Brian Palmer — 2025 Angus Board Candidate

Brian Palmer, Montgomery, Texas, is seeking a first term on the American Angus Association Board of Directors.

The elected delegates will choose five directors; a president and chairman of the Board; and a vice president and vice chairman of the Board during the Association’s 142nd Annual Convention of Delegates, which will convene at 10 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST) Sunday, Nov. 2 in Kansas City, Mo.

Visit AngusJournal.net to learn more about each candidate.

To register for Angus Convention, visit AngusConvention.com.

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Transcript

Miranda Reiman (00:02):

The Angus breed has always been member driven and member led to face challenges and harness opportunities. There are 10 candidates running for five open spots on the American Angus Association's Board of Directors. I'm Miranda Reiman with the Angus Journal team, and I'm introducing you to each of them before November's annual meeting. Today, I have Brian Palmer from Montgomery, Texas, with me. How are you today, Brian?

Brian Palmer (00:27):

I'm great, thanks.

Miranda Reiman (00:29):

Well, why don't you just start out by telling me a little bit about yourself, your history with the breed and your current involvement.

Brian Palmer (00:36):

Sure. Yeah. I'm a relative newcomer to Angus seedstock breeding. I grew up in the Midwest and we spent summers and weekends and time on the family farm in Indiana with my uncle and grandfather. We fed cattle and hogs and baled too much hay this time of year. So some of those were fun memories and some maybe not as fun, but my dad was a pastor growing up, and so we moved around a little bit and we never had our own land for livestock, but I definitely got the bug at an early age. I was very involved in sports. That was a big thing for me. I later played football at Yale where I graduated from college. And then kind of different path than a lot of other folks you're talking to is I spent my career kind of in the Fortune 500. I was an executive, managing large teams and big businesses.

(01:33):

My last role in corporate America, I had a team of executives that worked for me and as a group we managed a billion dollars in revenue and over 800 people kind of across the globe really. I actually lived in Australia for five years. That's kind of an interesting part of my career. Corporations are complicated organizations where you need to keep your customers happy and your business growing, but you also have other stakeholders as well, like factories and employees, and everyone kind of needs to stay happy. So anyhow, I left corporate America a couple years ago. We now own ranches and some of the land we owned before I left corporate America, but we now own ranches in Montana and Texas. We're based in Texas. We have a young family, my wife Shannon. We have three young kids and we want to raise our kids in this business and in this lifestyle.

(02:26):

Our kids each got their first heifers this year in February, so that was very exciting. They went through breeding already. So we're as a family, really excited for next spring and the calving and maybe some of the headaches that come with that, but they're asking lots of questions and getting involved and that's really exciting for us. So we've been growing our herd at Palmer Angus for the last few years. We've really enjoyed selling bulls and semen and genetics to our customers. A big thing we do also is we sell beef directly to consumers that could be through restaurants or directly to families in the area, and that's been a really rewarding process for us to kind of do the full lifecycle and get that feedback from our customers about what they really want, what's important to them as a customer. So that's really been great for us in terms of making breeding decisions, but also just it's been really fun.

(03:20):

It's also a way for the kids to be involved in the business and making deliveries and things like that. Later this year, hopefully it's a long process, but we are also opening up a USDA beef processing facility called Freedom Cut based in Richards, Texas, so probably less than 30 minutes from College Station. And this is an underserved area of the market for beef processing. And so we're going to obviously process our beef there, but really we want this to be a service to the local community to help other ranchers sell directly, whether we help them sell it or they already have that market themselves and we just do the service to them in terms of processing their beef. So anyways, that's a little bit about me.

Miranda Reiman (04:02):

Sure. With that unique vantage point, what do you think are some of the breed and the Association's biggest strengths that we can build upon?

Brian Palmer (04:10):

Yeah, I mean obviously the name is a big part of it. There's a lot of recognition, not just from breeders, but we sell beef and a lot of people want to have Angus beef, and so I think that's a really big strength of ours is just brand awareness. It's really hard to beat the Angus cow and as far away from that as you want to get. I think as breeders, we keep getting drawn back to those special cows that you've had or that you've seen through other breeders and what the influence they've had on either their herd or just even genetics throughout the world. And so really building around that Angus cow and then the brand recognition that we have, there's just a really strong base right now.

Miranda Reiman (05:00):

And as you look ahead to the future and we think maybe about some challenges, what do you think are some of the biggest changes you see facing the beef industry in the next say five to 10 years?

Brian Palmer (05:11):

Yeah, I mean, obviously right now we're at a very low herd level across the US and obviously with that, cattlemen are enjoying some high prices, but those low numbers do kind of provide some challenges for us. Obviously, consumers want more beef than we have in this country. It's very concerning to me in terms of what we're importing and how we're importing and how the country is managing that. We have to watch that very carefully. As an Angus organization, that's not our job, but it is part of the world that we live in, and so imports are becoming a bigger and bigger thing. It's up a lot this year, that is very concerning to us.

