Working as a Family

We're in this together. An American Family, an American ranch, and a Quality Product.

by Connor McCauley in February

Howdy folks! Welcome to the first Tritails Monthly newsletter.

We hope these newsletters will be a thrilling addition to your month.  Hear stories and updates of an American ranch family--from cowboys with gentle hearts and rough hands to businessmen and women selling some of the highest quality beef.  We see a lot in a month’s time.  We constantly solve problems, and as Sam (Ranch Boss and Dad) says, “There’s never a dull moment in paradise.” Through the struggles we face as ranchers, we always come together as a family to find our success.  In the heart of reading these newsletters, we hope you find what it means to be an American Rancher.

Family

Our Ranching Family

In the past, we have worked with many different ranch hands.  Some were great, others not so much.  However, we found that there is no better team than our family.  We stick together to solve the dilemmas that ranching and running a business will throw at you while also enjoying a good laugh around the dinner table or a relaxing game of cards. 

Our two leaders are Sam and Mary, also known as dad and mom.  Sam is a prudent rancher able to fix anything from a tractor to a caved-in roof.  He's thorough with his herd and one of the best cattlemen in Texas.  He has found a secret formula, and now his Black Angus cattle herd is almost at 90% prime.  An impressive feat considering the American Average Beef Herd is 7% prime.  Mary keeps the family stuck together; she's the glue of the family.  Her unfailing smile and immensely caring heart are invaluable to us.  If someone experiences a bout of anxiety or depression, she is there to reel us back into a "keep on moving; get it done attitude."  The ranch wouldn't exist without her around to keep us functional.

 Their two daughters have also been an intricate part of the ranch for around half a decade.  Faith went down the cowboy route.  Don't let her feminine demeanor fool you; she's as hard as rocks!  Not many girls will get pooped on by a cow or fall off a horse and finish up a day of hard labor.  There definitely are not many women her age backing up a triple axel trailer.  She loves the cattle as much as her father does.  Faith is the first to spot out a sickly cow and nurse it back to health.  Helen was also born tough as rocks but took a different route than Faith.  She's the brains, the businesswoman, the saleswoman, the marketing extraordinaire of TriTails.  Helen is the socializer and customer care representative, solving all problems with grace and a loving attitude.  Not many females can shoot a 9mm with pinpoint accuracy or ride a mountain bike faster than most males and go home to make a professional website.   Not many businesses have a website designer and a marketer in one person, especially one who increases profits by so much. 

Wintertime For Our Black Angus Herd

Winter can bring its own set of challenges for both man and beast.  This February was no exception.  Any snow covers up the grasses upon which our herd will graze.  This means double time for Aarron, Faith, and Sam putting out hay.  Large 1400 Lbs round bales can disappear in a matter of hours.  Once the last pasture receives hay, it is probably time to go back and refresh the one you started with.  Watering holes also prove to be hard work for our ranch hands.  Thick ice must be broken with sharp axes and strong backs.  Not to get into physics with you, but the colder it is, the thicker the ice will be, and the faster it will freeze over.  I personally spent a day chopping ice with Sam, and it is no easy task.  Thanks to Aaron, our grittiest hand, all work is done on a daily basis.  He will spend most winter storms working from well before sunrise to well after sunset, seven days a week, if necessary.  Fortunately, no storm lasted more than a day or two this year.  Also, fortunately, our herd did very well.  Helen will tell me after a large steak dinner that she's full fat and sassy.  I think our cows would say the same, even after a few inches of snow.

Problem Solving the Leg

In modern ranching, there are a lot of new technologies. Techn

ology has enabled ranches to go from hundreds of employees to a small handful. These technologies solve a lot of problems and increase the productivity of any chore. If these technologies worked with perfect precisions, many more people would be cut out to work a ranch. Still, the bitter reality is that almost nothing on the ranch works like clockwork. Once a problem is solved, there usually are two to take its place. That is what makes the unique skill set of a rancher so imperative to any operation. They are problem solvers at heart. There’s a lot more than hard work required to be qualified. A rancher must have knowledge of almost every trade. For example, sometimes they have to be an electrician.

