and selection of cattle ...

79: Vannie Collins - Building a Profitable Ranch in 6 years

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Vannie Collins just got started in the ranching business in 2016 and because he had no previous paradigms he had to break, he started immediately down...

78: Craig Fischer - Sleepy Bison Acres

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Craig Fischer and his family have a long history in agriculture in South Central Minnesota. They have a background in crop and dairy production, but c...

77: Kit Pharo - No Excuses

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are plenty of things we can blame for a lack of profitability in our farm operations but at the end of the day it's our decisions that impact wh...

76: Aaron Bradley - Changing the Food System

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Aaron Bradley farms with his wife Nicole in Bostic, North Carolina. We’re talk briefly about grazing operation and discuss in depth his marketing en...

75: Chase Jones - Custom Grazing

11 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chase Jones recently had the opportunity to take over his families generational farm in Southwest Wisconsin after his father decided to back out of th...