How many of us can honestly say that we follow our cooking or baking recipes to a T? If we do, how many of us can say that the recipe turned out absolutely perfect? It happens but rarely. How many of us have thought we found the perfect recipe for some aspect of ranching, be it grazing, feeding, people management, marketing, etc., only to find out too late that the perfect recipe doesn’t exist?
I know for me, recipes are just a guide. Living 50 miles from a grocery store means that I almost never have the exact ingredients on hand. Which means that I am regularly substituting the ingredients a recipe calls for with what I actually have in my pantry. I will make a note on the recipe if it was a great substitution, so that I can try to replicate what I found worked for me.
Some of my family members also have dietary limitations. When I’m looking for a recipe, I first decide if it is even the right guide to try to substitute what works for us. Then there are preferences for taste that I of course take into consideration. Shanon loathes green beans, so automatically, I know that a recipe starring green beans is not right for us.
Along with all of this, my family has dietary goals, of which include eating mostly whole foods, reducing processed foods, and limiting sugar. This is what we’ve found is right for us.
To top it off, when I do find a recipe that I want to try and have made the necessary substitutions for our goals including ingredient availability, I then must consider our location! Baking and cooking at 7200’ are different than at sea level. A dry climate leads to different results than a humid one. Where was this recipe developed anyways? Am I here in our high desert following a recipe that was developed in the humid tropics of Hawaii??
Here’s an example of what I mean. If my end goal is brownies, I’m going to find a brownie recipe. The one I usually turn to was given to me by my childhood friend’s mom as a graduation gift. (I always LOVED her brownies!) And I used to make them exactly as the recipe was written. But now, as life has changed, I have different goals, along with some knowledge and experience behind me. I substitute regular flour for gluten free, I use powdered cocoa with oil instead of bakers chocolate (I never have bakers chocolate on hand!), I exchange butter for oil, honey for corn syrup, and depending on who else is enjoying the brownies with me, I substitute flaxseed for eggs. The result is still the same – a great tasting brownie, but now it fits MY goals and MY situation.
Ranching isn’t any different. We all tend to look for the recipe that will give us amazing results if we just follow it perfectly. There isn’t a lack of recipes out there being sold to us in the form of grazing systems, marketing systems, or recommendations on certain supplements that if we feed them, all our problems will be solved. When we follow said ranching recipe to a T, there is usually a wreck waiting to happen. The problem is that ranching wrecks are much more costly and devastating than some wasted flour and butter. We risk our profits, our land and animal health, and our relationships if we blindly follow a recipe built by someone else for their operation, goals, and location.
Cooking or baking do have general principles that we can follow. Things like adding heat changes the chemical makeup of foods or sugar adds sweetness. Ranching also has general principles like the 5 Grazing Principles we can follow and that is taught in the Ranching for Profit School. Take the second Grazing Principle – Allow For Appropriate Recovery. There will never be a situation or a location that won’t benefit from following this principle. It’s universal and will give positive results in any environment. This means as managers we will adjust the recovery period based on the forage growth rate and severity of graze. But there isn’t a perfect, universal recipe on how to do this! The growth rate changes with seasons and precipitation, along with location and type of forage. It’s up to the manager to decide what is appropriate recovery for the time of year and situation. The end goal is to make sure we’re not overgrazing, or taking that second bite, before the plant is recovered. How we allow for recovery could be by dividing pastures, combining herds, leasing additional acreage, etc. Practices (or recipes) are ways that we apply principles and the results are based on our abilities, strengths, resources, location, and goals. The recipes are as varied as there are operations and people out there!
The important thing to remember is to not use someone else’s recipe without considering your limitations, your advantages, and your goals. Make necessary changes to that ranching recipe to not only benefit you, but to make it your own! So go ahead and try that recipe. But keep your mission and vision right next to it, substitute ingredients, make adjustments, take notes to correct issues that arise, and keep trying until the recipe is perfect for you.
