Bud's Musings

• Work
• Drought
• Grass Finish
• People and Animals
• Time, how Important is it?
• Right or ?????
• Control
• Work Happy
• Learning
• The Round Rocks
• Global Warming
• Marketing
• Starting Out
• Sure Thing
• Profit
• Grass
• Plan
• Cycles
• Attitude
• Balance
• Something

WORK, is it really that bad?

It seems like everything is about doing less work, or how hard work is. Work should be satisfying and enjoyable to us, then doing less or how hard it is will not be on our mind. If our work is enjoyable, we could spend more time and learn how to do it better, then it will be less work and not nearly as hard.

If we choose to work at something, that should be because we really want to do that, more than any other job. If that is true then why would we want to get done in less time? It is good to do many things and experience new things, yet the work we choose should be the most satisfying and enjoyable. If it is not then we should find something else to do.

As we get older what we want or enjoy may change, then our work should probably also change. Your work should not take time away from what you enjoy. If it does then you are working at the wrong thing. So many people have wants and goals that conflict with what they are doing or what they have. I have one goal, that is to try to do better today than yesterday, and to want what I have. Then life is always good and work is interesting and fun.

During the years 1930 to 1950 life was much simpler. People worked very hard just to have something to eat and a roof over their head at night. There were not a lot of other things to do, and they could not afford them anyway, so the people I was around had learned how to enjoy the work they were doing. It didn't matter how hard the job was or how long it took. They took great pride in doing a good job and doing more work than someone else. It was almost a game to do more work in a day than the person alongside them.

At our farm we did three hours chores in the morning and three hours at night. This was seven days a week. During the day there was eight hours of work or whatever it took to get the jobs done. This was six days a week and most of the time seven days. People were not complaining, they were just happy to have a job. They still would find time to go to a dance on Saturday night and just get home in time to start chores on Sunday morning. Or, they would just visit a neighbor and talk or play music and sing. In those days people enjoyed talking to each other.

Now, there are so many things to do and people have so much money and because it isn't possible to do everything, people are unhappy with what they do. This is not because they don't like what they are doing but because they don't have time to do it all.

At one time we didn't have all these things to do and didn't have the money to even do all the things there was to do. Now, there are so many things to do and people have plenty of money, it's the time they don't have. So now people complain about work taking too much of their time. We lose sight of what is making the money that makes it possible to do these other things. When we enjoy our work, these other things would be taking time away from what we enjoy most, our work.

We can go do many things and come back to our work knowing this is what we really like best and do not mind the time it takes to do things right. It's not hard work if we enjoy it. Life can be simple and work can be interesting and enjoyable, or we can want too much and life gets complicated and work gets hard.

Remember, love your work then you can Smile and Mean It .

Drought

Droughts have caused some serious problems around the world, both financial and emotional, so I'm not saying that a drought isn't bad. Yet, in the U. S. more problems are caused by how we handle the drought than the drought itself.

A drought doesn't start after six months or a year, it starts the first day that it is dry. It may be over the next day if it rains. In other words, it starts the first day. A long trip starts with a single step, not when you are half way or almost there. The first day it is dry is the time to start preparing.

Most people have a long-range plan. They probably use normal conditions when they make this plan. So as we go along, following our plan, everyday that it doesn't rain will take us further and further away from it. We keep hoping it will rain. Hope doesn't always help much. By the time we admit there is a drought, we are running out of feed. Because our animals are “too good to sell,” or we have spent years building up a herd to what we want, we keep them, still hoping it will rain. At some point we may be unable to continue to buy feed and have to sell. Other people who are in the same boat are also selling, and the market may not be too good. In most situations our place has been over-grazed which can cause permanent damage, or at least it will take much longer for our land to come back to normal when it does rain. Often, the animals we have spent so much time getting them to what we want are gone.

A long-range plan is good if the weather and the market is also willing to follow the same plan. Otherwise, a long-range plan can be a disaster.

We go outside in the morning and it is dry. This is easy. Even without a plan we can tell that it is dry. This means that a drought has started. Right then we should start to prepare. If it rains the next day, then the drought is over and everything is fine. Being dry for one day doesn't hurt, but if it doesn't rain, we will have started to prepare at the very start, not after six months or a year.

