was basically gone. You have to be ready for situations like that.” Those are lessons Bivins has taken to heart.
He graduated from the Texas Christian Univer- sity Ranch Management Program in 2005 to join the JA and XL management. Bivins makes sure to select replacement females that will perform best in a particular climate. “Match breeds with the climate, taking into
ing year. Bevers says a meaningful ranch
plan should be divided into 2 sec- tions. The fi rst section should es- tablish the ranch’s overall status and the past year’s performance. “Analysts call this the baseline, or the starting point that future perfor- mance will be measured against,”
Admire the past; attack the future.
account humidity and heat,” he says. “If you’re thinking about starting a ranch, match your cows to the environment. At the ranch north of Amarillo, English breeds do really well. But when we get to a lower elevation off the Caprock, you need a little different cow.”
Stan Bevers, Vernon, says a ranch business plan should evaluate past performance and then establish expected performance for the coming year.
Separate enterprises Bivins is working to diversify
his ranch and other business ac- tivity. The JA Ranch has multiple enterprises. There are commercial hunting and social event gather- ings.
“We’re looking for any way to maximize
dollars the ranch can bring in,” he says. “I like to use enterprise budgeting for each part of the ranch. Income from cows and stockers and income from hunting are separate. They need separate plans to know if one is costing you money and one is profi table.”
Not just for large ranches “As long as the ranch is the size to where
you’re trying to make a living from it, the issues are the same and you need a good plan,” O’Brien says. Stan Bevers, Texas AgriLife professor and Extension economist in Vernon, says there is an increasing need to develop an overall plan for any ranch — a plan that “admires the past, but attacks the future.” He says a plan it should accomplish 2 things:
fi rst, evaluate past performance; and second, establish expected performance for the com-
64 The Cattleman March 2013
he says. “The second section details where the ranch is expected to be at the end of next year. “The plan should be written
down and evaluated following the coming year. Hired managers should prepare this document for their owners, while owner-operators should prepare this for themselves and their employees.” The fi rst section is typically di-
vided into 4 components, the fi rst of which is a general statement of overall observations. This would include rainfall during the year and the overall market situation or any abnormal situations that the ranch had to face during the past year. The fi rst section would then focus on 3 additional things — produc- tion, resources and the fi nancial situation and performance — each of which affects the other. “The best tool available to cow-
calf operations is the Beef Cow-calf Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA),” Bevers says. “Using SPA, the ranch management can determine just what the production, resource, and fi nancial performance of the operation was.” Specifi c production items that
should be determined are: • weaned calf percentage • pounds weaned per exposed