The Problem: For many cow-calf producers, the information age has spawned a massive flow of data and technical communications that borders on the unmanageable. Earlier generations could not have imagined the volume or ease of access to information we enjoy. The challenge in this warp speed world of information overload is distilling a high-volume of facts, ideas and possibilities into a cohesive management plan. We also know that such a plan must allocate time and resources according to economic priorities.
Cow-calf operators must manage a broad range of daily activities in an environment replete with risk and uncertainty. Concurrently, industry specialists who support the cow-calf sector are challenged to provide information and technical services in alignment with the real world needs of producers. Specialists must not only generate new discoveries, but they also have the responsibility to assimilate, filter, and integrate vast amounts of information into a format that can be beneficially used by the industry.
Producers and specialists alike are confronted with mountains of information that is often presented as stand-alone facts and principles. This information needs to be integrated and applied according to economic priorities within the cow-calf enterprise. Prioritizing management activities and aligning the industry's information resources with these priorities is, thus, an important step toward improving producer profitability. But we must first understand which aspects of the operation need the greatest emphasis. In other words, we need to know what to prioritize in the first place. That is the purpose of this study: Identify management priorities in the commercial cow-calf business.
The Survey: Cow-calf managers function in a complex and risky business environment where it is impossible to control many factors that profoundly affect the bottom line of their business. The risk introduced by weather, markets, equipment breakdowns, and numerous other factors adds difficulty and uncertainty to decision making. However, managers can remain in control, so long as they focus continually on the areas of greatest economic importance.
To help address these issues, a management priorities survey was developed to determine which management areas are most economically important in the cow-calf business. Input and perspectives were solicited from both industry-leading producers and specialists who actively work in the beef cow sector. In total, 217 surveys were collected from 130 producers and 87 specialists. Producer respondents represent professional cow-calf operators with varying herd sizes from across the U.S. Participating specialists work with producers across a wide-range of disciplines (e.g., veterinary medicine, nutrition, economics/marketing, reproduction, pasture management) in various geographies throughout the nation. Producers and specialists were in general agreement as they gave their views on management priorities. The correlation between their mean priority scores was 0.90 (highly correlated) among the survey's 15 main management categories.
Key Messages: Summary of Top 10 Overall Rankings
1. Herd nutrition - respondents were in strong agreement making nutrition the number one ranked management priority.
2. Pasture and range management - respondents emphasized grazing as the preferred route to insuring adequate nutrition for the cowherd (harvested forages and supplemental feeds ranked 10th in the survey).
3. Herd health - results underscore to the importance of this area of the operation, with primary emphasis on disease prevention.
4. Financial - this management area was considered 'foundational to profitability' by two-thirds of respondents.
5. Marketing - respondents rounded out their top five with an emphasis on marketing, especially marketing of the calf crop through the most appropriate channel.
6. Production - this aspect of the cow-calf business remains important to profitability, with primary emphasis on (1) calving and breeding; (2) weaning protocols and replacement female selection; and (3) culling decisions and herd bull management.
7. Genetics - ranked higher among producers than specialists, and higher still among producers who retain ownership of their calf crop through the feedlot.
8. Labor - this category ranked in the middle of the pack, but received higher marks from producers managing larger herds.
9. Information management - subtopics ranking high in this category included herd reproduction data and cattle inventory information with overall cattle performance records, health data and weaning information rounding out the list.
10. Harvested forages - completed the top 10 but with specialists ranking this topic higher than did producers. Respondents were keen on maintaining lower than industry average costs in this category.
Identification, natural resource management, biosecurity, facilities and equipment and technical support were ranked 11th through 15th, respectively. As a group, these five topics were viewed as well down the priority list, though beneficial and in a supporting role to cow-calf profitability.
EDITOR's NOTE: The complete 32 page report of this article may be found in PDF at: http://www.angus.org/pubs/PrioritiesFirstFinal.pdf The author, Dr. Tom Field, will be a featured presenter during session 2 of the February series, Managing Dynamic Change in the Beef Cattle Industry. Find details, and registration information in the November 12, issue #610, of the Ohio BEEF Cattle letter.
Source : Ohio BEEF Cattle letter.