Information Packet

Taking the school and joining Executive Link is the most rewarding investment our family has ever made. Cam Gardner, Alberta

• RFP First Steps: Introduces you to Ranching for Profit Principles.

  RFP First Steps is a series of 10 short emails introducing RFP principles. Each email includes links to two short videos. In the first video an RFP instructor explains the concept. In the second an RFP grad explains how they applied the concept and the results they achieved.

  • Introduces Ranching For Profit principles
• ProfitTips: Keeps you thinking about Ranching For Profit Principles.

  ProfitTips is Dave Pratt’s semi-monthly e-mail column to share Ranching For Profit principles. ProfitTips is free to all subscribers.

  • Current issues
  • Reinforces Ranching For Profit principles
  • Alumni stories
• Workshops & Presentations: ½ and Full-Day Programs to Introduce Groups to RFP Principles

  We lead short programs on various RFP principles for producer organizations, banks, resource conservation districts and extension offices. Our most popular workshops include The 3 Secrets for Increasing Profit®, Hard Work & Harmony: effective relationships in family businesses and Grazing For Profit, in which participants learn about soil health, ecological processes and cell grazing principles and practices.

  • Introduce Ranching For Profit Principles
  • Dynamic, fun and interactive presentation
  • Pertinent topics
  • Multi-media presentations
  • Tailored to meet group needs
• The Ranching For Profit School: The business school of the livestock industry.

  Our flagship program challenges conventional wisdom and replaces out-dated, ineffective production paradigms with proven management tools and principles required to make sustainable profit in ranching today. Profit is a result of creating production systems that improve ecosystem health, produce positive cash flow and create economic profit.

  • Management Effectiveness
  • Organizational Structure
  • Economics & Profitability
  • Finance
  • Ecology
  • Cell Grazing
  • Drought Planning & Management
  • Reproduction & Nutrition
  • Personal Effectiveness
• RFP Next Steps: Step-by-step assignments to help grads apply RFP concepts to their businesses

  RFP Next Steps is a cloud-based program consisting of step-by-step assignments and coaching tutorials to help RFP graduates apply EVERYTHING they learn at the school. Next Steps users document the current condition of every aspect of their business and measure annual progress against that baseline.

  • Establish and report against a baseline for every aspect of your business
  • Develop a strategic plan
  • Draft an annual operating plan
  • Create a policy manual
• Executive Link: The most effective alumni support network in agriculture.

  In Executive Link, Ranching For Profit School alumni meet in peer advisory boards. Each board consists of five or six alumni businesses. The boards work though a structured process to objectively review each member’s business and provide experienced input on the issues facing each business. Board members hold one another accountable for results. The results are increased profit, happier homes and life-long friendships.

  • Structured, experienced peer review
  • Challenging continuing education
  • Includes RFP Next Steps
  • Benchmarking
  • Networking

Expert instructors with practical experience will help you find real world solutions to the challenges facing you and your ranch.  You will learn proven tools and techniques that will increase your profit, improve the health and productivity of your land and increase your personal effectiveness. This one week investment will pay dividends for a lifetime.

• Management

  Your parents may have taught you how to drive a tractor or vaccinate a calf, but did they teach you how to run a business?  In addition to understanding husbandry and ecology, running a successful ranch requires the same management skills it takes to run any successful business.

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Work on your business not just in it
  • Use the Parato Principle (80/20 rule) to decrease work and increase effectiveness
  • Apply a strategic planning process to create a shared vision and build an action plan to achieve it
  • Develop risk management plans
  • Apply a tool for thoroughly evaluating management alternatives and making decisions

  Results:

  • Clear vision, goals and direction for your business
  • An implementation  plan to achieve your goals
  • An efficient, effective ranch business guided by clear, logical policies

• Economics

  A ranch isn’t sustainable if it isn’t profitable.  Ranches that don’t make profit aren’t businesses; they are expensive hobbies.  To make a ranch profitable you must know your numbers and understand what the numbers mean.

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Identify the four ways to make money (without a printing press)
  • Define profit and determine what your profit is for
  • Apply the three “secrets” for increasing profit
  • Create an economic forecast for your business using our 7 step profit planning process 
  • Use profitability benchmarking to find strengths and weaknesses
  • Use a method to quickly and easily assess the economic impact of management alternatives
  • Discover tools to track your progress

  Results:

  • Confidence in your decisions
  • A stronger, simpler, more profitable business
  • Greater control over the future of your ranch
• Finance

  Economics is your business’s engine, but finance is the gas that makes it go.   High capital costs, debt and cash flow are huge issues confronting ranches today.  Many ranchers are land rich and cash poor, but being wealthy on the balance sheet doesn’t mean you have to be dirt poor in your bank account.

