Ribbonwire Ranch

Dr.Schniederjan (00:00):
Great to have you, Chad

Chad (00:01):
Oh, thanks for having me.

Dr.Schniederjan (00:03):
So I got Chad Scoonover with me today. And just this is, I’ve been looking forward to this interview for quite a while. You got to know Chad actually, many, many years ago. His dad knew your dad well and then ultimately met, met you and Doug Latham. Yep. And just kind of, y’all have a passion for organic beef, and we’re gonna jump into what that looks like. And where, where we started talking was, I think both of us have a passion of, of one, how you raised your animals to ultimately be healthier. And that ultimately what I see is it turns into when we consume products that are grown in a great way, healthier way. We’re healthier

Chad (00:54):
For sure

Dr.Schniederjan (00:55):
And that’s what I think has been the missing element in the health of the United States, or across the world for sure, is we’ve kind of lost that quality production. That’s right. And therefore it’s translating into tons of medical problems. And we can jump into that too. And so what I wanna do is just kind of you introduce yourself where you grew up, family . And then how in the world you got into what you’re doing. And we’re gonna jump into what that looks like here in just a minute.

Chad (01:28):
Yeah. Yeah.

Dr.Schniederjan (01:30):
So you grew up in

Chad (01:31):
Galhart, Texas? Yeah. yeah. And born and raised and right there. And the organic thing was something that came along. We, we were farming organic in 2010. Doug Latham and myself, partnership, and I was on the cattle side of our deal. And the organic turned in to be looked like the way everything needed to go, you know, and we, we just kept looking at these cattle going, man, we’ve gotta do something with this, with these cattle. What, how can we get this deal organic? So essentially it’s, it was the, the road kind of started in 2015 and we really just started researching the markets and what, what actually is organic beef and what’s out there. And man, it has been nothing but an education since then. Yeah. And so yeah, so we, we converted our entire operation over in 2016. Our native pastures, you know, so, and the farm was already organic, so it made a ton of sense. And we’ve just been holding cow heifers back and creating an organic cow herd. And this year so last November or right here at a year since we launched our beef brand, and that’s how long it’s taken us to get here. So,

Dr.Schniederjan (02:49):
So

Chad (02:49):
It’s a huge process. It’s a huge process and it is but it’s, it’s real, you know? Yeah. And that’s probably what drove us to continue and, and is the smoke and mirrors behind all the marketing and whether it’s, you know, all beef grass fed to, to organic, what it actually is and to to, to our organic product. So it’s, it’s, it’s, like I said, it’s been quite the road and but we are super excited and we’re getting traction now, and, and we’re shipping out beef nationwide from right here in the panhandle. And, and so it’s

(03:26):
which is awesome. Especially to visit, you know, a year, year and a half ago to just, boy, trying to get this launched to kind of starting to see you’re getting over that hump. Yes, sir. Like you said, so one thing I want to kind of go back to organic and just the health benefits about three years ago, I, I guess you go through the grocery store. This was my experience go through the grocery store and you got organic vegetables, organic fruit, and you look at it and all I saw was, ah, it’s a dollar more. Mm-Hmm. $2 more. Is there any health benefits? And so this is where it kind of, I went on my own journey and, and really compared organic versus non-organic. Now, we’ll come to beef in just a minute, but what we’re starting to see is there is a huge difference mm-hmm. .

(04:21):
And so, you know, in the vegetable world, the fruit world conventional farming, that’s what we’re gonna call it, conventional farming. We use a lot of herbicides, a lot of fungicides, a lot of pesticides, a lot of different non-organic fertilizers. And essentially, I guess I would sum it, sum it up this way, is a lot of that, first of all, it’s very detrimental to our soil. It kills a lot of the good microbes in the soil. And, and then ultimately we can trace that stuff ends up in our body. I use Roundup as an example. Yes, sir. That’s almost a universal thing that we put on all our crops

