Think Beyond Profit
Congratulations! You’ve just come through record cattle prices, you took Dallas’ last ProfitTips to heart, and now you’re sitting on a pile of money and wondering “what now?” There are many negative paradigms surrounding money, not only within agriculture, but within our society. Those paradigms have limited our ability to discuss money freely and openly. […]
Read MoreToo Many Options
We’ve always heard that having options is a good thing. Having options gives us the freedom to choose what is best for us. However, having too many options can feel chaotic and be crippling. When we have so many options, we actually tend to choose nothing. We look at the minor gain to our businesses as not worth […]
Read MoreTop 10 Tax Preparer Conversations
I just finished my first round of Executive Link meetings. In addition to being a facilitator I also presented the continuing education session where we dug deep into economics, finance, and income taxes. Although it can be a dry and boring topic, we had great discussions during and after the presentation. A common request from EL members was […]
Read MoreA Perspective on Gross Margin from Aaron
Aaron Helmick is a pain in the rear. Even worse he is a dairy farmer from West Virginia pain in the rear. 😆 Somehow Aaron managed to marry Tara and that vastly improved his chances in life. Aaron and Tara are alumni of Ranching for Profit and Executive Link. They are amazing and thoughtful people […]
Read MoreUses for Profit
When we talk about uses for profit some people roll their eyes. “Profit – yeah right! Like that ever happens in agriculture.” The reality is that most ag operations are not profitable. In fact most are really expensive hobbies. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Many are profitable every year. Some are highly […]
Read MoreKnow Your Destination
There isn’t a one-size fits-all approach to running a profitable ranch. If it were as easy as coming up with a list of practices to follow, ranching would be easy and it wouldn’t be nearly as interesting and fun. Those who have never attended a Ranching for Profit School often have the misconception that we […]
Read MoreA Business Mind Shift from Treg Ulmer
Treg Ulmer and his wife Courtney are members of the Executive Link program and building a business in Ohio. Treg shared some thoughts with me around balancing profit with other reasons why they choose to ranch. I encouraged Treg to write a ProfitTips column on this subject and I’m excited to share that here, with […]
Read MoreSilver Bullet
There isn’t a recipe for a profitable ranch. Not every profitable ranch calves in May and June. Not every profitable ranch has sold all their hay equipment. Not every profitable ranch uses some form of intensive grazing. It’s time to start looking beyond the production practices of some ranches and start looking deeper at the […]
Read MoreGoing Backwards Working for Wages
I was having a conversation with a ranch family the other day about doing their own trucking. They haul cattle to corn stalks and back each year, so they hire about 20 loads hauled to get it done. They were running numbers thinking about what owning a semi and cattle pot (trailer) would cost. They […]