Livestock operations that have long term success have goals. Having goals allows for the development of a plan to reach those goals and that plan, in turn, allows management decisions to be made with intentionality. The presence or absence of goals and a plan drives the overarching mindset of the operation; actively and intentionally managing the operation vs. simply having cattle. I challenge you, no matter the size of your operation, to have specific goals which you are working towards. Given the value of livestock and the cost of land and inputs it is foolish to simply have livestock; there needs to be intentionality to what you are doing.
Before you stop reading, please hear what I’m not saying. The challenge issued was to have goals and the corresponding intentionality of management – I said nothing about what those goals should be.
At this point in the conversation, my default setting as an Extension Agent would be to launch into a discussion of measures and metrics that should frame your goals. Topics like “pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed” and “minimizing carrying costs” would drive the conversation because they are key to ranch profitability. However, I have been at this job long enough to realize that many times my clients prioritize other motivations above ranch profitability and that’s OK.
The goals you set for your operation can be whatever you want them to be. They can be purely financial; they can be driven by the products you produce (making better weaned calves, replacement heifers, freezer beef, etc.); they can focus on the land (improving soil health or biodiversity, protecting water resources, etc.); they could be operational parameters that can help facilitate more efficient management of your livestock (shortened breeding/calving, reduction is supplemental feeding, easier to handle cattle, etc.) or any combination thereof. It’s entirely about what’s important to you.
All that said, I will offer a few guiding principles for you to consider as you formulate your goals: 1) Economic sustainability needs to be considered even if progress towards the goal cannot be measured in dollars. If an operation is not economically sustainable it won’t be around long enough for anything else to matter. 2) Goals need to be specific and quantifiable; there needs to be something you can measure to track your progress (more on that later). 3) You only need a few (3 at the most) primary goals, and you need to stick with those goals until they have been met, or all feasible progress has been made. Too many goals and/or frequently shifting goals is essentially like having no goals – there is nothing to consistently provide direction and intentionality to management decisions.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the power of goals is that they allow you to plan with purpose. After you have stated specific goals for your operation, I challenge you to put a written plan in place designed to help you move towards meeting your stated goals.
As you work to formulate a few primary goals it will undoubtably emerge that you will need to achieve secondary goals on your way to achieving the primary. The order and precedence of these secondary goals will form the basic structure of your plan.
Good plans take work. There is often much research to be done and many decisions to be made while planning the path towards the completion of your goals. In so much as I, nor my Extension colleagues, or anyone else can tell you what your goals should be, we are well equipped to help you plan and make informed technical decisions regarding how you should go about meeting the goals you set. Reach out to your county’s UF/IFAS Extension Livestock or Agriculture Agent for help with the planning process – we’re here and happy to help.
With every operation having a different situation it is nearly impossible to make specific recommendations here that will be meaningful to you as you formulate your plan. However I can make two general recommendations, both of which I have found to be nearly universally helpful to small operations.
- Develop a Production Calendar:
Unfortunately, many opportunities to make progress towards our goals are missed simply because things sneak up on us. This is particularly true of smaller operations where the principal operator commonly has a job off the ranch. You get busy with other things, then suddenly, it is time, or past time, to do something (The list of time-sensitive ranch activities is very long.). You’re caught flat-footed and you skip the task all together, push it back to a less than optimum time, or just do the best you can on short notice. None of these outcomes is ideal and all will slow your progress towards achieving your goals.
Putting as many key ranch activities on a calendar as possible, as far in advance as possible can go a very long way in preventing activities from sneaking up on you. Your stated goals should weigh heavily on which events make the calendar and precisely when they need to happen. The exercise of putting the calendar together is a huge component of developing the plan you need to move towards your goals. You will be amazed by the progress that can be made simply by optimizing the timing of key events and being better prepared for those events because you had a calendar to remind you the events were coming.
It should go without saying, but a calendar is only useful if you look at it. Make it part of your routine to check the ranch calendar at least once a month, looking over the next few months and making any necessary additions.
- Keep Records:
Goals, plans, and production calendars help us find direction and manage with intentionality. Written records allow us to verify that we are moving in the right direction, or perhaps more importantly they can alert us when we are not moving in the right direction. Goals don’t need to change very often but the plan to reach them will need to be updated from time to time. Records show us when the plan is working and when it’s time for an update. Keeping records also necessitates measuring/quantifying something so that there is data to record and compare over time. The adage goes, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Again, all situations are different so I can’t tell you exactly what you need to be measuring but I can say that no one has ever collected too much data, and it is generally the more the merrier when it comes to records. Collecting and tracking data will shine light on your operation that will allow you to see strengths and weaknesses like nothing else. These revelations are what really allow you to dial in your plans and drive progress towards your goals.
For those of you with a cattle operation, this is a link to an excellent resource that my colleague Doug Mayo put together; it is designed to help you get started keeping meaningful records.
Your record keeping needs will vary depending on your specific goals; everything you need might not be included and/or there may be forms that don’t apply to your operation. That’s fine, just use what you want and add what you need – it’s a great, free, resource to get you started.
Goals, plans, calendars, records – I know those terms probably don’t come up very often when you talk about why you enjoy your livestock operation, but those are the kinds of things that will enable your operation to improve over time and enjoy long term success. Take the time to put yourself in a position to make intentional management decisions. Have goals for your land and your animals and have a plan to achieve those goals.
If you would like to discuss any of the points mentioned above in greater detail don’t hesitate to contact me at 850-638-6180 or mdm83@ufl.edu.
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