Takeaways

• Dean Wade explains how cutting fast food and processed food took him from 8 to 9 percent body fat down to 4.5 percent in a single season, with no change to his workouts.
• Dean and Chris Earl connect what it takes to survive as an undrafted NBA player to what it takes to survive in the cattle business right now: discipline over motivation, a team of doers, and a refusal to quit.
• Dean shares why he is already planning a life after basketball in Kansas and how Angus genetics and Bid on Beef fit into that plan.

In this episode of The Heart of Rural America, Amanda Radke goes boots on the ground at Rocking R Ranch in New Mexico for customer appreciation day with return guest Chris Earl of CK6 Consulting, Bid on Beef, and All American Angus Beef. Chris brings along his longtime friend Dean Wade, a Kansas native and new addition to the Philadelphia 76ers, for a conversation about beef, athletic performance, and rural roots.

Dean opens up about growing up in a small Kansas farm community, going undrafted, and building a seven-year NBA career on defense, nutrition, and daily habits. He explains how a wake-up call in his early NBA years pushed him away from fast food, how a home-cooked, beef-centered diet helped him drop his body fat without changing his training, and why Bid on Beef gives his family consistent, high-quality steak delivered to the door. Chris ties Dean's underdog story to the challenges facing cattle producers today, arguing that the ranchers who keep showing up on the toughest days are the ones who win.

The conversation closes with Dean's plans for after basketball, including land in Kansas and a growing interest in Angus genetics, plus a lighthearted debate over favorite cuts and how to cook them. Amanda wraps with a reminder to keep fighting for this way of life, for yourself and for the next generation.

Presented by Bid on Beef | CK6 Consulting | CK6 Source | Real Tuff Livestock Equipment | Redmond RealSalt | Dirt Road Radio | All American Angus Beef | Radke Land & Cattle

• Use code RADKE for $10 off your next All American Angus Beef order at www.BidOnBeef.com
• Save on Redmond Real Salt with code RADKE at https://shop.redmondagriculture.com/
• Check out Amanda's agricultural children's books here: https://amandaradke.com/collections/amandas-books
• Learn more about Bulletproofing Your Direct-To-Consumer Beef Enterprise: https://amandaradke.com/products/bulletproof-your-beef-business

• Resources for producers: the USDA Law Fair website and americanlandandlegacy.org

Takeaways

• A national monument designation can leave ranchers in limbo for years. Chris Heaton explains how a 2023 proclamation listing drainages and grasslands as protected "objects" left his family unable to get straight answers on maintaining stock ponds or adding new water improvements.
• The Heatons' federal lawsuit with Pacific Legal Foundation was dismissed for lack of standing, but they are weighing a refile or an appeal, and their bigger goal is to fix the Antiquities Act so no president can lock up millions of acres on their own.
• Submitting your story to the USDA lawfare portal can lead somewhere. The Heatons filled it out with low expectations and were invited to Washington, D.C., where they met with Secretary Brooke Rollins and her team and told their story at a press event and on News Nation.

Summary of the Episode

In this episode of The Heart of Rural America, host Amanda Radke welcomes back Chris and Cassie Heaton, sixth-generation cattle ranchers who live in Kanab, Utah, and run a cow-calf operation on the Arizona Strip, just north of the Grand Canyon. When they first joined the show, a federal national monument designation was putting their grazing and water rights at risk. This time they share what has happened since, from a federal lawsuit to a trip to the nation's capital.

Chris walks through how the designation unfolded, starting with public hearings in Flagstaff and Kingman in 2023 and the decision to exclude their private ground from the final monument. He explains why the proclamation worries him: it lists drainages and grasslands as objects to protect, their stock ponds sit inside those drainages, and the Department of the Interior told him that what they can and cannot do is up to interpretation. With help from Pacific Legal Foundation, the Heatons sued in February 2024. The case was recently dismissed for lack of standing, and they are now working with their legal team on whether to refile or appeal, with the ultimate goal of fixing the Antiquities Act.