(05:09):
Yes sir

Dr.Schniederjan (05:10):
That are non-organic. And the the detrimental health issues that we’re starting to see from that is, you know, we, we see that number one, it affects our gut health. It basically is like, almost like an antibiotic. It kills a lot of our gut good gut micro microbiome microbes. And then there’s a lot of other things that mimics some of the hormones in our body. And, and so there’s a lot of some cancers that are starting to be linked to that non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma’s one. And so organic, I feel like is essential for our health. So when I go to the grocery store, you know, I’m paying that extra. That’s right. Now here’s where I think you are unique in y’all’s operation. There’s not a lot of organic grain finished beef mm-hmm. , matter of fact, I don’t know of any.

Chad (06:09):
No, there isn’t

Dr.Schniederjan (06:10):
That’s a unique thing. So what y’all did was take what, what you’re do you were already doing in the panhandle with growing corn mm-hmm. your cattle and now you’re finishing them on with organic corn. That’s right. And delivering a premium product that’s certified organic.

Chad (06:30):
That’s right.

Dr.Schniederjan (06:31):
Now organic. A lot of people can just try to throw a label on their products saying organic. But if you’re certified organic, how hard is that to get?

Chad (06:44):
It’s very hard. Very hard. Yeah. So, you know, your land has to, it, it can’t have been sprayed for three years pre you know, prior. And, and that’s really one of the small things. But really it’s the, we have to track these cattle from the birth all the way to finish. And every movement record and every vaccine we give ’em, every, anything we do to that animal, we have to show traceability all the way through. Which is really, it’s turned in to be a blessing in our operation. I mean, we’ve just, the more we do it, the more we like it because we’re just capturing all this data and now we have something to measure against. And so it’s huge on that side. But the certifications, the audits, the surprise audits that’s something that we’ve been kind of, we’ve got.

(07:30):
And the problem, the reason is, is because we have so many acres, when you take a large Texas ranch and you convert it as organic and, and an and an an organic world, they think of a little old, you know, garden and a, and a and a maybe a few backyard cows. And so when you take a large Texas ranch and you convert it as organic, they look at these acres. Cause we’re the largest in the state of Texas all just all of a sudden. And, you know, and it’s so we’ve, we’ve gotten to go through a lot of that. But we’ve also helped with, with some of the development of, of what an audit may look like in the cattle industry versus, cuz everything’s so dairy driven. Which gets us back to, to organic beef. And the majority of organic beef in this country is coal, dairy cows who have been fed silage and, and, and some grains and things and, and throughout their life.

(08:22):
And, but they’re, they’re really, they, they’re out at ’em on pasture for part of the day, and they come back in, but they’re essentially supplemented the whole time. And then they’re, when they’re wore out, they’re old, they go to a packing house and they, they’re marketed as organic as a premium. So that’s where our, our big change was, it’s either organic dairy cows, or it’s imported from another country. Mm-Hmm. , that’s our markets mm-hmm. that were, so really, it was wide open to come in here and say, all right, here’s what we’re gonna do. And we really, we, we kind of transitioned through looking at the grass fed. We did some of that kind of stuff. The problem with grassfed is it’s our growing seasons short mm-hmm. , it’s blowing snow right now. We gotta feed these cattle something we, we add grain for energy. And, and, and the truth is, is we don’t, it’s, you know, to say grain finished versus conventional grain finished is so different. Yeah. Because we can

Dr.Schniederjan (09:21):
Only so explain that because that Right. I want, and I wanna get into the grass finish cuz I used to, I used to be a big advocate of grass finish, but the taste on that’s different.

