A podcast explaining and celebrating the intricacies, wisdom and humor of cowboy/ cowpuncher/ buckaroo culture. Enjoy conversations with working cowboys, authors, musicians, business leaders and hilariously offensive news and political analysis from the viewpoint of your favorite feedlot cowboy, Matt McKinley. The podcast for the working cowboy!
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Down the Stretch | BD Baseball 8-6-26
It’s been a minute, but BD Baseball is back with a full trade-deadline breakdown. We dig into the A’s standing pat, the Tigers’ big swing with Skubal, the Dodgers landing another star, and how the playoff picture is shifting across both leagues. We also look at the teams that got better, the teams that stayed quiet, and the clubs that may have changed their outlook for the rest of the season.…
BD Baseball Daily – Walk‑offs, Dumbest Angels Walk‑off Ever, and Dansby’s 11 RBI Day (6/24/26)
BD Baseball Daily for Thursday, June 24, 2026, and the board was absolutely loaded. Matt runs through a full slate that included an A’s gut‑punch walk‑off loss to the Giants in “Gaytown,” a dumb Angels walk‑off swinging bunt, and a monster day from Dansby Swanson in a Cubs doubleheader sweep. We open with the A’s getting walked off at Oracle: Gage Jump shoves for five scoreless with nine…
BD Baseball 6/24/26 – Chaos Comebacks, Astros–Jays in 11, A’s Banged Up, Pitchers Shove & Today’s Best Bets
Rough one for the BD Baseball crew: the A’s, Rockies, and Tigers all take Ls, and we start with the injury that ended Zack Gelof’s 24‑game hit streak after Matt Chapman stepped on his hand in San Francisco as Robbie Ray completely shuts down Oakland. Sonny Gray carves the Rockies at Coors, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and the Yankees come back on the Tigers, and Jake McCarthy quietly runs his hit streak to…
Tigers Beat the Yankees, Rockies Walk It Off & Pitchers Ran MLB Yesterday | BD Baseball June 23, 2026
On today’s BD Baseball, I’m running through the June 22 MLB slate from my usual emotionally compromised A’s/Rockies/Tigers point of view. The A’s were off, which honestly felt like a little break from the chaos. But the Tigers gave me something real to talk about, beating the Yankees 5-3 behind a strong Framber Valdez start, a Riley Greene homer, and enough offense to knock Gerrit Cole around.…
Father’s Day Baseball, A’s Bullpen Pain & Schwarber’s Nuke Weekend | BD Baseball June 22, 2026
Happy Monday, Daylight Burners. I spent Father’s Day doing exactly what I wanted to do: watching baseball and yelling at my kids, and the baseball gods gave us a stupid amount of chaos to talk about. I kick things off with my A’s splitting a four-gamer with the Angels in West Sac – Friday night was pure insanity. The A’s go up early, the Angels rip off 11 straight, Oakland claws back with bombs…
A’s Pitching Shoves, Royals Drop 14 & Yankees Get Slammed | BD Baseball June 19, 2026
Solo BD Baseball for Friday, June 19. I’m running through Thursday’s short MLB slate, starting with a clean A’s win, Gage Jump shoving, Zack Gelof staying hot, the Royals putting up 14, Bryan Woo dealing, and the rest of the weekend matchups. Solo show today on BD Baseball, and we had a light Thursday slate — only eight games — but there was still plenty to chew on. The A’s gave me a good one for…
A’s Get Smoked, Rockies Fall Short, Tigers Go Cold | BD Baseball June 18, 2026
Rough day for the BD Baseball crew. The A’s got shelled, the Rockies lost a close one at Wrigley, and the Tigers bats went cold in Houston — so naturally, we had plenty to work through. In this episode of BD Baseball, we run through the full June 17 MLB slate with a little extra attention on the homer teams. The A’s pitching staff got beat up by the Pirates, Ryan O’Hearn drove in six, and Zack…
A’s Blow It, Rockies Steal One & Tigers Waste Framber | BD Baseball June 17, 2026
