Tradition Meets Grit: Rethinking Ranching For The Next Generation with Bronson Corn

A fifth-generation rancher from Roswell, New Mexico, pulls back the curtain on how a family outfit survives drought, policy, and razor-thin margins without losing its soul. Bronson Corn joins Carollann Romo to share the decisions that kept their herd intact—building a cow-focused feed yard as a drought tool, rotating entire ranches through pens to rest brittle grasslands, and accepting the hard work of calving under lights to beat scours and protect condition. It’s a story about stewardship you can measure in both range health and cash flow.

We walk the fenceline between tradition and innovation. Bronson still works horseback and handles cattle the way his granddad did, but he’s unapologetic about new models that fit a semi-arid climate and cyclical rainfall. He talks plainly about public lands and the true costs of BLM and state leases that are baked into ranch purchases—why stewardship isn’t charity, it’s a business imperative. After more than 100,000 miles representing New Mexico Cattle Growers, he explains how policy really happens at the Roundhouse and why more ranchers need to see it firsthand.

There’s hope here, too. With the national cow herd at multi-decade lows, prices finally let families breathe, repair fence, and invite the next generation in with real ownership. Bronson’s kids now run operating lines and buy cattle with breakevens in mind—a sign that beef remains a viable path for young producers willing to start small, trade work for pasture, and stack opportunity. Along the way, we talk failure as teacher, diversification as insurance, and the power of telling your story even when you’d rather just get back to work. Stay to the end for a craveable twist on dinner: New Mexico-style beef wellington wrapped in a tortilla and smothered in green or red.

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Transcript

Season Two Kickoff

Carollann Romo 0:00

Welcome to season two of Behind the Burger, a podcast brought to you by New Mexico Beef Council. It's hard to believe we've been sharing these stories for a full year now, and we're so glad you're here with us. Thanks for joining us again today. Let's get into our first episode of the season. Welcome back to another episode of Behind the Burger. I'm Carollann Romo, the executive director of the New Mexico Beef Council. And I'm here with Bronson Corn from Roswell and past president of New Mexico Cattle Growers. I'm sure lots of other titles, right? Will you introduce yourself and maybe start with your background?

Bronson Corn 0:33

You bet. Well, my name is Bronson Corn. I'm the immediate past president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers. And our background is our family is a I'm a fifth generation rancher from right in the Roswell area. We came to the Roswell area in 1872. So uh well before New Mexico was even a state. Or our family settled in down there around the Rosal area. And why they chose Roswell, I'm not 100% sure because it's hot and it's dry, but it's sure pretty.

Carollann Romo 1:02

It's home now.

Bronson Corn 1:03

Yeah.

Carollann Romo 1:03

Yeah. Um, and tell us about your operation. You tell you know, you can start from the beginning and then kind of where you're at now.

Diversifying The Ranch Operation

Bronson Corn 1:10

All right. Well, so historically, uh for the last, well, since 1872, I guess, our family's been um a mixed. Um we're very diversified in what we had. We had uh cattle, sheep, and goats and horses um for a long time. Our family quit uh doing any horse breeding back all mid-1950s. Um but we recently, very recently got out of the sheep business. Um I guess that was in 2024 when we're when our family got out of the sheep business. So we're primarily or we're solely uh cattle. We have a handful of sheep left. Um I've got a feed yard that I built on the ranch that I live on to try to help us get through droughts. Um it's not a traditional feed yard where in the sense where I I finish out cattle, um, I built it for cows, is what I built that yard for, is to get us through, get us through a drought. Um that's the that's the main reason, and then it opened up a lot of doors. Um, and so I'm proud to say that we have a a feed yard uh along with all of our ranch country as well.

Carollann Romo 2:26

That's really neat. So I've I don't know that I've heard of that. I've heard a lot of grow yards and then the feed yards. So it's it's mainly for the cows. So what season in their life are they in there?

Bronson Corn 2:35

Just in wintertime or summertime when it's dry, or typically there's there's generally cows with in that yard 365 days a year. Um the yard that I built is 999 pair, um, so it keeps it out of the EPA's eyes, but it's not enough to maintain. We can't bring in all of our cows at at one time. And so I I bring it in ranch by ranch by ranch. Uh keep those cows in for 90, 120 days, and then I'll turn around and roll those cows out. Um it's kind of a unique deal that doesn't work for everybody, but it's you can think of it as a ranch inside of a ranch. And uh it's kind of helped us learn how to uh diversify and be able to keep our numbers to where we can make everything work the way it's supposed to.

The Cow Feed Yard Concept

Carollann Romo 3:23

And less less dependent on on the uh natural grasses and and that kind of stuff. So is there uh by your your location in Roswell, access to feed and stuff is so we're pretty fortunate in the Roswell area because we've got you know, we had the most robust dairy industry in New Mexico was right around the Roswell area.

