Premium Beef Genetics Introduction - EmpowerU

EmpowerU Podcast — Episode Summary

Podcast: EmpowerU
Host: Weston Hendrix
Episode: Premium Beef Genetics Introduction
Date: March 27, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode introduces listeners to Premium Beef Genetics, a company specializing in high-quality beef cattle semen and genetics. Host Weston Hendrix is joined by Mike Marlo, founder of Premium Beef Genetics, to discuss the company's origins, mission, and the exciting partnership between EmpowerU and Premium Beef Genetics. The conversation covers Mike Marlo's personal journey in the cattle industry, the company's hands-on approach with breeders, and plans to regularly showcase standout sires and genetics on the podcast.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Story Behind Premium Beef Genetics

Mike’s Early Passion: Mike Marlo shares how his involvement in the Angus business began at age 9, inspired by his parents allowing him to show Angus heifers. His passion for cattle and genetics only grew from there.
- "I grew up in the Angus business... started AI breeding my own cows when I was about 16 years old." (03:04, Mike)
Career Journey: From driving to AI (artificial insemination) courses as a teenager to working on large ranches and eventually managing thousands of cows at Limestone Angus Ranch.
Specialization in Reproduction: Mike describes his focus on cattle reproduction—AI, embryo transfer, ultrasound, and working with semen companies.
- "I've always had a passion for reproduction in general and doing all the things that are involved with that." (05:10, Mike)

2. Founding the Company

Starting from Scratch: The company began in 2018 with minimal resources—a refurbished old house, just a handful of semen storage tanks, and a grassroots approach to building their website and catalog.
- "We bought this old house that we refurbished... We had literally semen tanks in the bedroom, in the bathroom." (06:34, Mike)
Unique Approach: Mike and his wife traveled across North America in search of quality bulls, often discovering animals overlooked by larger companies.
Focus on Commercial Impact: Instead of chasing mainstream industry trends, Mike focused on bulls that excel in real-world conditions, providing both efficiency and eye appeal for commercial and registered herds.

3. Company Philosophy & Growth

Hands-on Service: They prioritize timely, personal service and building relationships with breeders.
- "We try to take the time and visit with people about [the bulls] and try to connect them with the right bulls for their program." (07:50, Mike)
Rapid, Customer-Focused Fulfillment: Same-day shipping is a standard, even late in the day, to support breeders during the busiest seasons.
Steady Growth: From just 12 shipment containers to 200 and industrial-scale nitrogen supply, evidence of consistent growth driven by customer trust and satisfaction.

4. The Partnership with EmpowerU

Shared Values: Both parties highlight the mutual respect and excitement around the partnership, despite not having met in person yet.
- "I want to be. I try to surround myself with people that are progressive and want to keep moving forward." (09:59, Mike)
Podcasting as a Platform: The partnership aims to reach new audiences, highlight Premium Beef Genetics’ top sires, and energize breeders looking for quality genetics.
Future Plans: Going forward, the podcast will feature monthly episodes spotlighting high-demand sires, new genetics, and success stories, providing value and fresh options for cattle producers.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Building from the Ground Up:
"We started from ground zero... built the catalog, built the website. And that's how we got started in 2018 just by, you know, just putting bulls out there."
— Mike Marlo (06:07)
On Customer Connection:
"We just decided we was going to cater to them guys and try to help them market their bull sales and also market semen sales on some of these really high end bulls..."
— Mike Marlo (07:00)
On Dedication to Breeders:
"Whether it's, you know, at 3:30 or 5:00, if UPS hadn't showed up, we pack it and ship it."
— Mike Marlo (08:24)
On the Partnership Vision:
"I'm really excited to be able to represent y'all and just do business...we're going to try to knock out one to two episodes and highlight some of Premium Beef Genetics top sires..."
— Weston Hendrix (08:59)

Important Timestamps

00:00–01:22 — Weston introduces Mike Marlo and outlines the goals of the episode and partnership.
01:23–08:56 — Mike Marlo shares his backstory, the founding and philosophy of Premium Beef Genetics, and details their approach to service and growth.
08:56–10:28 — Weston and Mike discuss the upcoming podcast plans and excitement for helping breeders succeed.
10:29–11:34 — Closing remarks, with Weston emphasizing Mike's dedication and capabilities and encouraging listeners to connect if interested.

