Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 136: John Rodgers on Building Western Video Market and a Hall of Fame Legacy

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136: John Rodgers on Building Western Video Market and a Hall of Fame Legacy · CattleUSA Daily

0:00
Welcome back to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
0:03
Today we are welcoming on John Rogers to the podcast with
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Western Video Market out of California.
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John is a member that we inducted into the Cattle
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Marketing Hall of Fame a few weeks ago in just recently in
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Dodge City with the Cattle USA in conjunction with the King of
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the Ring contest. And so after this intro, we are
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going to go straight into John's introduction and then induction
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speech that we all got to hear at the induction ceremony.
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So we're going to go ahead and go into those.
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And then we have an exclusive interview with John that we are
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going to round out the podcast with where for 30 minutes, John
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and I talk about his story and his legacy that he's left on the
0:46
industry. And we go into all the detail
0:49
there. So without further ado, let's go
0:50
ahead and jump into this podcast.
0:51
You're first and foremost going to hear his introduction speech
0:54
given by one of his dear friends to introduce him as a recipient
0:59
into the Hall of Fame. And then you're going to hear
1:01
his induction speech that he gave and then go into the
1:04
podcast. So let's go ahead and hop into
1:06
this. Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily
1:12
podcast. Your go to source for the latest
1:14
livestock. Markets, industry insights and
1:17
the updates shaping. Agriculture Today.
1:19
I'm your host Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate for.
1:22
Agriculture here to keep you. Informed and connected.
1:25
Now let's dive into. Today's episode.
1:33
Please welcome now Celeste Satrini of Satrini Ranches and
1:37
Turlock Livestock Auction Yard to introduce John Rogers.
1:40
Good evening. I am very excited and honored to
1:43
be here to celebrate the wonderful contributions that
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these young men have brought to the cattle industry as well as
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celebrating the good of American agriculture with all of you.
1:57
Truly, there is no better life than the life we all live in the
2:00
cattle business. When we first got word that
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Johnny was nominated for this award, they ask you to bring
2:07
someone along to introduce them. Well, who better to do that than
2:11
the ranching families he has worked alongside for 50 plus
2:15
years. Family is and has been the
2:19
cornerstone of John's business. My name is Celeste Satrini and I
2:24
will be representing those families in this introduction
2:27
along with John's grandson, Cole Anderson.
2:32
John Rogers is a prominent figure in the livestock
2:35
marketing industry with a career that spans over 5 decades.
2:39
Growing up on his family's farm in Visalia, CA, from a very
2:43
young age, John enjoyed the cattle business, owning his own
2:46
Black Angus herd as a young boy in 4H.
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He started his auction career at age 14 and kicked off his
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lengthy career first selling Drop Cabs for Art Martella in
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1966. This is just what he needed to
3:00
get the ball rolling in the auction business.
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From there, working for and besides numerous influential
3:05
livestock auctioneers, he worked hard on his cattle marketing and
3:09
auction skills and went on to win the prestigious title of
3:13
World Champion Livestock Auctioneer in 1986.
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John's expertise and passion for the cattle business led him to
3:20
purchase and operate the Stockman's Market auction yard
3:23
in Visalia from 1978 to 1994, and he continues to trade cattle
3:29
under that same name today. In the early 1980s, John
3:34
ventured into video marketing, collaborating with renowned
3:36
auctioneer Skinner Hardy in 1982.
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This innovation continued into 1988 when with the help of
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Russell Sabliki, Leroy Pimentel and Richard Stoeber, these
3:49
efforts laid the foundation for the creation of Western Video
3:52
Market in 1990 alongside business partners Ellington and
3:57
Andy Peek. Western Video Market
3:59
revolutionized the industry by connecting sellers and buyers
4:03
nationwide through satellite and Internet broadcasts and today it
4:06
remains the second largest livestock video auction company
4:10
in the USA, selling over 400,000 head of cattle and sheep
4:14
annually. John Rogers commitment to the
4:16
livestock industry is widely recognized.
4:19
He has been honored multiple times for his contributions
4:21
including being named Cattleman of the Year by the Tulare County
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Cattlemen's Association not once but twice, California Livestock
4:30
Marketing Association Friend of the Industry, and being inducted
4:34
recently into the California Angus Hall of Fame for his work
4:38
with purebred Angus sales and keeping Angus calves at the
4:41
forefront of the video. Although John has retired from
4:44
auctioneering, he remains actively involved in Western
4:47
Video Market and continues to contribute to the industry
4:50
mentoring young auctioneers with his work with fellow World
4:53
Champions Colonel Max Olivera and Colonel Ralph Wade through
4:57
their Champions Champ Building Bid Calling Seminar each year.
