Sustainable Stock: Reviving Legacy Genetics

• Episode 23: Small Acreage, Big Results with Joseph Klotz

   Episode 23: Small Acreage, Big Results with Joseph Klotz What if a 12-acre ranch could outlast drought, dodge input spikes, and still raise fertile, gentle cattle that pay their way? That is the story Joseph Klotz tells from Seely, Texas, a rancher who proves you do not need a thousand acres or a show banner to build a profitable, resilient herd. We dig into how his family’s weekend Brahman operation shaped a lifelong filter: if a cow cannot calve, rebreed, and stay sound without help, she does not stay.Joseph breaks down his three F’s: function, fertility, and friendly, and shows why moderate-frame cows can deliver more pounds per acre with less risk than giant frames ever could. He walks us through the pivot to regenerative grazing: tighter rotations, long rest, and three years with no synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, or wormers. The results are tangible and repeatable: deeper roots, more earthworms, cooler soil, minimal flies, and grass that carries through dry spells while neighbors feed hay.We also explore the move to Red Brahman for dual-purpose advantages, the reliable tenderness and flavor of calves raised on forage and mama’s milk, and the power of strict culling for soundness and temperament. On the business side, Joseph shares a practical approach to profitability: track cost per exposed cow, leverage direct-to-consumer beef, and use old-school, low-cost tools from pickup stock racks to a modified rotary mower to keep margins wide and debt light. Mentorship, windshield time, and a relentless “what and why” mindset tie it all together.If you are curious about regenerative ranching, Brahman cattle, small-acreage profitability, or how to build soil while selling beef people love, this conversation delivers field-tested insights without fluff. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a spark, and leave a review to help more producers find smarter, saner ways to ranch.Connect with Joseph Klotz and Klotz Farms:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joseph.klotz.79 Bos Sires: https://www.bossires.com/klotzfarmsCheck out Bos Sires:Website: https://www.bossires.com/Bos Sires Catalogs: https://www.bossires.com/sale-catalog-2Support the Podcast:If these conversations help you see cattle and land differently, follow or subscribe so you do not miss the next one.Join us on Patreon for Shooting the Bull — real producers, real talk.https://www.patreon.com/bossirestalk

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• Episode 22: What Dairy Can Teach Beef with Ben Gotschall

   Episode 22: What Dairy Can Teach Beef with Ben Gotschall What happens when a poet comes home to rebuild a family dairy with grass, genetics, and a bison herd as his calendar? Ben Gotschall invites us inside Holt Creek Jerseys, a ranch dairy in the Nebraska Sandhills that treats milk like a seasonal food and manages cows by the rhythm of the prairie, not the demands of a spreadsheet.We dig into what true seasonal milking does for flavor, nutrition, and quality of life. Calving is timed to the spring flush. Cows are dried off in winter. Once-a-day milking gives families their evenings back. And suddenly June milk tastes like a different food than January milk. It is the kind of system that forces decisions to be proven in pasture, not on paper, and rewards the stockman who pays attention.Ben breaks down the genetics that actually matter in a grass-only dairy. His milking herd is entirely A2A2. He selects for Kappa casein BB to boost cheese yield and beta-lactoglobulin BB to raise butter output. Jerseys bring efficiency and butterfat, while beef-on-dairy crosses shorten finishing time and bridge the gap between dairy and grass-fed beef markets. Roles within the herd are clear. Milk cows produce nutrient-dense food and breed back within a tight spring window. Nurse cows raise two calves to weaning and must wean 100 percent of their body weight. It is selection pressure that rewards fertility, calm disposition, graze-full minds, and cows that work with the landscape instead of against it.We also take an honest look at genomic numbers. Ben uses testing when it serves a purpose but warns against chasing indexes that inflate production at the cost of fertility and longevity. He leans on linebreeding to anchor functional traits and raises bulls out of his best cows to prove them on grass. Along the way he explains why dairy grazing is the master class for beef graziers, why low-stress design is worth every minute of planning, and why the milk itself becomes a reflection of the land.If you care about nutrient-dense food, resilient cattle, and building a life with more margin and fewer inputs, this conversation offers a grounded blueprint for doing dairy differently.If this episode resonated, share it with someone who is ready to rethink how milk, meat, and grass can work together. The principles matter anywhere. The land responds to those who listen.Connect with Ben Gotschall and Holt Creek Jerseys:Website: https://holtcreekjerseys.com/Clover Cove Ranch: https://clovercoveranch.com/Bos Sires Page: https://www.bossires.com/bengotschallDairy Grazing Apprenticeship: https://www.dga-national.org/Midwest Graziers Instructional Course: https://www.mgic-professional.org/Check out Bos Sires:Website: https://www.bossires.com/Bos Sires Catalog: International New Bos Sires Catalog (English)Support the Podcast:If these conversations help you see cattle and land differently, follow or subscribe so you do not miss the next one.Join us on Patreon for Shooting the Bull — real producers, real talk. https://www.patreon.com/bossirestalk