Tone & Takeaways

The episode is warm, energetic, and practical, channeling the can-do rural spirit. Both speakers are enthusiastic about supporting breeders, innovating in beef genetics, and building genuine relationships. Listeners come away with a clear sense of trust in Mike Marlo’s experience and Premium Beef Genetics’ customer-first approach, as well as anticipation for future episodes highlighting premium sires and market insights.

Transcript

A (0:00)

All right, so I got someone on here with me today that has become an awesome partner here on Empower you, Someone that has decided to entrust me with representing his company, his business, alongside his customers as well. And it's become extremely fulfilling. And it's crazy the way that I met him or heard of him at first and how it led to a couple phone calls and then led to one singular preview that he kind of fell in love with. And then after that, we just decided to do business together. And so it's real neat how it all come full circ. And so with that said, Mr. Marlo, I'm glad to have you on. I wish we could have done this sooner, but now we get to. And it's all good. And what I want to do for this episode is just explain to the audience as to what premium beef genetics is, what you do, where you come from, why you decided to do this with us alongside. Just kind of what we got plans in terms of the future, for sure.

B (0:53)

Sounds good. Weston. Appreciate the partnership that we've built. It's been fun. It's been a fun short journey and looking forward to the future with you. It's exciting. It's just kind of a new outlet to where we can reach people and a lot of different people outside of our kind of box. I should say, with the podcast getting out there and just kind of reaching out to new people and visiting, making some new friends and customers maybe down the road. We're excited to be a part of it with you.

A (1:22)

Yes, sir. Absolutely.

B (1:23)