Jake’s back on the mic and we had a full MLB slate to chew through. The A’s jumped out early on the Pirates, Zach Gelof stayed hot, and then the bullpen let another one slip away. The Rockies gave us the bright spot of the day with a win at Wrigley, while the Tigers wasted a good Framber Valdez start and opened up a bigger conversation about Detroit’s rotation and bullpen decisions. We also get…
A’s Bats Are Cooking, Tigers Go Deep & Rockies Pain at Wrigley | BD Baseball 6-16-26
The homer teams had themselves a night… well, two of them did, anyway. The A’s absolutely stomped the Pirates 11–2, led by a full‑on manimal performance from Nick Kurtz: three hits, two nukes, five driven in, and a pretty clear “vote me into the All‑Star Game” message to the league. Old man Jeff McNeil – the Flying Squirrel – finally woke up too, with three hits and four RBI out of the bottom of…
My A’s Won the Series… But Sunday Was a Crime Scene | BD Baseball 6-15-26
My A’s took the weekend series from my Rockies, so technically I should be happy. But then Sunday happened. Colorado dropped a franchise-record 23 runs on 24 hits in Las Vegas, and the A’s got absolutely slobber-knocked in the getaway game. Willi Castro went off, Hunter Goodman nearly hit for the cycle, and Las Vegas Ballpark kept playing like a launchpad. In this episode of BD Baseball, I start…
A’s Climb Back, Rockies Stick It to the Cubs & Tigers Get Rolling | BD Baseball June 12, 2026
Welcome back, Daylight Burners. Jake and I are back on BD Baseball and the season is heating up. The A’s got themselves a day off after climbing back toward .500, which is probably a good thing before the Rockies come to town this weekend. The Rockies, meanwhile, had one of those games where the box score tells you they should’ve been in it, and then you look up and they lost by six. Twelve hits,…
Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report for Friday, June 12, 2026. We wrap the week with a full run‑through of the board, the barns, and the Beltway. August live closes in the low 240s while August feeders rip higher, five‑area cash holds in the mid‑250s, and the basis blows out to roughly $14. We walk the Sale Barn Pulse and National Beef Wire runs: $4‑plus calves from Missouri and Kansas, nearly $500/cwt…
A’s Rally, Rockies Walk It Off & MLB Loses Its Mind | BD Baseball June 11, 26
Jake and I break down a wild day in baseball, starting with the homer teams: the A’s taking two out of three from Milwaukee and the Rockies walking off the Cubs. Then we hit the rest of the MLB chaos: the Giants’ ridiculous comeback, Drew Rasmussen punching out 13, the Yankees sweeping Cleveland, the White Sox taking over the AL Central, the Pirates stunning the Dodgers, Max Scherzer reaching…
Down Goes Hormuz — Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report June 11, 2026
Good morning, Daylight Burners. This is the Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report for Thursday, June 11, 2026. Live cattle are firming back up, feeders love the cheaper corn, hogs are soft, and the grain complex is still weak – but the real world is loading for bear. We’ve got: – A board that wants to drag cash cattle down while the barns keep paying mid‑4s on five‑weights and the five‑area cash fats hang…
Packer Hooks, BLM Paperwork, and a Helicopter Down — Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report June 10, 2026
Well howdy there, daylight burners. This is the Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report for Wednesday, June 10. All the numbers are from yesterday’s close, because I’m not a breaking‑news guy – I want time to see what the hell we’ve actually got going on. We start on the board and in the barn. Live and feeder cattle were up – August live at 252.50, October at 248.25, feeders up 2–3 bucks across the board –…
On today’s BD Baseball, Jake and I break down one of the wildest games of the season: A’s–Brewers in Las Vegas, a 12‑inning circus with 11 homers, 29 runs, 34 hits, 441 pitches, and 7 pitchers used by each side in 4 hours and 14 minutes. We talk about Vegas playing like Coors on steroids, Shay Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom going deep, Nick Kurtz leaving the yard entirely, and William Contreras…
Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report — Screwworm, Spy Collars & Board vs Barn | June 9, 2026
Howdy there, I'm Matt McKinley and we're Burnin' Daylight. Today's Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report for June 9, 2026 covers: 🐛 NEW WORLD SCREWWORM — What's really happening in South and West Texas. What the quarantine zones and border closures mean for cattle and trade. Why DC handed screwworm preparedness to a meat-packing and export power broker instead of a parasite nerd or a working cow-calf rep.…
Tigers Wake Up, Miz Dome Shot, A's Scuffling | BD Baseball 6-8-26
The Tigers woke up. The A’s scuffled. And Jacob Misiorowski put a 98 mph cutter off Tyler Freeman’s dome at Coors in one of the scarier moments of the weekend. I’m rolling through the full MLB weekend recap on today’s BD Baseball. The A’s got beat up by Houston Friday and Saturday, but rookie Gage Jump shoved Sunday and helped Oakland avoid the sweep. Not a great series, but a 5-5 road trip feels…
Happy Friday, Daylight Burners. Jake is out today, so I’m rolling solo through a lighter MLB slate that still gave us plenty to talk about. I’ve got to start with the A’s, because that one hurt. JT Ginn gave Oakland six innings, two hits, one run, and eight punchouts. That is exactly the kind of start you want. The offense did its job too. Shea Langeliers hit an inside-the-park homer and another…
Screwworm’s Back at the Gate | Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report June 4, 2026)
The New World screwworm is not just another fly. It is a livestock parasite that eats living flesh, nearly broke parts of the cattle business before eradication, and is now back in Central America, Mexico, and pushing hard against U.S. cattle country again. In this Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report, Matt McKinley breaks down what screwworm actually is, why it matters, how bad it got before eradication,…
A’s Stun Cubs, Tigers Sweep Rays, Rockies Get Rocked, Sánchez Makes History, Ohtani Is AI | BD Baseball 6‑4‑26
Solo Thursday BD Baseball — Jake’s out, I’m running the full slate east‑to‑west, then shutting it down to read about New World screwworm instead of doing the farm and ranch report. We hit every game on the board: Marlins–Nats ruining my over, Tigers absolutely cooking the Rays at the Trop behind Troy Melton’s best start yet and Dillon Dingler’s third homer and ninth RBI of the series, and the…
Gage Jump Shoves, Tigers Roll, and Joe Adell’s Canseco Special | BD Baseball 6-3-26
From Detroit’s bats waking up to the A’s and Rockies stealing headlines, Jake and I walk through a jam-packed slate and preview a loaded day of pitching. Show Notes (concise, from your POV): On this June 3 episode of BD Baseball, I sit down with Jake and run through a full 15-game slate: Tigers crush, Flaherty shoves, and Greene/Perez provide the power we’ve been missing. Gage Jump delivers seven…
Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report: Futures Freak Out, Sale Barn Says Otherwise | June 3, 2026
The board had a full‑blown hissy fit today. Fats dumped, feeders slid, and if you’re glued to the screen you’d think the cattle business just died. Out here in the real world, five‑area cash and the sale barns are still paying up, and the country isn’t buying the panic. I walk through the tape, the BDR Sale Barn Pulse runs, and what that ugly futures‑to‑cash spread really means when you’re hauling…
June Swoon Watch, Tigers Chaos, and ABS Meltdown | BD Baseball 6-2-26
On today’s BD Baseball, Jake and I fire up the June Swoon Watch and take a hard look at the A’s, Cubs, and a few other clubs teetering on that edge between contender and collapse. Jake breaks down the Tigers’ wild 10–9 win over the Rays, Kerry Carpenter’s big return, and why Detroit went from best record in baseball last year to tied for the worst this year. We also dive into the ABS disaster in…
