Riding Shotgun
Start At The Bottom
As we travel the highways and by-ways of the Limousin family and
breed we often cuss and discuss the cattle business, sports, politics,
great cheeseburgers and most of the time, the promotion and
marketing of Limousin cattle.
Through “Riding Shotgun” we invite you to join us in the right-
hand seat, so that we can let you in on what we find to be our
marketing pet peeves, shortcuts and some of the favorite habits of
top-flight professional producers. Grab a cup of coffee and take the
‘shotgun seat’—we are pleased to have you riding along.
M
any times, when I’m out on a consulting trip or looking at
calves, the pickup “finds” its way around the pasture until we
end up at the best female in the pasture. The proud owner will take
their time convincing me how good she is (which is already obvious)
and then we will talk about what she has raised and what to breed her
HN FARMS
G
U
A
V
G enetics
for
the
Future
New
Day
PRODUCTION SALE
TUE., MARCH 17, 2020 • 1 p.m.
Napoleon Livestock • Napoleon, North Dakota
SELLING 70 LOTS
45 Bulls • 25 Bred Heifers
f
Look for us on
and
vaughnfarmslimousin.com
to next and spend lots of brain power and energy on the one female in
the program that we probably don’t need to worry about.
In the seedstock business, you need to think about “Quality over
Quantity”. It has been my experience that the top 50% of the females
in any program are accounting for 80% of the income and that’s a
good thing. But it also highlights the bottom-end females who are not
carrying their weight and really points to where you need to spend a
little time studying your hole card.
In 2014 and 2015, when the market was booming, it seemed like a
great idea to add a few females to the program by keeping heifers that
maybe weren’t as good as they needed to be. Expansion starts almost
accidentally—things are good, we’ll just keep a few more replacements
and nobody will notice. We won’t cull as hard on the poor producers
and no one will notice. Then, as it always happens, the market becomes
a little more of a challenge or grass gets short and the next thing you
know we’ve got some cows that are a drag on the system.
In the registered seedstock business it is easy to get attached to females
that become sentimental favorites. She’s out of your favorite cow, you
really like the way she looks, or her pedigree says she ought to work,
but she’s not. The problem is, she is a drag on you in more ways than
you can imagine. She eats as much as a good one, she requires as much
or more time as a good one and she is not producing like a good one.
We all have that one cow or more that makes us mad and causes
us to get discouraged. She calves later every year, she has an udder
problem, she’s nasty in a corner, or she brings in the smallest calf.
Every time you look at her, she takes away the joy of the cow we talked
about at the top. She’s costing you financially and more importantly,
she’s taking away your positive passion for the business. She’s giving
you the old double whammy.
I would challenge you to lighten your load and your mood by
working off those bottom-end cows. Identify who isn’t working and
remove them from the program. You will be amazed how much more
enjoyable it is to concentrate on the good ones, when you’re not mad
about the freeloaders. Please keep in mind, “Quality over Quantity”.
Concentrate on those that work. The next thing you know, you are
looking at a pasture full of PRODUCERS. Sometimes it works the
best to start at the bottom.
See you down the road.
VAUGHN FARMS LIMOUSIN
Family Owned & Operated
24
9741 142nd Ave. NE • Cavalier, ND 58220
Tom: 701-520-0110 • David: 701-520-2556
Craig: 701-520-1624
www.vaughnfarmslimousin.com
• JANUARY 2020
CONTACT THE AUTHOR
Mark A. Smith
email: [email protected]
phone: 515-229-5227