Ep. 104 - Round 2 with Kim Rounds
Kim Rounds first appeared on our show at the beginning of Season 3 where we talked about her job with 5 Rivers Cattle, but since that episode, Kim was announced as a part of the COWGIRL Magazine 30 Under 30 Class so we are so excited to have her back on the show to chat about the snaffle bit and reined cow horse world. One of the cool aspects of the 30 Under 30 program is how many friendships have been formed before and after the induction event in Texas, and one such close friendship is Kim with fellow 2021 30 Under 30 Recipient Julia Ayres from Twisted X.
Northern Colorado 40 Under 40 presented by BizWest Award
“That is something that the company I work for, 5 Rivers Cattle Feeding, has tried to get someone in that to represents ag,” says Kim. Agriculture isn’t often represented in a part of it so they nominated Kim and sent her the application to be a representative for their company. “I filled it with my best …. and I have learned to talk about myself this year and I was selected to be a part of that. I got to meet some people that weren’t involved in agriculture, so to meet people that are in leadership but not in agriculture …. is really cool!”
Kim gets the amazing opportunity for being the ranching face of a lot of youth and leadership awards. When you think of the western industry, you immediately think of ranching but Kim is the only one that has been named to these awards and is the face.
“There are a lot of girls that have a ranch background but it’s not their identity or the foot they put forward for those awards,” says Kim. To be able to represent an overly humble and quiet industry like ranching has been a great opportunity for her to promote agriculture and why we have rodeo and why we have western fashion - it all goest back to raising livestock. It’s been fun for Kim to watch how each of these have grown into what they are today as their own unique industry.
“It’s kind of fun to bring everything full circle from what started it to see how it’s come full circle and still connected.”
“Right now, being cowboy is cool and we get to embrace that in a time when it’s a part of all of our backgrounds and histories… it' hasn’t been this cool since the 80’s,” says Kim. “I even heard it on a movie podcast I listen to with movie critics!” What a fun time to be a part of the western industry while it’s mainstream success is taking off with people wanting to be involved in the industry.
Career at 5 Rivers Feeders
The feedlot that Kim works is a 365 day a year job and every day, with a five hundred thousand head capacity, Kim constantly has paperwork overseeing the specialty beef program. Any of the cattle labeled natural beef in the grocery store or cattle eligible for export, Kim oversees the live side of that. She also gets to do all of the social media and watching that take off over the last few years is great!
“Shifting gears and feeding steers!”
"We can sometimes get stuck in our own head and woe is me story that beef gets demonized a lot but other countries especially, China, Korea… it’s the pinnacle of wealth and health to eat U.S. Beef,” says Kim. “They’ll come in as chefs and purchasers who work with those countries to do tours … and seeing their reverence for how we do things I often take it for granted the size, efficiencies of what we do here.”
They aren’t angered by the size and scale of our operation, they’re just blown away for how beef is raised here in the U.S. It is really impressive and great to keep in mind when you think of the beef industry today.
Social Media Accounts to Follow for Beef
Cattle Tales; Sharing beef facts and dairy facts
Texas Cattle Feeders Associations
5 Rivers Cattle Feed
Social Tactics to be a Beef Advocate; Three-Prong Approach
The valuable start was a strong mission statement to show why social media would be beneficial to convince the owners and the executives that a social media presence was valuable.
Education.
Share a beef or farming fact. Sometimes you get trolls, but they handle these with facts and compassion.Employee Retention and Recruitment.
#MeetOurPeopleMonday where they will introduce a General Manager of a yard, pen riders, etc. and introduce the people to you that bring food to the table.Establishing 5 Rivers as a trusted brand, trusted name and trusted source in the beef industry.
A lot of what they post has to be around that and they have to plan it really far in advance. Kim even had to make it a month long to be approved by the board and while she does get to shoot-from-the-hip occasionally, most of it goes through approval processes. You can find them on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Reined Cowhorse
Kim grew up around cowhorse competition but she didn’t know that was what it was and didn’t even know that the Snaffle Bit Futurity existed until after she graduated from college. In the past decade, snaffle bit and reined cow horse has continued to grow in interest with over 400 entries in the 3-year-old futurity.
Kim thinks the recent growth has to do with accessibility as the cow is your equalizer and you have to go out and “beat the cow” in every competition to get the check. That, plus the rein work, working the cow, and going down the fence brings together the energy and adrenaline that creates the drive for the fan base behind it.
There is also a horse show with the futurity so Kim took her bridle horse, Stevie, down to Fort Worth, Texas, to watch and then actually went back to watch the 3 year-old futurity.
Roper Cowhorse Invitational
At the snaffle bit, every year, they do a cowhorse for cutters where they invite some of the best cutting pros, amateurs and youth. This year, the rope horse futurity was going on at the same time in the same complex, so they decided to do the competition with ropers this year. They did some reined work, cow work and then, instead of taking them down the fence, they roped the cow like a cowboy class.
They did an interview with Junior Nogeuiera afterwards and he said that this was the most nerve-wracking event he had ever done. Watching the crossover was fun because many of the cow horses that don’t make it in the arena turn out to be a great rope horse. It was fun watching them circle back around and have these ropers see these great, nice, broke cow horses. It was fun and funny!
Incentives in Horse Shows
A way to showcase those breedings, those studs and those mares, and doing those incentive competitions young, it allows the chance to debut these stallions as soon as possible to know what you have. Those horses are three, which means they were started maybe 18-24 months before that, and those breeding decisions made before that means you are six years into that horse before you even get to show them. It’s also a great time to debut bloodlines or you as a trainer.
“That’s what I love so much about reined cow horse because it is set up so much so for both the rider perspective to the horses perspective for so much success… it’s all designed on horsemanship to give the horse the tools it needs to have longevity … these horses are worth SO much as aged bridle horses,” says Kim. “They aren’t used as three-year-old and then cast aside, they have fifteen plus years of showing, performance and versatility.”
The value added to these horses are definitely reflected in the background of these horses in their sales. There is a variety of limited-aged, money-added, premier events available for reined cow horses. They can go to smaller futurities, they can go into their fourth and fifth years for competitions. Additionally, they can go to rope horse futurities or barrel horse futurities that are older.
The average sale of a yearling for the snaffle bit futurity in Texas was $24,000 and the horse that won the futurity was $88,000 as a two-year old the year before. The horse market is insane which, in Kim’s opinion, is the pressure of new people joining the sport that needs an aged horse that is ready to go. It takes a lot of years to get a horse that good and there isn’t as many of them. If you want more bridle horses than you need more two-reined futurity horses.
“That’s what is so cool about the diversity of the cow horses. They’r broke and they get used outside. You’ll see horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars using these horses out in the branding pen,” says Kim. “You have options if they aren’t going to be a futurity horse. They can go be a ranch rider because they know leads, circles, … they can go be really anything in the AQHA, 4-H, versatility ranch horse in AQHA … I don’t see as much fallout since I started doing more stat breakdowns of these horses…”
30 Under 30 Award
“Full disclosure I was terrified,” says Kim. “I was so scared after looking at the articles and pictures and information of the girls that were going. ‘I don’t fit in, they are so fashionable, perfect and cool - I do not fit in!’”
“I am so glad I went - everyone there was so nice and kind,” says Kim who has stayed in contact with many of the women she met at the event and to stay connected past the event. Being in a room full of women of her own age and her own industry was just a life-changing moment. At the time, Kim brought her friend Ian for confidence boosting since she is more introverted.