Which Technologies Pay Off for Ranchers

Today on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast, Shaye Wanner talks with ag tech consultants Chelsea Good (Good & Associates) and Jared Wareham (Horizon Venture Management) about how cow-calf producers can decide which technologies are worth adopting. They stress that many tools enter agriculture from outside the industry and may be “solutions looking for a problem,” so ranchers should evaluate technology like a toolbox and demand ROI, especially in an asset-rich, cash-poor business.

Examples include mismatched expensive tags for sale barns versus value-based traceability programs, strategic uses of GPS and estrus-detection tags (often for herd bulls or specific heifer programs), virtual fencing’s geography-dependent economics, and emerging biometrics, camera applications, and gene-edited pest control. They also discuss digital recordkeeping and payment systems as adoption challenges without policy drivers, and encourage producers to share pain points and explore tech that supports long-term generational sustainability.

Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/

Learn more about Chelsea and Good & Associates here: https://www.goodandassoc.com/

Learn more about Jared and Horizon Venture Management here: https://www.horizonventuremanagement.com/

00:00 Tech That Pays Off01:09 Meet Chelsea and Jared04:40 Picking Tech by ROI09:50 AI Is Not Magic11:50 Genomics Fit and Value14:39 Virtual Fencing Reality17:09 Smart Tags and GPS28:14 Cameras and Computer Vision37:40 Gene Editing and Pests43:17 Digital Records and Payments