Man, I gotta disagree with the whole covered pen idea. Hides come down to the animal itself and how it lived, not some last minute stall job. Feedlot cattle packed in mud all season are gonna have nasty hides no matter what you do the night before, and alfalfa vs grain doesn't change that much either. Your Lubbock guy just runs a cleaner setup overall, so stop blaming yourself for the Amarillo hides.

my book club broke up over highlighter vs pencil marks, no joke

Coffee is coffee. The drip machine makes the same thing, it just takes an extra minute. Maybe the flat taste is more about the dark morning and the mess than the actual brew. Do you really think you'd notice the difference if you did a blind taste test, or is it just knowing which machine made it?