It is dry. That means we can see how much feed we have, and we might not get any more. To prepare we need less animals since we will have less feed, or we need animals that eat less feed. We can sell a grown cow and keep a heifer calf. We will receive income from the sale of the cow, the calf will eat less feed, and we will still have the genetics we have worked so hard to develop. If we have 200 cows we could sell 50 or 100 cows and keep heifer calves in their place or whatever number fits with the amount of feed that we have. If we sell early, the price will probably be better than if we wait until everyone has to sell. As we go along we can sell more cows as necessary and either keep calves to replace them or keep the money so when it does rain we can purchase more stock or have money to live on while the heifer calves are getting into production.

Remember, prepare for a drought from the first day, not after you are forced to. Planning is great if you use a 24-hour plan. Prepare for what is happening now, then we can stay financially sound and not hurt our land.

Stay prepared, then you can Smile and Mean it!

Grass Finish

This is not something new. Ever since the first person ate an animal, we have eaten grass finished animals. In fact, at one time almost everything was grass finished. Grain feeding animals is reasonably new. It mainly came about as a way to market grain. Transportation was slow and very expensive, so it worked well to feed animals and sell them. Not only did it help the people growing grain, but the livestock owners also liked it. Now they had a very easy way to sell their animals.

Before this market opened up it was not always easy to sell at a decent price. My dad butchered and sold all of our meat animals right at our place. Not many people could or would do this, so they were more than happy to sell to the grain finisher. That would have been alright except that this slowly took all of the business away from the local abattoir. As they started to go out of business, it got harder to get grass finished animals butchered. By now, very few people know how to butcher at home. While we were letting the local abattoir go out of business, someone was making laws that would make it very difficult to butcher at home anyway.  Today it is very expensive to get animals butchered.

Things happen because of changing circumstances more than because they are good or bad.  Let's kind of look at the past.  While I don't try to guess what the future will be, sometimes understanding how and why things happened will help us prepare for what could happen in the future. Growing grain happened because with a team of horses, plow, and some seed a person could get started. As farms got farther from the market, transportation started to be a problem. With a team and wagon they didn't go very far in one day and could not haul very much. My grandparents lived about 25 miles from town. They went to town twice a year. It was one day in with loaded wagons, one day in town and one day back home with supplies. There were seven children in the family.  Two got to go with each trip to town. So every year and a half or two years each child got to go to town. I wonder how young people or even older folks would like that now?

After the Second World War, farming really started to change fast. Tractors began taking the place of the horses and mules. New hybrid seeds, irrigation, and other new things allowed for increased production per acre. Now the farmer could go to one or two crops and make a living. This was great except now it was easy to produce more than what was needed. Now we had lots of inexpensive feed. This is when grain feeding really started to expand. We were building roads everywhere.  There were trucks to haul the feed and animals and we were not limited to the railroads. Also the cost of fuel was low, and it was possible to move feed and animals to where it was best to feed them. It was only natural for the abattoirs to move to the major feeding areas.

The livestock people also really liked this. Where we lived, the ranchers kept their steers and spayed heifers until they were 3-years old and sold them right off grass. Now a new market opened up and allowed the rancher to sell weaned calves, yearlings, or send them to a feedyard and let someone else feed and sell them. This was great.  Now we could just have cows and calves or just buy calves and have a stocker business or any combination. Life was good, but the grass finish business was almost done.

Then something new, that was not really new, started to happen. Some people started to think that eating grass finished animals would be more healthy. To some people, new opportunity just opened up. To others, there were just so many problems they felt that it would not work. The ones who saw it as an opportunity now have very successful businesses. We have been away from grass finish long enough that some things were forgotten or not easy to get. Of course, that is where the opportunity is for the person who figures out the answer to the things that are difficult.

Now we may have something new or very different that is happening that is not that different from some things that happened in the past. When I was young, transportation was slow and expensive. To us, grain was also expensive since we had no money to buy it, no matter what it cost. Transportation and grain is now getting very expensive when compared to what they were two or three years ago. This will offer great opportunity or many problems, whatever we want it to be. If the cost of gain goes up, this will make our grass more valuable. It might be wise to relearn how this was handled in the past and use some of those things to help us today.

