You CAN Farm/Ranch for Profit

This past weekend I reviewed a DVD that I think every On Pasture reader should have. “The Three Secrets For Increasing Profit” is an introduction to principles from the Ranching for Profit School and features Dave Pratt of Ranch Management Consultants. I’m recommending it so highly because I think it helps On Pasture accomplish one of our primary goals: to help farmers and ranchers be more profitable. Though the DVD can’t cover everything you’d learn if you attended a week-long Ranching for Profit School, it gives you a good feel for the topics the school covers, and a start on working on some new ways of thinking about running your operation as a business. In fact, that’s one of the first topics, Dave addresses: “Do you own a business or do you own a job?” A business owner can leave, and the business won’t suffer. But if you’ve got a job, well, you’re going to have to be there every day, rain or shine. This was a little depressing for me, as I realized that I’ve got a job, and I felt kind of bad about that. Fortunately, Dave describes some ways we can turn our jobs into businesses. He provides real life examples of problems farmers and ranchers faced, along with ways those problems were solved. Dave is also a great teacher, doing one of the things I think is most important when trying to help people learn something new: he knows we’re uncomfortable, and maybe even feeling a little bad about our business skills, so he creates an environment whe