STOCKMAN
traight
What spurred you to develop a
professional livestock photography/
videography business?
I grew up in the cattle busi
ness. However, as a child
during the ‘80s farm crisis I didn’t
know what I was going to be able to
do in agriculture. I dropped out of
college and took a job as an insur
ance adjuster for three or four years.
I didn’t like that job at all. So, I quit
that job and started raising feeder
pigs. I had the dream of AIing oth
er people’s cattle and splitting ev
erything over market price for club
calves. That way I didn’t have to
come up with any money and I made
the other guy as much money as I
made. I didn’t know if it would work
but it did. And I did that for 20 years.
In the midst of all that, the social
media world started to progress. In
1998, I began taking pictures of my
cattle and uploading them for my
own bred heifer and club calf sales.
One day, I had a buddy call and ask
me to shoot his online sale. I told
him, 'I have never done one of those
before.' And he said, 'I don’t care if
you have or you haven’t, you’re capa
ble of it and I want you to do it.' So,
I told him, 'Well, I’m game.' That’s
how it all started. I continued to get
referral after referral, and it just grew.
Now here we are 16 years later. I am
literally booked 10 months straight,
every day. I take the summers off to
be with my family."
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February 2026 | THE STOCKMAN AG-EXTRA