Lucy Rechel is a familiar figure in the West, known most prominently for her role as the feedlot owner and manager at Snyder Livestock. Lucy’s experience and knowledge in the industry is vast, having worked in practically every sector in the beef supply chain.
The legendary Bulls for the 21st Century Test and Sale presented by Snyder Livestock may have held its last sale in 2022, but the sale has continued forward under new management and a new name, the Great Basin Bull Sale. Lucy is maintaining her dedication to the event by continuing to manage the feeding and testing for the sale.
Early beginnings
Lucy can trace her ranching roots all the way back to the 1800s, when her family began ranching in the Mason Valley of Nevada. Her father owned a cow-calf operation, summering cattle in the Bridgeport, CA, area and wintering in Yerington, NV. In the late ’60s, the owner decided to sell the land the family was leasing in Bridgeport. Lacking the wherewithal to purchase the land themselves, Lucy’s dad turned to building a feedlot, working closely with Louie Isola of People’s Packing Company to fabricate the facility. Thus, the Snyder Livestock feedlot got its start.
The feedlot began finishing cattle but moved more into backgrounding cattle on a custom basis. Upon Lucy’s return to the feedlot after college and a few years of other jobs, she was tasked with how to fill the feedlot year-round. In an attempt to keep a more continuous supply of cattle on feed, Lucy began developing bulls, which eventually led to the creation of the Snyder bull test.
Trends
After decades of feeding and testing some of the best bulls in the West, Lucy has seen how the trend in using data for bull selection has developed, along with what consumers are looking for.
“There’s a lot of people who are thinking in terms of selling an end product and they’re selecting cattle that will perform on their range operations, but they’re also selecting cattle that get them premiums,” Lucy told WLJ. “And those premiums come from feedlot performance and consumer satisfaction.”
When the bull sale was first starting out, Lucy said about half of the buyers, maybe more, were unfamiliar with EPDs. Now, there are very few buyers who don’t have a reasonable grasp of EPDs.
“Nearly all ranchers are looking at EPDs that directly impact their herd, but mostly they’re also looking at EPDs that impact what their cattle do as they move down the road to the consumer,” she said.
Lucy said one of the most prominent changes on the consumer side is how much amount of Prime beef is growing.
“It’s mind boggling to me to go in Costco and see how big that Prime section is,” she said. “Even three or four years ago it was nearly non-existent. Unless it was a special occasion, nobody thought of buying Prime.”
Now, the Costco case is full of Prime beef, signaling a shift in consumers’ willingness to spend. Lucy accredits this partly to good promotional work in the industry, partly to consumers having more spending money. She added that she thinks there is a lot more interest in “good” cooking now, including the best way to prepare a good steak. Nutritional trends also benefit the industry, such as the uptick in keto and paleo diets.
“As those lifestyles take hold, it not only means people eat more meat, but they cease to worry about fat,” Lucy said. “And it can only help the move toward high-end products when people start thinking, ‘Hey, I don’t have to be afraid of eating fat. I don’t have to limit myself to lean meats. My body needs fat.’ That’s going to really open the door for our industry and every other meat industry to improve quality.”
With consumer trends come familiar buzzwords, such as “sustainability.” Lucy said sharing the rancher’s environmental story is one of the most difficult challenges right now, and there needs to be more understandable metrics for sustainability.
“People are going to start asking, ‘What does that mean?’” she said. “I think we need some simple metrics that are believable and understandable. As we approach the sustainability question, we have to ask ourselves how we can answer that other than just saying, ‘Oh no, we’re doing a good job.’”
At a time when input costs are record high, staying economically sustainable is another concern for agricultural operations across the board.
“It scares us to death to look at the things we think we need to purchase,” she shared. For Snyders, it is the time of the year in which they renew their operating credit line. “We also work with our banker to plan our equipment purchases. We thought we would be paying 3% and now it’s looking north of 6-7% to buy a piece of equipment,” she said.
After a difficult spring and winter for many producers in Nevada, it’s even tougher to manage rising input costs. Some producers lost upwards of 20% of their calf crop. Locally, Lucy projects there are going to be less calves, but bigger calves from all the grass.
The decision to move forward
Lucy said her decision to transfer ownership of the sale was the result of several opportunities lining up with each other, including the opportunity to lighten her load of responsibilities. The Nevada Cattlemen’s Association operated a nearby competing bull sale for years in Fallon, NV, and the association wanted to go in a different direction. In addition, Jim Barbee, Churchill County manager, and Jesse Segura, operations deputy of the Rafter 3C Arena, opened up a brand new event center in Fallon and were looking to add a bull sale to the center’s offerings. It seemed like the perfect opportunity for the two sales to be combined and hosted in the event center.
“There will be a lot of work to do and a lot of learning to do, but I think they’ll put it all together and it will end up being a very significant bull sale for Nevada, instead of Nevada having a couple small bull sales,” Lucy concluded.
Lucy will continue to feed and test the bulls for the sale. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
