Morning at the Flying B Ranch

What do you do with all your leftover rice mash after you've fermented and distilled it into a traditional Vietnamese rice liquor? You send it over to my first cousin once removed in-law to feed to his cows, of course!

Last week before we visited the SuTi Vietnamese Distillery, my dad and I had been looking on YouTube for videos about America's only traditional Vietnamese craft distillery. We found a wonderful report by Channel 8 WFAA (check it out at the end of this post 👇) all about the distillery and how it came about. At the end of the report, we were shocked to see a familiar face! It turns out that after Mr. Sui and Mr. Tien ferment and distill their rice liquor, they send their leftover rice mash off to my mom's cousin's husband, David, to feed to his cows!

My fiancée is a veterinarian, and before we came to Texas this year, she had expressed interest in visiting a real Texas farm. When we saw David on the video, we had to reach out to him to see if we could pay him a visit at his farm in Waxahachie, Texas. His farm was a bit out of the way, though, so he set us up a visit at his friend Buster's farm where he helps out all the time.

We got to Waxahachie just around 10am. When we pulled up to the farm, we were greeted by an enthusiastic pair of farm dogs.

David loaded us into the Ranger, which is like a super high-powered (and super fun) all-terrain golf cart, and we headed out into the farm to meet the happy cows who like to eat the rice mash left over from SuTi's distilling process.

First, we got the grand tour of the pastures. We zipped around in the speedy little cart, visiting the cows and touring through the wide, green fields of the Flying B Ranch.

The cows weren't all that interested in us, nor were they afraid. We were able to drive right up to see them.

They would even come up to the Ranger to check us out, but promptly returned to ignoring us when they discovered we didn't have any food for them.

It was a beautiful sunny morning - not too hot! It was fun to watch the cows going about their cow business, and the cattle egrets flying around the ranch.

 It's a nice place, with a small pond and plenty of space for the cows to roam around. During our tour, we learned a lot about the ins and outs of running a cattle farm.

Then, it was time to feed the cows. They eat a lot of hay, but they especially love the spent mash from the local breweries and distilleries.

Weekly, David picks up spent mash not only from SuTi Distillery, but also from Legal Draft and Division Brewing, two other great local breweries in Arlington.

https://sutiusa.com

https://www.legaldraftbeer.com

https://divisionbrewing.com

After mashing the grain, the distillers and brewers have no use for it. It's just a waste product. However, it is very nutritious and easily-digestible for cows! David has an arrangement to haul off the waste grain, taking it off of the brewers' hands and receiving free, nutritious feed for his cows in exchange. All in all, a good deal for all concerned.

While David hauled a tub of grain mash out to the cows, I got to drive the Ranger out to the field to meet him.

That was a ton of fun! The Ranger is a little gasoline-powered 4-wheeler that seems way overpowered for its size. It can go really fast, and it does, with even the lightest touch on the gas!

I really enjoyed driving it!

David honked his horn a few times. Immediately, all of the cows out in the field came running. They knew what that sound meant!

As soon as the leftover mash had been dumped into the trough, all of the cows began feasting on the presumably delicious stuff! Apparently, they like it much better than hay! It's tasty, full of healthy vitamins and enzymes, and is easy for the cows to digest.

After the cows ate, it was time for us to have a bite to eat as well. 

We drove into the nearby Waxahachie historic downtown for lunch. It's quite a cool area with street art and lots of great shops and restaurants in the block surrounding the old county courthouse.

Lunch was Tex-Mex, the first Tex-Mex of my visit to the US!

We had a great time visiting the cows and getting to have a look around a real Texas cattle farm! I can't thank David enough for taking the time to show us around. It was one of the best experiences of our visit to Texas!

Here's a wonderful video by WFAA news about SuTi Distillery which also features David talking about feeding the mash to his cows.