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Well, enough of all of that. What did the families have to
5:05
say? And we had a number of families
5:08
that called and shared their thoughts and we'd like to share
5:11
a few of those this evening from O'Neill Ranch, Betsy and Gary.
5:16
Gary Cardoza had to say, it's been a pleasure to work with
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John and marketing our cats for Western Video Market for the
5:22
past 36 years, not only as Johnny marketed our commercial
5:26
cattle but was there at the start of our annual bull sale
5:29
over 20 years ago. We consider Johnny a part of our
5:32
family and would not have the success we have today without
5:36
his guidance and support. Our family is honored to have
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Johnny Rogers in our corner for our all of our marketing needs.
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Jill Healy of Lazy JT Landing Cattle had to say.
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I've known John for over 25 years and from day one he told
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me that the Lazy JT Ranch was in good hands.
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After 25 years we are still with John as our cattle Rep and year
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after year we get amazing exposure to potential buyers new
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and on repeat. I am so honored to have him talk
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the market and talk about our cattle.
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I know that what he told me 25 years ago still stands true,
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that we are in good hands. He knows his business.
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Thank you Johnny for all that you do for us.
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You go above and beyond what we expect and you get good results.
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So well deserved. Susan Cochran.
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John is one of the most sincere people I've yet to meet.
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His integrity runs deep and we are honored to have him
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marketing our calves. And we just have two more.
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So Martin Etchberry of Diamond Cattle Company.
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Congratulations John on your induction to the Cattle
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Marketing Hall of Fame. John has been a great
6:45
representative to our family run cattle business for the last 20
6:49
years. He has guided us in the ups and
6:52
downs of the market and we so appreciate his expertise in the
6:55
industry. Thank you John for your
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continued to support and friendship.
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Mark and Martin Echeverry. And finally another dear friend,
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Marty Williamson from the Boston Ranch says that John's honesty
7:08
and integrity stand out the most to me.
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When we started using Angus bulls, we were looking for
7:14
suppliers we could trust. John introduced us to some
7:17
breeders that we still do business with today, over 30
7:20
years later. It shows me that good people
7:23
trust and respect him as much as I do.
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Johnny has marketed our cattle for my entire career at the
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Boston Ranch. And one last deal, John is
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really committed to the future of the cattle marketing business
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and to agriculture. And recently I got a note on
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social media from Gabrielle Nevin of Neville Nevin Cattle
7:46
Ranch. She said it's so nice to hear
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encouragement from John's generation to our younger
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generation. We have struggled wondering if
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we should sell our cow herd. And it's nice to hear
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encouraging words to keep us going.
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John values the younger generation and wants to help us
8:03
succeed. And for his official
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introduction and to welcome John to receive his honor is grandson
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Cole Anderson. Congratulations Papa on a well
8:16
deserved honor. We are so proud of you for for
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of all you do for so many ranching families.
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Congratulations. Well, I told myself I wasn't
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getting emotional and cry when I got up here for the real that
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was. Thank you, Celeste, very much.
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Celeste Satrini, one of the leaders in California AG and
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former president of the California Women's for AG and
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knows everybody in the world. We're out to dinner last night
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over here 17 or 1800 miles from home.
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Across the room at another table, Celeste says.
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I think. That.
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Lady's from Madera, CA and I thought not likely.
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Well, I was dead wrong. So Celeste knows everybody and
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thank you, Cole. He read that just the way I
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wrote it for him. So and I and I will be, I will
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be as brief as as an auctioneer can when he's making a speech
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and I do, I have a confession to make.
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And some of you that pay much attention to the contests are
9:24
aware, I went to 12 contests over 18 years and I never made a
9:31
technical error. I was always kind of in there.
9:34
I wasn't in the top ten few times, but normally I had a
9:38
chance and keep in mind that. That that.
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Out of those 12 times, only one time did I make a technical
9:46
error and that was the year I won and.
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I equate that, you know. Like when Roger Maris hit his
9:56
61st if the replay. A year later had.
10:00
Shown that it curved just slightly over the foul line.
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That's that's the way I felt and I honestly didn't know it.
10:11
I honestly didn't know it that day and neither did anybody
10:14
else. Mike Lewis was one of the
10:15
judges. I got to be good friend with
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Mike later, but I didn't know him.
10:19
I didn't know Walter Britton. I didn't know anybody.
