Kelly Tastove is the Operations and Donor Relations Manager with Symphony in the Flint Hills, a non-profit organization that  heightens appreciation and knowledge of the Flint Hills tallgrass prairie.Each June, the Symphony brings more than 5000 people into a pasture in Kansas and provides one of the most picturesque settings for a symphony that you'll ever witness. www.symphonyintheflinthills.org

Chelsea Good is the Vice President of Government and Industry Affairs and Legal for the Livestock Marketing Association. She lives and works in the Kansas City area and represents beef producers in a myriad of avenues. Raised in a generations-long family dedicated to beef industry progress and leadership, Chelsea takes every opportunity possible to educate folks about today's beef industry. 

Lee Borck is Chairman of Innovative Livestock Services, Inc. and Chairman of the Beef Marketing Group Cooperative.  He's a past president of Cattle-Fax and the Kansas Livestock Association and has served on the Cattlemen's Beef Board and the National Cattlemen's Association. A graduate of Ag Econ at Kansas State University, Lee is a huge supporter of his alma mater and has served in various volunteer capacities within KSU.Raised in Marshall County, Kansas, he spent much of his adult life in the Great Bend area and now calls Manhattan, KS, home.www.ilsbeef.com

Dr. Dan Thomson is a professor in the College of Animal Science at Iowa State University. He produces Doc Talk on RFD-TV and online. He is also a partner in Production Animal Consultation. Dr. Dan also works with various segments in the beef industry to help connect the dots and foster what he terms a "One Beef Concept."www.doctalktv.comwww.pacdvms.com

Gregg Doud is Chief Economist for Aimpoint Research. He served for three years as the Chief Ag Negotiator for the U. S. Trade Representative. He has also worked in Ag Policy in our nation's capitol for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, U.S. Wheat Associates and the Commodity Markets Council. A native of Mankato, KS, Gregg now lives in Edgewater, MD.www.aimpointresearch.com

Doug Spencer is the State Grazing Specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He's based in Kansas, and his mission is to help ranchers and land managers maintain grasslands throughout his area and even across the high plains. While he works in a myriad of areas, his passion is native rangeland preservation. He lists several links to help range managers have the best data and info to help in this effort. douglas.spencer@usda.govRangeland Analysis Platform (RAP): https://rangelands.app/rap/ RAP Production Explorer: https://rangelands.app/production-explorer/Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW): https://www.wlfw.org/landscapes/great-plains/ Vulnerability Guide for Woody Plant Encroachment: https://www.wlfw.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/E-1054WoodyEncroachment.pdf Yield Gap Info: https://www.wlfw.org/yieldgap/Flint Hills - 14th most intact grassland: https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/csp2.626 

Tom Perrier is President and majority owner of Dalebanks Angus. He's been a servant leader in nearly every community and agricultural organization in his home of Eureka, Kansas. Most importantly, he's been a great husband, dad and grandfather to his family. This week, his family is being honored by the Livestock and Meat Industry Council as their 2023 Stockman of the Year. I sat down with Dad last January to record this podcast and it was posted immediately prior to the award, presented in Manhattan, KS, on March 2, 2023.www.dalebanks.com

Casey Niemann is founder of AgriSync, a customer-service platform for ticketing and remote support built specifically for ag businesses and equipment dealers. Casey, his wife Tammy, and their children reside in Des Moines, IA. Both of them served as FFA State Officers while at Kansas State University, and both have continued to provide exemplary leadership within the agribusiness segment.

Tom Black is manager of Reynolds Cattle Co. Well into his 80's, he has forgotten more about cattle production than most know today. In an age when loyalty to a company or ranch is fleeting, he has worked for the same family in the panhandle of Texas for 64 years.He's soft-spoken and polite, but after eight decades living off the land in some of the harshest environments in the U.S, his toughness and tenacity are evident. The Reynolds family is a stalwart of Texas ranching, and Mr. Black has been with them through thick and thin. Their story is a great one, and Tom touches on some of the high points during this epidsode.

Callahan Grund is the Executive Director of US Cattle Trace, a private, not-for-profit corporation made up of representatives from all beef industry segments with the mission of securely maintaining and managing data collected for disease traceability.We talk the recent history of cattle identification, technologies used and applicable uses for ID in the U.S. beef industry. www.uscattletrace.orgOther podcasts mentioned during the episode:https://theangusconversation.buzzsprout.com/2029894/11702471https://ksubci.org/?powerpress_pinw=5438-podcast

Jacqueline Leffler is a worker. She's also a thinker.  And a competitor.When you throw in her father, Bill, and grandfather, Jackie, who had business cards listing their contact info alongside the slogan, "Leffler Farms, Inc...Where Agriculture is a Profession," it's a recipe for success. In addition to farming alongside her dad and grandpa, Jacquelyne has started a direct-to-consumer beef business, Leffler Prime Performance, that helps her add value to their family's stocker/backgrounder and cattle feeding business.In addition, she coaches athletes competing in track and field throwing events. She's also been part of various programs to help tell farmers' story to our consumers, one of which is "A Farmer's Journey." Links are below.www.facebook.com/LefflerPrimePerformance/A Farmer’s Journey: FieldView™ Documentary Series (climate.com)

Cheramie Viator is a lifelong beef producer. She was raised on a family farm in Louisiana, has worked for some of the nation's largest ranches and now hangs her hat near Houston, TX, as she balances her day job with Westway Feeds while managing her family's cowherd and putting on youth cattle clinics in her free time.Throughout her career in the beef industry, Cheramie has found ways to promote junior programs and inspire those around her to best tell cow-calf producers' story to consumers and all segments within our industry.

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