Chad (09:32):
It is. And, and the main thing, and we can get into all that. The, the biggest thing with, with our deal is, is we, we feed grain. So Right. Let’s say like, now, you know, we go into winter, we have to supplemental feed cattle. So we, we supplement feed our cows. So we go into winter with a pretty good body condition on a cow, and they’re gonna lose weight over the winter. As long as it’s not in excess, we’re okay. But we supplement alfalfa, , wheated hay, things like this. And we’re feeding from pretty much two weeks ago all the way until we get green grass. And so we’re supplementing cattle all the time. But our beefs, the, the cattle that we take to meat, we, we finish those on a ration. So they, they’re grazed their whole life up until about four months and we finish ’em on a ration. And that ration is, is mainly alfalfa, , and corn grain. And the corn is only about 50%, a little less than 50%. And the reason why is we cattle or a rooming an animal, you have to have a long stem grass say to, to buffer that room and and move those grains through and things. So a conventional feed lot feeds 70, 80% concentrated grain diets. Right. Which you need to do that. You need synthetic additives, right. To be able to combat acidosis and in issues like that,

Dr.Schniederjan (11:00):
What affects their health. And so doing, doing it that way in a, in a feed lot that’s it really affects the health of the animal

Chad (11:08):
It it affects it. It can it really can. And, and it’s back to the grocery store thing. You know, we’re without just throwing the industry. Like, cuz you know, we are, you, you’re a farm guy. I’m a farm guy. I’m not throwing the industry under the bus. Cuz at the end of the day, if you can’t be the guy that walks in the grocery store and buys the cheapest beef and sit here and have this conversation Yeah.

Dr.Schniederjan (11:29):
Because we have to feed a lot of people.

Chad (11:30):
That’s it. And it’s, and it’s about efficiency. And how can we make these cattle big as we can? That is the conventional market. So our market’s completely different. Our consumers completely different. They want to know exactly every input that’s putting through these animals and they with confidence, but they also know it’s gonna be more expensive. Because here we are saying, okay, we’re not gonna push these cattle very hard. We’re not gonna add any of these. No hormones ever. No antibiotics not fed or injected. And you, you wanna sacrifice efficiency. That’s how you do it in the cattle industry.

Dr.Schniederjan (12:08):
And, and on the production side, like one thing I don’t think consumers appreciate when you’re trying to grow all those crops organic, you’re not using the latest and greatest herbicide and everything. You got weeds.

Chad (12:22):
Yes sir

Dr.Schniederjan (12:23):
You got, you got your yields are less. But it’s because you’re trying to do it old fashioned way. Which is healthier. But it’s not necessarily the most profitable. So therefore your costs are higher. And that’s,

Chad (12:41):
But we’ve gotten lazy too. You know, we’ve, they, they, it’s funny how some of the things our grandpa’s used, the old, some of the old equipment that was parked in the fence line is some of the things we use now in organic. And you know, it just makes you more efficient as an operato . To not be able to fall back on a, on on, on a pesticide herbicide type herbicide. Especially on the weeds, you know, and things like that. I mean, we combat bugs and it’s part of it. And sometimes they kind of get in there and, and take their toll. But but at the end of the day we’re we’re learning and the cattle side is huge. Especially, especially on the how we handle ’em. And we have an advantage cuz our cattle are born on our ranch and they spend their whole life there, which

Dr.Schniederjan (13:27):
Is super cool

Chad (13:27):
And we don’t doctor anything hardly. Yeah. And if we, if they get sick, we get ’em. Right. We doctor ’em, we don’t let ’em, people, you know, we, I’ve I’ve talked to people that think that organic, oh, people just, you just let ’em die mm-hmm. and, and we don’t do that mm-hmm. , they just, they, they’re no longer in the program. Right. So they’re no longer organic. If we, if we give ’em a shot and that’s okay, that’s part of the business. But at the end of the day, the cattle, we just don’t have to treat many. And I mean, out of a thousand head of calves we raised, we docked two last year, and I’m not kidding, it’s, and it’s from the fence line weaning. We, so when we wean ’em, we, they run on one side of the fence. Their mom on the other, there’s no semis involved, no trucking, things like that. So anytime you add stressors to cattle, they, they get sick. You know, it’s part of it. So our cattle can somewhat be naive to all the disease in a commingled commercial feed lot because they never leave. And so we don’t, we don’t, we don’t get get into some of that stuff. So,

Dr.Schniederjan (14:23):
And it’s I want to come back and talk about health benefits here in just a minute, but even like the process then, I mean, it’s a whole separate deal because the beef, like you said, is traced. They don’t want any contaminants. So they really, you know, the fda, well I guess it’s, is it the fda?

