Scraping By

I received the following email from a young rancher last week: Dave, I am a young rancher and have grown my herd to over 100 cows over the last four years. In addition to my own operation I earn additional income working for my Dad on his place. I owe $15,000 of my cattle loan, have […]
Read MoreBoundaries

I have an advantage over most of the people who come through the Ranching for Profit school. I have boundaries. The RMC office is about a mile and a half from my home. Every day, unless the weather is miserable, I walk to work. Then at the end of the day I walk home. When […]
Read MoreWhat Does Mom Want?

We use a process at RMC to help families and business teams create a shared vision and a plan to achieve it. We start by asking a very basic question: What do you want? Each participant answers individually by writing several short statements describing how they’d like things to be in three to five years. Once […]
Participation Trophies

When my kids were young they played in a youth soccer league. At the end of the season all of the players were given a participation trophy. I sat there and applauded the kids as they passed out the awards, but the applause wasn’t sincere. I thought, “Self-esteem out of control! You don’t get awards […]
There’s Nothing Wrong With A Hobby

The Ranching For Profit School is intended for ranchers. But every year some people who want to get into ranching attend the class to build a business plan to test the feasibility of pursuing their dream. A week hasn’t gone by in the last couple of years when I haven’t had an email or phone […]
Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

Abby of Dear Abby, passed away last week. I don’t intend to take her place dispensing relationship advice, but I do get my share of Dear Dave letters. Here’s a Dear Dave inquiry I had last month: Dear Dave, We have a problem. Our ranch manager is a family member but does not have […]
Surgery with a Chainsaw

Ranching For Profit School instructors work with people in the evenings after class to help them apply the tools they learn in the school. A lot of people take advantage of these sessions to project their stock flow, calculate enterprise gross margins and project profit or loss for their ranch. When you throw in the […]
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