Ranchers didn't keep animals until they were three years old just because they liked to look at them. It was to get the most pounds to sell from the grass they had. Just think about this.  If they had two cows that produce two calves that weigh 400 pounds each, it would take the grass or feed for two cows for a year and for two calves for six months to get 800 pounds to sell.

Or, for about the same amount of grass they could keep four calves that weigh 400 pounds each for a year and easily get 1200 pounds or more of gain.  If they just got 1200 pounds of gain, the calves would now weigh 700 pounds each. They could now take three animals that weigh 700 pounds each on the same amount of grass and get at least 1200 pounds of gain. With the two cows in these two years they would get four calves that weigh 1600 pounds total.  With about the same amount of grass they could gain 2400 pounds by keeping four calves that weighed 400 pounds for two years.

When the grain feeding took over and the cost of gain was low, people could pay a premium price for calves. Most cow/calf producers like to have lots of cows. They could sell calves and have feed to run more cows. So again, almost everybody was happy.  Life was good.

My dad raised animals, finished them, and butchered them right on our place. He could only butcher between October and March since we had no refrigeration, and he could only do it when the evenings were cool enough to cool the meat. We never fed grain to anything but the hogs. He was still able to finish the animals and have a good product. At that time people had very little money, and if the meat wasn't good they would bring it back and tell everyone they knew and you would not sell any more. He knew how to keep the animals gaining and finish even in the winter with feed we grew. If we are going to finish large numbers without grain, we may need to use some of these things again.

Remember, grain prices up or grain prices down, there are lots of opportunities. Fuel cost up or down, transportation cost up or down, there will be lots of opportunities. Learn how to get the most out of the grass or feed you have. Be willing to change as conditions change. In the coming years that may be often.

Stay prepared and things will be good, maybe even great!

People and Animals

After spending most of my life working with and trying to understand animals, I've spent the last 20 years working with and trying to teach people. I now realize that working animals is as much about life as it is about getting a job done. In order to work animals we must tell them what we want them to do. The better we communicate what we want, the better the animals work for us. This is also true with people; the better we communicate what we want, the better people respond. The more personal the communication is, the better it is. As the years go by, we use technology more and more and personal contact less and less. People really need a certain amount of proper personal contact, but we are willing to give that up in order to feel we are doing it faster. It is my opinion that this is not good for people. I know that it isn't good for animals.

When we get close enough to animals that they start to respond to our presence, then every move we make is telling them something. With our movements we are talking to them. If we want a good result, then we must tell them the right thing. That means talking in a language that they understand. Also, all this time their movements are talking to and telling us what they want and what they think we are saying. It doesn't matter what we think we are saying to them, it only matters what they think we are saying or what we are telling them to do. If we want a good result, it is important we spend enough time around the animals that we learn to understand what they are saying. Also that we move in such a way that they understand what we are telling them.

There was a time when people would get together and talk. This was good for everyone. Things could be talked about until things were understood. Now almost everything is done with telephone or e-mail. I know how this effects me, and it isn't good. Trying to discuss something with e-mail is very confusing to me. And most of the time I just stop it right there and don't even try to fix things, as they quite often just get worse. Trying to explain something that was not understood at first is very difficult or impossible with e-mail or a telephone. With personal contact it is easy to explain or quickly know that nothing will work. More and more we are getting away from personal contact and using things that keep a distance between us.

When we do this with animals it does not work very well. In 1973 we had over 130 million head of cattle. Now we have about 100 million head. Today we have a lot of very good vaccines, many new and very good drugs, yet we have more health problems than ever before. The reason this is happening is because we get farther away from proper human contact. When we spend our time around our livestock on equipment or try to work them with movements they do not understand, then they respond just like I do with e-mail or a telephone. Yes, we could learn to accept these new things. Some do, lots do not. That is why there are so many problems now. It should be and is our job to teach our animals how to accept any new thing they must face.