Chad (14:42):
USDA

Dr.Schniederjan (14:44):
USDA watches this too

Chad (14:45):
NOP, national Organic.

Dr.Schniederjan (14:47):
They watch the process. And like you said, they’re are very, you gotta keep meticulous records mm-hmm. to make sure that that finished product, if it has the USDA stamp of approval organic, you know, that, that, that product’s never seen any contaminants. And I can’t emphasize how hard that that is. A lot, a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of investment. I wanna walk through the health benefits. Because with my patients, I think that’s something that as we’re going through this people are always trying to get a hold of us.

(15:29):
You good? Okay. so just health benefits and, and I want to just walk patients through, you know, the true difference. So of an organic grain finished beef versus just anything that you grow, get in the grocery store. So on the producer’s side cattle along the way, you know, let’s, let’s kind of talk about what they potentially eat. They’re gonna, they’re gonna get some conventionally raised corn mm-hmm. , which that corn is gonna have most likely been exposed at some point to some roundup in that at, at, at some point some fungicides, pesticides. And that cow is going to consume that forage that has that contaminant. And we know for sure that you can trace in our body. Matter of fact, there was a study the other day that up to 90 to 95% of us have Roundup in our urine.

(16:37):
It’s crazy. They did a study with women, particularly who were breastfeeding and they saw it in the, in I think it was 80% of the breast, breast milk was contaminated with Roundup. So it’s a pretty universal I’d call toxin. In our environment. Your beef doesn’t have that in it. So then we take the cattle who’s you know, consuming forage. The cattle itself, a lot of times in the feed, lots get antibiotics. Okay. That antibiotic, not only does it help with acidosis , but it also helps make that cow fatter. Okay. There’s been some studies that, that that’s just a little low dose antibiotic in cattle as they’re, as they’re being fed out, it actually, they produce more meat quicker. And it’s interesting because you look at obesity epidemic in America, we’re given antibiotics all the time. Right. You go to the doctor, you got a little sniffly nose. So I’ve always questioned, you know, is that causing some of our, our obesity epidemic because we’re all exposed to so many antibiotics, we’re exposed to antibiotics in our meat. If you, if you buy conventional meat at the grocery store, you’re gonna have probably some kind of contaminant. Would you agree with that?

Chad (17:59):
If you’re buying meat at the grocery store, conventional meat, you’re, it it has been through a lot of a lot of things. Yep. Or exposed to a lot of different things from like you’re talking about, you know, herbicide, pesticides, even in grassfed, right? Only organic, it would be so grassfed beef, a lot of pastures that can really do a good job of grassfed those, those grasses take herbicide. And so and, and, and and, and also worms and synthetic worms, the cattle have to get, because for parasites and things like that. And you can’t do that stuff in organic. So all the way to the feed lot, you know, so we use rein would be an antibiotic, a fed antibiotic that we’d talk about. Right. So as a ruen buffer so we can push cattle a little harder, you know, and, and, and, and combat bloat, things like that. You can’t, that’s, that’s kind of a big pusher. And then all the way to a beta agonist at the end, you know? So that’s a fed hormone that’s fed the last 30 days and it’s it it, it puts on, it can put on 30 40 pounds of meat. Yeah. It changes the cells and, and, and makes ’em get bigger, you know? And, but it’s a, it’s a kind of a, a result of an industry that’s makes very little margin on, and it’s all about selling pounds.

Dr.Schniederjan (19:20):
They have to push the animals

Chad (19:21):
That’s it. Push ’em as hard as we can. Yeah. And cuz we gotta sell meat.