On this Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report for Monday, June 1, 2026, I walk through a day where the board got its teeth kicked in and the barn didn’t blink. June live cattle closed around 240, down over 11 bucks on the day, while the 5‑area cash trade is still printing in the mid‑250s, leaving roughly a $16 gap between paper and real cattle headed to a real kill plant. We talk placements, 11.6 million…
Solo show today — breaking down every series from the weekend, west to east, AL then NL, and I had to sit here and recap one of the ugliest innings in A's history while also telling you my little league A's got wrecked by the parents in the end-of-season game. It was a full weekend. The real A's gave up 13 runs in the third inning Sunday. Yankees sent 18 batters up, batted through the order twice,…
Valentine Made History. Packers Low-Balled All Week. Screwworm at the Wire. | FFRRR Fri. May 29
The week of May 25, 2026 delivered one for the record books — and not just one record. Valentine Livestock in Valentine, NE set the highest daily weighted average for 7-weight steers in U.S. history: $407.28/cwt on 2,582 head. Five of the top 10 all-time 7-wt steer sales nationally now belong to Valentine — all set on the same day. Meanwhile, packers bid $253 live all week while yards held at…
June Swoon Watch, Tigers in Trouble & Weekend Series Preview | BD Baseball 5-29-26
It’s BD Baseball for Friday, May 29, 2026. Jake and I sort through a light Thursday slate and some heavy shit for a few teams. We start in Detroit: Skubal’s back on the IL, the offense is flat‑lined, and we’re asking out loud if the Tigers just suck this year and what a trade might even look like. From there we head to the South Side where the White Sox stay hot and Murakami keeps mashing, then up…
$47M Beef Settlement, 180-Day Feedyard Record & FTC Pulls the Subpoenas | Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report 5-28-26
In today’s Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report for Thursday, May 28, 2026, I’m coming to you out of Yerington, Nevada with a full plate of cattle, policy, and bullshit to sort through. We talk: June live cattle 10 under cash while the 5‑Area cash price holds 260.45 and packers slow the chain. USDA’s May Cattle on Feed report showing a record 1.99 million head on feed 180 days or more. Tyson’s new 47…
Jake’s back, the new studio actually works, and two-thirds of our homer teams lost again. We open with the Tigers finally snapping their skid against the Angels, at the cost of injuries to Casey Mize and Kenley Jansen, and then roll straight into the A’s pitching nightmare: Savale to the IL, Springs struggling, Severino bad, the carousel in full spin, and the bats cooling off in West Sacramento.…
A's Said Gage Jump, M's Said How High | BD Baseball 5-27-26
All three of our teams got their teeth kicked in last night, so we’re naming and shaming. The A’s waste Gage Jump’s debut while Emerson Hancock shoves, the Tigers let Vaughn Grissom hang six RBIs on them (grand slam included), and the Rockies give up 15 runs and five bombs to the Dodgers in front of 52,000 people. We rip through the whole Tuesday slate — Yankees hanging 15 on the Royals,…
In this episode of the Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report I’m pulling a lot of threads together: cattle on feed, beef imports, BLM’s backpedal on public lands, $5.60 diesel, and some very suspicious trades in oil and prediction markets. Here’s what I walk through: – May 1 Cattle on Feed: 11.6M on feed (+2% y/y), placements +6%, marketings –10% – first y/y increase in 18 months. dtnpf +1 – Beef cows…
Astros No-Hit Rangers, Cowser Walks Off Again & A’s Still in First | BD Baseball 5-26
Memorial Day gave us everything: a combined no-hitter in Texas, back‑to‑back walk‑off bombs from Colton Cowser, and the A’s somehow still sitting on top of the AL West. Matt goes solo today and runs through: Weekend recap: Rays–Yankees in the Bronx, Astros bending the Cubbies over at Wrigley, Royals–Mariners chaos, Twins sweeping Boston, and the Dodgers doing Dodgers things. Full Memorial Day…