10:22
And it's I say today that I was so smooth that nobody noticed
10:26
it, but I dropped the ball and backed up about $10 a hundred.
10:30
And the tapes did not come out until April.
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If I'd have known. It that that night.
10:36
Or the next morning I'd have handed the the trophy to Doug
10:40
Strotheide, who was second. With the idea that I.
10:44
Get to go some more and I and I eventually so I've I've been
10:48
sorry about that ever since. Now, having said that, I talked
10:53
to Doug, oh, a year or two after that, he was helping us well
10:56
longer than that, but he was helping us with a video through
10:59
Crawford Livestock. And I said, you know, I kind of
11:01
feel bad. And he says, well, you, you did
11:04
more for the industry than most any of us ever had a chance to
11:08
do. And I got to thinking and that
11:09
was true. I did AI did an.
11:11
Interview with CNN that went viral when when I won the
11:17
contest, the auctioneer that won it had two days.
11:21
He had the day won it and the day that they picked the next
11:24
guy and he got to to be the master's ceremony at the at the
11:28
contest. I went to Kansas City, there was
11:31
a guy there and I think he was the head of the of the
11:34
competition committee and I'm not going to take a lot of time.
11:37
I'm real happy to be here and and and again, I want to thank
11:40
the winter family, but young guy named name Randy Emerick Sammy
11:45
own the market at Norfolk NE and I believe he was the head of the
11:48
competition committee and I went back there.
11:52
I can't remember who the head of LMA was.
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Tim Rogers, my Rep and and Mark Mankey was was involved and and
12:00
anyway, I sat down with them had a lot of really nice looking
12:05
women working for him. I remember that.
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Anyway, I said, you know, I would like to do something.
12:10
Maybe, maybe we could we could go around some of these
12:14
specials. And like that.
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And what, what would it take? And I kind of told him and made
12:18
it. We made a deal.
12:20
I sold a sale in Dickson, TN. I sold one and.
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What is it? Ashe, Asheville, Asheville, NC.
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I sold a sale there. I sold a sale in Brush, sold a
12:34
sale for my friend Pat Fitzgerald at the Stockton
12:37
Livestock Market. So I feel like I'm the one that
12:41
encouraged LMA to use their world champion more than just,
12:47
you know, well, we got this world champion now come back in
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a year and help us crown the next one, which was seriously, I
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believe it's it was the way it was.
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And I kind of, I kind of pushed him to let us do that.
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So I will take credit for that and I will take credit for the
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fact that there's not just one video company in the United
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States Also, because we were second and took us, took us,
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took me 3 weeks to find out what the heck.
13:15
An up leak truck. Was and I, I really didn't know
13:19
how do you do it? How do you do this?
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And and I struggled along for a couple of years, had two sales
13:25
on my own that were broadcast and I got a pretty good support
13:28
and I ran into to the to if I'm a legend, Ellington Peak is an
13:34
icon. He absolutely is.
13:38
He's a getter. It's like I said earlier, he
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loves his fellow man. He enjoys his work.
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And like the guy said, if you if you love what you do for a
13:47
living, you never work a day in your life.
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And Dale Carnegie said he never met a man he didn't like.
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I said well he never made some of the pack Packer buyers that I
13:58
have to do business with, but that's Ellington Peak.
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I don't believe Ellington has ever met a man that he truly
14:05
didn't like. And we we owe all the success of
14:10
Western Video to, to Ellington. And to give you an example, we
14:16
had 180,000 cattle last week on, on one of the hottest markets
14:20
that we've ever seen. And out of that 180,000, the guy
14:24
that won the prize for the biggest single consignment from
14:27
1 Ranch was Ellington Peak at 97 years old.
14:30
So I want to thank again the Winter family.
14:36
I love this business. I I love the people.
14:43
In it. When I when I won the first
14:47
time, I was cattlemen of the year for my county.
14:49
I said undeserved but appreciated.
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I feel the same about this. Thank you all very much and
15:00
thanks to the Winter family again and all of you for being
15:02
here. A special thanks to our
15:04
colleague in Western Video who was with us from almost day one,
15:08
Jack Hunter. From from up there.
15:10
Crawford and his lovely wife. We appreciate you guys being
15:12
here. We really do.
15:14
Thank you very much. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
15:16
John, welcome to the podcast. We are so excited to welcome you
15:20
on as one of our Hall of Fame inductees and just get to chat
15:24
with you today. I would love to first and
15:26
foremost start out and just take me back to that first drop calf
15:32
sale in 1966 where you're 14 years old and selling your first
15:37
sale. What do you remember about that
15:39
day? Yeah, actually I was, I was
15:43
younger than 14 and it was in 1960.
