Buzzard's Beat by Brandi Buzzard

09/18/2025

SCIENCE DOES NOT CARE
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"I cannot fathom the mental gymnastics required to still be denying climate change in the year of our Lord 2025. There is vast scientific consensus that our planet is experiencing a long-term climate change, and denying this trend — as extreme weather events increase, snow cover decreases, and sea levels rise — makes our beloved agriculture industry look like an obtuse ostrich with its head in the sand.

How can we expect grocery shoppers to believe us when we speak about science in our area of expertise but deny it in other aspects of our lives? When it comes to antibiotic withdrawal times, growth promotants, or nutritional values of beef, we often point to Extension resources, scientific trials, and animal health professionals sharing mounds of evidence to support our positions."

Read more about how science doesn't give a flip in my column for AGDAILY at:

Agricultural science doesn’t care about feelings, and it sure doesn’t care about political affiliation. As more data is collected, science becomes stronger.

09/15/2025

FOOD EDUCATION IS AG EDUCATION

It starts at home when they're young - showing them how to crack eggs while explaining where eggs come from.
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Teaching them how to measure flour while explaining how wheat turns into flour.
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Growing tomatoes and using those to make salsa or soup.
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Watching corn grow in a field, helping feed it to cattle and cooking beef from those cattle.
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Watching and experiencing how food is raised, grown, harvested, processed, prepared and consumed is a privilege that most farm and ranch kids have which non-farm/ranch kids miss out on.
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If we want adults that know chocolate milk doesn't come from brown cows, we have to start intentionally talking about food and agriculture in elementary school. Not in a "eat this, not that" way but in a "all food is nourishing and this is how it's grown" way.
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If we want adults to support agriculture and believe in ag science that most farmers and ranchers proudly tout, we have to raise the kind of children capable of understanding that science and the complex issues behind food production.
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My kid will have that advantage - will yours? If not, I encourage you to find a farmer/rancher you trust (hi, it's me!) and ask them your deep, dark questions about food and ag. We won't bite and we'd love to talk to you.
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09/12/2025

Reposting these words I shared about 9/11 in 2020:

"Sophomore year. Oral communications. Another teacher/staff member [can't remember who] came in and whispered something to Mrs. Hopper and the mood of the room changed. We knew something had happened but we weren't sure what was so important that could change the atmosphere of a high school instantly.

Next period, Spanish II, and we saw footage on TV of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center - a sight I could have gone 100 years without seeing again, honestly. The whole day was eerie and sad. I went to get gas right after school was out because we thought oil prices would skyrocket. Why that was a concern after more than 3,000 people were killed, I don't know.

In 2017, when we visited New York the main two things on my tourist list were the Statue of Liberty and the 9/11 World Trade Center Museum And Memorial. The only time I've cried more in a museum was when we visited Auschwitz. Similarly, until I saw it for myself, I didn't quite realize the weight of what had actually happened there or how it so dramatically affected NYC and our nation. Standing on the ground where the towers once stood, seeing the beams and broken concrete, hearing their stories and phone calls sucks the air out of one's lungs and forces tears out of their ducts.

Our country united around thousands of lost lives in the name of peace and solidarity in those following days, weeks and months. Hatred seemed to slip away. I pray that we once again reach that kind of unity in the U.S. because although it was monumentally devastating to our country, it also ignited our appreciation for each other. I pray that we can once again unite in love, support and compassion because we desperately need it.

September 10 and 11, I am always compelled to hug my husband and (now 2) little cowgirls a little tighter, as I am reminded that children got their last bedtime story, hug or "I love you" from their parents before their world was shattered beyond recognition or repair, for the rest of their lives.

We will never forget."

Images are from my visit to the 9/11 World Trade Center Museum And Memorial

09/10/2025

PROFESSIONALLY ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES
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I was hosting an episode of The beef podcast show and, as tends to happen, the conversation drifted to cattle markets and business decisions.
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At one point, I said, "9-weights went for almost $3.5/lb. That's more than a gallon of diesel, haul 'em to the barn!"
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I am never not being myself.
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But this example is part of a larger equation. With unprecedented prices (I am honestly growing tired of the word "unprecedented") should producers be taking unprecedented actions?
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At what point do we look at our business and pivot to capitalize on these prices? Is that pivot temporary or permanent? There is certainly a risk-management factor to not chasing trends.

Personally, we are primarily a seedstock operation (check out High Bar Cattle Company). We specialize in selling bulls and heifers so we don't see the direct, immediate impacts of $3.47/lb 9-weights (but we also don't feel the direct, immediate impact of basement prices either). Over the past few years we have added stockers to our business plan to use our grass and take advantage of a very calf-friendly market.