Bronson Corn 3:43

There was 92,000 dairy cows within 45 miles of my headquarters. And so the rail system, the feed system, we were set up for it. And we still are. Uh the dairy industry has has really had some issues in the last few years, and the cow numbers are somewhere in that 38 to 42,000. I'm not exactly sure of the number that there are there, but there's still a a lot, a very viable number of um dairy cows there to be able to bring in the commodities that we utilize.

Carollann Romo 4:17

Oh yeah, that makes that makes perfect sense. Um, so I was kind of gonna maybe go off script and ask a question. Um everyone tells me, so I'm not on Snapchat, but everyone tells me you're on Snapchat, right? And so you you like to post a lot of kind of day in the life stuff, right? And even on TikTok, I've seen some, right? So maybe uh tell us what any any a typical day might look like. Of course, there's no such thing, right? But uh I mean, yeah, I mean, tell us about that. What's a what's a day in the life for Bronson, or how how different different can it be?

Bronson Corn 4:47

Well, it it's interesting. And uh my wife thinks of my Snapchat more as a uh a rancher's therapy group, is more what it comes into. Um because you literally have no clue. My wife asks me all the time, and she doesn't know why she does it. Every time she asks it, she's like, I don't know why I just asked that question, but she's like, What are you doing today? I have no clue. I have no clue what is fixing to happen today. It can be everything from a blown motor and a wheel loader to having cows that you gotta go catch out in the pasture because they got prolapse. Or it it never ceases to amaze me the amount of things that can go wrong in a single day. And uh I figured, you know, if I'm having to go through all this misery, I might as well let some of my Snapchat friends and TikTok friends go along this misery with me. Um and they I have a lot of people that ask me, because every time I have stuff that just happens, I laugh about it. And uh they ask me, why do you how can you stay positive and laugh about a situation like that? And I just simply tell them, if I don't laugh, I'm probably gonna cry. Um but that's that's the that's a day in a life of of me. Um there's never there is never I can have a plan, and that plan is gonna change ten times by the time dark comes.

Carollann Romo 6:16

That that adaptability kind of word keeps coming to mind every time I have a podcast, right? You have to be. You've gotta be, you know, everything to everyone in some ways, right? And then a day like today, you're in Santa Fe, um, for your your past role, but also still current role. Um, maybe uh kind of lead into what your work with New Mexico cattle growers has been.

A Day In The Life Online

Policy Work And The Roundhouse

Bronson Corn 6:39

Oh man, it's been a journey. You can't explain it any more than it has been something that I never thought I would experience. I have been to every corner of this state. I have been over a hundred thousand miles in the last four years. I have seen the good, I have seen the bad. I have been here at Santa Fe for the 30-day session completely, I've been here for the 60-day session completely, and it will never astound me the amount of people who don't know what goes on in Santa Fe, the amount of ranchers that we have who do not understand why the policies come down on them and why they have to do this, and why they have to do that, and why they can't just put in this pipeline over here, and why they can't put it in that storage tank over there. When they hear that you can't do something, they're like, why? Like, well, if you would come to Santa Fe and sit into that roundhouse and go to all these committees and understand and listen to them as they're they're coming up with their reasons as to why they want to do this, it pisses you off. But at the same time, it really makes you see the big picture of it. And there's no way I could have ever dreamt of doing what I've done the last four years if I didn't have a lot of help at home. I had my brother-in-law, Sterling Pierce, he came and helped take care of all the ranch country that I take care of over the last four years, my parents, everything else, but it it has brought, it has shed light, not just on me, but on my entire family, about what we do, why we do, and how we do it. And there's no there is there is nothing more um, I would say satisfying, but it's not very satisfying about about stepping into a leadership position. But at the same time, if you're doing it for the right reason, which my reason was for my kids, if if my kids are gonna stand a chance to come home, somebody's gotta step up. And my parents taught me a long time ago that if you want something done right, you better step up and do it. And so God pressed on me pretty good and hard uh whenever I was asked to be the president-elect. Um, I've got more things than I can say grace over. Uh at home, the amount of country that we run, the amount of cows that we and we don't have very much help. Um I I did not have the time to do this. But God told me that if if you want to make a difference, you have to be a difference. And that's that's the only thing that got me through the last four years is my family, uh all of those who stepped up and and there's multiple friends that I have that I wasn't there for some of our brandings. It was just, you guys take care of it. Go do it, I gotta be gone. You know, so it it's a it's a big commitment, but at the same time, if you don't stand up and make a difference in life, who's gonna do it? And those that do do it, are they gonna do it the way that you need to do it? And uh most of the time that's when God brings you to something, He's gonna take you through it. It hurts and it sucks. It's not easy, and it makes you uh it makes you really uh ponder why. But every fire that I've been brought to, I've walked through it. And it's for a reason. And so I I highly encourage everybody to don't be bashful. Um if you feel led to do something, you need to do it. Um because that's the only way we're gonna make a difference for for my kids, for your kids, for your kids. We've got to step up.