15:47
I think I was in 8th grader then, so it would have been
15:49
about 62 and it I worked for Art Martella in 66.
15:55
I was just about to graduate from high school when I really
15:59
sold my first drop calf. There was a sale in Hanford
16:04
called Otis Stockyards. It's it's gone now.
16:06
It was right next to the Overland Stockyards.
16:08
They were right side by side and I was there.
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I used to buy a few drop calves and raise them.
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And there was an auctioneer named Tony Machado.
16:17
Tony Machado weighed 400 lbs. Literally, I was 12 years old
16:22
and probably weighed about 80 or 90 lbs.
16:24
And my brother was an auctioneer.
16:27
And somebody mentioned to Tony, I bought 1 calf.
16:30
And they said that boy's brother is one of the better auctioneers
16:33
around and he's welcome up here. Come up here.
16:35
And so I got up there and I sat in front of Tony, who was just a
16:39
massive guy, just just a giant of a man.
16:43
And can you sell some calves? And so I did.
16:46
And so I went back. I was in the summer.
16:48
I went back every week. Oh my goodness, you know, I,
16:52
that was just a thrill. And I got along well enough to
16:57
sell some drop calves at 12 and I kind of kept on.
17:00
And then I was actually 18 and 66 and about to graduate from
17:05
high school and work for Art Martella.
17:07
And in those days the auction yards got a lot of baby calves
17:11
and I got to sell them. And that was kind of, that was
17:15
kind of my start. I'd worked with my brother, but
17:18
a couple of sales that he had in Southern California before then.
17:22
But they, I got paid to work the ring.
17:25
Then I didn't get to pay, I didn't get paid to auctioneer.
17:28
So that was the start. And all was thrilling.
17:31
Gosh, I couldn't wait for Thursdays to get there because
17:35
that was sale day and I got to, I got to sell some.
17:39
Wow. That is such a fun and unique
17:43
story, but also at the same time, I feel like a story that a
17:46
lot of auctioneers have you, you grew up in the sail ring, you
17:49
grew up around all of it and you're just in a dated and that
17:52
was a big part of your life. But throughout your career
17:55
you've you've had a lot of mentors and a lot of people that
17:59
took a chance on you or helped bring you up and just shape your
18:03
career that you have right now. I would love to hear about some
18:06
more of those early years of your career in that aspect.
18:09
Well, the first guy, of course, my brother, you know, who was a
18:14
pretty accomplished auctioneer in his day, but he helped me as
18:19
much as my parents could make him.
18:21
And the guy that really, that really got me going with Skinner
18:27
Hardy and Skinner had been a world champion.
18:29
He's a world champion and I believe 66 and he was in
18:34
Bakersfield South of here, about 50 miles or 60 miles and owned
18:39
up, owned one of the bigger sales yards, biggest auction
18:42
markets in California. He was always kind of idol of
18:46
mine. He was a great auctioneer, had a
18:48
big voice and a lot of rhythm and all that.
18:50
And so I kind of followed him and I finally got a job working
18:53
with Skinner. And that really is when I really
18:56
kind of kind of learned the, you know, if I had a, if I had a
19:02
bachelor's degree before then that gave me a, a master's
19:05
degree working with Skinner and, and oh, there was a auction here
19:09
that sold a lot of pyramid sales in each day and finally got into
19:12
politics. Was it Under Secretary of AG,
19:14
which is Jack Parnell. And Jack helped me a lot.
19:17
Jack helped me get some sales And and like the thing when I
19:22
got old enough to kind of start watching the contest and what
19:25
not, Ken Trout comes to mind. And and there were a lot of back
19:30
in your country, but Nebraska seems to be the it's the birth
19:34
place of a lot of good auctioneers.
19:36
They have as many world champions as anybody.
19:39
And there was a guy there that I met through the contest named
19:42
Ronnie Woodward. And Ronnie still at 90 something
19:46
is still, he's not chasing it, but he still goes down to the
19:49
broken pole auction that he that he worked at and still takes a
19:54
turn every once in awhile. And Ronnie was just a a great
19:59
auctioneer. So I had the opportunity I
20:01
worked for Tom Caldwell who was the Keeneland Thoroughbred
20:05
sales. I worked at his cattle auction
20:08
in in Southern California 2 summers through my brother and
20:12
and Tom Caldwell is a renowned thoroughbred auctioneer and who
20:18
is who is passed away but. I learned a lot with with him
20:24
really very intelligent guy, big good looking guy, big voice.