When I was young we talked to adults and liked to be around them. They told stories about the past and showed us how to do things better. Now young people have radios, portable music, cell-phones, computers, and television. They don't want to talk to or even be around older people. These new things are great, but they are creating a distance between people that is not good. With e-mail, young people will communicate with someone they don't know or know anything about, yet they do not want to speak with an older person that is right beside them. Years ago people on airplanes would talk to each other. Sometimes, on a long flight, people behind, in front, across the aisle or any one else that was interested would talk and be involved in the conversation. Now the person seated next to you doesn't even want to say hello.

When I was young we got up early, milked the cows, fed the calves, pigs, horses, chickens, and did the other chores that needed to be done. Only when all the chores were done would we eat. The same was done at night. When all of the animals were taken care of, then we ate. We enjoyed our animals and liked to spend time with them. Everything was done by hand, so we were right on the ground and right with them. This was done 7 days a week, not just if we could find the time. Today, most of the work is done with tractors and other machines, things that keep us from having personal contact with the animals. Now people are always in a hurry, almost everything is more important than the animals. Because of this, there are many problems and most of them are caused by lack of proper human contact. Proper human contact means using a language they understand when we work them or even when we are just around them. They don't realize that we are in a hurry, they just know we are not using the right language. Then they get confused just like I do with the e-mail that I do not understand. When the animal is emotionally upset is when bad things start to happen. It may be hard to work or it may try to get away or it may just get sick in a few days or maybe it will just not perform as well. Remember, it is wise to talk to our animals and use the right language when we do.

Talk, not tech. Then we can all Smile and Mean it.

Time How important is it?

Without time we have nothing. In business making a profit is very important. Therefore time may be our most important asset. And it is quite likely the least understood. Most people are only concerned about how long it takes to do something, while taking more time might be more profitable. Now we will spend any amount of money on equipment or other improvements that we hope or think will allow us to do things faster. This does not mean it will be better or maybe even faster.

When we work with animals they do not always want it done faster or in less time. What it will cost us to save the small amount of time may be much more than what we gain. Also, because we hurry it may take longer so we save nothing, and it just cost us more. Animals like proper human contact. They do best when they stay in a normal frame of mind. They respond well to slow and steady. This will take less time.

When we move animals, their emotion is very important. If they are excited or have other emotions that are not normal, we will pay a price for this. It may be a little or a lot. Since we will not get a bill, we may never know how much it costs us, but it will cost just the same. The time we spend with animals is very important, proper time, not how much or how little. They really like human contact. But it should not get them excited or upset. If it does, then it will cost us. This cost may be large or small but will be there. If we do cause them to get excited or upset, then we should spend whatever time it takes to get them back to a normal mind set. Every time we get around our animals or have contact with them, we are teaching them something good or something bad. It is important to understand that if we are not teaching them something good, then it is costing us money. Since we do not get a bill right then, it is not understood how much the cost is. Learn to spend the right time with your animals. Not more, not less but proper time in a proper way.

If we have animals, it should be partly because we enjoy them. Then we should enjoy the time spent with them not try to be faster all the time. The animals should enjoy the time we spend with them or it will cost us. You will almost never save enough time to pay for the cost. Learn how to work better not just try to do it faster. If, or when, you actually learn how to work them better, it will be possible to get things done in less time with a better result.

Better, not just faster, then we can Smile and Mean it.

Right or ?????

“Wrong” is not a good word to use. We should say “Right” or “Not quite Right.” When something is not quite right we can fix it and make it right. When we say something is wrong, it stays wrong because that is what we said it was. Even if we fix it, it was still wrong at one time because we said so.

