If you’re ranching for profit, there is one way to define “a good cow”. She has a strong gross margin. In much of my writing and speaking it might seem…
There has been quite a bit written about managing cow deprecation over the past few years. In simple terms cow depreciation is the reduction of value of a cow from…
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s an environmental superhero! If you are using cell grazing you are an environmental superhero. Of course, no one has to know that,…
Maybe it’s just semantics, but I think the words we choose are important. 40 years ago, when I was in college, “sustainable agriculture” was a revolutionary concept. Forward-thinking universities created…
I often hear people joke, “Ranching for profit? That’s an oxymoron.” I get frustrated hearing it, but I don’t blame anyone for thinking it. There is a lot of evidence…
Someone called me asking if I was available to do some consulting. I explained that even though our name is Ranch Management Consultants, we actually do very little consulting. After…
A lot of people tell me that they want to be “debt free.” They are tired of making big interest payments on land, livestock, machinery and their operating note. They…
You might be ranching for profit if your spouse doesn’t have to work in town so you can have health insurance. If you are making a profit you ought to…
I just read an article written by an ag economist on the value of bred heifers. He wrote that a crossbred heifer producing 9 consecutive calves in her lifetime is…
I once heard Bud Williams say, “Ranchers love their cows and hate their grass.” Bud thought they had it backwards. They should love their grass and hate their cattle. I…