20:28
And like that. If I really start thinking, I
20:31
can probably think of I've always watched Ralph Wade.
20:34
I've always been just amazed at his at his rhythm and, and, and
20:38
the idea that Ralph is now I don't want to age him too much,
20:42
but I think Ralph is 81 or 82 sounds just like he did the
20:46
first time I heard him in 1972. You know, just to tremendous one
20:50
of the best bit callers around Ralph is that all the young
20:54
auctioneers, even to this day, want to sound like Ralph.
21:00
Wow, that is just such a list of people that made such an impact
21:04
on your life. And I know a life of they made
21:07
an impact on lives of so many other auctioneers as well
21:10
throughout the industry. And I'm sure that they had a big
21:14
part in encouraging you when you started the Western video
21:18
market. I would love to hear about the
21:20
start of your business and what that all kind of looked like in
21:24
the early years as well. It's, I think back I was.
21:27
At the livestock. Marketing Congress in Monterey,
21:31
CA of all places, they sponsored, LMA sponsored that
21:35
and that was where the contest was.
21:38
And actually the contest back in those days and that was about
21:41
1969 or 70 and the contest was just a part of that Congress.
21:47
And one of the things they did and I can remember they had Ken
21:51
Trout was the auctioneer guy named Jack Torpy was the buyer
21:56
and the consignor was. You got to bear with me just a
21:59
minute. I, I can see this guy, but you
22:01
know, I'm Jack Swalbacher who owned a large ranch over there.
22:07
He was the surrogate consignor and they did this video and they
22:12
showed it was in house. Of course, it was just enter the
22:16
and showed these cattle. Kim Trout did a faux auction and
22:20
Jack Thorpy bought them and and the Jack Swalbacher sold them.
22:23
And I, you know, I thought, you know, there it was right in
22:27
front of me to pursue and I just thought it was very novel then
22:31
and all that. Well, it was probably 20 years
22:35
later that we got serious about doing the videos and they again
22:39
were in house. We have them like one of them
22:42
that I wasn't involved in. I was kind of on the periphery.
22:45
Was it the Madonna in San Luis Obispo that my good friend
22:49
Richard Stoeber and Skinner Hardy, Richard Stoeber, the guy
22:53
named GB Berry and Doug White, they put it together, had about
22:57
10,000 cattle then, which was a tremendous amount.
23:01
And I think that was in 1980. And I was there, actually, I
23:05
helped him get a few cattle consigned to that.
23:08
And they just hit a bad market. They hit a reel down and it was,
23:13
it wasn't real successful, but it was very interesting.
23:16
A lot of people looked at it. Few years later, Skinner and I
23:20
had one together. By that time I was running a
23:22
market in Visalia and he was still in Bakersfield.
23:26
We were sort of competitors, but we were friendly enough that we
23:28
had this video together and it was relatively successful.
23:32
But there again, it was in house.
23:34
And what really launched the videos when it was, and I got to
23:39
give credit to the guys that were ahead of me was, was Jim
23:42
Odle and Buddy Jeffers. And they're the ones that tied
23:47
the satellite to it. And we're out here in
23:49
California. I didn't know everybody in the
23:51
Midwest back then. In 1986, seven had a satellite
23:56
dish and that's what they broadcast to.
23:59
They broadcast in what we call then the open.
24:02
You just got on the channel and there it was.
24:05
And so I had a friend in Idaho named Russell Soublicki.
24:10
And I don't remember. There was a reason I thought,
24:13
you know, I've got to do something to to kind of generate
24:16
some, you know, what do we do now?
24:18
You know, And he's why don't you have a video sale?
24:21
And I thought about it. I had another good friend, Leroy
24:25
Pimentel from Las Banas was a good friend of Russell's,
24:29
actually. And of course Richard Stoberg
24:32
and I talked to them and yeah, we'll have a video sale and you
24:36
know, OK, how do you do it? I didn't know.
24:39
I called the local news channel and I said.
24:41
Hey, how do you do this? And well, you got to get an
24:45
Uplink truck. Well, where do you get one of
24:47
those? Well, the closest ones were in
24:49
Southern California and so I called around and they also
24:53
recommended a production company to me.
24:55
This couple of guys that had had worked for them one and was
24:58
their farm. Editor named Dave Brown and.
25:01
Get a hold of these guys. They've got AG tech productions
25:04
and so I called them and then they kind of took it from there
25:07
and and we got it on the satellite, got it on the bird as
25:10
they said. We had our first one.
