Casual Cattle Conversations

casualcattleconversations
  • 4.9 (74)
  • How To
  • Updated Weekly

Casual Cattle Conversations is the podcast for beef cattle producers and ranchers to explore new ideas and hear stories that will help them improve their current management practices. Shaye Koester - Wanner connects listeners to other cattle producers and beef industry experts to discover what management practices, industry trends, current events and inspiring stories are impacting today’s beef cattle industry.

  1. 6d ago

    Fall Weed Control Strategies for Grazing and Hay Acres

    Today on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast, Shaye interviews Corteva pasture specialist, Rachel Walker, about prioritizing fall weed control to maximize usable forage and extend grazing days. Walker explains that winter-emerging weeds like plantain, thistles, and poison hemlock should be treated in fall when young, using options such as DuraCor and UltiGraze.   She describes DuraCor’s two-actives approach and notes grazing is allowed, with hay sales restrictions depending on state. They discuss why weed control matters in drought and for preventing livestock losses to toxic plants, and how improved control can reduce hay feeding and enable adding diverse grasses and clover. Walker recommends frequent soil testing and taking advantage of free forage testing, and adds fall brush control timing guidance.  Learn more about Corteva solutions here: RangeAndPasture.com/CattleConversations    Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/     00:00 Fall Weed Control Urgency  01:10 Meet Rachel Walker  02:43 Drought and Hay Outlook  04:07 Grazing Longer Into Winter  06:19 Targeting Winter Weeds  10:21 Why Weed Control Matters  14:09 UltiGraze and Soil Testing  16:39 Forage Testing and Nutrition  18:23 Clover Integration With NovaGraze  20:16 Brush Control Timing

  2. Sep 4

    Fall Calving and Herd Health

    This week, Shaye interviews Dr. Robin Faulkner, a veterinarian with decades of beef industry experience, about fall calving systems and herd health. Faulkner outlines why fall calving can add value by spreading calf supply to better match year-round packing capacity and by producing more mature fall-born bulls, while noting location-specific challenges.   He emphasizes aligning calving with weather “thermal neutral” windows to reduce stress, disease risk, and negative fetal programming, and highlights nutrition as the key constraint for rebreeding when forage quality declines into winter. He advocates proactive, season-ahead management: forage testing, equipment readiness, calving kits, and facility preparation. On vaccines, he stresses tailoring protocols to handling and marketing constraints, using vaccination and weaning to improve marketability, and timing products to their effective protection windows, including pre-calving scour vaccines for colostrum immunity.   He discusses fall fly pressure and timing fly control to vulnerability periods, and urges responsible treatment and stewardship of insecticides, dewormers, and antibiotics to preserve efficacy.   Learn more at https://farmanimal.elanco.com/us/beef    Learn more about Noble here: https://bit.ly/3DD7uG0   Learn more about Vence here: https://bit.ly/4kfWrCG   Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/    00:00 Fall Calving Kickoff 01:18 Meet Dr. Faulkner 03:15 Why Calve in Fall 06:06 Weather Stress Window 09:50 Nutrition and Rebreeding 12:44 Pre Calving Prep 17:35 Vaccines for Value 23:20 Vaccine Timing Matters 29:42 Fly Control Strategy 32:46 Treatment Stewardship 42:45 Observe and Adapt

