Stop Horsing Around: How To Protect The Profits Of Your Ranch Business

Contributed Post, December 23, 2017

If you’re a rancher or farmer, there’s a very strong chance that you do it for the love of the work. It’s not hard to see the attraction of spending days enjoying the outdoors and taking a hands-on approach with the raising of livestock. Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that this isn’t a hobby. For a business to be successful, turning a profit is the only answer.

This is something many ranchers, particularly inexperienced ones, forget to truly appreciate. Sadly, without that financial security, there’s no hope of sustaining that business enjoyment. For the sake of your bank balance, livestock, and sanity, getting this right is key. Here’s how you can keep yours in the best health possible.

Appreciate Costs & Secured Sales

Managing a ranch requires a lot of hard work, and there are many expenses needed to keep things ticking over. From land management to animal breeding, the costs encountered soon add up. Factoring in items like ongoing feed will help you forecast potential profits. Essentially, sales and revenue need to be a joint issue rather than two separate entities.

Another common mistake made by ranchers is to hold out for the best prices. While this can pay dividends on occasion, you must remember that produce is often time sensitive. Even when farmers are planning ahead with the sale of seasonal crops, a guaranteed profit is better than taking a risk. After all, there’s nothing more damaging to the venture than waste.

Meanwhile, you should know that it is better to gain small upgrades in several areas of the operation than focus on a big improvement in just one aspect.

Think About Ranch Design

Layouts are important for all commercial environments, including offices and retail outlets. However, the impact of those choices is even greater for a rancher. After all, animals lives are potentially at stake. Keeping them protected is crucial from a financial perspective as well as one of human emotion. As such, every decision made regarding the usage of the land is pivotal.

Livestock need safeguarding from external dangers as well as themselves. Using sucker rods on gates and fencing can be a particularly useful solution. Meanwhile, you may choose to place security cameras and tools to monitor animal activity. These features can also prevent human interference.

It’s also very important to think about animal warmth, particularly at nighttime during the colder months. Incorporate this into barn designs and other housing features, and you’ll see a far greater reaction.

Promote Healthy Stock

Healthy livestock is better livestock. Stronger, healthier animals will produce more meat, wool, and produce. Therefore, making investments into their well-being should be one of the key ingredients in your recipe for success. Without those investments, you cannot expect the value of the stock to rise. In turn, this will leave you with a lot of waste.

Giving animals the right foods, shelter and exercise are all crucial factors. The exact protocols will vary slightly as raising a healthy horse is unique to cows, buffalo and alternative livestock. Still, ensuring that they lead good lives, which includes the necessary vaccinations is vital.

Prevention is the best form of protection, but mistakes will occur from time to time. When animals die, it’s important to conduct an autopsy to find the cause. If it’s due to a mistake you’ve made, identifying the source of those problems could save animal lives. And profits.

Reach The Biggest Audience

As with any business venture, the ranch is nothing without its customers. As such, it’s imperative that your company creates a winning formula to reach the biggest audience and gain the largest sales figures. Even if marketing isn’t an area where you thrive, its significance ensures that it must not be overlooked for a second.

In this type of business, direct interaction with the customer is everything. Trade shows can be a particularly useful resource, not least when trying to win over B2B clients. Getting an expert to create logos, printed materials, and even video footage will provide a solid platform for success. In truth, though, it’s your personality and passion that can make the real difference. Embrace it and create those connections for far greater conversions.

A bigger client base can only further enhance your hopes of gaining the sales needed for stability and future growth. Do not underestimate it for a second.

Know The Competition

The levels of competition are perhaps a little softer than in some industries. But it’s important to keep an eye on other ranches as you don’t want to lose customers to superior operations. Ultimately, though, it’s not just about staying ahead of the crowd. This analysis can additionally open your eyes to simple mistakes and where you can make upgrades for bigger returns.

Use the best competitors as your benchmark. If their breeding activities are producing higher birthrates, there could be a simple reason for it. The success of those activities isn’t just about luck, and many ranchers will advise inexperienced ones. Not all will, as they may see you as a threat. In most cases, though, experienced ranchers want to keep animals and the business sector in good health.

Ranching and farming can be a game of very fine margins. Using market research to realize where you are going right and wrong will provide key guidance. Once you are on the right track, there’s nothing to stop you gaining the sustainability you crave.

Verdict

Ranches are very complex environments, especially on a business front. As such, they require all of those intricacies to be running smoothly and in unison. Ultimately, as long as every decision is one made with the good of the company’s finances in mind, you won’t go far wrong.

It sounds simple, but a formula of lower costs and lower risks combined with steady revenue should serve you well. Above all else, maintaining that sense of control enables you to keep things moving in the right direction. In turn, that should give you the best shot at maximized profits. What more could any ranchers ask for?