(05:59):

Other than that, I think this low herd level really provides a really neat and interesting time for us. I would say there's a really bright future because there could be a really good return on investment for breeders that are starting. Obviously, I talked about my kids and young breeders. I think this is a great time to get involved. People are selling calves for a lot of money, and it's not that painful amount that they may have seen in the past. And so maybe that'll be attractive to bring in younger breeders and just new breeders. And it doesn't have to be, we can get a lot of folks that are doing two cows or 20 cows or a hundred. It doesn't have to be the mega herds that we're seeing. And I think that this maybe market opportunity, hopefully within just the beef industry to provide more beef, I think will be great. For us, what we see is there's a lot of interest in people getting to know where their beef comes from, and so we see that as a really exciting segment of the market. Of course, we can't feed the whole country this way, but there is a lot of families making decisions about where the beef on their table comes from and how they interact with that, whether they come and visit the ranches where those cattle are raised or just being able to have that transparency and asking questions. It's a really exciting time for that segment.

Miranda Reiman (07:27):

And as you think ahead to some of those changes that you just mentioned, what do you feel that the Association needs to be doing today to position the breed and our members for success in the face of those?

Brian Palmer (07:38):

Yeah, I think there's a lot of things. You could go down different paths here, but I think big priorities would be we need to keep Angus Angus. When we think about beef and how it ends up on the table, you could often want to breed backwards. And I talked earlier about that Angus cow and how special she could be. We really need to keep Angus Angus. So number one job is let's make sure we keep the breed pure and let's be a breed registry. I believe we shouldn't be getting into politics and as an association in terms of our members, we need to do no harm. Our members run businesses, cattle are assets, and often to them, whether it's a small herd or a big herd, to them, it's a big investment and it's serious investment. And sometimes that includes loans and other things, but no matter what, it's their property and it's an investment. And so we should let them run their businesses and we serve them. And so in terms of registry, maintaining genetics, providing education and support, those tools that they could use. But otherwise, we need to let them, let the Angus cow do the work and let the members and the breeders do the work.

Miranda Reiman (09:02):

And this probably maybe speaks to this next question a little bit, but to switch the focus more to you, why are you specifically running for the Board and what do you hope you can contribute?

Brian Palmer (09:13):

Yeah, I mentioned my background earlier. I'm not like everyone else that's running. That was something in my head that I thought, okay, maybe I'm not ready for this. I'm very busy. Most of our members are, whether they have off-farm jobs or everything that they're doing, it's hard to find the time to do this. We have a young family, we have these businesses. We're trying to get going, but this is a really important time in our industry and our breed and just openly, many members urged me to run. And I felt kind of a calling to that and an obligation. This was at the same time, it was both an honor and humbling, but also like, okay, here we go. And just being open book. I haven't been an Angus breeder for as long as any of those people that asked me, that was a concern like, Hey, am I qualified really?

(10:15):

But when I spoke to them, I felt that what they were looking for is some of that corporate background I spoke to and having the connection through with beef and cattle more recently. And some of my background, I know about how boardrooms work. I spend a lot of time there. I know about how corporate partnerships work. I know how to speak up and our members feel like maybe they're not being heard and they don't have a voice in that room, and that maybe I could help manage that process. And so it was really kind of incredible feedback for us. For me personally, my wife and I talked about it seriously, it's a family decision. There's a lot of time away and it's a big commitment. And I take that seriously. If I'm going to do it, I have to be there. I have to be available to members. I have to be willing to build that transparency and trust. And so ultimately for me, that was a big decision, but also I felt like this was the time that I needed to do it.

Miranda Reiman (11:19):

We know that our organization is stronger when we have members who raise their hand to volunteer. So we thank you for that. Is there anything else that you'd like people to know before November's annual meeting?

Brian Palmer (11:30):

Yeah, I think I've been getting to know a lot of people recently. I would encourage you, if you want to know more about me, I'd love to speak. My name is, my name's Brian Palmer. We said that earlier, but my number is 936-203-3649. I'm available. We do have time before the convention, and we'll have time at the convention of course. But I'd like to be an open book and to be direct about what I'd like, but ultimately in this type of a role, this is a service role for the membership. And I'd like to hear what the members would like. And so I've heard from a big group, but I haven't heard from everybody and I haven't heard from all the delegates and whatnot. And I've been making calls myself, but I would just like to open that channel up. If folks are interested, I'd like to speak to them and I'm genuinely interested in what they would like to see.

Miranda Reiman (12:31):

Well, we'll look forward to folks getting to know you better between now and in Kansas City. But thanks so much for your time today.

Brian Palmer (12:38):

Thank you.

Miranda Reiman (12:40):

Elections will take place at the 142nd annual Convention of Delegates during the annual meeting on Sunday, November 2nd in Kansas City, Missouri. Not registered? There's still time. Visit angusconvention.com to learn more. To read full biographies and for the latest news and stories from the breed, visit angusjournal.net. And while you're there, subscribe to the monthly Angus Journal magazine. You'll get ongoing Angus convention coverage and the latest news, Association updates, stories of fellow breeders and more. Visit Angusjournal.net to subscribe today.