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• Episode 21: Grazing School with Charlie Totton, Courtney Tyrrell & Bart Carmichael

  Episode 21: Grazing School with Charlie Totton, Courtney Tyrrell & Bart Carmichael Think you know what your cattle will eat? Watch that certainty crumble when ten heifers meet a “weedy” paddock and turn it into beef and soil armor.We sit down with Charlie Totton and Courtney Tyrrell, along with educator and rancher Bart Carmichael, to unpack the South Dakota Grassland Coalition 2025 Grazing School, a producer-led, hands-on training where students measure forage, set residue goals, build 24-hour paddocks, and come back later to see if the math holds.Day one challenges assumptions and teaches grazing math to calculate forage consumption.  Day two explores alternatives across calving, nutrition, and herd health. Day three ties it all together into a written action plan you can take home and actually use.The conversation gets specific: how to size paddocks based on measured forage, why leaving 1,000 to 2,500 pounds of residue builds soil structure, and how palatability shifts with growth stage and density. Then we test water. Using rainfall simulators and ring infiltration tests, the difference between living polycultures and compacted monocultures shows up in clean infiltration versus muddy runoff. With roughly 27,000 gallons per acre per inch of rain at stake, building organic matter becomes a practical water strategy, not a buzzword.“Recovery” replaces “rest.” “Forbs” replace “weeds.” And “armor” replaces “litter,” reshaping the language that shapes the land.We also get real about labor, genetics, and drought. Cattle are the tool, trampling, salivating, cycling nutrients, when directed with clear goals and daily moves. Trigger dates help you de-stock before the feed bill owns you, and the right cows—deep, thick, mobile, calm—perform on stockpiled forage without expensive inputs. The Tottons share how intensifying on 10 percent of their ranch during peak growth lets the other 90 percent recover, stretching grazing into winter and reducing both labor and input expenses.Add mentorship, networking, and producer-led instruction, and you get a system that works in South Dakota, Arizona, or the Northeast, because principles scale even when practices change.If this one hit home, share it with someone who’s ready to look a little closer at their own country. The real work starts when you slow down, measure, and listen. The land’s not broken. It’s just waiting on better stockmen.Connect with Courtney Tyrrell and Charlie Totton:Website: https://www.tottonangus.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tottonangus/Bos Sires: https://www.bossires.com/tottonangusranchConnect with Bart Carmichael and Principled Land Managers:Website: https://www.wedgetentranch.com/Bos Sires: https://www.bossires.com/wedge-tent-ranchWebsite: https://www.principledlandmanagers.com/Check out Bos Sires:Website: https://www.bossires.com/Bos Sires Catalog: International New Bos Sires Catalog (English)Support the PodcastIf these conversations help you see cattle and land differently, follow or subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.Join us on Patreon for Shooting the Bull — real producers, real talk. https://www.patreon.com/bossirestalk

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• Episode 20: Preserving a Legacy with Watt Casey Jr. of Casey Beefmasters

