MANAGEMENT

My last two articles briefly summarized some differences between our conventional industrial production models in the beef industry and the growing “niche” markets that are becoming more prominent. As niche markets grow, so has the focus on regenerative production models because the niche market consumer and producer both tend to have desires to break free from the high input, “bigger is better” industrial mindset.

When looking at annual cow costs and doing an economic analysis, three categories rise to the top as the largest percentage of total costs: feed, labor and equipment, and cow depreciation.

A business cannot achieve its full potential without establishing a level of structure that provides clarity for each person’s areas of responsibility, standard procedures for tasks, levels and limits of authority for each family member and employee, and an agreement on how people will be held accountable.

In today’s world of technology and recordkeeping, you can record mountains of information about your cattle herd. Recordkeeping is quick, generally easy, and most programs have a spot for the information you collect.

Growing up, there were several days that brought anxiety to the ranch: branding and sale day were probably the biggest. While there were a million things that could impact the success of branding day (mainly rain and having enough help), when it came to sale day, the entire family knew the importance of what was riding on that single day.