Dr.Schniederjan (19:25):
I’ve always wanted to study, I mean, essentially this industry has learned how to make cattle obese. I mean, in essence it’s all about putting on weight in the shortest amount of time. Sure. And so if you look at that model that they’ve created, I think we could learn a lot as a human in our, in, in what’s causing obesity in, in us. Is it some of these practices that’s, that’s causing that? Is it the low dose antibiotics? Is it the hormone exposure? Because we’re always, not only are we exposed to potentially hormones in our non-organic beef, but just in general there’s so much overlap that I think a lot of those things that we’re exposed to in our food is causing all these medical issues. And so that’s why I’ve been a big advocate for trying to transition as much as your diet that you can to organic be grown food.

Chad (20:29):
You bet.

Dr.Schniederjan (20:30):
So I applaud what y’all doing. So tell me a little bit about, let’s, let’s talk about Ribbon wire Ranch. Just your product. I, I’ve tried, I order steaks. I’ll order flank steak filets. Your filets are awesome. Yes, sir. Your ribeyes are awesome. Your ground beef is awesome. Kind of tell us, you know, a little bit more about what, how, how you, how you set up the, the delivery system. Okay. How, let’s talk about how patients can order that. And kind of walk me through all that

Chad (21:10):
Yeah. So we we have a, we have a facility in Del Hart where we, where all the meat comes back to. And, and we ship once a week. We we’re, we’re probably gonna open that up a little more. We’re doing a lot more business in Texas than we, we initially thought we would. We, we thought, you know, our market’s not in our backyard. It’s gonna be coastal type communities. And, and we do ship a lot of meat to California and the East coast and, and, which is neat. But we ship a ton of meat in Texas. Yeah. And and so we we bring all the meat back and then we facilitate all the orders out of there. We do have a full line of meat from, from your roast to, to all your primal cuts and your steaks and, and we just started the, the, the meat sticks.

(21:56):
So we have the beef stick and, and that’s a lot of fun and that’s a big hit. And then the summer sausage also a couple flavors of that. And then we jerky and we getting into that stuff too. So it’s a growing, it’s a growing thing. It’s definitely new. It’s an education for us. But we have, we’ve partnered with some guys with Texas Tech and their meat science lab Dr. Marcus Miller. They have been huge on helping us with genetics and the cattle. Those are things that we can naturally do. Right. just have cattle that will, will feed better this way. Right. That’ll naturally finish at a lower weight that we’re not having cattle that need to be 1400, 1500 pounds before they’re finished, you know, so we, we are feeding a little smaller Angus animal and and it’s, it’s, it’s been a lot of fun. But, but our customers are, we, we have a ton of repeat customers, so if we can just get, get meat in front of you, you, you’re, you’re ordering again. So it’s been fun.

Dr.Schniederjan (22:56):
Right. And I testified to that. I love it cuz y’all are very punctual. So I’ll make an order on Sunday night and by Monday afternoon it’s, it’s headed out the door. I can see the little shipment it’s being shipped. One thing our patients you know, particularly after surgery, beef jerky, they love beef sticks because what I like about beef is it’s one of the most nutrient dense foods that we can eat. Has all your essential amino acids. And it’s just, it’s biggest bang for your buck. But now that we have an in an organic form, to me that’s, that’s a whole other level. I was gonna say something just, you know, when, when you compare particularly our patients, when they, when we do surgery, their stomach is smaller and therefore everything that they put in their mouth has to be count. It has to count. It has to be nutrient dense. And so, you know, certain things like meat just gives them all, you know, a good source of protein, a good source of vitamins it has some good fats, essential fatty acids in there. So great, great product.

Chad (24:23):
Thank you.

Dr.Schniederjan (24:25):
Now I want to just comment on, you know, we’ve talked about grass finish versus grain finished and I’ve been on this journey myself. I’ve tried a lot of grass finish beef out there. And I’d say this, you know, probably 15% of it I love. It’s, it’s tricky.

Chad (24:47):
Yeah. It is.

