Ranch Investor Podcast

Blockchain, NFTs, Cryptocurrencies, Smart Contracts, Tokenized Investing… What does this all mean for ranch investing?Tune in to hear our thought-leader, Certified Financial Advisor, and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Sean Puckett try to tell us old cowboys where the technology age is taking us.Sean started his financial career as a National Bank Regulator with the United States Treasury.  During that time, he was responsible for conducting examinations of community and mid-sized banks ($10-$50 billion) including capital markets reviews to ensure compliance with the roll-out of the Dodd-Frank Act. Upon leaving the Treasury he became the Chief Investment Officer for a Boutique High-Net-Worth investment firm in Scottsdale, AZ.  As the CIO Sean was responsible for the development and execution of customized Investment Strategies for High and Ultra High-Net-Worth Families.  Sean started NextGen as a B2B company to deliver tailored Wealth Management solutions and Investment Strategies to Registered Investment Advisors primarily serving sophisticated investors and families.  Sean holds the CFA® and CAIA® charters and graduated with honors from the University of Montana, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Finance major.  He currently resides in Compound’s Headquarter city of Helena, Montana with his wife Morgan and two daughters, Carter and Emmalina. Learn more on his website at nextgenpw.com 

Within your “bundle of rights” for ranch, ownership could be minerals. One of Montana’s most successful Wildcatters joins us to share his experience developing minerals and marketing oil & gas, as well as his own experience of investing in western ranches for the many benefits, rights, and amenities beyond minerals.Listen in to legendary (and lively) Oil-man Tom Hauptman as he shares his experience buying, selling, owning, and managing livestock ranches and mineral rights.

How do we navigate the gentrification of western lands and communities? What impact does this have on the culture of rural communities? We hear from one of the most experienced conservation easement appraisers in the nation. Mrs. Bennett also has a Ph.D. in Depth Psychology.Kim Bennett has lived in, watched, and experienced the 30-year transition from close-knit, farmer-supported, multi-generational communities to absentee-owned, recreational, and tourist-based economies. What effect does this have on the legacy and identity of these agricultural areas? What personal values (and land values) are changing with the attrition of “locals” seeking “economic refuge?”Tune in to hear quite possibly the deepest discussion we have had on the podcast.Kim is the President and founder of Terra Western Associates and as of 2020 is celebrating 36 years as a rural land appraiser. She began her appraisal career at Security Pacific Bank in Visalia, CA as a dairy specialist. She was then associated with Sierra Western Agricultural Services, Inc. for seven years in Exeter, CA. In 1991 Kim moved to Montana to start a family and has been appraising rural properties in Montana and Wyoming for the past 29 years. She has performed a wide variety of rural appraisal assignments including ranches of all sizes, dairies, farms, USFS inholdings, and recreational properties. Kim has over 25 years of experience performing Yellow Book (UASFLA) appraisals. She also has 22 years of experience in the appraisal of conservation easements. Kim is certified general in Montana and Wyoming. Kim has been a licensed Montana real estate sales agent since 1999. Kim received her doctorate in Depth Psychology in 2014.

With over 30 years of experience as an Accredited Farm Manager who has professionally administered some of the largest and most diverse farms and ranches in the US, hear what actually goes in to being a professional farm/ranch manager and why this should be deemed as an investment or an asset, rather than an expense from this week's guest Jerome Chvilicek.Many ranch investors believe this position is superfluous or redundancy, however, if your goal is ROI, wouldn’t you consider your investment in a professional farm/ranch manager as a way to reduce risk, cut costs, and improve yield as well as asset appreciation if they are providing 3X the annualized economic value to what they cost?If you are questioning the value of professional ranch management, start with the best and hear it directly from the horse’s mouth here.Jerome joined the Hall and Hall Management Group in 1989 and became a principal of the firm in 1995. He was raised on a Montana dryland farm focused on wheat and barley production with cow calf production as a secondary enterprise. With his agricultural background and coupled with his B.S. in Agricultural Business (Montana State University) and M.A. in Agricultural Economics (Washington State University), he has specific expertise managing larger producing properties. Jerome realizes that effective communication is the first step in successfully managing properties and strives to develop long term relationships with clients. His primary recreational activities are upland bird hunting behind his black lab and participating in his kid’s extracurricular activities.

Are “environmental markets” the future for Ranch Investors?Hear what the guys from mitigation.org think about carbon credits, habitat offsets, and the future of solar, wind, ecosystem services.Officially known as Magnolia, we hear their mission of restoring and conserving critical habitat to provide mitigation credits for customers needing to offset their unavoidable environmental impacts.Magnolia is an environmental organization that develops restoration and conservation projects through the sale of compensatory mitigation credits. They partner with landowners across the United States to achieve the standards in environmental stewardship, while providing permitting solutions for customers. With over 10,000 acres under conservation in twelve active states, Magnolia is pioneering a new era in environmental stewardship.