After the change in administration, the Heatons submitted their story through the USDA lawfare portal, not expecting a response. At the end of June, Secretary Rollins' office invited them to Washington, and on July 1 they met with the Secretary, her team, and Representative Eli Crane, shared their story at a press event, and appeared on News Nation. Amanda shares her own experience at the White House supper honoring farmers and ranchers, and her fight against a carbon pipeline near her ranch, as she and the Heatons talk about why speaking up matters even when it is uncomfortable.

Presented by Bid on Beef | CK6 Consulting | CK6 Source | Real Tuff Livestock Equipment | Redmond RealSalt | Dirt Road Radio | All American Angus Beef | Radke Land & Cattle

• Use code RADKE for $10 off your next All American Angus Beef order at www.BidOnBeef.com
• Save on Redmond Real Salt with code RADKE at https://shop.redmondagriculture.com/
• Check out Amanda's agricultural children's books here: https://amandaradke.com/collections/amandas-books
• Learn more about Bulletproofing Your Direct-To-Consumer Beef Enterprise: https://amandaradke.com/products/bulletproof-your-beef-business

• Resources for producers: the USDA Law Fair website and americanlandandlegacy.org

Takeaways

• Senator Mike Rounds calls President Trump's plan to import 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef "disappointing," warning it sends the wrong signal to a cattle market that has finally started rewarding producers after the smallest U.S. cow herd in 70 years.
• Rounds breaks down the RANC Act, a bipartisan bill with Senator Amy Klobuchar that would pay landowners the county average rental rate to put marginal cropland back into grass for 10 to 15 years, capped at 20 million acres nationwide, in an effort to rebuild the national cow herd.
• Mandatory country of origin labeling finally has a real path forward. Rounds confirms Senator Thune got it included in the farm bill moving through the Senate Agriculture Committee, more than a decade after producers first started pushing for it.

In this special episode of the "Heart of Rural America," host Amanda Radke sits down with Senator Mike Rounds at the Casey Tibbs Heritage Center in Fort Pierre, South Dakota, right after a one hour roundtable discussion with cattle producers from across the state. The conversation centers on President Trump's surprise announcement to buy 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef, and Rounds does not mince words about it, calling it disappointing and warning that it undercuts an America First message at the exact moment cow-calf operators are finally turning a profit.

Rounds and Radke dig into why beef prices are up in the first place: the American cow herd is the smallest it has been in 70 years, and rebuilding it means ranchers have to hold back heifers instead of selling them, a multi-year commitment with no fast fix. That leads into a detailed breakdown of the Ranch Act, Rounds' bipartisan proposal with Senator Amy Klobuchar to pay landowners to convert marginal cropland back into grass for 10 to 15 years, with a second payment available from whoever grazes the land. The two also cover the recent reopening of the Mexico border to cattle imports, packer consolidation, and the progress mandatory country of origin labeling has made inside the farm bill after more than a decade of advocacy.

Presented by Bid On Beef | CK6 Consulting Services Inc. | CK6 Source | Real Tuff Livestock Equipment | Ambrook | Redmond Real Salt | All American Angus Beef | Radke Land & Cattle

• Use code RADKE for $10 off your next All American Angus Beef order at www.BidOnBeef.com
• Save on Redmond Real Salt with code RADKE at https://shop.redmondagriculture.com/
• Try a one-month trial with Ambrook for free here: ambrook.com/radke
• Check out Amanda's agricultural children's books here: https://amandaradke.com/collections/amandas-books
• Learn more about Bulletproofing Your Direct-To-Consumer Beef Enterprise: https://amandaradke.com/products/bulletproof-your-beef-business
• Report an issue with the USDA Lawfare portal: https://www.usda.gov/lawfare
• Join the property rights fight at American Land & Legacy. at www.americanlandandlegacy.org