There was a time when young people were allowed to, or had to fix things that were not right. Here is an example – When I was 5 and my sister was 7 years old, we were driving the derrick-horse. This was the horse that pulled the hay from the wagon up into the barn. It was about 110 degrees and there weren't any wagons in to unload so we went to the house to get a cold drink. Instead of going back to the barn, we sat under the trees at the house. A wagon-load of hay came in and Dad yelled for us to go ahead, but we weren't there. In just a few minutes Dad came after us. He got my sister by the left ear and me by the right ear. We were headed out the gate when my mother stepped out on the porch and said “They are just small.” Up to then, Dad had not said a word. Now he said “One more word and you will get some of the same.” Dad was a very kind person but getting the hay in was more important than how big we were. He already knew that, anyway. There were two things that were not quite right. We were not doing our job and mother started to interfere. Dad allowed us to fix both of these. We got back to our job and Mother didn't say anymore. We knew what we did wasn't right. No one had to say anything to make us feel better. When Dad let go of our ear we felt better.

Now, if a young person does something that isn't right, everyone runs to tell them that “It's OK” and tries to make them feel better. Someone fixes, or cleans up and the young person gets no chance to make it right. They know that it isn't alright, and they don't get a chance to make it alright, so it is wrong. The young person who gets to fix and make it right doesn't worry about being wrong because they weren't wrong, only not quite right until they fix it. You can't be wrong until you quit or do not fix it.

Today, young people are concerned about “Wrong.” It seems like they feel that being wrong is really bad. As soon as you use that word that means there is not a way to fix it or you quit. As long as a person keeps working until they fix the problem, there was no “Wrong.”

Let's live in the world of “Right” or “Almost Right,” not in the world of “Wrong.” Remember, it is only a word. It is our choice to either use it or not use it. Keep your mind clear. Make things as right as you can, then life and everything else is good.

Be “Right,” and Smile and Mean it!

Control

Today, people are really into “control” with animals. Some control is necessary but how we get it and what kind of control we use is very important. There are several ways to control and sometimes we should use more than one way. Building more fences can be very helpful or just more expensive. Stronger and higher corrals can help or just add to the expense and should not be necessary. Using feed to move animals may help but there are times when it doesn't work or times when it just makes things worse. Working our animals better can really help but it will take some time and effort from us to learn how and then we must do it. All of these things have good points and possible problems so your decision of which to use, and when, is important.

It is helpful to understand the situation and know what control will work best. I spent many years working with stockdogs. There is quite a difference of opinion about what or how much control is needed with a working dog. My dad always had a dog on the farm. He knew what his jobs were and he did them. In the morning when we got to the milking barn the dog had the cows there. As soon as we started moving around the dog knew it was time to go get the cows. At night, when we opened the gate to the sheep pasture he would bring in the sheep. They might be up to a mile away, in a brushy pasture but the dog would get every one. If a gate came open at night and animals got out, we would find the animals back in their pasture and the dog lying in the gate when we got up in the morning. It didn't take any control; this was just business as usual for one of the “untrained” dogs of the past. He learned his jobs and loved doing them. Now, if this dog was taken to a trial to compete against trained dogs it would not understand someone telling it what to do. He didn't need to be told how to get his jobs done. This dog had learned how so he didn't need to be controlled.

Eunice and I went to work on a large ranch in rough, mountain country. Every cowboy had several dogs. These dogs would go stop cattle and hold them until the rider got there. Then, with a lot of yelling and the help of a pocket full of rocks, the dogs would be called off and the rider would start driving the cattle. If the cattle tried to get away, the dogs were sent again. These dogs were never used to drive cattle, only to stop them. If the dog was used to drive it might ruin them for going to the lead and stopping the cattle. This was all that the cowboys needed the dog to do. They could send the dog and call it off, that was all of the control that was needed. These dogs had to be fool-proof at going clear to the lead. The cattle might start running when they heard the riders a half-mile away. By the time the cowboy saw their tracks the cattle might be a mile or more away. The dog is sent. After a run of 2-miles it catches up with some of the cattle. The dog passes them, puts his nose to the ground and smells other cattle so he keeps on going until he knows that he has gotten to the lead of everything. For this job, very little control was needed. A dog that had been taught too much control would not be able to do this job very well, if at all. A good, wide outrun in the mountains with really rough canyons might keep the dog from even finding the cattle. The untrained dog just out-ran them and was on their track all the time so he had no trouble finding them. These were untrained dogs being used by people who were not dog trainers. Still, they were able to get a very difficult job done.