Carollann Romo 10:53

Oh man, I I think uh I I always think it's important to mention the fact that Beef Council isn't in Santa Fe at the roundhouse because we're not allowed to be. But what we are allowed to do is tell the story, right? And so thank you for being willing to be on the podcast and represent us elsewhere. Because, like you said, if if uh you're not willing to do it, who is, right? And uh I always feel honored to help tell the story and help uh do our small part because yeah, it's really important. And and uh the beef industry, the ranching industry, agriculture in New Mexico, you know, we we do want it to be around for the next generation, for my daughter, for for our daughter, um, for your kids, all that. So um I appreciate the work you guys do in the roundhouse, and I love to joke that I'm glad that Beef Council gets to stay home on that one, because that's that's a strong battle.

Bronson Corn 11:43

Well, you got you you you have to take a little bit of kudos yourself because the the amount of work the the way the beef council has changed over the last couple of years has been eye-opening. Um there's there needed to be a reinvigoration. That may not be a real word, I'm not 100% sure, but it is now. It is now. Um, but there needed to be some life brought back into it. Um and that's that's one thing that the beef council has now. And uh I'm proud to say the amount of work that uh Beef Council and the New Mexico cattle growers have done, we've we've made a difference. And it's because it's well like we work together. We know we can't do everything on our own. Um and so having people where you can lean on that that makes a big difference.

Carollann Romo 12:28

Absolutely, absolutely. I'm grateful that we all come together and work together and and uh continue a legacy of of what is you know beef in New Mexico, right? So that kind of almost leads us to a question: what do you think is the most rewarding part of being in the beef industry?

Calling, Family Support, And Leadership

Bronson Corn 12:46

The most rewarding part. When I wake up in the morning before daylight every day, and I walk outside and you see the sun pop over the horizon, and you see this is what God entrusted me to take care of. And this is what my kids are growing up in. And uh whenever I was a kid, it was we were broke. Gosh damn, broke, broke. And my dad used us like we were daywork, and we were used that way. And uh I think in a small part, I don't know that my parents would ever um admit to this, but I think in a small part they saw how hard life was and they didn't want that for me. They didn't want that for my sisters and so they used us like that. And we had, you know, we had great times, um, but we had a lot of not so great times. And whenever I st whenever I expected or expressed interest in in coming back home, that there was a little bit of a light bulb moment. And I noticed that that same light bulb moment here the other day. And I I've tried to I've tried to to do things a little bit different with my kids than than what I went through. And I don't think I don't know that I did them any favors or not. But both of my kids here the other day, we were having, gosh dang, just one of those days. It was just rough. And uh both of my kids, I have a a uh 12-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, Garrett and Madison, and both of them were there like that. And uh at the end of it, I said, I didn't, you know, I didn't even call you guys out here to come help. Like, how'd you guys know that I was out here doing this stuff? And they said, Well, we just we just knew that you needed help. And this is something that we want to do whenever we get older. And it was like one of those, oh God. Okay, all right. So now it's that's the most rewarding thing. Um, not just for being in the ranching industry, but as a parent, that's what we that's why we do what we do. We try to make sure sure, you know, there's some people that say that ranching is just a way of life and that you have to love it to do it, and and I say no to that. Uh this is a business. And uh whenever your kids see the value of a business that they have sweat equity built into as well, that's the satisfying part.

Carollann Romo 15:50

Oh, absolutely. The the work ethic and the and the know-how that your kids are are gaining by by uh even even just the character to show up when someone needs help. How how I mean that obviously has to make you proud, right? Um it's a special way to grow up. Um what would you say? So if we talk about you've you've talked about New Mexico's drought, we've talked about Roswell. Um, but how do you think the uh New Mexico's climate and landscape uh shape the way you ranch?