On the freezer beef side, I am penciling our profit on a fat steer marketed to one of our loyal customers and comparing that to just hauling the yearlings that aren't finished to the sale barn. Even with cheap corn, my time feeding those animals and marketing the finished product has a value - is it worth it to expand the freezer beef side or should we take advantage of a easy, large paycheck now?

These aren't black & white questions and as with nearly everything in agriculture, there is nuance and complexity.

Our ranch differs from every other farm and ranch, so what we deem "easy" or a "no-brainer" may not be the same for others. And vice versa.

The point of my message? Change is inevitable. In life. In agriculture. It's going to happen. But the impact (and memories) come when we choose to adapt, stay consistent or somewhere in between. Will some farms and ranches choose to stay the course through this era or pivot? Time will tell.

I've developed a keynote around this "change and adaptation" concept and can't wait to share it with audiences in 2026. Looking for an AUTHENTIC, impactful and thought-provoking keynote for your event? Let's collaborate and create something unforgettable. My inbox and books are open.

p.s. Back to the on-air statement about diesel vs 9-weights - I am awkward, outspoken, ramble-y and sarcastic in person, I am that way online and I am that way on a stage. I am never not myself. 😂

09/05/2025

ANNOYING OCCURRENCE + 3 GOOD THINGS!

Y'all it is going to be below 60F at sundown tonight and rain is currently drizzling down. Fall feels like it wants to stick around and that makes me downright happy. What does sub 60F weather mean?

IT'S SOUP WEATHER! (good thing #1)

So I got out my soup pot to prepare for lasagna soup later tonight and snapped this pic before I ran to town for a haircut. Fast forward a few hours, after a long-overdue haircut (good thing #2) and some errands and I made it back home to start supper prep.
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Cue the annoyance - the dang butterfly on my can of petite diced tomatoes.
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If you're new here, Hi! I'm Buzzard and I have great disdain for fear-based marketing in food. The GMO-free label is absolutely a fear-based label, as it implies the opposite of the -free is "bad." Basically, this is implying that GMO tomatoes at the grocery store are bad, while this brand is "good" because it has that butterfly label emblazoned upon it.
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Problem is, there are NO GMO TOMATOES AT THE GROCERY STORE. There are no GMO tomatoes commercially available on the market or in your grocery store (there is a GMO purple cherry tomato you can buy via seed/seedling privately from Big Purple Tomato but you will not find those at any grocery store). Labeling something GMO-free that doesn't have a GMO counterpart is like labeling fire 🔥HOT🔥! It doesn't make sense.
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That flippin' butterfly and the methods behind it contribute to food misinformation and discrediting science. I actively avoid buying foods with the butterfly label but somehow this snuck into our pantry.

So as a refresher, here are some basics about GMOs:

- First and foremost - GMOs ARE SAFE. Their safety has been proven and validated by countless *independent* scientists and health organizations WORLDWIDE. Since 1992, more than 40 government agencies around the world have approved GMOs for food and feed.
- GMO crops were first created to help with one or more of issues such as drought tolerance, insect and/or disease resistance, herbicide tolerance, reduced food waste or increased nutritional content.
- GMOs allow producers to raise more food using fewer inputs and enabling them to conserve soil, water and energy.
Please, don't fear your food. If you have questions about your food, ask the people who raise and grow it or look for reputable, peer-reviewed sources (Wikipedia and ChatGPT don't count).
- Here's a list of current commercially available GMOs: alfalfa, Arctic apple, canola, corn, cotton, eggplant, papaya, pink pineapple, Innate potato, AquAdvantage salmon, soybeans, summer squash, sugarbeet, sugarcane. There is also an alpha-gal pork that has been approved.

Hopefully I don't have anymore GMO rants for a while! 😉
If you want my lasagna soup recipe, it's foolproof and available here: https://buzzardsbeat.com/2014/03/if-you-can-brown-ground-beef-easy.html/
p.s. Good thing #3 is football is back, baby! Chiefs kickoff their season tonight!

09/04/2025

SCIENCE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS
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"And it sure doesn’t care about your political affiliation.

Science is ever-evolving. As science learns and collects more data, evidence can change or become stronger, but that doesn’t mean it should be tossed aside. As mature adults, we should also adapt and change as we learn more during our lifetimes. It’s growth and it’s normal."
The exhaustion of seeing my fellow ag producers embrace science that supports their personal biases but reject science which disagrees or hurts their feelings is defeating and consistent.
Read more in my inaugural column with AGDAILY (check the comments 👇🏻)
Photo of me scowling at "GMO-free" mashed carrots on the baby food aisle is from 2017, the first time I went "viral" after chastising companies for preying on the fears of parents by using unethical labeling. I got called everything under the sun for this but stand by it to this day

09/03/2025

"DO YOU GIVE YOUR CATTLE ANTIBIOTICS?"

