Jen Livsey plans and manages grazing on her family’s commercial cow/calf ranch, the Flying Diamond in eastern Colorado. Jen has an MS in Ranch Management from the King Ranch Institute and is the owner of EastCo, a pasture and livestock insurance group.

As Jen puts it, the family’s philosophy has been to leave things in better condition than they were found and to take steps to ensure the ranch passes on to the next generation. It seems to be working, as The Flying Diamond Ranch has been in the family for more than 100 years.

Our conversation was filled with laughter, covering a wide range of topics such as the Kit Carson biography “Blood and Thunder” and ranching for profit by layering multiple revenue streams. We also talk about tools to manage for drought, the disconnect between agriculture and consumers, and using Instagram to hire a ranch hand. Listen to the end for speculation on the ways ranching might change in our lifetime. Enjoy!

--- FULL EPISODE NOTES WITH LINKS @ https://truestewards.com/jen-livsey ---

--- TOPICS DISCUSSED ---

1:30 – Getting to know Jen Livsey and the Flying Diamond Ranch in Colorado

4:15 – Comparing the beef cattle business to poultry and pork

6:30 – Peering into the crystal ball of regenerative agriculture

10:00 – Grazing cattle are an integral part of the grassland ecosystem

12:25 – Ranching for profit and keeping the ranch in the family

17:15 – Layering multiple revenue streams and expansion via leases

21:30 – Tools to manage for drought

25:35 – Great new hire via Instagram

29:25 – Attracting the brightest minds to agriculture and managing our natural resources

32:30 – Disconnect between agriculture and consumers

37:25 – Efforts to improve communication between ag and consumers in Colorado

40:35 – In what ways will ranching change in the next 30 years?

44:25 – Integrating grazing on cover crops and transitioning marginal cropland back to rangeland

Trey Patterson is a thoughtful steward at the Padlock Ranch in northern Sheridan County, Wyoming and southern Big Horn County, Montana. Trey and his team are committed to achieving balance among five elements of purpose in order to put the Padlock Ranch in position to be here for generations to come.

• Human excellence – having good people
• Preservation of our natural resources
• Being a positive contributor and influence in the community – both local and within the ag industry in general
• Financial excellence – being profitable to be sustainable
• Being an emblem for the ownership family

We had a fun conversation winding from the depiction of ranch life on the hit series “Yellowstone” to the limitations or challenges within academia of researching biological systems. We talk about the balance between tradition and innovation, the availability of water in the context of encroaching development, and – with the abundance of information available at our fingertips –  how to tell the difference between good information and bad information.

I hope you enjoy this episode with Trey!

--- FULL EPISODE NOTES WITH LINKS @ https://truestewards.com/trey-patterson ---

--- TOPICS DISCUSSED ---

1:43 – Trey Patterson’s path to the Padlock Ranch

4:25 – The Five Elements of Purpose at the Padlock Ranch

9:19 – Balance between tradition and innovation

13:46 – Discussing management practices that enhance biological systems

18:20 – Thinking of time-controlled grazing as a way to replenish your bank, which is your soil and root structure

24:05 – Unmanaged or ungrazed grasslands

28:23 – Working with conservation groups to improve water systems on the ranch

31:25 – Professional development for ranchers and the importance of verifiable information

34:04 – The limitations of academia when it comes to systems work 

35:50 – Urban encroachment, hobby farms, and the availability of water

37:38 – The importance of a safe, nutritious, and affordable food supply

39:52 – Using life cycle assessments to better understand contributions to greenhouse gas emissions

45:20 – Comparing the beef cattle industry in the US to other regions of the world

47:00 – Why is the consumer perception of what producers do different from what farmers and ranchers say they do?

Stacy Davies is a thoughtful steward committed to using natural systems or what he calls “biologically driven management” at the Roaring Springs Ranch in Oregon. Stacy credits his time under Doc and Connie Hatfield as well as a Holistic Management workshop in the late 80s as the beginning of his journey in holistic thinking and using natural systems to manage a ranch.

Stacy knows you must be flexible enough to adapt to nature’s complexity in order to take advantage of the symbiotic relationship between the cattle and the grasslands ecosystem that supports them. Conditions are constantly changing so Stacy and his team try to stay on top of things by using a suite of technology to monitor the plants and animals on the Roaring Springs Ranch. They are committed to science-based decision making and partner with a host of conservation scientists and researchers to increase our scientific knowledge of range management.

Beyond his holistic philosophy on range management, Stacy is focused on long-term sustainability, not only for his operation or his community, but for rural communities all across the US to prosper economically, socially and ecologically. Our conversation hits on the interdependence between rural and urban communities, the importance of valuing the environmental benefits provided by our working lands, and how consumers can help influence the way ranches are managed. I hope you enjoy!

--- FULL EPISODE NOTES WITH LINKS @ https://truestewards.com/stacy-davies ---

--- TOPICS DISCUSSED ---

1:40 – Getting to know Stacy Davies and the Roaring Springs Ranch in Oregon

3:49 – Managing for biological and ecosystem health

6:00 – Candidate Conservation Agreement with USFWS for the Great Basin redband trout

8:35 – Using natural systems to manage the ranch

10:35 – Implementing management strategies that benefit the environment and soil health

11:35 – Fire effects on vegetation and succession, and the importance of edge effect

15:03 – Science-based decision making and increasing our scientific knowledge 

17:48 – Stacy’s goal on the ranch and the value of private land stewardship

19:42 – How consumers can influence the way ranches are managed

21:50 – Rural-Urban interdependence

23:02 – How valuing the environmental benefits provided by our working lands can better reward good management

26:16 – Consolidation of ranches, its impact on rural economies, and why folks in cities should care

30:11 – Discussing how to appropriately incentivize lessees to improve their management practices

35:45 – Fear of unknown, perceived complications deter some folks from taking advantage of conservation programs

39:32 – Keeping an open dialogue between ranchers and consumers, and recognizing the dependency on one another

41:15 – The things that motivate Stacy and other ranchers, and Stacy’s challenge to podcast listeners