Sam, this month, faced quite the challenge when our leg broke. No, no one went to the hospital. What we mean by leg is our grain elevator which takes feed from the ground level all the way up to the top of our silo. When the delivery truck came that morning with our feed, we flipped the switch to turn the grain elevator on and nothing happened. Immediately, this became a time-sensitive issue to solve. No semi-driver is going to hang around all day long; they have to make a living too. “Another day in paradise” is right.

After an initial diagnostic done by Sam, Faith, and Arron no issue was found. The motor which turns the grain elevator in the leg wouldn’t turn on. It’s a good thing we have friends. Sam was on the phone and Chris Honey arrived at the site in no time. However, even with his knowledge, Chris ended up scratching his head too. Things were looking quite grim. However, after a moment of head-scratching, Sam started to piece things together. There was power at the switch that turns on the motor but none at the motor itself. This meant that the circuit running to the motor was open… Okay, if you’re now scratching your head too, no worries. This is why we have Sam! A shorted wire was the culprit to his problem.

After a quick fix and a breath of relief, the semi-truck started to unload its contents. This happens to be the feed that helps keep our herd prime. If Sam hadn’t fixed this problem on the spot, it would have only taken a few days for the quality of the cattle to diminish. This is why the skillset of a rancher is so crucial to any operation.   

 

Tri-Tails

Business for the Businesswoman

TriTails is the last stage in our operation: the final leg before our beef ends up in the mouths of hungry Americans. The men and women here are in charge of the sales and fulfillment division. Although they may not have the issues of hands-on ranching, TriTails has its own set of problems and challenges to overcome. The cowboy is sufficient at getting their hands dirty and problem-solving things like the leg. They aren’t so good with problem-solving issues that occur on a computer. Bang a hammer, turn a wrench, stretch some fence, and you’re bound to accomplish so much; however, computers do not react well to such kind of treatment. They take diligence and know-how from trained computer technicians, aka millennials. We won’t point fingers, but our office computer has had more than one death threat from a boomer. TriTails is where our cowboys step aside and let the tech-savvy businessmen and women step in. Thanks to Helen, we have beautiful advertisements, websites, and fewer boomer meltdowns.

Our biggest challenge this month was moving occupational positions. In the prior month, we lost our big tech guy, Jacob Hands. He was so tech-savvy he would actually write codes to make programs perform specific functions. He, well deservingly, found a job fixing the internet and soon will move to Austin. This meant our next in line, Helen, had some large shoes to fill. I don’t know if her feet grew, but she filled those large shoes quite well. January and February have been Tritails best January and February to date. We continue to look ahead with growth in mind, and we are very excited to show you all that we have in the works. Expect blog posts, video recipe tutorials, promotional videos, stories, even better photography, and much, much more.

Yummy beefy goodness

Excited to get your hands on some of our beef, we understand.  Our wet and dry-aged beef has been raised, harvested, and consumed on American soil for over one hundred years.  We care about quality and giving you something to lick your lips over.  This isn’t selling beef just to sell you beef.  This is the passion and hard work of American ranchers.  They want to be better than the grocery store because they take pride in their work and lifestyle.  We will have new prime ribeyes, strips, and filets with this months restock.  So let me ask you why are you reading this and not over on our website, Trybeef.com, ordering your steaks now?

 Good beef, quality beef, shipped to your door! 

That’s what we do at the TriTails store!

Prayer Requests

You can feel free to disregard this part of the newsletter, but we always need prayers. Please do not think we are asking you to only pray for us but rather just add these things to the things you already pray for. We really appreciate and believe in this.

• Rain. It has been dry out there. We are under threats of wildfires, and our grass could use a drink. We’re not desperate yet, but it sure would be nice.
• Sleep. Our cowboys need a good night’s sleep.

Thank You so much, and don’t hesitate to let us know if we can pray for you.