25:11
We hope to have 6000 cattle. I think I probably had 5000 and
25:15
maybe edged a little bit about how many we had and it was
25:19
pretty successful. But we pretty well got them on
25:21
household and back then we had three quarter inch tape which
25:27
meant we had a camera that probably weighed 60 lbs that we
25:30
had to carry around. I had two sales, one in 88.1 in
25:34
89 and and at 89 Ellington was there and January of 90 the
25:45
California Cattlemen had their cattle convention, cattle
25:50
convention at the Disneyland Hotel in Disney in Disneyland in
25:54
Anaheim and Ellington was there and he said, what are you going
25:57
to do this? I said, well, I'm going to have
26:00
one. He said call Andy.
26:02
He said maybe Andy and I'll put. Some put some.
26:05
Cattle in with you. So I did and we met.
26:09
Andy and I met up in Stockton and we kind of wrote down what
26:11
we were going to do on a napkin. I wished I still had it.
26:14
I kept it for a long time and our first sale was again in
26:18
Visalia in April and we did have 6000 and it was successful.
26:23
We had another one in in May up in the Anderson Cottonwood area.
26:28
We had that one at the off track betting site at the Anderson
26:32
Fair because they had the TV's. We didn't have to rent any TV's
26:36
for that and Andy was on the fair boards.
26:38
It just kind of grew from there and then.
26:40
We had planned to have. 22 in the spring, maybe a couple in
26:43
the fall of the year. And I was driving home from the
26:46
airport. I had, I'd flown with Richard
26:48
Stober up to the sale that we had in Anderson and the phone
26:51
rang and I just had a cell phone.
26:53
It was back when they were anchored in the car.
26:56
You know, they didn't carry him around.
26:57
And it was a guy that I had, I had tried to do a little
27:01
business with the year before named Sonny Sanders that ran the
27:04
Wazna Ranch. And I'd been over there and
27:06
drove around with him. I didn't get the cattle that
27:08
previous year. And he says, what are you?
27:10
When's your next video? And I'm just on my way home from
27:13
what I thought was the last one of the spring.
27:16
And I said, well, we were just kind of talking about that
27:19
today, kind of him and hawed around and I said, what have you
27:22
got something you think you'd like to put in?
27:24
He said, well, we've got some Urlins.
27:25
And I said, well, and I'm just getting ready to say we may not
27:29
have one another one this spring.
27:31
And he says, yeah, I got about 5000 Urlins.
27:34
And I said, well, when were you thinking you might want to have
27:37
the next video? And he wanted to do it kind of
27:39
the end of that month. It was kind of the 1st of May.
27:41
And so the end of May, we had the other one.
27:44
It was really successful. The market was really strong and
27:47
that's really what launched. This was that third video that
27:50
we had one consignment of. I don't remember if there was
27:53
exactly 5000, but there was enough to have a sale and, and
27:56
built around that. From that, Ellington got real,
27:59
real enthused and he said, let's go up to Ascuagas and see John
28:04
Ascuaga that owned the Nugget Casino.
28:05
Maybe we'll have one there. And that's when the July sale
28:08
was was, was born. So it's just everything just
28:13
kind of it, everything just kind of came together and, and, and
28:17
we made it work and it was for several years.
28:20
It was really good, really fun and and I say the cattle, cattle
28:25
businesses is a lot of ups and downs and used to seem like
28:28
there were more downs and UPS, but now we're kind of kind of on
28:32
the escalator right now. Everything is, is as I tell
28:35
anybody that's everything's coming up roses right now.
28:38
So that's the way we started. Wow, that's amazing.
28:44
Looking back on the business and all the success that you guys
28:49
have had over the past few decades, what is the thing that
28:52
you're most proud of with that business?
28:58
Gee, there's a lot of things that, you know, just just the
29:02
acceptance. And I don't know if you heard my
29:05
presenter, I had a few people that I'd done, you know, soul
29:08
cattle for Joe Healy, Marty Williams and Betsy Cardoza and
29:13
Susan Cochran for my they're not my biggest consignors, but
29:19
they're, they've been with us, Marty.
29:20
I think it's been with us since since day one.
29:23
And you just have people that depend on you and you feel like
29:28
that you're doing a good service for the, for the cattle
29:31
industry. And, and I didn't leave the
29:33
auction because the brick and mortar auction that I had
29:37
because of the video, as most, a lot of people think, I left it
29:40
because it was hard to make a living in it.
29:43
And back then the cattle market wasn't anything to write home
29:46
about. And I could devote full time to
29:49
the videos and, and a lot of people thought, well, the videos
29:52
are going to take over the regular brick and mortar cattle
29:55
auctions. And I never thought that there's
29:57
always going to be a place for, for the weekly auction, just the
30:02
facility. I was just.
