Casual Cattle Conversations

This week on the Cattle Conversations Podcast, Shaye Wanner interviews fifth-generation North Central Montana rancher, Tyrel Obrecht, about using Vence’s virtual fence system on their replacement yearling heifers (mid-May to mid-September) for the past three years.  

 

Tyrel explains choosing heifers over the main cow herd due to cost and better water development on deeded ground, and securing initial cost share through World Wildlife Fund’s RSVP program to install towers and trial the collars. He demonstrates the software for drawing fences, training cattle near barbed wire before moving to invisible lines, and using heat maps to evaluate grazing patterns around water and minerals.  

 

Benefits include tighter grazing control in prairie potholes and creek pastures, freeing BLM pastures, supporting conception rates, and better rest distribution; challenges included early collar retention issues fixed by improved attachments and occasional updates/weather-related breaches. 

Learn more about Vence here: https://bit.ly/4kfWrCG   

Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/ 

01:11 Meet Tyrel Obrecht 

01:27 Ranch Background Setup 

03:05 Why Try Vence 

04:09 Starting With Heifers 

05:44 Cost Share Funding 

07:50 Benefits In Grazing 

09:06 Software Fence Drawing 

11:22 Training The Cattle 

14:01 Moves Updates Reality 

17:25 Heat Maps Insights 

19:02 Nutrition Planning Data 

20:45 Challenges Collar Retention 

22:27 Is Vence Worth It? 

 

Today on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast, Shaye Wanner talks with Connor and Jacob of Dakota Prairie Beef in southwestern North Dakota about building a custom feeding operation focused on serving local producers, especially through replacement heifer development and backgrounding. They describe their backgrounds, two-location setup, and how they support breeding prep while producers provide AI technicians.  

Key challenges they talk about include sourcing affordable, quality feed, especially in dry years, and managing cash flow during seasonal slow periods. They explain how equipment upgrades and the Performance Beef software improve feeding efficiency, remote management, billing transparency, and employee usability.  

Performance Beef also enables individual-animal traceability via EID scanning, treatment records, and weight/ADG tracking so producers can receive detailed data on their cattle. They emphasize consistent service, communication, facility improvements to reduce stress, and being a stable, long-term partner rather than maximizing short-term profit. 

Learn more about Performance Livestock Analytics here: https://bit.ly/47PxY3W  

Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/     

• 00:00 Feedlot Data Made Simple 
• 01:09 Meet Dakota Prairie Beef 
• 02:36 Connor and Jacob Backgrounds 
• 03:48 Heifer Development Focus 
• 06:19 Challenges Feed and Cashflow 
• 08:28 Tools Performance Beef Setup 
• 10:02 Animal Health and Traceability 
• 13:49 Billing Transparency and Staff Use 
• 16:23 Future Goals Efficiency Upgrades 
• 19:26 What Ranchers Should Know 

 

This week, Shaye welcomes back Jacob Sebade, founder of AtTheYards and part of a 6,000-head family feedyard in Emerson, Nebraska, and Jim Akers, COO of the Bluegrass Livestock Marketing Network in Kentucky, about maximizing cattle exposure through better pre-sale information. They explain how the AtTheYards app helps sale barns collect standardized consignment details, videos, documents, and health/genetic info and publish upcoming lots so buyers can find cattle, filter by criteria, contact the right barn representative, and connect with order buyers.  

Jim uses the app across seven barns to enter cattle in the field via smartphones, generate clean standardized sale sheets, and notify buyers earlier, including Sunday arrivals. The app offers buyer accounts, watchlists, and email alerts. They discuss value-driving questions such as weaning length (often 60+ days), open heifer guarantees, specific vaccine protocols, implants, and nutrition. 

This conversation shows that AtTheYards isn’t just for marketing feeder cattle. It also serves seedstock producers and the Cattleman’s Corner feature provides easy to analyze graphs about market prices, packer leverage and the market wire.   

This new business model is exciting for sectors of the beef industry. It is available today at app.AtTheYards.com or in the App Store and Google Play. 

Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/     

• 00:14 Meet Jacob And Jim 
• 01:30 Why Exposure Matters 
• 02:37 Standardizing Cattle Info 
• 05:44 How AtTheYard Works 
• 08:37 Dashboard And Rollout 
• 10:11 Deadlines And Intake 
• 11:36 Buyer Features And Alerts 
• 13:13 Download And Data Quality 
• 15:05 What Buyers Value Most 

This week, Shaye Wanner interviews Shane Maddock of Mattock Ranches about holistic/regenerative management, shaped by his father’s practices since 1992. Shane describes their North Dakota commercial cow-calf operation with backgrounding, yearlings, heifer development, and some row crops and small grains near Maddock. He explains rebuilding degraded soils by reducing reliance on outside inputs through frequent moves, adequate rest and full grass recovery, and adaptive grazing based on pasture conditions.  

Shane shares unconventional infrastructure like permanent fencing and water tanks placed in the middle of cropland to enable winter grazing, bale grazing, and flexible feeding. After initially seeding diverse cover crops, he shifted to perennials and now plans a sod-based crop rotation with renewed cover cropping. He is composting feedlot manure and experimenting with compost tea to boost soil biology. Key challenges include labor, infrastructure setup, and profitability, and he urges ranchers to question tradition and find mentors.   

Learn more about Performance Livestock Analytics here: https://bit.ly/47PxY3W  

Learn more about Ambrook here: ambrook.com/casualcattle    

Learn more about Elanco here: https://farmanimal.elanco.com/us/beef   

Learn more about Corteva here: RangeAndPasture.com/CattleConversations 

 

00:47 Meet Shane Maddock 

01:22 Why Regenerative Matters 

02:28 Operation Overview 

04:10 Growing Up Holistic 

05:21 Grazing Principles Basics 

06:25 Cover Crops to Perennials 

08:02 Neighbors Think You're Crazy 

09:05 Adaptive Grazing Decisions 

10:30 Rest and Recovery Cues 

11:07 Water Tanks in Cropland 

13:58 Winter Grazing Setup 

15:04 Virtual Fencing Curiosity 

16:18 Compost and Tea Trials 

19:00 Learning Resources and Soil 

21:06 Challenges and Profitability 

 

This week, Shaye welcomes back Chris Sherman, CEO of Tech Support Farm, to discuss fall cybersecurity and fraud threats facing farms and ranches. Sherman highlights RFID tag swapping in cattle sales, emphasizing vigilance and real-time verification to prevent animals being sold at incorrect values.  

He also warns that busy seasons increase bank fraud and vendor-payment scams, advising producers to verify payment changes and urgent requests by phone, watch for spoofed emails, and use simple email folder rules to flag fake invoices. If a bad link is clicked or money is sent, he recommends contacting a cybersecurity provider, reporting significant losses via the FBI’s IC3, and carrying cyber insurance.  

He notes commercial accounts often have only 24 hours to dispute fraudulent transactions and suggests tools like Positive Pay, along with MFA/2FA, strong passwords, and paid domain email for better protection. 

You can learn more about what Chris offers at https://techsupport.farm/.  

 

Learn more about Performance Livestock Analytics here: https://bit.ly/47PxY3W 

Learn more about Ambrook here: ambrook.com/casualcattle  

Learn more about Elanco here: https://farmanimal.elanco.com/us/beef  

Learn more about Corteva here: RangeAndPasture.com/CattleConversations 

 

00:00 Risk Meets Cybersecurity 

01:14 Meet Chris Sherman 

02:37 Fall Threats Overview 

04:03 RFID Tag Swapping 

06:00 Busy Season Bank Fraud 

08:22 If You Clicked Or Paid 

12:27 Ponzi Schemes Due Diligence 

14:15 Harvest Season Digital Hygiene 

15:52 Passwords And Paid Email 

16:25 Year End Vigilance Wrap Up 

 

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 

 

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

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 

 

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 

 

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