Everyone thinks it’s a great idea, but most are skeptical it will work. Does this sound like the makings of a wildly successful entrepreneur? Well, it should, and just like ranching, you can’t be afraid to go against the grain, be the black sheep, prove the haters wrong, and be a herd-cutter.In ranching slang, a “herd cutter” is the cow who does not march with the rest. She cuts away from the herd, goes her own way, and is thus whipped and beat-down for it. Much like begrudging neighbors who can’t stomach your evolving ranching operation.Nic de Castro is that cow; there is no shortage of pessimists who told him “that will never work.”Tune in and find out how he is lettin’ the haters hate but more importantly take down some notes of how you can add value to your ranch investment, how you can monetize your conservation and recreation enterprises for a higher annual yield above livestock.Nic de Castro is an entrepreneur based in Bozeman, MT where he continues to build LandTrust. Visit landtrust.com to see current recreation listings around the country or list your property! 

Don’t listen to the coffee-shop talk, it’s not that simple. What a complex, surprising, unusual, and truly intriguing, and exciting year 2020 was to launch a podcast about Ranch Investing. To say the market “went crazy” is an understatement!!Tune in to our inaugural episode to hear a summary of 2020’s wild ride, what to look forward to in 2021’s ranch real estate market, and what we have in store for Season II. We keep improving this podcast, the audience keeps growing, and our guests keep delivering.These “unprecedented” times (if you’re not sick of that word yet) are actually very fun in all their challenges for us.Denver Gilbert was born and raised in Buffalo, South Dakota, on his family’s large cow/calf operation. Denver has aided many clients in the sale or purchase of over 100,000 acres of quality ranch land. Learn more about him and view his listings here: https://clarklandbrokers.com/denver-gilbert/Colter DeVries was raised on his family’s 1906 homestead in Roberts Montana. He earned Finance, Agricultural Business, and Entrepreneurship degrees and now helps people in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado buy and sell ranches. Learn more about Colter here: https://clarklandbrokers.com/colter-devries-bio/Andy Rahn grew up in south-central Montana in a family that was in the farm implement distribution business, and has always been fascinated with land. Founder of Montana Land Source, Andy has been a pioneer in the application of GIS mapping to the rural real estate and appraisal industry. This has led to the creation and on-going development of Montana Land Source, the innovative platform for tracking Montana land listings and the Montana land market. Learn more about Andy's platform here: https://mtlandsource.com/about

Want to know what goes on behind the scenes here at Ranch Investor Podcast? In this episode, we invite our audience to actively participate in the production of our high-quality content. This episode is all about you the audience, the listener. You are why we do this so grab a pen, take some notes, listen in, and please reach out with your thoughts after listening to this behind the scenes episode as we pull the curtains back on our Wizard of Oz.

Don't be "that guy"... without looking across the fence and making value-judgments of our neighbors, Jess Peterson eloquently states how you can do more with your ranch investment. From maximizing your ecological and conservation goals, to actually having a positive community impact around your ranch, as well as what you can do to be part of the bigger picture for the Beef Industry. Key takeaways from this episode should actually be "You Don't Have To Be That Guy." You don't have to lock your gates or try to steamroll your neighbors if there's good community rapport. You don't have to be an absentee "ghostlike" owner who only comes around but twice a year and contributes nothing to your local community or the Beef Industry itself. You don't have to be that guy playing Kevin Costner on Yellowstone while knowing nothing about the communal and ecological impacts of your ranch investment. Your Hobby/Recreation Ranch can holistically serve multiple purposes and Jess does a fine job here discussing how you might sincerely approach that issue, even if you only bought it to play dress-up.With nearly 15 years of experience in the policy, communications, and executive management arena, Jess Peterson built a firm and team that delivers high–level results for a premier class of clients.  Western Skies Strategies provides executive management services along with federal, state and local level advocacy along with strategic consulting. Mr. Peterson is proud to lead a management team that drives results in the boardroom, a policy team that delivers successes in the conference room and a skilled communications team that propels the winning message.  Mr. Peterson is a proud alumnus of Miles Community College and Gonzaga University. Jess splits time between the WSS office in Washington, DC and Billings, MT.  Thanks to their mother, he and his wife have two incredibly beautiful and intelligent children.  Mr. Peterson spends too much time in the office, but treasures every moment doing anything underneath Montana’s “Big Sky” - especially working the family’s cattle operation. Learn more about his company here: https://wssdc.com/

How do you maximize the value of your water rights, if you have any water rights at all? Do you even know if these have intrinsic value or are they simple smoke-and-mirrors? Are your water rights marketable? In this episode, we hear from Russ Radliff who stopped by for a recording while he was in town presenting to Lawyers and Ranch Brokers from across the west on his firm's ability to audit, verify, engineer, and even market water rights with their respective projects, uses, and applications. Today's land investing might be more about speculating on the minerals, water, solar, and wind than running sheep and cows so this episode is a good opportunity to get introduced to just how you go about perfecting that value of your ranch investment.