Behind the Burger

Send us Fan Mail The auctioneer hums in the background at Four Corners Stockyards, and it’s the perfect soundtrack for a straight-from-the-source conversation about New Mexico beef. We’re in Kirtland with the Lantana family: Marjorie Lantana, her daughter Trina Lantana-Platero, and granddaughter Kynlie Lantana-Platero, who represent six generations of Navajo ranching rooted near Crownpoint and Farmington. We talk about how their cow-calf operation evolved from a small, mixed herd into Black ...

Send us Fan Mail A name change can be more than a new sign on the gate, it can be a promise to the community you serve. We’re in the Four Corners area with Shane Hatch, longtime auctioneer and the face behind the newly named Four Corners Stockyards, to unpack why “location” matters in agriculture and how the word stockyards better captures the full scope of what happens there. We talk about what it means to run a true family business in the New Mexico beef industry, from office work to pen c...

Send us Fan Mail A dried-up lake. Extra hay runs. Miles of fence to mend. And three boys learning what it means to show up anyway. From the Four Corners Stockyards in Kirtland, New Mexico, we sit down with Philene Tyler, a Navajo cattle producer from Navajo, NM, for a grounded look at family ranching and the choices that shape New Mexico beef. Philene shares how her operation grew from multi-generation knowledge passed down by her uncle, aunts, and grandparents, and why “more head” is ...

Send us Fan Mail A 4,000-cow dairy doesn’t run on luck. It runs on routines, trust, and the kind of leadership that keeps both animals and people steady when costs rise and markets swing. From Ruidoso, we talk with Sybrand Vander Dussen of Legend Dairy and the New Mexico dairy community about what “people first” actually looks like on a working operation, and why that mindset shows up in everything from training to day-to-day cow handling. We get specific about animal care and animal w...

Send us Fan Mail We sit down with beef economist Don Close to unpack what actually moves beef prices and why the cattle cycle changes slower than most people expect. We talk through weather, trade, risk management, and the data points that hint at herd expansion, plus the shocks that rewired the beef supply chain. • what a beef economist does and why forecasting matters for producers and consumers • how Don’s career moves from ranch life to market analysis, risk management, and gl...