During this time there were some people who trained dogs and were very good at it. These dogs were used with a lot of control and did just what the trainer wanted. They were very seldom allowed to work on their own. After seeing these people and their dogs I decided that I wanted to be able to train my dogs to work better. As I demanded more and more from my dogs, I got less and less from them. After two or three years it was plain to me that too much control was not a good thing. So then I tried to get a balance between control and the dog learning what to do. It wasn't long before I realized that allowing the dog to learn what to do was the most important. Then it was just using a little control and lots of learning what and how to do the job. We can use control in many ways. We can control what we teach the dog, or control the dog.

Eunice and I would drive 500 yearlings through the mountains for 15 or 20-miles. We would have two or three dogs along. I would leave one dog at the back, Eunice would take the lead and I would work the side. Sometimes the dog at the back wouldn't see us for two or three hours. The dog knew its job and did it. There was no way to give it commands or to control it. I guess you could give the dog a list of what it should do, but the cattle might get away when he stopped to read it. We would often be hired to bring in ten or fifteen really wild cows that were running in rough mountain country. After we located the cows and sent the dogs, they would hold them up until we got there. We'd call the dogs off and head for home with the cows. In that country, a person on horseback can't always keep up with wild cattle. When we came to a fork in the trail and we could see by the tracks that the cattle had gone the wrong way, we'd send the dogs to bring them back and head them down the right trail. It didn't take long until the dogs would go with the cattle. When they came to a fork in the trail they would hold the cattle there until we could catch up and let them know which way they needed to go. These dogs were under control but not being controlled.

We should do the same thing with our animals and the Market. Use the right control or right combination of control. There is always a way to control the animals and get the best results. We can't control the Market but we can use the things that we can control to do a better job of Marketing

Understanding “control” will allow us to Smile and Mean it!

Work Happy

I was just invited to attend my high school class reunion. I don't know why they would ask me, they are all normal, successful people. I say "all," there were only 13 to start with. I guess they just wanted to get a good look at the class failure. The teacher that I respect the most in my life made the comment that he always considered me his greatest failure because he couldn't talk me into going to college. That got me to thinking about the past which is something I don't spend much time doing.

I was raised on a farm. We had 30 milk cows. We sold cream so we had lots of skimmed milk that we used to raise calves. We had about 10 sows and up to about 200 sheep. We had 20 work horses, chickens, ducks, turkeys - it was a real farm, not a factory. We started milking at 5:00AM, then we separated the cream, fed the calves, pigs, horses and let the sheep out. The sheep had to be penned at night to protect them from coyotes. This took about 3-hours in the morning and 3-hours at night. I really enjoyed the work and the animals. In fact, from the time I was 5-years old, nobody beat me to the milking barn. That was really important to me, no one else was going to get to work first.

From that, my life evolved into two major things. Work hard and be happy.

During this time I met Eunice (or she met me). This worked great, I liked to work hard, and she liked for me to work hard. Of course, that meant that she also got to work hard. I was always happy or worked hard at being happy and Eunice was happy. Probably any woman would have been happy just to be with me, but that's another story.

When I worked hard and was happy, the animals did better. It made me realize that animals like someone who likes to work hard. Not because they work hard, but because they like it. Most people are trying to find some way to not work. That means that they must not like to work. Animals don't respond well to that. Because I like to work it is easy to be happy. Animals like it when you are happy. When someone doesn't like to work or would rather be doing something else, they will not be happy. Animals don't like this. Very simple - Happy People, Happy Animals - most problems are gone!

When the problems are gone, everything is good, even for the class failure. And he likes it that way!

Work hard; be happy. Smile and Mean it!

Learning

Learning is the road to understanding. The problem is, most people stop at the first little hill or at the first corner. There was a time when young people were taught things. They were taught discipline, to start and finish a job, to do things right or at least the best they could and not quit until it was right. When young people are not taught how to learn, they copy. This is not bad but it does develop bad habits. When we copy, there is no patience or discipline required. Most people like this. When people are copying they don't like to be told what to do or be corrected. They usually want to go off by themselves to practice. If they aren't doing it right or learning how to do it right, they will get very good at doing it wrong.