Burnin' Daylight Sports — Harrison Shoves at Wrigley, Strider's Back & Tigers Schnide | MLB 5-21-26
I am flying solo today as Jake is live at Comerica Park for Tigers-Guardians Game 2. Full rundown of Wednesday's 15-game MLB slate: 🔥 Kyle Harrison — 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 11 K, Game Score 83 (Brewers 5, Cubs 0) 🔥 Chris Sale — 7 IP, 1 ER, 8 K, ERA 1.89 (Braves 9, Marlins 1) 🔥 Trey Yesavage — 6 IP, 0 R, 8 K, struck out Aaron Judge THREE times (Blue Jays 2, Yankees 1) 🔥 Shohei Ohtani — Leadoff HR + 5…
$30 Million to Take Out Massie. 425 Beef Plants Into China. Make It Make Sense. — 5/20/26
The cattle trade story of the year dropped this week and almost nobody connected the dots. China's GACC renewed 5-year licenses for 425 U.S. beef packing establishments — straight out of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing. USMEF CEO Dan Halstrom called it "what we've been waiting for almost a year." Meanwhile, the same Washington that spent $30 million to primary Thomas Massie — the only guy in…
$30 Million to Take Out Massie. 425 Beef Plants Into China. Make It Make Sense. — 5/20/26
The cattle trade story of the year dropped this week and almost nobody connected the dots. China's GACC renewed 5-year licenses for 425 U.S. beef packing establishments — straight out of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing. USMEF CEO Dan Halstrom called it "what we've been waiting for almost a year." Meanwhile, the same Washington that spent $30 million to primary Thomas Massie — the only guy in…
The morning crew was too polite to spell it out, so Matt did it after the close. Tuesday, May 19, 2026 — WTI settled $104.23 (+3%), Brent ~$111 (+~5%), and the Trump administration publicly admitted it called off an Iran bombing campaign yesterday. CENTCOM's Adm. Brad Cooper says he's ready to "execute a broad range of contingencies." Stocks got smoked, metals cratered, cattle bled on the board —…
Heartbreak in Anaheim: JT Ginn's 8 No-Hit Innings Spoiled by Zach Neto Walk-Off | BD Baseball 5/19
Matt and Jake recap a brutal Monday around MLB: JT Ginn's 8 no-hit innings spoiled by Zach Neto's walk-off HR, the Mets putting up a 10-spot in the 12th to beat the Nats 16-7, the Rays staking their claim to the best record in baseball, the Brewers serving notice in the NL Central, and a Michael King–Yamamoto pitcher's duel in San Diego. Plus Acuña off the IL, Chadwick Trump called up, NBA…
Daylight Burners — Matt and Jake are back to wrap up another week of baseball. Livestream gremlins be damned, we recorded it anyway. What's in this one: - Tough week for Tigers, Rockies, and A's fans (but we survived) - The White Sox are 24-22 and chasing the Guardians — is this real life? - Murakami and Schwarber going nuclear (Schwarber more HRs than half the league since May 7) -…
Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report — Weekly Wrap 5/16/26 | Beijing Blinked, Plains Are Burning & Cash Cattle Hold $260
Weekly wrap for the week ending May 16, 2026. It's been a week, daylight burners. Trump flew to Beijing, shook Xi's hand, declared fantastic deals, and flew home. The soy market said show me the purchase order — beans closed the week down 31 cents from Monday's peak. The one concrete thing that came out of that summit? China quietly renewed import licenses for 400+ US beef plants on Thursday.…
A's Gut-Punch, Tigers Swept, Rockies Rolled, Cubs–White Sox on the South Side | BD Baseball 5-15-26
Happy Friday, daylight burners! Matt and Eric ride solo today (Jake's back Sunday) to recap a rough Thursday on the homer front and set up a loaded Rivalry Weekend. The A's drop a 5-4 heartbreaker to the Cardinals — Kurtz extends his on-base streak to 37 games with a leadoff bomb (two shy of Giambi's '98 A's record), but the bullpen coughs up the lead. The Rockies get rolled 7-2 in Pittsburgh as…
The Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report — Thursday, May 14, 2026 Host: Matt McKinley from Yerington, Nevada Cash cattle hold at $260 live in the South while futures stay skeptical. Wheat surges again on WASDE-driven drought concerns. The Fertilizer Institute testifies to Congress on the Hormuz disruption's impact on global fertilizer supply. North Dakota pastureland tops $1,000/acre — a national first in…
Young Bulls on Parade | A's Kids Cook, Kurtz Goes Grand, Tigers & Rox Roll - BD Baseball 5-14-26
Jake and I are back after a day off to break down a loaded Wednesday slate from around MLB. Pounded through some livestream gremlins to get this one out — there was too much baseball to skip. The story of the day was the youngsters: Henry Bolte and Michael Stefanic showing out in their MLB debuts for the A's, A.J. Ewing and Carson Benge powering the Mets' walk-off over the Tigers, and Drake…
Two days of markets in one shot. This Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report folds Tuesday's May WASDE fireworks into Wednesday's cattle tape and policy mess. We start with WASDE-671: U.S. wheat chopped to 1.561 billion bushels, 424 million under last year and below the low end of the trade range. KE wheat runs 50 cents, corn and beans climb, and USDA quietly confirms the drought story we've been preaching…
Matt McKinley, coming at you out of Yerington, Nevada — Monday, May 11, 2026, post-close edition of the Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report. Split-personality tape today: grains ripped ahead of tomorrow's noon-Eastern WASDE, cattle got hammered on Trump-admin tariff-suspension headlines, and diesel is sitting 15 cents from an all-time national record. Engine's calling it WATCH at 51% medium confidence —…
Busy week of baseball. Streaks snapped, arms shoved, and a couple of fanbases went through it. Matt and Jake run through the Tigers snapping a five-game skid, the Reds finally waking up after eight straight losses, and the Cubs coming back to earth after a 10-game heater and 15 straight at Wrigley. They dig into why the NL Central looks like the best division in baseball right now, how the Rays…
Cubs Win 10 Straight, Yankees Get Punched, Reds Free Fall | Sat 5/9/26
Saturday, May 9, 2026. Coming in hot from Yerington. Standings are starting to mean something. Cubs ripped off ten straight, the Yankees got shut out by a 24-year-old throwing 103, and the Reds — last month's NL darlings — got hung with a ten-spot at home and dropped their eighth in a row. On today's show: • Misiorowski's 103.6 mph masterclass — first Brewers shutout of the Yankees since 1992 •…
Weekly Wrap 5/8/26 — DOJ Comes for the Big Four, Cash Cracks, Nevada Water on the Clock
Matt McKinley wraps May 4-8, 2026 from Yerington, Nevada. Cash cattle printed an all-time record midweek and gave back into Friday — June live $248.90, August feeders $364.22. Boxed beef cracked Thursday and partially recovered Friday (Choice $389.02 / Select $385.17). EIA on-highway diesel $5.640, up 29¢ WoW. AAA national regular $4.546 / diesel $5.663 — pump up 25¢ two weeks running, $1.40…
Cubs Won't Lose, Reds Can't Win, A's Are in First | 5/8/26
Coming in hot Friday morning out of Yerington — your daily MLB rundown. The Cubs have won nine in a row. The Reds have lost seven in a row. They're in the same division. Your A's are sitting in first place in the AL West after JT Ginn went 8 innings of one-run ball and the West Sacramento lineup hung 12 on the Phillies in their own park. Tonight: Chris Sale at Dodger Stadium, Max Fried vs…
$255 Cash, 313K Kill — Packers Run the Rope | Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report 5/7/26
Thursday, May 7, 2026 — Yerington, NV. Three shows deep into the same story this week. Cash cattle printed $255.02 5-Area live and $399.08 dressed for the week ending May 3rd, but the board's bleeding and the cutout is cracking. Packers bought 72,513 head and ran a 313,000 weekly kill — down 34,133 from same week last year. That's leverage, not competition. In this episode: • Live data off the BDR…