What is your unfair advantage? Do you even know what I am talking about when I say unfair advantage? If not, I think it's such an important concept that you should learn it right now. We all have one but most of us either don’t know what it is, or if we do it is not used effectively to our advantage. Some of us think we know what it is but we couldn’t be farther from the truth. A couple weeks ago I discussed how Oswald Cattle Company’s unfair…

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  The mention of wildlife conservation normally does not bring to mind grazing management or use of livestock but it should. Most times, when conservation is the focus, removal of grazing livestock from land is the solution proposed by most environmental or wildlife-centric groups. It is refreshing in light of this negative trend that there are groups like Keystone Conservation, a Bozeman, Montana-based organization. Together with its collaborators, Keystone is going against…

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  During my recent visit to Colorado I had the opportunity to talk with and ask questions of several progressive, profitable ranchers implementing low-input management on their operations. Steve Oswald, a soft-spoken, forward-thinking rancher, and his wife, Nancy, were among this group. Their outfit, Oswald Cattle Company, in Cotopaxi, Colorado runs around 150 head of cattle on about 11,500 acres of private and public lands near the Sangre de Cristo Mountains southern Colorado…

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  Kit Pharo is known for saying, "As long as you are doing what everyone else is doing you will never be above average.” The Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, seedstock producer also says his purpose in managing Pharo Cattle Company (PCC) is to be different for the right reasons. These statements rang true in my experiences earlier this week as I attended the Pharo Cattle Company’s spring bull sale in Burlington, CO. There I watched 225 bulls, all developed without…

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  In the management of a ranch, beef producers keep records on many things. Annual vaccinations, breeding and calving dates, birth weights, EPDs, average daily gains and pounds of calf weaned per cow are just a few examples of the types of things monitored. What is not so prominently monitored is the land itself, which is surprising to me given the fact that ranch profitability is directly related to ecological health of the land. Ranchers are first and foremost in the solar energy…

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  Bertrand Russell once said, “In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” In addition he also once said, “I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.” While I do not agree with many of the other ideals that Russell stood for during his lifetime, I can agree…

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  I went to college. I went to grad school. Along the way I discovered I could write. Then I moved to the other side of the country to pursue my passions. None of this was specifically by design. The whole reason I initially did these things was because a few key people gave me the ability to realize I even was capable of such things. They told me I could. Up until that point, although the idea may have entered into my mind at one point or another, I had no realization that…

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  We have heard time and again the depressing mantra of how the rising cost of production factors make farming a difficult career path for young people. At the same we hear reports of an optimistic future for young farmers and the growing field of interest in agriculture within the millennial demographic. These conflicting reports seems to send mixed signals to younger generations. Praising a growing interest and then offering a depressing prospective outlook does little to build…

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  A barrier facing many young people who want to start ranching is the challenge of acquiring necessary skills that lead to successful and sustainable operations. These topics are not something one can learn just anywhere and for the most part are never mentioned in most agricultural degree programs at universities. Many of the progressive ranching professionals I have come across always refer back to specific learning opportunities such as a Ranching for Profit School or a Bud…

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  Scanning through my Twitter feed on Thursday afternoon, a tweet from Ron Hays of the Oklahoma Farm Report caught my eye. This tweet highlighted a statement made by Oklahoma State University ag economist Derrell Peel at the recent Texoma Cattlemen’s Conference hosted by the Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Peel's quote: "Ranch owners are not in the beef cattle business - you are in the forage business."  Peel is right. This makes complete…

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