Purpose, Parenting, And Reward

Climate Cycles And Drought Lessons

Bronson Corn 16:55

Man, whenever I was younger, the Roswell area wasn't that bad. It was, you know, our typical rainfall was 12 inches a year. And uh typically it'd be in that 95 degrees during the summertime, not too bad. And the one thing that, and I do have to say this, last year we went on a trip and we went to Kentucky, or I guess it was a year before we last, we went to Kentucky, and we went to the Ark. They made a total replication of the Ark. And going through that ark, they had a biblically accurate timeline of weather in the world. And on that cycle, you can see it all the way back to even whenever Christ was walking the earth, you can see the weather patterns. They tracked it all the way back through that time frame. And so we're on a cyclical pattern, period. I don't care that I don't believe in climate change, I believe in a cyclical pattern. And God made the earth to follow a cyclical pattern. And whenever I was a kid, my grandpa Bronson would say that we are in a we're in a 50-year cycle. And I'll be darned if we didn't get there to the arc, and it is a 50-year cycle. So whenever I was a kid, we would have 10 inches, 12 inches a year, and in the Roswell area, if you get 10 to 12 inches of rain a year in the right time of year, it's more productive than the Flint Hills of Kansas. It is phenomenal. But over the last few years, we haven't had that. In uh 2010 was the best year I'd ever seen in my life. We had 24 inches of rain. And in 2011, 12, 13, and 14, we had five total inches of rain. And in 2014, there was I want to say it was like 92 consecutive days of over 100 degrees. And at that time, I I didn't know what to do. And like a lot of family ranches, we were faced with the decision of do you sell off all your livestock or do you bear down and figure something out? And uh for those people who have been born into a family that has country but never has anything paid off, you can't you can't sell your livestock because you have to make payments. You have to make payments on your land, you have to make payments on your cow note. And at that time, if if we were to sell everything, and bread cows and bread cows in 2011, 2012 weren't bringing $750 for good young cows. And we were faced with the decision of if we sell everything out, then what? And uh I just got out of TCU in 2006, 2007, and thought I was the smartest individual alive, and then I 2011 rolls around and I figured out I'm the dumbest some buck alive. And we had to figure out how to make it work, and so we leased an old feed yard. The Diamond A cattle company had a feed yard there in Roswell, and I leased that yard, and we brought all of our ranch cows from all of the ranches into town and stuck them in there. And uh, we were basically to the point where we were just trying to put condition on them to turn them to try to get rid of them because they got in real bad shape real quick. And uh when it whenever uh life throws a punch at you like that, you can't there's not enough feed on a ranch that you can put out to make your cows do well. And uh that's why we decided we would move them all to town. And I can't tell you the amount of people who told me we were dumb. Like ranch families who are like, y'all are dumb. This is dumb. Y'all are digging you're fixing to barrier yourselves. I said, No. No, it's this is gonna we're gonna figure out how to do this because we have to. If we don't, then I'm I guess I'm gonna go pick up a trade job doing plumbing in somewhere else. I don't know. Um But the good Lord told us there's a there's a way, and it's gonna suck. And we did it. And uh we came out of that yard in 2015, and during that entire time we doubled our cow herd because I was picking up all these 650, 753, and four-year-old bred cows that people were just selling to cabinets to cut their heads off because they had no place to go with them. And we doubled our cow herd in the middle of the worst drought in history. And at that time, we had we had plenty of country to be able to run stuff on if we had the rain. 2015 we finally had a little bit shot of it. You know, we had we had uh six inches of rain in July and August of 2015, and that country sparked up. And so we took we took better we took all of the cows out of the yard, but uh we dry watered quite a bit of stuff just to be able to kind of let some of that country

Carollann Romo 22:31

heal up a little bit and it wasn't shortly after that that uh we decided that we were gonna build our own and we built it at h at my the ranch that I live on um and it's a tool and if it wasn't for going through the fire of of what we went through we'd have never I wouldn't have stuck my neck out to spend a million plus dollars on just feed a year for our ranch cows um but it's it it worked for us yeah extreme circumstances to uh leads to some innovation right and some changes so that's where that's where now you guys have the the feed yard for your cows yeah um what a what an interesting uh struggle that has led to uh hopefully a success or a a learning um what uh what's hm um can you give an example of how you care for the cattle so obviously everything you do is for the care of the cattle but just maybe one specific example because again the the goal of the podcast is for people who don't know the industry and and want to learn so what's what's maybe something maybe it's something unique that you guys do but just an example or another example.

Surviving 2011–2014 And Innovating

Bronson Corn 23:50

So one of the one of the main things that we do that that most operations aren't aren't able to do and it still revolves a little bit around that feed yard um but we bring those cows in and I like I said we don't have enough pin space to bring in all of our cows at once so we bring in this ranch at one time and and they're set up on type of like a rotation type system. We don't this will sound backwards and and it may get me some get me in some hot water but I no longer utilize a rotation system on my ranches because you have to have moisture for a rotation system. And whenever whenever you experience what we've experienced you can't grow grass with five inches of rain in four years. It doesn't happen. And that's where these pins come into play is I don't put I don't implement a rotation system on the ranches when the cows are on the ranch but the cows are on a rotation system to where they come off of that ranch. So for four months out of the year there's not one there's not a hoof on there.

Carollann Romo 25:04

Okay.

Bronson Corn 25:05

And so the one thing that I do that is that is uh the one of the ranches that I have a rotation on is right in the middle of the Keving season which starts here in the next 20 days for us. We kev a little bit later than most people in the southeast most folks start around January we're we're in about the middle of February to the end of February before we even get started. But Kevin out cows and a set of pens life sucks life's hard but at the same time the amount of the cows are in great shape the calves get more nutrition than they need which is the problem that's why life sucks because you think of having health issues on a kiff that is standing in a pen that is getting all of the milk and feed it can possibly eat you wouldn't think there'd be a lot of health issues but you'd be a hundred percent wrong those kies go through more health issues being born in a set of pins than they would ever be exposed to out on the ranch being born on the ranch. But they come they come through it with flying colors but it's a lot of work for the me and my brother-in-law because you're you're catching and doctoring probably 60 Kves a day for scours okay scowers is your worst enemy to Kevs in a yard but the thing that we do that is a little bit different for taking care of our cows is instead of instead of a rotation system on a ranch to rotate them from pasture to pasture to pasture we rotate ranch to ranch to ranch through that yard and it it allows for a a solid four months at least of not one hoof being on that country and the the increased stalking rate that we get out of implementing the program that we have it more than pays for itself uh for the added feed cost.