30:04
And I knew. They had a nice yard.
30:06
I knew that I never had been there before, but it was just,
30:09
you know, it was an Amphitheatre, just how big it
30:12
was. And everybody there in a blue
30:14
shirt, you know, it was, it was just they're going to be there
30:17
and they're going to run a lot of cattle and they're, they're
30:20
always that. And so, you know, I think the
30:23
videos in a way kind of sort of compliment that because it
30:29
doesn't matter if you sell your cattle at home or you sell your
30:34
cattle through a brick and mortar auction or you sell your
30:38
cattle through the video. Far and away, especially with
30:42
today's market, you need to sell, sell them where they're
30:45
getting people are going to bid on them.
30:47
I got a good friend that had always seen his cattle.
30:50
The Turlock, which is real viable auction in California,
30:53
belongs to my friend Max Olivera.
30:56
And somebody came along and offered him, you know, what he
30:58
thought was a lot of money at the time.
31:00
And I thought, Gee, you just left probably 10 or $15 on the
31:04
table. And so you better send them
31:06
where people can bid on them today, because I'm supposed to
31:10
be a student of the market. And if you ask me what a low to
31:14
£800 yearlings they bring today, I'm not sure I could tell you my
31:18
stock answer is they'll bring more than they've ever brought
31:21
in your whole life. They're going to bring more than
31:23
they've ever brought. So put them somewhere you, where
31:26
you, the people can bid on them. And I, I, I believe in the
31:30
auction market that believe in the auction method.
31:32
It's really odd because I had a dad that absolutely hated to pay
31:36
a Commission. And when I was growing up, we
31:39
sold most of our cattle at home. We bought a lot of cattle at the
31:42
auctions, but we sold most of them at home because my dad
31:45
didn't want to give the three or four or 3%.
31:48
I think back then it was and I after my brother and I got
31:53
involved in, in the auctions, it was a little easier to get him
31:56
to send him, but not much, not much.
31:58
He's still worried about the 3%. But they, you know, guaranteed
32:02
money, immediate check. And I'm involved in a couple of
32:06
in the orange citrus business. I've got a little little
32:10
orchard. And.
32:12
My friends that are involved like in the walnuts or the
32:16
cotton or whatever they're growing, the way they market is
32:19
just you just take what you can get.
32:22
You don't get paid for probably months and it's you got to pay
32:28
to pack and pay that. It's like 20% and people in the
32:33
cattle industry that complaints about our 2% Commission, I think
32:37
Gee, and immediate payment, you know, if I had, if I had to have
32:41
some money today, I could convert my cattle into currency.
32:45
And it's not another commodity in the world that's like that.
32:50
Yeah, 100%. You.
32:52
You're really big on just bringing up that next
32:55
generation. You've got a gaggle of grandkids
32:59
running around. And we actually got to meet Cole
33:02
when we were in Dodge City as well.
33:04
He was part of your acceptance speech.
33:06
What is it like passing down all of the knowledge to your
33:10
grandson Cole, all of the other individuals within your next
33:14
generation? And how do you kind of like see
33:16
yourself in them as well? Well, I, you know, I was, I
33:20
started young and I got a lot of encouragement from some of the
33:26
older generation and not a lot from some.
33:31
And you know, some of the, some of the guys that I sold cattle
33:34
to when I was 17/18/19 years old were pretty grumpy.
33:39
And so I try, if somebody that's enthusiastic about the business,
33:47
I try to give him a hand if I can.
33:49
And you say a gaggle of grandkids, you know, actually I
33:53
got to, I got to be honest, I got 1 and my daughter married
33:57
into a family. I call them the Dutch kids.
34:00
And there's four children that are my son-in-law, daughter's
34:04
daughter's age. And there's four kids and
34:06
they've all got kids. Well, they're around like my
34:10
grandson's birthday party was 2027 kids, I think in the
34:14
backyard running around, some of whom are related to me through
34:18
marriage. And one of them was with with my
34:21
grandson back there. His name is Cope.
34:23
His grandfather was my daughter's brother-in-law and
34:30
she was married to married to his brother-in-law and and just
34:34
a big, great nice old. Dutchman and.
34:38
Passed away sort of young and so his grandkids are around and
34:44
I've kind of surrogately adopted him.
34:47
And as far as my grandson, whether he wants to be in the
34:50
auction business or not, I don't know.
