Winter Calving
Calving season has begun across cow-country and so have the stories of sleepless nights, calves being brought inside the house to warm up and heroic tales of battling the recent polar vortex across the country. Granted this weather was extremely unusual for some parts of the country, but for places where this is part of […]
Read MoreAllocation of Overheads is a Bad Idea
The team here at RMC has been busy holding Ranching for Profit Schools in several locations. At these schools, a good part of classroom time is spent teaching and applying the Ranching for Profit Economic Model. This is our trademark way of doing an economic analysis of the ranching business, but the fundamentals apply to […]
Read MoreCow-Calf Profitability
If you could only show me one number on your ranch that directly correlated to the profitability of your cow-calf operation, what would that number be? If you follow traditional thinking you might assume weaning weight, or price received for your calves. Not it. In fact, those numbers have little correlation to profit. So, what […]
Read MoreCow Depreciation – Don’t Follow a Recipe
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 its height of value until it is sold for salvage. I’m glad this often hidden cost is getting attention and that ranchers now see this […]
Read MoreRanching from Scratch
Can’t be done. At least that is what conventional wisdom says. I’d agree that it can’t be done, if you follow the rules of traditional ranching – running cows the way everyone else does and owning everything. If you are willing to break some rules and challenge conventional wisdom maybe you can join the amazing […]
Read More4 Strategies to Improve Gross Margin per Unit
As a student in my very first Ranching For Profit School I was told to make sure I was shooting at the right target before taking aim. That’s common sense. But it’s not commonly practiced. Livestock producers are great marksmen, but they are often shooting at the wrong target. The target most producers aim at […]
Read MoreRanching with Nature
North American livestock producers are the most productive in the world. We are also the least profitable. Could it be that our battle to increase production is the reason for economic failure? We are engaged in a cold war with nature. We are armed with an impressive arsenal. We seed and fertilize and spray and […]
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