Please don't let a crypto loophole leave Texas ranches high and dry

Every rancher we know borrows money to make money. That's not a flaw in the business. It is business. And it works differently than most people think.

Cattle don't pay every two weeks. You get paid once or twice a year, when the calves go to the sale barn. Everything in between — the cattle, the feed, the hay, the fuel, the fencing, the vet bills — you carry on a line of credit from the bank in town, and you square up when the checks come in.

Every year Texas ranchers sit down with the same bank that has served their families for generations, and they work out the loan that carries the operation through the season.