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Project periods of cash surplus and deficit a year in advance
  • Apply the “3 R”s of credit
  • Calculate the changing value of money through time
  • Evaluate the ways in which you can capitalize or concessionize assets
  • Identify sources of capital
  • Find ways to let your money work for you
  • Determine situations when the use of leverage is appropriate

  Results:

  • Improved cash flow
  • Increased passive income
  • Increased financial security
  • Freed  capital currently locked in fixed assets
• Ecology

  Soil is more than just dirt.  Healthy soil contains billions of living organisms, similar in many respects to the organisms in the rumen of a cow.  Soil health is the foundation of sustainable profit in ranching. 

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Understand the Carbon & Nitrogen cycles and identify practices that improve soil health
  • Assess and improve energy flow
  • Increase the effectiveness of precipitation
  • Improve mineral cycling and the fertility of your soils to minimize or eliminate the need for fertilization.
  • Promote desirable forages without seeding
  • Reduce weeds without spraying herbicides
  • Use a method for quickly and easily assessing the ecological health of your pastures

  Results:

  • A healthier, more productive ecosystem
  • Healthy soils, less erosion and fewer weeds
  • Greater resistance to drought and pests
  • Improved wildlife habitat
  • Increased carrying capacity
  • Reduced expenditure on herbicides, fertilizers and other costly inputs
• Ecology

  Soil is more than just dirt.  Healthy soil contains billions of living organisms, similar in many respects to the organisms in the rumen of a cow.  Soil health is the foundation of sustainable profit in ranching. 

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Understand the Carbon & Nitrogen cycles and identify practices that improve soil health
  • Assess and improve energy flow
  • Increase the effectiveness of precipitation
  • Improve mineral cycling and the fertility of your soils to minimize or eliminate the need for fertilization.
  • Promote desirable forages without seeding
  • Reduce weeds without spraying herbicides
  • Use a method for quickly and easily assessing the ecological health of your pastures

  Results:

  • A healthier, more productive ecosystem
  • Healthy soils, less erosion and fewer weeds
  • Greater resistance to drought and pests
  • Improved wildlife habitat
  • Increased carrying capacity
  • Reduced expenditure on herbicides, fertilizers and other costly inputs
• Cell Grazing

  Conventional grazing increases compaction, runoff and erosion.  Over time it has reduced the carrying capacity of ranches and increased weed problems. Cell Grazing is a management method that improves the environment and increases carrying capacity.

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Apply the  5 cell grazing principles
  • Use principles of property design (fencing and water development)  to create an efficient low-cost plan
  • Stop overgrazing without reducing animal numbers
  • Determine the number of paddocks needed to achieve your pasture and animal performance goals
  • Create a troubleshooting checklist
  • Plan grazing using a  simple method that optimizes production and minimizes conflicts
  • Apply drought management principles to prepare for and minimize the negative impacts of drought

  Results:

  • Increased carrying capacity
  • Healthier productive range and pasture with fewer weeds
  • A property development plan simplifying management
  • A plan for coping with drought
• Production

  Too often it seems like we are working for our animals.  It ought to be the other way around. “Good” cows don’t need a lot of expensive inputs.  That’s what makes them good.  

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Eliminate the need for expensive “substitute” feeding and increase the effectiveness of  supplementation
  • Develop seasonal supplementation strategies to support optimal performance by grazing animals
  • Evaluate and improve reproductive performance in your herd or flock using the 6 Wiltbank principles
  • Evaluate how your production schedule aligns with natural cycles and find the best fit

  Results:

  • A logical, low cost effective supplementation policy
  • Efficient reproductive performance
  • Higher gross margins with lower overheads
  • A business that is easier to run and more profitable because nature does most of the work
• People

  The only thing harder than running a small business is running a small family business.

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Improve the effectiveness of communication
  • Get everyone working on the same page
  • Clearly define roles and establish performance targets
  • Delegate effectively and hold people accountable for results
  • Begin building a management succession plan
  • Differentiate between the $10/hour and $100/hour jobs
  • Apply the 5 principles of effective time management
  • Hold effective family meetings that produce results

  Results:

  • Clear goals, a clear plan to achieve them, and steady progress toward them
  • An effective management team
  • Fewer conflicts between employees and family, and when conflicts arise, faster, more effective resolution.
  • Fewer crises
  • More time for family and fun
• Before The School

  When you enroll you will receive a “prework” packet.  By completing a few simple assignments you’ll hit the ground running as soon as the school begins.

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • Become familiar with Ranching For Profit principles before  the school even starts
  • Assemble key statistics from your ranch so you’ll be able to apply the concepts taught in the class to your ranch
• After The School

  We can help you overcome the challenges you may face when you go home. You’ll also be eligible to join Executive Link, the most effective alumni program in agriculture.

  What You’ll Learn & Do:

  • As an alumnus you can always call or e-mail us to discuss your challenges and concerns 
  • Get the experienced, objective support of other Ranching For Profit School alumni through RFP Next Steps and the Executive Link program

The Ranching For Profit School tuition is a bargain compared to the value you will receive. Most people feel that every dollar invested in the school comes back to them many times over every year! But when times are tough, scraping together the tuition may be an obstacle to attending. It’s the chicken and egg story. Attending will help you improve your cash flow and profit, but until you improve your cash flow and profit you may not feel like you can attend. That’s why we offer a tuition payment plan.

• How it works:
  • New students should submit the registration form with a $300 per person deposit. registration is not official until the deposit is received.
  • The balance due will be split into three installments, 1 month, 4 months and 7 months after the school.
    Your payments will be automatically charged to your credit card.
  • An annualized interest charge of 7.5% will be assessed on the unpaid balance.
  • The balance can be paid off early with no penalties.
  • The is no payment plan for RFP alumni repeating the school. Repeat students should submit the full repeat fee of $500 with their registration form.

If you would like to take advantage of our payment plan, simply check the box on the registration form asking for information about this option. When we receive it, our staff will contact you to answer any questions and set up the payment schedule.

View current school schedule.

In Executive Link, RFP alumni work together in peer advisory boards. Each board meets three times a year. Boards follow a structured process to objectively review each business on the board. Your board will form a network of supportive friends and forward-thinking advisors to call on anytime.

• What You Will Do:
  • Discuss the challenges facing your ranch with a board of RFP alumni who care about you and your business.
  • Prepare short and long term plans showing the actions you will take and the results you’ll achieve.
  • Report on your progress and be held accountable for the successful implementation of your plan.
  • Learn by helping your board members work through the challenges facing their businesses.
  • Shorten your learning curve by networking with people who’ve already made the changes you are considering.
• Results You Will Get:
  • Better decisions that will improve ecosystem health and productivity, increase ranch profit, improve financial security, reduce your work load and improve the quality of life for you and your family.
  • Shorten the time it takes to achieve your goals by several years.

Executive Link includes training on negotiation, sales, finance, effective communication and other topics that will increase your influence, your managerial effectiveness and your positive impact as the leader of your business.

• What You Will Do:
  • Participate in dynamic, interactive professional development training.
  • Participate in lively discussions on cutting-edge ideas for building a successful business.
  • Explore the practical application of principles from best- selling books on business and personal effectiveness.
• Results You Will Get:
  • Deeper understanding of important business principles.
  • New insights into yourself, your partners, your business and your industry.
  • Increased effectiveness as a manager and a leader.

You can’t manage what you can’t (or don’t) measure. The Baseline Module helps you measure and track the health of your land, the profitability of your business and the effectiveness of your management.

• What You Will Do:
  • Establish range monitoring transects and photo points.
  • Use ProfitTracker™ to compare your economic, financial and labor effectiveness statistics to RFP Benchmarks.
  • Track quality of life indicators for you and your family.
• Results You Will Get:
  • Documentation of the impact of your management on your land, your money and your quality of life.
  • Decisions based on real information not guess work.

Build and test the viability of a 5-year strategic plan for your business.

• What You Will Do:
  • Define, quantify & set targets to achieving owner value.
  • Create a shared vision with stake holders.
  • Define roles and accountabilities in your business.
  • Build, test and implement a plan to build the business you and other stake holders really want.
• Results You Will Get:
  • Confidence & peace of mind from having a viable plan.
  • A committed, unified team working toward shared goals.

Create and test the viability of a 5-year strategic plan for your business

• What You Will Do:
  • Complete your stock flow, cash flow, enterprise gross margin projections and labor/ personnel plan.
• Results You Will Get:
  • Better communication and coordination.
  • Improved operational efficiency.
  • Increased profit.

Developing a procedure and policy manual will result in highly effective policies that ensure consistent, high quality results in every aspect of your operation.

• What You Will Do:
  • Define grazing policies and build a drought plan.
  • Create an employee manual and define family employment policies.
  • Create a management succession plan for the ranch.
• Results You Will Get:
  • Continuity during, and in the aftermath of, emergencies.
  • A highly motivated and effective management team.