When Gordon Stucky got in the Angus business as a teenager, he took a risk and it turned out well. He more than tripled his investment on his first Angus heifer. Couple that with the mentorship he got from Kansas Angus Association members and he says, “That’s what just kept me hooked.” 

He transitioned his Kingman, Kan., family farm into registered seedstock operation with around 600 cows and diversified farming.
  
He and fellow Angus breeder Kevin Yon, Yon Family Farms, Ridge Springs, S.C., joined The Angus Conversation to discuss the changing landscape in the Angus business, access to data and how to remain competitive.  

Would it be easier or harder to get into the business today? 

Stucky can’t say. Profit potential is not as dramatic with rising input costs and swings in the market, but there are more opportunities, too.
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​“The programs and the data and all the things that we have available on the flip side of that make it to me very manageable for a person to come in and say, ‘Gosh, here's kind of the roadmap,’” he says.  

Yon and his wife, Lydia, bought the land they started their current operation on back when they had three young children and not much capital, but a shared will to work toward a dream.  

“I feel very blessed that I get to wake up every morning and live a dream,” Yon says. “I’m not sure if I can say if it would be easier or harder, I will say that it will never be easy, but I would also say that it is certainly doable.” 

Both cattlemen look to the American Angus Association to help them stay competitive and driving forward. 

“What other commodity handles their data that way where everyone has equal access?” Yon asks. “And it’s families. It's families that's doing it. So, I'm really proud of the work that those went before us that got this deal set up that way.” 

For all the changes, Stucky says some parts of the business — including producing good cattle and standing behind them — will remain pillars.  

“The bottom line is you just treat people the way you would like to be treated. I mean, that’s just still the bottom line,” Stucky says.  

To hear the entire episode, visit The Angus Conversation anywhere you get your podcasts, or follow this direct link: https://www.angusjournal.net/episodes/episode/798dcaf0/remaining-relevant-stucky-yon-on-access-to-data-coordination-and-competition 

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