Agricultural News
Is Your Ranch Operation Not Performing Like It Should? May be Time for a New Management Plan
Fri, 22 Mar 2019 11:36:20 CDT
Hugh Aljoe is director of producer relations with the Noble Research Institute based in Ardmore, Okla. and recently spoke with attendees at the 2019 Cattle Industry Convention during its Cattlemen's College to discuss how to put all the pieces of a management plan together in order to be the most successful on their ranch. He shared some of his advice on that subject after his presentation, with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays, boiling it all down to the notion that if producers are intentional in their management decisions, they will enjoy more favorable outcomes.
"It all begins with a management plan and often times we have an idea of what we want to achieve, but we never put it into some sort of context as materials we can not only help determine what our priorities are - but how do we track it and were we successful or not," Aljoe explained. "How will we review our activities to say whether we need to change or modify? We get so involved in the process, we forget about the metrics and the metrics are what's important in order to obtain a goal."
A good place to start when developing your management plan, according to Aljoe, is by figuring out exactly what physical resources are available to you. In other words, what can your ranchland support? Aljoe, says in making this determination, a producer must consider all the facets of their operation starting with your ranch's stocking rate. He advises producers to ensure the numbers actually reflect what can be achieved in reality. Once that is decided, he suggests building into your plan room for flexibility so that when the unexpected happens, you can pivot your operation and adapt to strenuous situations or opportunities when they arise. As your plan develops and matures, he says you can then start making those decisions that leverage your capabilities and maximize your operation's profit potential.
"Ultimately, it is all about net return per acre and determining whether or not what we're doing is profitable and that we're actually adding value," he said. "We should always be improving our bottom line and that's ultimately what a producer should be looking at."
For more of Aljoe's advice on developing a management plan for your operation, listen to his full conversation with Hays, on today's Beef Buzz - brought to you by the American Angus Association. America's breed.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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