  3. Aug 24

    BRD Prevention and Treatement for Ranchers and Feeders

    Today on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast, Shaye talks with veterinarian Dr. Paige Schmidt-Rios about bovine respiratory disease (BRD), its impact across the cattle supply chain, and key prevention strategies for ranchers. Dr. Paige explains BRD (also called pneumonia or shipping fever) as a complex syndrome involving multiple viruses and bacteria, often triggered when stress and environment compromise immunity; she lists common pathogens and notes BRD is a major cause of post-weaning illness.   They discuss treatment limits, including supportive care for viral cases and five antibiotic classes for bacterial pneumonia, highlighting mycoplasma’s lack of a cell wall and fluoroquinolone restrictions, plus the role and timing of diagnostics and the need for a VCPR. Prevention focuses on colostrum within 12 hours, clean/dry calving environments, proper vaccine handling, and timely boosters, including considerations around preconditioning versus vaccinating at weaning.  Learn more about Noble here: https://bit.ly/3DD7uG0  Learn more about Vence here: https://bit.ly/4kfWrCG  Learn more abou Elanco here: https://farmanimal.elanco.com/us/beef   Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/    01:16 4-H Memories  03:09 What BRD Really Is  06:45 Mycoplasma Spotlight  08:01 Treatment Options  11:09 Diagnostics And Timing  12:59 Vet Partnership And Management  16:29 Prevention Starts At Birth  20:00 Vaccines And Boosters  22:11 Weaning And Preconditioning  24:32 Prevention Recap And Supply Chain

  4. Aug 17

    Artificial Intelligence: Is It Benefitting Ranchers?

    This week, Shaye Wanner interviews Haley Potter from the Ambrook team about how artificial intelligence can support ranch profitability and long-term continuity when used responsibly. Potter, who has North Dakota ranching roots and splits time between ranches in Dell and Alder, Montana, says AI fits best for producers who need help with information gathering and admin tasks while keeping humans in control of decisions and fact-checking outputs.   She shares examples such as using Claude to summarize bull sale catalogs based on EPD parameters, building grazing plans, and analyzing financials for expansion scenarios, plus customer examples like an AI-assisted ordering/lead tool for direct-to-consumer beef and a “ranch command center” dashboard. Potter explains Ambrook’s AI-assisted bookkeeping features (tagging, invoice matching, receipt scanning) and emphasizes data quality, transparency, and privacy, including choosing trusted services and requiring approval for data use.  See what Ambrook can do for your operation here: ambrook.com/casualcattle    Learn more about Noble here: https://bit.ly/3DD7uG0  Learn more about Vence here: https://bit.ly/4kfWrCG  00:00 AI and Ranching Today  00:11 Meet Haley Potter  01:30 AI Not Insemination  01:56 Can AI Help Ranchers  02:51 Haley Ranching Roots  04:10 Responsible AI Basics  05:45 Real Ranch AI Examples  09:56 What Ambrook Does  10:39 AI Features in Ambrook  12:54 Time Savings and Better Data  15:25 Data Privacy and Trust

  5. Aug 10

    Making Virtual Fence Cost Effective for Ranchers

    This week on the Casual Cattle Conversations Podcast, Shaye interviews Jay and Cheyenne Smith, cattle producers on Idaho’s eastern edge near the Montana border, about adopting Vence virtual fencing and coordinating with neighboring permittees to make it cost-effective. After the 2022 Moose Fire and grazing restrictions, they partnered with the University of Idaho and worked with BLM and the Forest Service to implement virtual fencing on rugged public-land range; five permittees now use shared base stations while owning separate collars.   They discuss early hesitations about data being used against producers, onboarding lessons about placing fences to match natural cattle trails, and management gains including fewer emergency rides, more schedulable work, improved utilization control, and more efficient gathers. Virtual fencing enabled their shift from winter to fall calving by keeping cattle positioned to come home, reducing labor needs, and providing movement data useful for investigating events like wolf predation or other disturbances.   Learn more about Vence here: https://bit.ly/4kfWrCG   Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/    00:00 Virtual Fence Neighbors 01:08 Meet the Smiths 01:34 Ranch and Grazing Setup 04:05 Fire Sparks Adoption 07:02 Getting Neighbors Onboard 09:32 Workload and Riding Changes 11:43 Sharing Towers and Data 14:14 Training and Fence Design 18:01 Better Utilization and Plans 19:15 Fall Calving Made Possible 22:33 Costs and Quality of Life 25:23 Wolves and Movement Clues 27:35 Next Generation Buy In