Kind of just a quick backstory of where I come from. Weston is. I mean, I grew up in the Angus business. You know, as a young child, basically, my parents, I was very fortunate to be able to get in on the. Get in on the front end of this deal. I was about 9 years old, and one of my parents decided that it would be all right for me to show some Angus heifers. And so I kind of got into it doing that, locked in on selling some steers and some Angus heifers growing up, and really just grown a huge passion for cattle in general. And when I was old enough to get my driver's license, they let me go to AI court. They'll go to class in Stratford, Missouri. I was amped up, and that was kind of my first big road trip when I was 16 up to Stratford, Missouri. The Gen X used to be Gen X there. It's now show me genetics. But took an AI class, got, you know, bought all the stuff and started AI breeding. My own cows and when I was about 16 years old. And I just loved the whole, the dynamics of it to be able to make some genetics outside the box. And I had about, oh, 25 cows at the time. And so it was pretty cool to be able to kind of upgrade our, our cow herd by doing that. And it was a lot of fun along the way. But since then I went to college and judged livestock at Neo and had a lot of fun. Met a lot of cool people in my field of work in the cattle business. And it kind of led me to working in the cow business. So shortly after that, I kind of migrated around and worked at a few bigger ranches back in the day and in Deer Valley off in Tennessee, and just worked there for about three years. Learned a lot and learned a lot about the business and like, did a lot of AI breeding and learned how to put embryos in and ultrasound and pregnancies and whatnot for the ranch I was working for. And since then I just kind of fell in. I've always kind of worked for a semen company just while I was doing a lot of AI breeding. I actually made a living breeding cows for several years throughout those times. And then I worked at Limestone Angus Ranch for right at 12 years. And we had two sales a year from about 2000 to 2012. We have, you know, female sale once a year, a couple bull sales. At one point we had 4,600 head of cows and about, oh, 4,000 stalkers at the feed yard that we owned. I managed that, that business and it was, golly, I learned so much just about the ins and outs of business and managing my own sales there at Limestone there towards the end. And we just, just learned so much about the whole dynamics of the cattle business. And it was exciting for me just to be able to take that knowled, you know, more of this side of the business as far as reproduction. Because I always had a passion for reproduction in general and doing all the things that, that are involved with that. So it kind of excited me to be able to work for different semen companies and learn the ropes. And I worked for ST Genetics for a few years and learned more about sex, semen and different things. I was one of their original sales managers and made a lot of connections, met, learned a lot more about the business in general. So I, at that point in my life, I realized to me there was kind of an opening for Red Angus bulls, like semen in general, like quality Red Angus. And there was also just an opening for working directly with a commercial Guy for semen sales and actually making an impact in their herds. So I kind of, while I was at st, shortly after that, a year later, I decided, you know, maybe I should just try to start this semen company. My wife and I, we didn't have two nickels to rub together. We bought some 4711 tanks to store in. And I think we scrounged up enough money to buy 12 shippers when we first started this company back in 2018. And we built the, built this website and we bought this old house that we, that we refurbished just right down the road from our house. And it was just an old crappy rock house. We bought this house, refurbished it, put an office in it. We had literally semen tanks in the bedroom, in the bathroom and shipper tanks scattered out. Had a nitrogen tank outside with a line running in the window. You know, I mean, we started from ground zero, built the catalog, built the website. And that's how we got started in 2018 was just by, you know, just putting bulls out there. We worked directly with ranchers and we just went out and I went to Canada, all over the United States looking for bulls and to work directly with ranch. Actually the big semen companies really weren't even looking at these bulls, but they were just the kind that I liked and I figured that enough people liked them that we would just try to get these things out in the public, help these guys that are working day in, day out that don't even have time to market their own bulls, especially semen bulls and whatnot. And so we just decided we was going to cater to them guys and try to help them market their bull sales and also market semen sales on some of these really high end bulls that may not have the EPD profile that fits, you know, the mainstre, but these things are actually doing the work and putting the pounds on the calves and doing everything that we want them to do in the commercial environment and the registered environment. And they just are just real beef bulls. And that's what we decided to go after and, and just pulls that was efficient, loaded with red meat, and had had enough eye appeal to where, you know, the calves would look good at commercially or registered. And we're just excited to be able to work hand in hand with so many different breeders and from here to Canada, all over United States. And we've made a lot of, we've met a lot of cool rural Americans along the way and just we've had a blast just trying to help promote these bulls. And it's it's just been an exciting venture just to be able to go out and pull these bulls in and help these guys promote them and sell semen on them. And it's, it's grown. I mean, it's grown. I mean we went from 12 shippers to 200 shippers and lots of semen vat, you know, big tanks now and we've actually got nitrogen, you know, outside the door with a big tank. We get it hauled in with semi load now. So we've grown a lot since then and it's been just a slow, very low key business that we've tried to build and have and be able to take the time to talk on the phone with all these people that call us and ask questions about these bulls. We try to take the time and visit with people about them and try to connect them with the right bulls for their program and take to help them go to the next level and make an impact in their herd. We do a lot of AI breeding still yet throughout the spring and we try to go out and you know, try to fit these things to match their, their cattle and like I said, make an impact for them. So we, we definitely work hard at trying to do that. And same day shipping, like when people call, we try to get it out that day. Whether it's, you know, at 3:30 or 5:00, if UPS hadn't showed up, we pack it and ship it. So we try to stay on top of getting stuff out the door in a timely manner because I know it's go time this time of year in the spring. So it's an exciting business and we've, we've enjoyed the heck out of it. Just like I said, meeting so many different people and I do some sale management as well. And so we have used the kind of the semen side of things to help promote the bull sales and back and forth and it kind of ties hand in hand and it's made a, made a really big impact for a lot of different breeders. And we just want to keep the accelerator pressed down and just keep moving forward and doing, doing, doing things different. You know, that's what we like to do. Weston.