Practically Ranching

Joe Urban is a chef, entrepreneur and currently is the Director for the Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services, a public K-12 school district with 77,700 students located in Greenville, SC.He leads a team of 750 employees to prepare delicious, nutritious food for students each day.  He strives to get a little better today than he was yesterday. Best of all, he's a fan of high-quality beef and Certified Angus Beef, and he does all he can to keep it in his recipes often.School Food Rocks - Home(3) Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services | Greenville SC | Facebook

Dr. Glynn Tonsor is an Ag Economist at Kansas State University. He focuses on beef/cattle and pork/swine demand and supply decision-making tools and information. His broader interests cover aspects throughout the meat supply chain ranging from production level supply issues to end-user consumer demand issues.Links:AgManager.infogtonsor@ksu.edu

Kyle Perrier is a hero. He won't say it, so I will.It's not just because he served in the Navy. AND in the Army.It's not just because he worked his tail off to earn a spot flying the Apache helicopter on numerous deployments...most with significant combat.It's not even just because he helped defend our freedom for more than twenty years as an enlisted man and then an officer.It's because he did all of the above and still put priority on his family. He figured out how to do the best with what he had. He believed in words like respect, sacrifice, structure, discipline and communication. And he used them to not only do the job that he swore an oath to do, but also to maintain a marriage, a family and a life stateside.Kyle now lives with his wife, Melinda, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Not one to stop serving, he now flies a medical helicopter for the Broward County Fire Rescue. He moonlights as a pilot carting tourists to the Bahamas. But as you'll hear, he's a wonderful human being who --in his humble way-- helps us civilians understand just how fortunate we are to have members of the armed forces who are willing to serve.

Lamar Steiger is a consultant to Walmart and other businesses in the beef supply chain. He owns The 808 Ranch in southwest Missouri and calls the Bentonville, AR, area home today. Lamar is a lifelong student of the beef industry and today uses this perspective to help retail companies find new and better ways to manage the beef supply chain and deliver consistent, high-quality beef to consumers. 

David Kleinschmidt is an Ag Economist by training. This background, coupled with a passion for soil health, holistic management and practical management make him a wealth of knowledge and perspective.On this episode, we cover a host of topics: Cover Crops, Soil Health, Microbes, GMOs, Chemistry, Biology, Profit over Production, Organic Matter. David used so many terms that I finally got tired of writing them all down in my notes. And little did I know that my recording software was basically self-destructing the podcast as we spoke. So you'll have to put up with a largely unedited version (see how many times you hear the land-line ring or our 3-year-old in the background) with TERRIBLE sound quality. But for those willing to put up with the noise, you're in for an interesting conversation about farming, ranching and as David appropriately states, "The Business of Growing Things."David Kleinschmidt217-370-3799 dkleinsc@gmail.com  

Diana Clark and her husband, Dr. Daniel Clark, are the resident meat scientists at the Certified Angus Beef Culinary Center in Wooster, OH. A native of suburban Chicago, Diana attended the University of Illinois where she, under the tutelage of Dr. Tom Carr and other top scientists, received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Animal and Meat Science.She works with meat purveyors, distributors and consumers as she advocates and educates about not only high-quality beef, but the high-quality folks who raise and produce it every day.

Bruce Mershon and his wife, Tracey, own and operate Mershon Cattle, a 2000 cow operation in western Missouri. In addition, they purchase and background 4000 yearlings annually. Bruce spent 30 years in the commodity trading world as he grew his family's cattle business.Bruce currently serves as President of the Missouri Cattlemen's Association. He and Tracey have both been active leaders in their community and with ag organizations on the state and national levels.

Don Graham lives in northeast Oklahoma and works with Crossroads Cattle Co. Don buys and sells tens of thousands of commercial cattle each year throughout the high plains. His focus is on value-added "program cattle," and he works with feedyards, stocker operators and cow-calf producers. Crossroads Cattle - Our Team918-706-8875

Dr. Ty Lawrence is a Professor of Animal Science and Director of the Beef Carcass Research Center at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX.  He was reared on a cow-calf operation north of Dalhart, Texas before pursuing formal education in the animal sciences at West Texas A&M University (B.S. '97, M.S. '99) and Kansas State University (Ph.D. '02).  Dr. Lawrence spent two years with Smithfield Foods in the position of research manager for pork harvest and processing facilities on the eastern seaboard.Dr. Lawrence spends countless hours consulting with businesses throughout the industry, especially in the packing, feeding and dairy segments. Dr. Ty Lawrence | WTAMUtlawrence@wtamu.edu

Ryan Arndt is a rancher and a cowboy from the Emporia, KS, area. He and his family own and operate Arndt Farms, a diversified farming and ranching entity that spans portions of several counties in the Flint Hills. They run cows, purchased yearlings for grazing, plus are partners on several feedyards in western Kansas. Their no-nonsense, no-frills approach to farming and ranching has served them well for generations, as they have continued to adapt to the times, while expanding their business to include more family members. Ryan and his family enjoy youth rodeo and ranch rodeos, plus he serves on several volunteer boards, including the Flint Hills Beef Fest committee.