Reference Library

Cow College 101
July 1995

Ranch Breeding and Traits of Economic Importance
Larry Jones, Lucky S&L Ranch

When asked if I would be part of this forum it was easy to say yes. It wasn't until I found out who the other participants were that I realized how far out of my class I was. It was hard to imagine what I would have to offer as a new breeder that these veterans couldn't supply. I'm still not sure!

When Bob asked me to be here he said they wanted me to give a new breeders perspective on ranch objectives. He's seen some of our goal work and asked me to talk about that as well as what went into it. As a business consultant I work with goal setting quite a bit and decided to give it a shot.

What you will see in the next few minutes is a glimpse of the process we used in determining our breeding program and what outcomes we wanted. We will talk a little about our current objectives and I will share the process used to
develop them.

Our activities focused on four areas (EXHIBIT #1):

1) Research, 2) Development of an overall Mission or Purpose Statement, 3) Setting specific goals and action steps, and 4) Measurement/evaluation. It's normal, depending on how this last part turns out, to run through the process several times to finally end up with the outcome you want.

1) We spent two years kicking the tires of the Longhorn business before we bought our first cow. We attended numerous auctions, shows, ranch tours, affiliate meetings, extension service seminars and beef and range management short courses. We read every thing we could get our hands on and picked the brains of every cattle person that would stand still. At the end of two years we realized how much we still didn't know and made the decision to allocate some money for consultants. I firmly believe it is cheaper to "buy" expert advice than to reinvent the wheel. If we ever prove we're smarter than the experts we can go our own way.

2) After all this time we finally felt we knew the direction we wanted to go and we wrote it down. There were some limits imposed on this because we have an overriding purpose statement governing how we manage our ranch, and cattle are not our only priority. This overhead (EXHIBIT #2) is our ranch purpose statement and is an example of what I'm
talking about.

There is also a genetics plan or purpose statement that we will discuss in a minute, but first I want to explain how we got there.Our decision to buy a ranch, with or without cattle, had already been made. We knew that if we bought cattle we would treat it as a stand-alone venture, from a personal financial perspective, and within that context it needed to
make money.

We believe that it makes economic sense to own animals with high market values. Top line animals have the potential to generate above average income, and if we ever liquidate we expect to recover more than our initial capital outlay. Also, we don't think there is much difference in operating costs between high and low quality animals, and that it makes sense to maximize income on a per head basis. With a small herd it is even more critical because of the small calf crop and limited profit potential. For the small breeder with no illusions about profit, we think quality still makes sense because of the ability to offset more of the cost of the "hobby"

Earlier I talked about the two years we spent researching this business. During this time we tried to:

Evaluate the markets for Longhorns

Decide where we thought the major markets were going

Predict what people would want in three to five years

Analyze auctions to see what sold for the most money

Try to determine what various judges liked at shows

We formed some opinions and we think we see some shifting and maturing in the business that we hope to capitalize on.
Based on all that, the recipe for our perfect cow, not necessarily in any order, includes:

Horn. You can't have too much, and even if everything else goes wrong, horn still sells.

Color. Something that stands out and is eye catching.

Function. Great udder, lots of capacity, good feet and legs.

Conformation. Well muscled, good bone, lot's of spring of rib, depth, straight top line, little navel, feminine, lots of
eye appeal.

Pedigree. Has a direct impact on current and future market appeal because it taps into the name recognition paid for by the top breeders. Also, without an EPD system for Texas Longhorns, it is the only way I know to bring any level of predictability to genetic planning.

When we put all of that in a genetics plan for our ranch it looks like this (EXHIBIT #3):

A functional mission or purpose statement will evolve over time as people grow and learn and find ways to incorporate this new knowledge into their activities. We are currently on our second revision, and this overhead is a copy of it. One major difference in this one is that we eliminated our previous intent to have a separate WR herd. It became apparent that due to the herd size limitations we placed on ourselves we place on our selves we would not be able to have the genetic variety we wanted in our "progressive herd if we split it in half.

3) Having a written plan takes a lot of the ambiguity out of the mental picture I have in my head, but it still seems overwhelming at times and I tend to loose sight of some of it. To make it manageable and increase the chances of making it happen, I have to break it down to manageable pieces, and I do that with individual goals and action plans. This plan, for example, has 9 separate goals tied to it. I won't bore you with all of it, but one example (EXHIBIT #4) will give you an idea of what it looks like.

The goal statement contains three key things; an action verb, a specific measurement and a time for completion.

The resource and barrier sections help focus up front on potential problems and the things we can use to overcome them.

Action Steps, once clearly defined, make abstract and often overwhelming goals much more manageable. You just take one bite at a time.

4) The final step, measurement, is where you size up your results, pat yourself on the back, and either enjoy your rewards or modify the plan and tackle it again.

With a Purpose Statement as broad as the one you saw for our ranch, and even one for the breeding plan, you can end up with a lot of goals. To help sort it out and make it more manageable, we use a master status list. It includes a line for each goal, the time required, expected cost, and projected and actual finish dates. That sheet of paper helps keep priorities in order and provides lots of satisfaction when you get to check stuff off.

Hopefully all this makes some sense. I suspect that if Sandy and I had not gone through this process we would have thrown in the towel by now. Sometimes when we learn another expensive lesson we get frustrated and start wondering why we are doing all this. With a plan in place to serve as a road map we are able to see where we are. When we look back and see how far we've come, and then re-focus on our destination, it's easy to keep on trucking!