  6. Aug 3

    Extended Grazing Seasons Do's and Dont's

    This week,  Shaye sits down with Chance, a ranch manager at the Noble Research Institute, about extending grazing seasons to cut winter feeding and hay costs. Chance describes Noble’s 5,100-acre native-grass operation running about 200 cows, using intensive rotational grazing (moving daily to every few days) and aiming to remove only the top third to half of forage during the growing season so enough standing grass remains for winter.  He stresses producers often plan too late, and recommends measuring pasture forage monthly to guide stocking decisions, destocking, or hay purchasing. Winter management includes protein supplementation (cubes/cake) for four to five months and occasional hay during heavy snow. They discuss other options such as cover crops (noting weather risk), rye winter pasture, crop residue grazing, and bale grazing/unrolling or pre-unwrapped bales to improve soil and return nutrients. Learn more about resources from the Noble Research Institute here: http://noble.org/find-a-course  Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com  00:00 Cutting Input Costs 00:10 Meet Shay and Chance 01:31 Why Extend Grazing 02:05 Noble Ranch System 02:37 Summer Grazing Plan 04:51 Rotation and Calving Setup 06:42 When to Move Cattle 08:43 Stocking and Weather Limits 10:23 Cover Crops and Rye 12:14 Bale Grazing Methods 14:53 Put Nutrients Back

  7. Jul 27

    Making Ranches Investible for Your Family

    This week, Shaye Wanner welcomes Chris Rawley of Harvest Returns to discuss what makes ranches “investable” and why it matters for operators seeking outside investors or bank financing to expand herds, land, or infrastructure. Raleigh explains Harvest Returns’ model of pooling investor capital and investing as a single partner via loans, notes, or equity, and says investable operations have a solid plan, clear financial statements, defined marketing/sales strategy, and a realistic path to investor returns.  He outlines that key first steps include transparency and documentation across complex land and entity structures, accurate balance sheets reflecting assets and debts, and building a team for missing functions like finance, bookkeeping, accounting, and sales. Common mistakes include poor herd tracking/accountability (amid “phantom cattle” scams) and attempting to raise public capital without proper SEC-compliant legal help. Raleigh emphasizes getting herd and financial numbers in order, including hiring professionals.  Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/ 00:00 Is Your Ranch Investible  01:24 Meet Chris Rawley  01:33 Why Investability Matters  02:38 What Harvest Returns Does  04:56 Investible Ranch Checklist  07:50 First Steps to Improve  09:30 Building the Right Team  11:09 Common Mistakes to Avoid  13:20 Raising Capital Legally

  8. Jul 20

    Economics of Developing and Reselling Heifers

    This week, Shaye Wanner interviews NDSU livestock development specialist Jon Biermacher about the economics of buying weaned/backgrounded heifers in spring, breeding them, and selling them about a year later as long-bred heifers or as pairs, using an Excel-based enterprise budget tool developed from a student producer’s plan.   The model includes key costs (heifer purchase, pasture/feed/hay/mineral, health, breeding, transport, interest, marketing) and compares AI plus cleanup bulls versus natural service, finding about a $55/head advantage to not using AI (not counting added labor) and little observed revenue premium for AI’d breds. In their projections, pairs returned about $100/head more than bred heifers. Results show costs are dominated by heifer purchase and feed, with profit highly sensitive to purchase price; a ~$0.20/lb increase can erase roughly $200/head projected net return. This conversation is helpful for anyone looking to create projections on their operation with resources from the NDSU team.   Join Rising Ranchers Here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/risingranchers  Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/     01:31 Meet John Biermacher  04:54 Defining the Enterprise  06:08 Building the Budget Tool  13:03 Markets and Assumptions  15:04 AI Versus Bulls  19:48 Where the Costs Sit  22:26 Breds Versus Pairs  25:35 Break Evens and Risk  31:47 Tools Beyond Spreadsheets

See All (297)

4.9
out of 5
74 Ratings

About

Casual Cattle Conversations is the podcast for beef cattle producers and ranchers to explore new ideas and hear stories that will help them improve their current management practices. Shaye Koester - Wanner connects listeners to other cattle producers and beef industry experts to discover what management practices, industry trends, current events and inspiring stories are impacting today’s beef cattle industry.

Information

  • Creator
    casualcattleconversations
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    297
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2019 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Casual Cattle Conversations

You Might Also Like