Carollann Romo 27:22

That's very very interesting and very unique to anyone we've talked to on the podcast so far so I'm really excited to learn more about that. And it made me think of you talk about scours and we just got back from uh Nashville and cattle convention and uh if you've been to CattleCon, which I know a lot of our listeners are are cattlemen and women um in the bathrooms they always have the commercials for scours and I always think that's just the funniest thing the funniest like if you know you know moment, right? Of if you go, they've got some medicine that is for doctoring scours and they always try and play some radio and in the bathroom and they kind of go psst are you dealing with scours my daughter was she's only four and she was in the bathroom last week and she was like mom what are they talking about?

Rotating Ranches Through Pens

Bronson Corn 28:09

What's that what's that picture on the wall and I was like well well we'll explain now but you might not understand for a couple years but it's a quite a you know funny uh experience if you've been to cattle convention um okay so we talked about the cattle um what do you think is something people don't realize about raising beef in New Mexico maybe something unique that that um you've enjoyed teaching people here in Santa Fe or just in general what's something people don't know there's one thing that that I've really been passionate about trying to make sure and get across uh whenever it revolves around uh federally allocated lands people think that those ranchers that are out on these what you could call public land um but it's federally allocated land what people consider us is that we're just out there getting this land for nothing and we're just out there raping the ground and just destroying stuff and if you if you go out and look at a BLM allotment if you go out and look at a state land lease if you go out and look at a forest service allotment those cattle are in good shape the land if there's not 5,000 elk running around the land is in good shape but people don't realize that we have to purchase that land they do not understand that whenever you purchase a piece of property that has state land on it that has BLM land on it we buy that at a significant price. It is not cheap the last the last ranch that we bought is 60% private and 40% BLM and I paid $8,000 an animal unit for land that I do not own.

Carollann Romo 30:09

And and I think some would say that was almost a good deal. Yes almost right almost you can pay $10 to $1500 an animal unit my friend was teaching me.

Calving In Pens And Scours

Bronson Corn 30:18

Yeah and so whenever whenever you're buying the BLM lease for a million and a half dollars on a parcel of property I'll be damned if we're not going to take care of it. Absolutely right absolutely um so the thing that I I would really like people to understand about especially in the southeastern part of the state because BLM is checkerboarded throughout all of the private property in the southeastern part of the state um we get further west and there's large tracts of BLM you get further north there's large tracts of state land lease and that that ground wasn't free. No there's we spent millions and millions of dollars to be able to acquire the lease for that land and then we pay on it every year on top of our normal payments um and so the fact that whenever you hear people saying that that the public land ranchers and that's a term that just is just makes me mad we treat that like private property because we we paid for it.

Carollann Romo 31:31

And yes we fully understand that it is public property and hunting season absolutely come out but those that that destroy the land that we're trying to take care of and then they say that we're the problem that's that's what really puts a bird under my saddle when you talked about the business versus the passion it takes passion but it also takes that business that you've talked about that business mindset and it's not even economical to not treat the ground well right that comes to the saying of you got to treat the land good so that you treat the livestock good right it's they go hand in hand.

Bronson Corn 32:10

If if the land's in good shape my livestock in good shape I'm in good shape. Yeah your wallet's in better shape that's right if the land's not in good shape I got a problem.

Carollann Romo 32:20

Big problem. Absolutely no I think that's a that's a great that's a great fact that not a lot of people understand that you do purchase those. Yes um and and um have significant investment in it. What is something you're excited about in your operation right now? Or if you want to talk about cattle growers too you can just something that that gets you excited right now.