   Episode 20: Preserving a Legacy with Watt Casey Jr. of Casey Beefmasters What does it take to build cattle that pay their way without props? We sat down with Watt Matthews Casey Jr. of Casey Beefmasters to trace a 77-year line of selection grounded in the Six Essentials—fertility, weight, conformation, hardiness, milk, and disposition—and a ruthless commitment to real-world performance. From a closed herd since 1967 to breeding seasons as short as 25 days, Watt explains how discipline, data, and respect for nature create cattle that thrive on grass, breed on time, and stay gentle under pressure.We walk through the origin story tied to Tom Lasater, the politics of early breed associations, and why multi-sire breeding keeps the focus on herd-level outcomes over pedigree hype. Watt details his selection program: culling light bulls at weaning, measuring testicles early and again at yearling, and requiring calves to gentle to hand. Scanning is done on forage, not feed, yielding honest IMF and ribeye insights that surprise technicians used to “puffed-up” numbers. The results show up where it matters—tight calving windows, repeat buyers, and cattle that ship well from Texas heat to Idaho winters.Drought strategy, no-hay economics, and heterosis round out the playbook. In lean years, the ranch uses pellets strategically to preserve a closed herd that can’t be rebuilt at auction; in normal years, it’s grass and minerals, full stop. Customers see the “big pop” when unrelated genetics meet, capturing hybrid vigor bred under hard filters. Along the way, Watt shares global reach, candid customer quotes—“so gentle they’re a nuisance”—and a clear moral frame: be a good steward to cattle and land, measure honestly, and keep pressure where it counts.If you care about functional efficiency, fertility, disposition, and grass-based genetics, this conversation is a masterclass in sustainable ranching. Listen, share with a friend who values real-world cattle, and leave a review to help more producers find the show.Connect with Watt Casey and Casey Beefmasters:Website: https://caseybeefmasters.com/home.phpBos Sires: https://www.bossires.com/casey-beefmastersCheck out Bos Sires:Website: https://www.bossires.com/Bos Sires Catalog: International New Bos Sires Catalog (English)Support the PodcastWe keep the main feed clean, but if you want the raw, unfiltered conversations, check out our second podcast Shooting the Bull on Patreon. If you like what we’re doing, that’s also the best place to show your support. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bossirestalk

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• Episode 19: Generations of Stewardship with George Kempfer

   Episode 19: Generations of Stewardship with George Kempfer What happens when cattle are expected to perform in one of America's most challenging environments? They either adapt or fail. At Kempfer Cattle Company, five generations of ranching experience have created herds specifically designed to thrive where others can't survive.George Kempfer takes us inside his family's operation, where nearly 3,000 mother cows demonstrate the power of purposeful breeding and disciplined selection. Unlike operations that pamper their breeding stock, Kempfer cattle must prove themselves under real-world conditions. "Why should we give our registered herd better care than our commercial cattle?" George asks. "How are we going to make our commercial cows better if we don't put more pressure on the seedstock cattle?"This philosophy has produced remarkably efficient, fertile herds that perform on grass with minimal inputs. The Kempfers' crossbreeding program showcases the transformative power of heterosis, creating females that breed dependably, raise heavy calves, and demonstrate exceptional longevity. Their purebred Brahmin operation, started in 1978, complements their commercial focus by producing bulls specifically adapted to Florida's tropical environment.George offers hard-earned wisdom for new producers: focus on quality genetics from reputable breeders, seek proven cow families rather than chasing trends, and be prepared for markets to eventually turn. The current strong cattle prices make operations more forgiving than usual, but long-term success requires discipline and adherence to sound principles.Perhaps most compelling is the Kempfer commitment to stewardship. "If you don't take care of the land, the land's not going to take care of us," George reflects. Their goal has always been to preserve and improve their operation for future generations - a lesson in sustainability that transcends breeding philosophies or market cycles.Whether you're managing thousands of acres or just starting your herd, this conversation offers valuable insights into breeding efficient, adaptable cattle that can thrive in challenging conditions. Subscribe to Sustainable Stock for more conversations with cattlemen who are building resilient operations designed to stand the test of time.Connect with George Kempfer and Kempfer Cattle Company:Website: https://kempfercattleco.com/cattle/Bos Sires: https://www.bossires.com/kempfer-cattle-companyCheck out Bos Sires:Website: https://www.bossires.com/Bos Sires Catalog: International New Bos Sires Catalog (English)Support the PodcastWe keep the main feed clean, but if you want the raw, unfiltered conversations, check out our second podcast Shooting the Bull on Patreon. If you like what we’re doing, that’s also the best place to show your support. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bossirestalk

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