Season 4 of The Angus Conversation now live.
When evaluating Angus cattle is your job, it’s often also your favorite hobby, says John Toledo, Tri-T Farms/Toledo Ranches.
On the most recent episode of The Angus Conversation, he and fellow breeders Adam Sawyer, A & B Cattle, and Doug Stevenson, Basin Angus Ranch, shared what it was like to get the call to judge the 2024 National Western Stock Show Angus Pen and Carload show.
“Looking at cattle and sorting cattle, that eats me up. I get into trying to find what I like, what I don't like,” Stevenson says, noting three decades ago his father judged the show in Denver.
Sawyer good naturedly suggested his dad would be “looking down,” comparing his son’s performance to his own from 2016 and 2017.
Yet, the nostalgia and prestige took a back seat to the opportunity to judge cattle like they would in their own program: for the commercial cattleman.
In the episode, the trio covered their ideal cow, their optimism for the future and how they make breeding decisions.
“Our feedback is pretty direct from our customers,” Toledo says. “They’ll let us know what kind of changes they’re wanting to make, and we got to have that feedback. We’ve got to know if those cattle are working.”
Listening is one of the most important customer service traits, Sawyer adds.
“My father always told us to have the mindset that don’t try to educate them, let them educate you,” he says, explaining that could be everything from phone calls to carcass data.
Delivering bulls and doing herd visits helps cement those relationships.
“It’s easy for somebody to think that they can sit at home and raise the really good one and somebody should come by it, but that rarely works,” Stevenson says. “You’re rarely going to raise the right good one if you’re not getting feedback from those customers.”
To hear the entire episode, visit The Angus Conversation anywhere you get your podcasts, or follow this direct link: https://www.angusjournal.net/episodes/episode/77f2da2c/more-than-raising-a-good-one-sawyer-stevenson-toledo-talk-customer-interaction-and-the-perfect-cow