Public Lands, Leases, And Misconceptions

Bronson Corn 32:42

Something that gets me excited right now is the fact that the general public finally understands that in the 70s there may have been 180 million head of cows but now we're down to 90 and they understand that this isn't something that this isn't a Yellowstone type situation. The family ranches that have been struggling forever are finally getting to take a breath because the livestock prices the cow prices calf prices have caught up to inflation to the point where my children see that this is a business opportunity. My kids went out and got a checking account and an operating line and they are purchasing cattle off of an operating line because they understand that this is something that they can do. And unfortunately since the 70s there's millions and millions of acres and hundreds of thousands of family ranches that have gone out of business. And now people are starting to get reinvigorated we're living in a time now that has not been experienced. We've come out of the worst drought in history we've seen the best calf prices in 20 let me back up in 2015 we saw the best calf prices we'd ever seen I sold $1200 steers and my cow cost was $1,120 holy mackerel I made money in 2015 and then I'll be damned if it didn't turn around and go the other way. But there's an opportunity to make money in the low cattle market too. You just have to be smart about how you do it. And the part that invigorates me and makes me so happy is that people recognize one that agriculture is viable agriculture is an industry that you can raise a family in. The CowCalf operations that have been sucking air for the last 60 years are like I can build 10 miles of fence this year that's needed to be built since the 60s there is an opportunity that we've never had before and people who are not involved in agriculture at all are like those kids are saying that I've had multiple kids ask me how do I do this how do I make something that's something that that's something that my dad has never even heard so yes we're living in a time right now where there is great great prospects and for us the next generation to be able to capitalize on that and and finally not just the American public but the federal government understands holy crap we're in trouble. We have no beef in this country we have no family ranches left in this country we have no family farms left in this country because why would anybody want to do it you work 16 hours a day and you pray to God to break even at the end of the year and now there's kids that are coming up to me like help me figure out how to do this like this is something I want to do that that's what it's about.

Carollann Romo 36:39

Oh absolutely absolutely I I I even personally have aspirations or or inspirations from from seeing it and and uh seeing it and understanding that there's still hard work there's still sacrifices and things that have to be made but you can you can make the numbers work in some s some situations right yes in the right situations.

Market Tailwinds And Youth Opportunity

Bronson Corn 37:01

Yeah it's not easy and it's not free and it's not cheap. Right. But if you if it's something that you want to do and you said it right you do have to have passion about it but it is a business and if you're passionate about it you're gonna make the business work.

Carollann Romo 37:16

Absolutely coming from I used to work at a bank but I was not a banker um but I I did learn how to golf while I was at the bank though I don't know if we're allowed to joke about bankers. But the bank company that you work for just happened to hold my mortgage so the but but at the bank they always said you got to know your breakevens and that just reminds me like it takes passion but it takes that business mindset right you got to know your breakeven you got to know so that so that when there is a drought you can make money like you said it's maybe you know margins low margins but but finally a brush of breath of fresh air um what's uh what's the best piece of advice you've ever received failure is okay absolutely I've done a lot of that I've failed a lot but failure is okay because the m if you fail that means you've tried and if you continue to try you will figure it out it may it may uh leave scars but them scars are that that rem that remind you of what you had to do to get to where you are worth it yeah scars are worth it failure is worth it um never never put yourself in a position where you know you're gonna fail but always build yourself up to where you know that if this doesn't work um you have you have something to go back on.

Bronson Corn 38:49

Diversification and failure is if if you haven't failed at anything that you've ever done you haven't done very much damn stuff.

Carollann Romo 38:58

Yeah probably never taking a risk or the right risk. Yeah we uh at the Beef Council we try and fail forward. And so we try things. We tried this podcast we weren't sure if it was going to work and so far so far so good you know like the guy falling down a seven story building every every story goes by. So far so good but we you gotta fail forward. Um it's an important part of life an important part of learning and and uh and an important part of advocacy I'd say so why do you do what you do? Why are you willing to uh be willing to fail and to uh crunch the numbers and do all the things why are you what makes you keep going I guess I'm a hardheaded sucker I have heard that answer before but when I first started off I didn't want to I didn't want to fail for the wrong reasons.

Know Your Breakeven And Fail Forward

Bronson Corn 39:52

I didn't want to fail because it would uh it would make people laugh at me it would make it gave you that negative connotation and then it that uh and everybody has one of those humbling moments in life and I won't share with you mine but once you go through that that moment you don't I'm not gonna say you don't care but you expect more from yourself because now you've got something more to fight for and uh whenever I first come back from TCU I didn't you know our our family operation was not it was not big enough to sustain my mom and dad and my my new family. It it wasn't and so for the last since 2008 we've done nothing but expand and grow. And I'm to the point now where I don't want to do any more of that. I'm I'm happy with where I'm at because I I can't take on anymore. But um at some point you have to reach down inside of yourself and and it takes that uh humbling light bulb moment to understand that uh you you can do this it's not gonna be fun for now but at some point it's gonna be fun and when I say fun I mean to the point where I I don't have to work sixteen hours a day. I can I can work a regular 10 to 12 hour day and and go home but it it it the satisfying part of it now is it forever not forever but I told myself that if I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna fight and I'm gonna bleed and I'm gonna cry and I'm gonna sweat to grow and grow and grow and then my kids don't want to come back to it then I at least have everything that we've grown to disperse to to live the life that me and my wife want to live but now that that my kids are like this is something that we want to do it's like oh thank God I go through it I go through two hats a year and four pairs of boots like working my butt off and now it's like that was totally worth it.