That was a question I received this week from a potential butcher beef buyer. And, as with most issues in agriculture, it's nuanced.

Do our cattle receive antibiotics daily, via feed or water? No, not usually.**
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But that doesn't mean we are opposed to using them. We use these health tools when our animals are sick, as was a cow that needed treated a few weeks ago out in a big pasture. Sounds simple, but it was not.

We had to find her and treat her with our dart 🔫, while I served as the distraction (which I was none too thrilled about). My feelings on the topic are displayed in the photo below
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Watch us treat a cow with our Pneu-Dart Inc. in my latest AcresTV episode. PLUS, what in the world is going on with Beyond Meat? Is the faux-meat company going belly up or will it stick around another year? Peep the first comment for the landing page
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**If we have an outbreak of pinkeye, we may mass treat using antibiotics approved through our Veterinary Feed Directive.

09/01/2025

Meat industry workforce facts on this Labor Day, via Mom at the Meat Counter

I hope you have a great Labor Day

08/29/2025

I remember our first year of fall calving in 2016 and the only truck we had to do chores and check cows was my busted up Dodge Ram 1500 and the driver side window wouldn't roll down AND the A/C didn't work with typical triple-digit heat indexes. Those memories of our first days make me laugh and realize how far we've come.

Now I'm zipping across our pastures on a 4-wheeler (that I had to ask the neighbor to pull start for me) and tagging calves in 72F in late August.

I love it when fall calving actually lines up with fall WEATHER! Babies will be everywhere next week, soon the grass will take on those gorgeous orange, pink and red streaks, we'll be marketing heifer pairs to our fellow ranchers and our 2025 High Bar Cattle Company Private Treaty Sale season will kick off.

The fall run is almost upon us and I am ready for it. Happy Friday, friends. May you be blessed beyond your dreams.

08/28/2025

WITHERING WEEDS, ESCAPING CALVES AND WHEN WILL BEEF PRICES COME DOWN?
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We're knocking down w**ds and that brings me GREAT JOY. Something that brings me zero joy is chasing calves that get out in the middle of the summer heat. Also, have you noticed that beef prices are high - how long is that gonna last?
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Let's talk about it in this episode of AcresTV - it's F R E E to watch. I like to call it the Netflix of agriculture (except there's no cost or fees)!
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We're also sharing how we use Precision Laboratories APE/NPE adjuvants to help us take care of our pasture and the surrounding environment while we control w**d pressures using our Demco - Dethmers Mfg. Company big-wheel sprayer!

🙄 OH AND THE FREAKING CALVES GOT OUT. 🙄

https://www.watchacrestv.com/brandibuzzard/videos/watching-w**ds-wither-and-calves-escaping

08/27/2025

🥩📈WHAT'S DRIVING BEEF PRICES SO HIGH?!🥩📈

I vividly remember playing the card game “Crazy Eights” with my dad and brother when I was little. I don’t recall winning very much, but I do remember the chaos that ensued when an eight was played and foiled a player’s plans to win. Why is this relevant?

Because earlier this week, I read that ground beef has hit all-time highs at the grocery store — $8 per pound — and there is no shortage of chaos in the beef industry currently. This historic price is the latest peak in almost two years as prices have climbed higher and higher. While you may hear disgruntled shoppers, shocked ranchers or TV analysts blame — or credit —— a single factor leading to today’s beef prices, it would be foolhardy to simplify such a complex occurrence.

So, let’s break it down into what I believe are the three major drivers of high beef prices in 2025 in my latest post with Kansas Living : https://kansaslivingmagazine.com/articles/2025/08/26/high-beef-prices-explained-the-real-reasons-ranchers-aren%E2%80%99t-to-blame

08/26/2025

It's National Dog Day and not even Taylor and Travis announcing their engagement can heal my heart from today's reminder that Cricket is gone.

8+ months since she crossed the rainbow bridge and I still catch myself looking for her in the evenings trailing cows. Her rug by the door still boasts quite a bit of her hair, permanently embedded.

Happy National Dog Day to those who have a companion by their side - treasure them daily, for they leave us far too soon.

Read my ode to Cricket on the blog:
https://buzzardsbeat.com/2025/08/the-final-fetch.html/

📸 : Sheridan Wimmer (she doesn't have a photography company but needs one)