When I was young we hired a crew of fifteen to twenty men when we put up hay. This would often only last for two or three days, and we might never see these men again. The next time we needed a crew, they may be all different men. One day, when I was 7 or 8 years old I was helping hook up a team of horses. One of these men was walking by, he hit me along side of the head and almost knocked me down. He said “You aren't doing that right.” He stood right there and made me do everything and do it right. I don't think I ever saw that man again, but almost 70 years later I still know how to hook up a team.

We always grew a big garden. Every Tuesday everyone went to the garden. If it was during haying, the whole crew went. The kids worked right along side the adults and were expected to do things right. Today, I still enjoy weeding a garden. When you know how to do something and are taught the patience and discipline to finish what you start, you will do a good job and you will enjoy it.

What has that got to do with today? Young people today, or at least most of them, are not taught how to learn. To me, a young person is anyone born after 1960. That's about when people quit teaching their kids. Now people are running around trying to find something to copy that will allow them to make a lot of money with no work, or at least only the work that they want to do, when they want to do it.

When someone tries to teach people that don't know how to learn, there is a problem. The student will change or ignore the parts that they don't like or don't want to do. Learning is understanding, not just taking what you like or changing parts to suit yourself. If you really want to understand something, then take the time to learn how to learn. If you want to copy something that you feel is good, then don't change anything. If you change parts of it, it may not be good anymore. There is so much information available today, but if you don't know how to learn the information may do little or no good at all.

I still use a pencil and paper. I also have a big eraser. This is something we all need. If something isn't right, erase it and make it right. If we understand, really understand something, know how to learn, have patience and discipline and use them, then it's easy to run a business or do a good job.

Learn and you can Smile and Mean it!

The Round Rocks

Above is my most valuable (and only) collection of round rocks. They came about while I was trying to teach people to work cattle. Most people, when working livestock are looking at the wrong things or not looking at all. While trying to get people to quit looking at the ground and watch the animals, they would say that they had to see where they were going or they might fall down.  I would say "If you open your eyes and see everything instead of focusing on individual things, you will be able to see what all of the animals are doing and still be able to see the ground well enough to be able to tell that this rock is round," as I reached down to pick it up.  I did this many times, therefore, my "Round Rock Collection."

I haven't wanted other people to see the rocks. Since their value is so high, I was afraid someone might want to buy them, but I finally realized that it was important for the world to see them. I will probably donate them to some big museum someday.

Global Warming

We have heard from all of the smart and educated people, maybe it’s time to hear from an uneducated person. The only difference is that I will admit that I don’t know anything about Global Warming. Since I really know nothing about it, there are a few questions and comments I’d like to make. If it’s going to get warmer, can even one of them tell us how much warmer? If it gets warmer, will it hurt more people than it helps? Nearly everything that happens hurts some people and helps others; even disasters that hurt a lot of people do directly or indirectly help some.

They tell us that it will hurt poor people the most. Of course it will. Everything that happens hurts the poor people the most, that’s why we are poor. If a poor person looses half of his assets and a rich person looses half of his assets, the poor person will be even poorer but the rich person will still be rich. The rich person’s loss will be much greater, but he will still be rich. No matter how much or how little the poor man looses, he will still be poor.

We are told what causes this warming, yet the people who are telling us use planes, trains, and cars all the time, yet they spend their time telling the poor people to stop. These people don’t have to stop because they can buy “carbon credits,” so I guess it’s OK for the rich people to buy the right to hurt our planet.

If this makes any sense to you, then we probably both need help!

No one knows how to change the climate, either to hurt or to help, which is a good thing because I don’t think anyone would want the people who are pushing the warming theory to be in control of the weather or probably anything else.

Even if it’s warm, Smile and Mean it!

Marketing

Marketing is a very simple concept, but people really like to make it complex and difficult. First, we should understand what we are selling. It could be feed. It could be animals. It could be our labor. It could be our skill at various parts of what we sell. Most of the time when we are selling animals it is just a way to market our feed. Sometimes we are raising animals that have a special purpose or use, and then it’s the animals, not the feed that is most important. Maybe we are taking animals and doing something that increases their value. Now we are really selling our skill. If you are selling your skill and the animal is kept past the time it takes for you to do what you do, then that puts you in competition with other people and dilutes the value of your skill. An example would be a horse trainer who sells his skill. After the horse is trained, the longer that he keeps it, the more it takes away from his profit from his skill.