Carollann Romo 42:29

Um and I you know you miss out on a lot of stuff in life um but whenever you know what you're doing is is for those that you love and that you care for it don't matter because the good times are yet to come absolutely I I uh I love to talk to consumers about ranching and how that thing you said about the operation wasn't big enough to sustain multiple families and so that's why you grew and sometimes consumers are nervous or have the wrong impression about a big ranch or a big you know operation and I always love to say it's because so many in the family wanted to be a part of it. You have to grow because those margins are so thin you've got to grow and you have to grow and then I mean there's also an important part of you have to expand and grow because there are so many people getting out of it right that generational you know changeover didn't happen. And luckily it's starting to happen again. But yeah I I always try and explain that bigger is out of survival and that's how you guys get to be a multi-generation operation and now your next generation your kids are going to be able to take over because you saw that that writing on the wall that you have to grow because it it takes that.

Why Keep Going: Growth And Gratitude

Bronson Corn 43:47

So some of the and for some of the folks that that don't know how to because we were faced with that same decision and uh one of the greatest things that I learned from the TCU ranch management program was and the teacher walked in and he stood there and he went like this and he said you gotta take off the blinders and he said we open our eyes and we see this and that's what we see. But until you take the blinders down you don't see what's over here and you don't see what's over there. There's opportunities there and they may not be the opportunities that You want, but they're the opportunities that are gonna give you the ability to grow that are available here. They're available. There are so so many places that young people can step into. There's there's tons of them out there. But it's 15 cows here and it's 20 cows there. And if you get lucky, there's a guy over here that's gonna let you run 45 head on a pasture, but you're gonna have to help take care of some of this water over here. Like there's so many opportunities, but the youth have never they have not been pressed to figure out how am I gonna do this. So the the opportunity that is out here now, especially now, because you said a second ago, there's a lot of the multi-generational ranches that now don't have somebody to pass this on to. But they're not gonna just let it go. They may be in their 60s and and not have anybody around. They've got kids, but they're not there. Go over to them and ask them, can I lease these two pastures for you? And if I lease these two pastures for you, I'll check waters on all this other stuff over here. I'll go put out salt and mineral, I'll feed cows for you, I'll fix fence. There's so many opportunities, but they they don't want that. They want this. Well, if you want to get to that point, you're gonna have to, you're gonna have to pull up your boots and you're gonna have to work for it. They're not just gonna give it to you, but they're the opportunity is there, and it's huge, but people just have to pursue it.

Carollann Romo 46:11

Well, that's that makes me excited and and uh uh yeah, should make should make young people or or people interested in being in it. Not that I don't know if I can call myself a young person uh quite yet. I'm kind of right in the middle, I think. I don't know, but um as a you know an aspiring rancher or uh beef industry enthusiast or or whatever my uh many titles might be, uh that's exciting and that should get people excited. Absolutely. Um is there anything else that you would like for people to know about you, about uh your ranch, your family, your business, anything else that maybe when we said, hey, will you do a podcast that you thought I better say this?

Take Off The Blinders: Finding Access

History, Community, And Getting Involved

Bronson Corn 46:51

No, no, I've uh our our family, like I said, we we came here before New Mexico was a state in uh 1872. And and uh we have we have been through our family has been through the ringer, through everything. The the first of our family that moved down here was in the Indian Wars. And uh there's a lot of them. When my great-great-grandpa showed up, he had 21 kids, and out of those 21 kids, 19 of them was boys, and they spread out all around Roswell and just went to putting down roots, and and back then there was you know, John Chisholm, he helped him out a lot. Um, John Chisholm took a a liking to my great-great-grandpa, his name was Martin Van Burencorn, and he saw because where they came from was in Kerrville, Texas, and so they brought a totally different you could say vibe. If anybody knows the corn family, we're a little bit stubborn, we're a little bit hard-headed, and we're a little bit crazy. Um but I guess that's why he liked them. And uh the I guess the point of that is is uh if you go somewhere new, don't be afraid. You know, there's there's always opportunity, there's always there's always somebody who's gonna be out there to to step up and help. And you do have to help yourself. Um getting involved is probably the biggest thing. Um I've learned more over the last probably six years, eight years of being involved with my community, being involved with the New Mexico cattle growers, being involved with the American sheep industry, being involved with the public land council, going to DC. You know, I've I have learned more by taking off my blinders and getting out of my comfort zone than I ever would have dreamt. And I I was actually talking to one of my cousins on the phone this morning, and uh he said, out of every person I knew, you're the last person that I ever would have thought would have gotten political. And I did not disagree with him for a half a second. Um because that's anybody who knows me knows I I well I guess used to know me. Um I have pretty short temper. And um my hands and fists look a little different now than they used to. But whenever you whenever you find something that you're passionate about, I don't care if you want to be a dog catcher. If you're passionate about it, go do it. You're gonna fail at some point. And if you only fail once, you haven't done a whole damn bunch. But don't be afraid. Just step out there and go do it. Uh at some point you're gonna look back and be proud of yourself and proud of what you've accomplished. And I'm I I'm I'm proud of my family for sticking through uh everything that I've gone through in the last more years than I probably needed to. But I'm proud that I did it because I I did it for I did it for what I consider the right reasons. Um I did it for my family, I did it for my kids, and I did it so that this next generation has that ability to not have to do everything that we've had to do. Um so that's the important part of getting involved. I don't care if it's on the school board, county commission, uh, your state organizations, your local organizations, uh, getting involved keeps you in touch with what's going on. And if you're not in touch with what's going on, this is no longer a there was a saying that was told to me that the biggest detriment, the biggest failure that agriculture's ever had was tradition. And it's true. Just because your daddy did it and your granddaddy did it doesn't mean that it's the right way. And you want to talk about starting some fights. That'll start one, real quick and in a hurry. But until you can show, look, there's another way to do this, then you're gonna fall right into that same path of tradition. There's a lot of tradition that needs to stay. And I do a lot of things that are still very traditional. We're still very much horseback country, we're still very much, you know, we still we still handle our cattle the way that we did a hundred years ago. But the way that we operate, that's not. There's technology that's out there now that is very beneficial. Just because your dad and your granddad did it doesn't mean that that's the best and the only way to do it. That's if I if I had something to tell to a young, a young cowboy or young cowgirl that are wanting to step out there and do something, it's take the blinders off, and just because m granddad and dad did it, that doesn't mean that's the only way to do it.