Dr.Schniederjan (24:48):
Finish and cattle

(24:51):
Consistently in making them not have those off flavors.

Chad (24:54):
Yes sir.

Dr.Schniederjan (24:54):
And so what I love, this is where I really fallen in love with your product is you got the best of both worlds. Okay. You got an animal that’s being raised properly, but yet has that grain finish at the end just to take what those off flavors out give it that premium taste what we’re all used to. Because as Americans, I don’t think you’re gonna switch everyone to grass finish beef.

Chad (25:22):
No, you’re not. Food, food, food. If food is only fuel that I’m not that guy. I, I eat what I like, you know, and, and but, but I get the, we, we understand the grass fed deal and the main thing is consistency and, and it’s because cattle are finished on different times of the year. So cattle coming off of wheat are gonna taste really terrible. Yeah. You know, cattle in the winter fed hey, may not taste as bad because it’s gonna, it’s not gonna be a, you know, it’s gonna be, they’re gonna be eating dormant plants and things so, you know, like hay and things like that. So it’s, it’s a huge difference. We, our, our idea is take the same ration all all year and we just finished those cattle those last four months with that. And it’s, it’s been a huge deal for us. And it’s it’s, it’s, it’s how we can be so unique and also stand behind a product. It’s like, it’s great and it’s, and it’s great all the time.

Dr.Schniederjan (26:18):
It’s consistent taste. Yeah. so I appreciate you joining me.

Chad (26:24):
No, I, I’m, thank you for having me. For sure

Dr.Schniederjan (26:27):
This was awesome. What I’m, we’re gonna have a link for all our patients if they want to get your product, they’re gonna be able to, to basically access this on our newsletter. But what is your website? How, how can someone order this?

Chad (26:41):
Ribbonwire.Com, ribbonwireranch.com, just search ribbon wire and and you can find us and maybe we can get you a link on your on, but either way it’s we’re real easy to find. Yeah so.

Dr.Schniederjan (26:55):
And what I like got a great website, it’s easy to navigate. You kind of add your cart and then yeah

Chad (27:01):
And look us up and, and learn about us. We got a big about section and talks about the, the ranch and what we do and pictures from the ranch and the farm. And, and that’s one thing we hang our hat on is just being transparent. This, it’s, it is what it is and and, and, and it’s, and, and you know, for a fact what you’re getting. So, and you can access our store and make orders right there and we’ll get ’em right to you. And

Dr.Schniederjan (27:25):
So that’s awesome. And I want everyone to know that, and I don’t know if we emphasize this, emphasize this, but the, the ranch and the farm is just west of Dalhart, Texas.

Chad (27:34):
It is west of DeHart. Our our our west fence line is the New Mexico State, Texas state line. Ribbon wire is we, we, we got our name from, from the actual barbed wire that, that still hangs on some of that fence line. And so it, it was that ribbon wire was, was created back in 1881 and it was put up over 6,000 miles of it on the X I T. So our ranch is a portion of what used to be the, the old X I T. And so that’s, that’s where we got our name. And we, we we love the history around that place and, and, you know, the majority of it has is is exactly like it was Yeah. 140 years ago. So it’s, it’s pretty fun to, to get, to go back to our roots and and really just, just do something that’s it’s kind of, we’re not changing the industry, but we sure took a different road.

Dr.Schniederjan (28:24):
So, and I, I’m, I appreciate you doing it. Yeah. Because I think y’all are trailblazers.

Chad (28:28):
Yeah. It’s fun.

Dr.Schniederjan (28:29):
And I think, I think the most important thing for our health going forward is how we produce our food. You bet. And finding farmers and ranchers like you and Doug to, to basically lead a path that hasn’t been necessarily established. And so project and thanks for making a great product and thanks for joining me today.

Chad (28:52):
Appreciate it very much.

Dr.Schniederjan (28:53):
All right. Great to have a chat.

Chad (28:55):
Yes Sir. Thank you.