34:52
We make sure he's got a few cows and junior rodeos a little.
34:57
I don't think he's focused yet on what he wants to do, which at
35:00
11 or 12 years old is probably OK.
35:04
Yes. What's 1 lesson?
35:06
That you would die a happy man if you left that one lesson with
35:11
your grandson forever. Oh, it's easy.
35:15
Never give up, you know, it doesn't mean never change.
35:19
But if you've got a dream, try to live that dream and and you
35:26
endeavor to do something, whether it's build a video
35:29
business or own a ranch or whatever it is, don't give up on
35:35
your dreams is. There anything else that you
35:39
would like to leave with our listeners today?
35:42
One question that comes up every day with me now when you're
35:46
talking to customers, buyers, sellers, whatever is how long is
35:50
this market going to going to last?
35:52
And I don't know, it's higher than I thought it would get to
35:56
begin with. I hope it lasts.
35:58
You know, it's the first time, I think with a few exceptions, it
36:04
seems that our our industry had been a series of kind of UPS
36:10
followed by some pretty severe downs.
36:12
I don't know. Our numbers are short.
36:14
I think that's evident by the fact we saw millions of acres of
36:17
grass and very few cattle in our trip through Kansas.
36:21
I think we've got some, I think the market has some legs to it.
36:24
It obviously does. I think if the market would
36:28
happen to break, it's going to be over something that's not on
36:31
our radar. I think we've got two or three
36:33
years, a pretty good sailing. It may not be two 4245 fat
36:39
cattle, maybe it's going to, but it hopefully I think north of
36:42
$2.00 and that's the question I always get, how long is it going
36:46
to last? Of course, like Ellington says,
36:48
we hope it lasts forever. That's probably, but there's a
36:51
lot of things going on. The tariff things, the tariffs
36:55
are a positive for the livestock industry and I didn't realize a
36:59
couple of things. I didn't realize that and you
37:02
could check this because I'm even a little skeptical, but I
37:05
was at a meeting at our video in July and I am, I sponsored as
37:10
symposium and a speaker there said, you know, today we're
37:13
producing more prime beef than we are as select beef.
37:16
I didn't know that. I think that's a real positive.
37:20
I think one of the problems we had is we kind of changed our
37:24
grading system in 1978 and so our quality of our product
37:29
wasn't quite as consistent fact that there's as much prime
37:32
around as it is select today. I think it's a plus.
37:35
I think the tariffs that the greatest President we've ever
37:40
had wants to instill and some people may not agree with that
37:43
and I'm not sure I agree with it 100%.
37:46
But the tariff things in a lot of the policies of the president
37:49
administration are I think are positives for our for our
37:53
industry and something that we've we've needed to worry more
37:56
about our domestic manufacturing and agriculture and all that.
38:02
My whole life. I think we've always been kind
38:05
of maybe a little bit the stepchildren and, and now we're,
38:09
you know, what we produce in AG is something that our government
38:14
can use, I don't want to say weapon, but as a influence to
38:18
get other countries to do what we want them to do.
38:22
And I think the Europeans, for example, they're going to buy
38:24
some beef. Another thing I didn't realize
38:27
is that we have always kind of been inundated with Australian
38:31
imports from from my first memory of worrying about things
38:35
like that, it was the Australians sending their beef
38:38
here. What I didn't realize is they
38:41
bought none of ours. None.
38:43
And that changed and and that's a change for the better as far
38:47
as the American cattlemen is concerned.
38:50
That's, you know, that's one of the things that I'm always asked
38:54
about is, is what about the market?
38:57
You know, well, I think obviously we're in good shape
38:59
today. I think we'll be in good shape
39:01
for the future. There's a lot of things you can
39:03
do to protect yourselves, these LRPS and like that.
39:07
One of the things that surprised me about the video, we can sell
39:10
one clear in the next spring. If you could tell me what
39:13
they're going to weigh and all that.
39:15
We sell cattle in July to come in December.
39:18
That's about as far out as we get.
39:20
And I think that's a big advantage to like the Nevada
39:23
ranchers that raise a lot of these light casts that deliver
39:26
in the early winter so that you can sell them this summer and
39:29
lock down your price and deliver them in in December.
39:33
So I appreciate the time and I appreciate you reaching out to
39:37
us and I wish everybody the best of luck.
39:40
And keep them good. And here's hoping that for good
39:44
markets. Yes, absolutely.
39:47
Well, John, thank you for your time and to all of our listeners
39:50
out there, we will see you all next time on another episode of
39:54
the Cattle USA Daily Podcast. Have a good one y'all.