WEEK 1 Adventures so far…
WEEK 1 of the Western states Wholesome Beef delivery loop is in the books!
We’re so excited to be on this adventure across the west to deliver our fabulous Montana raised beef to discerning customers who love our value and quality. After leaving home on Sunday, Feb. 26 we spent the first three days in Billings, Montana with our Executive Link ranch advisory board digging deep into ranch economics, missions/visions, and overall business strategy. We value this time so much and enjoy the support we get to give AND receive from our fellow board members.
Upon conclusion of our business meetings, we headed south to Cheyenne, Wyoming where we enjoyed spending some long-overdue quality time connecting with PJ’s first cousin who recently retired to Wyoming from Arizona. We were honored to share some Kimmel beef from the ranch Jimmy’s grandmother Lydia raised her children on.
The next few days were spent less focused on beef delivery and more on visiting the ranch operations of some of the friends we’ve made at various business functions over the years. We are grateful to Robert and Jen Brosius for hosting us and touring us around the Maddux Ranch in Nebraska, and to Toby and Heidi Holsted for showing us their herd and landscape. We gained valuable perspective at both places, and enjoyed conversation, comradery and visiting their friends and family members. As ranchers, we are reminded we may all be in the same industry but there are certainly unique challenges in different environments, and equally unique solutions to those challenges. We look forward to figuring out how to utilize what we’ve learned when we get home.
Sunday, a full week after leaving home, we found ourselves south of Texarkana meeting up with repeat customers who traveled all the way from Alabama to buy their beef. Although it was much too brief, it was a joy to see Katherine again!
WHAT WE’VE OBSERVED THIS WEEK:
- Despite the weather issues we face in Montana, including drought, there are still places in the country that have it worse than we do. We have been in a D3 drought for some time now, but we drove across a large portion of the country that has been in a D4 drought for the same length of time. I promise, it can always get worse.
- It’s fun to cheer for the “Twisters” OR the “Tornados” grade school basketball teams anyplace we go!
- We discovered unique solutions from other industries that can be easily implemented back home for watering cattle.
- The cows always wait until you have company to escape. We heartily believe this to be true!
- Skunks are the top roadkill animal in the south, so far! LOL
- We haven’t seen a single deer along the road (though we did see some on the ranches we visited) since we left home on the Big Flat.
- Pot shops outnumber coffee shops south of Wyoming by a ratio of at least 30 to one.
- Fun fact: Until this year, the record number of tornados in February for the state of Oklahoma was 6 in the ‘70s and in 2009. This February they had 12. Fortunately, we did not see any actual tornados, but the aftermath was evident in several places.
- It feels like a balmy summer day when you go 1500 miles south of the Canadian border in March. The trees, especially, look beautiful!
Stay tuned for next week’s update after we point our horses west through Texas and into Arizona! Until next time…
