Cattle Prices Tripled And Ranchers Still Aren’t Rich

Garth Gatson is 33 years old and doesn’t own an acre of ground. He raises cattle for a living anyway, on his family’s place in Missouri, buying heifer calves and selling them as pairs into the biggest cattle market anybody alive has ever seen. And this summer, while walking his pastures, he wrote the book on how we got here. It’s called Abel’s Rally, it’s named after the first stockman in the Bible, and it took him about 100 days from idea to Amazon. ABEL’S RALLY ➱ Search “Abel’s Rally” on Amazon. It’s A-B-E-L, E before the L. Leave him a review, there are two on there right now and our audience can fix that today. We got into why cattle tripled and why that didn’t make every rancher rich. Garth’s argument is that cows worth twice as much is equity, and equity doesn’t pay the light bill, the sale barn check does. He walked us through the cycle from the 2014 crash to the 2025 run, when feeder steers went up $3 a day for almost 300 days, $800 a head without gaining a pound. He says this country is losing 3 acres of pasture every minute, and he triple checked the math. Then we got into how he thinks. His mission statement is conscientiously creating and capturing value in cattle, and his line is that creating value without capturing it is charity, and capturing it without creating any is fraud. He writes an annual letter for his cattle business like Warren Buffett, he defines enough as a speed instead of a point, and he doesn’t use AI at all, because Johnny Cash and John Henry already explained what happens when something has all the power and none of the soul. Also in this one: screwworm and why the border closed, the Cain and Abel feud that’s still going between farmers and ranchers, burning tallgrass prairie at K-State, his summer at Rock Hills Ranch, the compound interest math on growing a herd, what he wants his four kids to inherit that isn’t land, and his advice for the 25 year old with no ground who wants in. CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome and harvest wrap 2:56 Thanking the truckers who saved harvest 6:55 Why Tork spilled so much corn 9:34 Meet Garth Gatson 12:13 Why the book is called Abel's Rally 13:19 How the cattle cycle works 20:27 Why prices got this high 26:28 Screwworm and the Mexican border 29:04 Where are we in the cycle 34:50 Who won the most this cycle 39:26 How Garth got started in cattle 47:04 Why you can't count on 20 percent every year 49:39 Staying flexible without spreading too thin 55:01 Creating value and capturing value 1:00:46 Cash flow, scale, and why ranches run out of money 1:04:32 Work, life, and when a man loves a farm 1:18:14 Compound interest on the farm 1:27:52 How Garth learns 1:32:44 The annual letter 1:38:23 Writing a book in 100 days 1:54:20 Who the book is for 1:58:51 Selling steers two days after the peak 2:00:41 Cattle worth more than nickels 2:06:13 Garth's mission statement and what is enough 2:13:51 Raising kids and what to pass down 2:21:57 Advice for young cattle producers 2:26:49 Tip of the Hat: the local sale barn 2:31:44 Where to find Garth Sign up for the free weekly newsletter: joinbarntalk.com Follow Barn Talk YouTube: youtube.com/@barntalk Instagram: instagram.com/barntalkshow TikTok: tiktok.com/@barntalk Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 #EP224 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices