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I grew up on a ranch about four hours away from where I live and work now. It’s about an hour from there to the nearest town with an actual stoplight and an additional half hour to the nearest Walmart. There are more cows than people, and the mountains are only a breath away. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss it.
As I write this editorial in my hotel room, my boots are off, my feet are up – and if I was wearing a Fitbit, I am certain I would have exceeded the day’s recommended 10,000 steps with more planned tomorrow.
Consumer relationships are just like anything else we produce. Cultivating them requires focused time, intentional effort and a great deal of patient stewardship.
I once saw a post on Facebook from a member of a women’s ag group asking for examples of ranch lingo her daughter could use as part of a school presentation. There were dozens of helpful comments ranging from “pushing the drag” to vocab terms like “free martin.” I grew up on a ranch, but some of these terms I’d never heard, and my first impulse was to hop on Google and see what I could find. Then, my common sense caught up with me and whispered, “Some things you just don’t find on Google.”
Three minutes was all it took. Three minutes and my groceries were purchased, loaded in my trunk and I was pulling out of the Walmart parking lot. Now, for those of you that do the shopping, you know a quick trip to Walmart – even at self-checkout – can take much, much longer.
I am typically able to attend a few large cattle events every year, like the Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show or Texas A&M University’s Beef Cattle Short Course, where I see several thousand cattlemen and women talking and laughing and carrying on as if they just couldn’t get enough of each other while enjoying all the dinners, concerts and social events that go along with the learning and trade show opportunities.
In a recent Progressive Cattle online reader poll, we asked, “Which issue surrounding the beef industry are you most concerned about?” Of the choices listed, environmental policy changes and fake meat were the most selected at 35.6% and 23.8%. Other options included the beef supply chain, international trade and exports, antibiotic restrictions, tax changes and “other.”
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