Carollann Romo 52:22

Again, excellent, excellent advice, and uh that would probably have helped maybe in all the succession planning conversations that that were slow to happen in agriculture, right? They happen when somebody's 80 instead of 60 or however however sooner it might have happened in a in uh or might have should have happened. Um, but who am I to know? Um the last question, because we we you do have somewhere to be, and I really appreciate your time and um I'm grateful for you being willing to uh sit down and do this podcast. So my last question, my favorite question. Um I'm not gonna ask your ultimate favorite, but you can say that too. But I just wanted to get your current favorite way to eat beef, or even a go-to recipe if you have one.

Bronson Corn 53:06

Mmm, man. One of my favorite ways to eat it is the New Mexico style of beef wellington.

Carollann Romo 53:14

Okay.

Bronson Corn 53:15

You take it, take a good little filet, you take a good uh chunk of sirline, and you wrap it in a tortilla and you deep fry it.

Carollann Romo 53:23

Oh my gosh, I have not had that.

Bronson Corn 53:25

Cover it in green chili or red chili or Christmas, it doesn't matter, but uh that sounds delicious.

Tradition, Technology, And Change

Carollann Romo 53:34

Yeah, that that sounds like a recipe we should put on the website. It's pretty fabulous. Yeah, and it doesn't sound too complicated. Oh, it's super simple. Oh, I love that. I love that. Well, cool. Well, um, delicious inspiration, and uh now you get to head to dinner. Um uh well, thank you again. I would say thank you for um being on the podcast. Thank you for being willing to be vulnerable and tell your story. That's an important part of our industry and uh an important thing um for us. Um and then also thank you for the work you do to help feed the world, to care for the land and livestock. Um I have the utmost respect and gratitude for for what you do every day. And uh yeah, thank you again.

Bronson Corn 54:14

Yes, ma'am, thank you. Thank you very much for sharing the story. Um, because that's the story is something that has to be told. Um and that's something that that I'd that I do want to make sure that I'd point it out. But we are the most pissed poor people at telling our story.

Carollann Romo 54:34

And with such a good story to tell.

Bronson Corn 54:37

I know. We're that's the thing about but uh about ranchers, about people of agriculture is we're humble people and we don't like to talk about ourselves. Um I've kind of gotten unfortunately conditioned to it, and I make fun of myself all the time. I'm the dumbest person I know. But we have to tell our story, and you do a very good job of getting our story out there. So I'm I'm very thankful for that.

Carollann Romo 55:03

Yeah, thank you so much. We're we're really grateful for for the podcast. And again, uh storytelling is an age-old tradition, right? That is a tradition that should last, and we're just excited to utilize the podcast format, and uh anytime we can get a rancher uh roped into it, quite literally, sometimes I'm ever grateful.

Bronson Corn 55:24

So I think we've been trying to do this podcast for like a year.

Carollann Romo 55:28

I know when I should have come came to Roswell, that's my thought. So thank you again, and uh thank you guys for listening to another episode.

Bronson Corn 55:36

Thank you.

Carollann Romo 55:38

Behind the Burger is produced by the New Mexico Beef Council to celebrate the people and stories behind New Mexico beef. Thanks for listening. Follow the show so you never miss an episode and connect with us on social media for more behind the scenes stories and updates. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at NM Beef and on Facebook at NM Beef Council. We'll see you next time, and until then, beef, it's what's for dinner.