Beef operation ratios such as gross margin, gross income and contribution margin can help farmers evaluate their businesses
Ratios help tell the financial story on beef farms
Costs of Production: Benchmarks provide evaluations of how costs relate to income
Teamwork from a cow’s perspective
Costs of Production: How are you as a herd manager hitting the salary cap and identifying players that don’t fit?
Managing a herd of cows can be much like managing a sport team, as explained by Sean McGrath of Ranching Systems Ltd.
DNA testing can have value in commercial beef sector
Costs of Production: There are advantages to testing some cows, heifers, bulls and calves
There is growing interest in the commercial beef industry around using DNA to inform selection decisions. While traditionally the realm of the seedstock industry, commercial DNA testing and changes in the way we manage cattle have led to some big changes in how we think about genetic selection. DNA testing, in broad terms, means using […] Read more
Flipping cow depreciation on its head
Costs of Production: Open cows have a huge effect — especially when they are two-year-olds
I am keenly interested in cow depreciation and in fact have written about it in past Grainews columns. It is one of the largest direct expenses on a cow-calf operation — usually only behind feed — and it is worth touching on again in the wake of current record-high prices. First as a reminder, Figure […] Read more
The teenage years, beef cow edition
First-calf beef heifers are going through the biggest challenges of their lives and need some support
Anyone reading this column who has been a teenager or has raised one can appreciate how challenging and interesting those years can be. Even good teenagers can be expensive. In our beef cattle production systems, the teenage role is filled by replacement heifers, and like teenagers a bit of understanding about the changes they are […] Read more
An EU forage tour shows value of seed science
Farmers should make sure to take advantage of advances in forage varieties
I was given the unique opportunity to participate in a forage tour in the Netherlands and France hosted by Union Forage last August. This was a fantastic chance to see new developments but also to put boots on the ground and see what drives the forage industry in Europe and globally. It was reiterated over […] Read more
Rethinking yardage costs
Those costs can be higher than most think, so running your own numbers is important
For many of us, winter is a season of feeding cows. Feed is one of the key drivers of animal performance and is one of the highest direct costs for most cattle operations. Notice the use of the word feed. Feeding — that is, the act of providing feed — can also be one of […] Read more
Rethinking ranch priorities
Positivity and profit can be more important priorities than production
The beginning of a New Year marks a good time to work on planning for the year ahead. I believe we should be planning for “Profitivity” on our farms and ranches. Profitivity is a combination of profitability, productivity and positivity. For an operation to thrive, these three things are important to get right. Profit and […] Read more
Looking at key ranch profit drivers
Beef production is a bit more involved than having cattle eat grass, but putting efforts into management produces the best return
I often think that the ranching business is very simple until you get humans involved. At the most basic level, sun and rain grow forage, cows consume forage and reproduce and ranchers sell the offspring. Pretty simple, until it’s not. Fundamentally, this simple picture does provide some insight into what drives profit on most cow-calf […] Read more
Used mining tires serve as water reservoir
A relatively low-cost system supplies year-round water without freezing
I thought it might be interesting to share a winter watering system we put in place on our farm. It was designed to replace an existing waterline-fed trough, add capacity and provide some bulletproofing to our winter setup. One of the challenges at our ranch is that our numbers fluctuate a lot in the winter, […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
