Keely Covello UNWON

08/31/2026

New announcements from USDA on plans to fortify domestic ranching industry and rebuild U.S. beef herd 🚨🚨

https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/08/31/secretary-rollins-announces-ranchers-first-initiatives-rebuild-great-american-beef-herd

08/31/2026

Trump wants to make it easier for ranchers to process their own beef.

There are 937 slaughter plants in America. 11 handle nearly half the cattle. Small plants can be booked 6–12 months out.
That’s the bottleneck.

A lot of confusion about the beef announcement, so I broke it down: how cattle get from a ranch to your grocery store, what USDA can change on its own, and what needs Congressional action.

But can he? In this piece, we break down his announcement that he’ll let farmers and rancher “process their own food,” what this means, and what could happen next.

08/28/2026

Congressman James Gallagher isn’t staying quiet on Potter Valley.

He’s running to represent California’s District 1 in November. Unlike the current representative, and his opponent, he is fighting for the farmers, ranchers, and families who desperately need these dams to stay.

PG&E wants to tear out two dams on the Eel River, cutting a water supply that serves 750,000 people and erasing a wildfire-fighting asset that helped put out two of the three largest fires in California history.

Almost nobody is talking about it.

Gallagher is hitting the ground running. He’s been up to Potter Valley, met with the community, and he’s calling the dam removal what he believes it is: a water resource we can’t afford to lose, driven by an ideology that would rather demolish than build.

Full interview at the link in bio. 🎙️ Or search UNWON wherever you listen!

(Drone footage courtesy Mike Nelson)

08/27/2026

“I was born a country girl and I’ll die a country girl.” 🦋🩵

08/26/2026

“There went the football one more time.”

The US cow herd is near a 75 year low. Rebuilding it means a producer holds back heifers instead of cashing in at a high market, develops them, breeds them, and waits about three years for that decision to become beef. Dr. Rich Brazil Rich Brazil, DVM says producers have watched the ball get pulled away enough times to be wary.

Then Trump announced he’s bringing in 300,000 metric tons of lean beef trimmings, 90 days, no out of quota tariff.

If we want more food grown here, somebody has to make the case for why it might cost more. I believe that’s what the Trump administration has been trying to facilitate, and I applaud that. Those of us who talk about these issues have to be willing to make the case to the American people. Otherwise “affordability” becomes the only story.

Full episode of Ranch Beat is out now, with Dr. Rich Brazil and Grace Brazil on the lactating steer study, the import announcement, MCOOL, and one veterinary story about potbellied pigs that I simply cannot summarize here. Link in bio, or search UNWON wherever you get your podcasts!

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cattlemarket MCOOL ranchlife

08/25/2026

Rest in peace Dolly, American original and one of the greats 💔🦋

“Come out of your shell and shine. Be all the colors you can be.”

“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”

“You have to accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.”

“I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb. And I also know that I’m not blonde.”

“Country people are the smartest people in the world, and I’ve been everywhere.”

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”

“We were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor.
My dad never could read and write…But my daddy was so smart that all my life I wondered what my daddy could have been, had he really got an education.”

“I may look like a show pony, but I’m a workhorse.
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.”

“We are all in this together—trying, searching for that thing we like to call The American Dream.”

“It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”

“You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.”

“If you keep that thing that you remember as a child, that faith…My faith is the thing that keeps me motivated, keeps me strong, keeps me from falling through the cracks.”

“There was nothing more beautiful than the mountains.
The Smokys are in my heart and on my mind.
Everything about the Smoky Mountains influenced me.”
These were my people. These were my mountains, these were my memories, this is my home.”

“I was born a country girl, and I’ll die a country girl.
It’s made me appreciate life and people more than if I had been brought up a different way.”

“I say that I’m as old as yesterday, but hopefully as new as tomorrow.”

08/25/2026

There will never be anyone like her. An American angel and the eternal queen of country music. The whole world misses you Dolly. 🕊️💘🦋

08/23/2026

Congressman James Gallagher is the newest member of Congress. He represents rural California, himself a sixth generation farmer. He’s a voice for the people Gavin Newsom is trying to silence. He’s running against Mike McGuire in November. James Gallagher

Finally, a sane voice representing California.

Listen to my whole conversation with Congressman James Gallagher on the UNWON podcast. Search UNWON wherever you listen or click the link in my bio!