About Eastwind

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The concept of working with breeders to benefit their programs began long before the conception of Eastwind StockCo. The Longhorn industry flourishes off of relationships. In 2010 while working with Jim Atwell on some marketing ideas that he made mention that G&G and Bear weren’t afraid to share secrets. The response was simple. If even one breeder can find success from any information we were able to help with than we as a program will also prosper.

Since then many nights and weekends were spent on the phone, on the road, and at ranches and farms visiting with breeders about their programs. As people have found success with the advice more and more time was spent visiting and helping. Many resources have been spent trying to help people grow. And we love it. People spend their life savings, their families’ vacation money, and their rainy day funds building their herds. To lose such breeders and then to replace them to grow the industry is like pushing a boulder up a hill. It’s much easier to help cultivate their success and keep them around. And the whole industry benefits which then benefitting us.

In the summer of 2015 Bear drove four hours up into Pennsylvania to spend a Saturday afternoon with a small breeder. After a few hours we came up with a new marketing plan, breeding plan, and culling plan to implement. Within the week they found success, selling a few locally and purchasing a new bull to go the direction in which they were looking.

After a conversation with Shawn Pequignot he asked “What other program would go out of their way four hours to spend a day helping a smaller breeder?” We aren’t sure, we’d like to think everyone would do such a thing. The growing obstacle though was the time. We were spending a lot our free time riding up and down the road, on the phone, and on the computers helping others do as well as they could. We didn’t want our program to suffer from time spent elsewhere.

August 2015 Dale Smith of Lagohaven Ranch contacted Bear about consulting. Much like all the other times people have asked that question, it was just passed off with his normal response- he works for G&G Longhorns and he just wants to help others. But after talking with Ann it made sense to look into doing some consulting work. Eastwind would be doing the same thing Bear’s always done- helping programs in the big picture and keep them in the industry with success. It would also decrease our time devoted to helping with a more official system. We can’t tell people no, we want to help. But now we have some options in place that our time is compensated for.

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Caption 1- October 2011 at G&G Longhorns. In 2010 I started talking to Shawn Pequignot about having a little branding party. Cook some burgers, drink some beers. After running it past Ben he asked how many people I thought would come. I figured on 15-20 folks. Three weeks out from the party he asked how it was shaping up. I told him we had 150 confirmed guests. He came unglued. "We need to cater it!" We hosted another branding party in 2011 and raised over $2500 for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation by selling display pens and surpassing that amount in 2012. In 2013 we added a Fall Futurity with around 20 entries judged by Dan, Tracy, and Nathan Jones of Hoosier Longhorns. In 2014 we changed it to the BG Futurity to honor Ben's passing with 40 entries and was judged by Scott Hughes, Aaron Adkins, and Clay Adkins. During the 2015 BG Futurities the class size jumped up to 72 head and was judge by Bill Davidson, Arlan Bush, and Butch Brantley.

Caption 2- April 2013 in Bowling Green, KY. My entire life I've wanted to be just like my father. He's been a great role model of grinding hard. As a kid I watched him work as a ringman and I wanted to be one so bad. I started out working the back pens running cattle, then sorting cattle and eventually getting inside the sale ring. June 2005 I worked my first ringman job at the Millennium Futurity. Calling bids seems to run in the family.

Caption 3- October 2015 in Oklahoma City, OK at the Longhorn Extravaganza. The first time I spoke with Frank Hevrdejs was April 3rd, 2010. He called me interested in purchasing some cattle. Like most calls I answered his questions and sent him pictures and videos on cattle he requested. Since then a friendship has built up I highly value. Many know Deer Creek but for those who don't Frank and his wife Michelle have changed over their herds multiple times trying to get it to a level they want to be at. He's an incredibility intelligent business man but I think his understanding and levelheadedness is even better. He's one of those
true steadfast, salt of the earth people whose humility is refreshing. With all he has going on in life Frank still calls me once or twice a month just to catch up. More often than not our conversations include life experiences, stories, and ideas hardly ever touching on cattle. I enjoy these the most.