First and foremost, I need to recognize my wife, Deanna. Deanna does an outstanding job of juggling several different job titles. She is a wife, a mother, a hostess, a bookkeeper, a secretary, a hired hand, an EMT and much, much more. There isn’t much that Deanna can’t or won’t do. Deanna is officially responsible for the management of the cowherd on our home ranch. This gets her out of the office on a regular basis — which she very much appreciates. Deanna is also responsible for the registration of calves born in outside PCC cowherds.

     The next member of our behind-the-scenes team that I want to mention is our son, Tyson, who has been working with and for Pharo Cattle Company for the past eight years. Tyson continues to assume more and more management responsibilities (often more than he should) as we all struggle to fully understand the dynamics involved with management succession. He is becoming more and more accustomed to stepping out of his comfort zone. No one grows much without stepping out of their comfort zone every now and then.

    The third member of the team is my sister, Kathy Pelton. Kathy is our computer specialist and office manager. Kathy takes raw data from our producers and from our bull work days and magically turns it into something we can use. She spends many, many hours getting our sale catalogs ready for the printers. I’m convinced Kathy has cut the hours I used to spend on the catalog in half. She is also in charge of clerking our bull sales. We have inadvertently allowed Kathy to become an irreplaceable member of our behind-the-scenes team. Therefore, she is diligently training others to do some of her work.

     Kathy’s husband, Rod Pelton, has been working with and for Pharo Cattle Company for over two years. Rod has the personality and the ability to do just about anything he sets his mind to — and to do it well. Rod is very mechanically inclined. Among many other things, Rod is responsible for equipment maintenance, the development of our yearling bulls and for after-sale bull transportation.

     Jake Unruh started working for Pharo Cattle Company in 2006 when we had over 25 miles of fence to build. Jake is a very talented, self-starting, hard worker. He is probably the best livestock handler we have on the ranch. He is very patient and he knows how to read cattle. Jake is ready, willing and able to do whatever needs done — and he never complains.

     Deanna’s sister, Donna Mitchell, works part time in the office to help Deanna with the bookkeeping and to update our ever-expanding mail list. Taking care of the mail list has probably cut my workload by one-fourth. Donna fills in wherever needed. Sometimes, we get her to help outside on bull workdays.

     The newest and youngest member of our behind-the-scenes team is Glenda Erker. Glenda works part time as Kathy’s understudy. She is learning how to do some of Kathy’s jobs — because no one else wanted to.

     Gary Rhoades continues to be willing and able to fill in the gaps around sale time. He makes and receives hundreds of phone calls. Gary is almost always on hand to help me evaluate bulls.

     In the summer of 2004, we created a Cooperative Producer (CP) Board of Directors. This board is made up of six cooperative producers. They meet monthly and act as an advisory board to help Pharo Cattle Company with goals, visions and policy — as well as to help us deal with various problems as they arise. Our 2008 CP Board of Directors includes Dave Gwyn, Clyde Mattson, Dustin Olds, Rod Pelton, Keith Lapp and Cody McDaniel.

     I learned a long time ago that if you surround yourself with GREAT people they will make you look good. I appreciate all the people who make up our behind-the-scenes team.