Good marketing is knowing how to sell and when to sell. Holding something to try to get a higher price is not marketing, that is bargaining. Even when this works, the extra time will often eat up any extra money.

Things that can cause a problem are:

• What we want instead of what we need.
• What we will or will not do.
• Our unwillingness to make a decision.
• Doing something because of what happened in the past.
• Doing something because of what might happen in the future. Boy, we love this one.
• Doing or not doing something because of what your neighbors will think. If the neighbors are always right, just copy them. If they are not always right, then you will have to go against what they do sometimes in order for you to be right. Do what is best for you. Your dog will still like you even if the neighbors don’t.

Remember, Smile and Mean it!

Starting Out

We constantly hear how hard it is for a young person to get started in farming or ranching.

It is no harder for someone to start in farming or ranching now than it was 70 years ago. The difference is that young people want to start with a place that will make them a good living. In the past, people were willing to start small.

I know a guy who worked at a local auction yard for one dollar a day. He saved until he could buy one calf. He kept the calf at the auction yard and paid for its feed by coming and taking care of the other animals each day. After a while, he sold this calf and used this money plus what he had been able to save from his wages to buy two calves. Within a year he was able to rent some pasture since he now had a large herd of three animals. By now he had gotten a raise at the auction yard and was making $1.50 on auction day. He was also getting paid to come and feed the animals every day. With this fast start, in ten years he was able to buy a small place. He continued to sell and buy cattle and work at odd jobs. When I met him, 30 years later, he owned a very productive ranching operation and by anyone's standards was a very successful rancher.

Today, anyone who is willing to start the same way can be just as successful and in less time since it is much easier today. The difference is that we want it now, and someone else should give it to us.

If you really want to get started in farming or ranching, learn and understand something about what you want to do. Then be willing to work and earn money to start small. There are all kinds of ways to get property. Buy, rent, or improve land in return for its use. Buy what you can pay for. Try not to borrow money for anything that doesn't make its own payments month by month. Don't borrow on something that might make the payment at the end of the year. These days, people love to borrow money. Always remember that the person loaning the money will get their money plus interest, and you will get what's left. If you own it all, and there is a profit, it is all yours. Borrowing money can either be good or very bad. With farming or with animals, it is possible to make as much money with ten acres as with a thousand. It is just how you use it and what you are willing to do.

With work and knowledge you can Smile and Mean it!

Sure Thing

It seems like more and more people are looking for something that will make a lot of money with no risk. This is not easy to find. Risk and big profit go together. When investing, the things that usually return the most profit have the most risk. Knowledge and work will take some (or lots) of the risk out of certain things.

Knowledge may be the most valuable asset we can have. We should take the time to learn and understand something, not just copy - which may or may not help. If we try to copy a successful person, we will have to copy everything to be sure of getting the same results. To only copy part of what they are doing, or what we think they are doing, may not help at all. It is much better for us to learn and understand what works.

It is also important for us to understand ourselves. We need to learn and understand what works but also know what we will and won't do. Sometimes it is better to know what we won't do, or don't do well, than to focus only on what we will and can do well.

In the past, people spent years to learn a trade. The first job that my father had was a blacksmith's helper. The blacksmith was a Russian who started as an apprentice when he was seven years old. When he was 14, he started getting paid one cent a day. When he was 21 years old, he was a blacksmith. My dad said that his knowledge and ability was phenomenal. Dad worked with him for about a year and learned to be a fair blacksmith, but he still had to get help with the difficult jobs. Most people who ask how to do something want to jump over what I have just said and in a few minutes, learn how to do it. They don't want to hear that it might take years to learn.

When trying something new or different, spend some time to learn the basics of how it works and then spend some more time on how it can work for you. If you are starting something new with limited knowledge, use good money management. Start small and correct your mistakes before you get bigger. Learning can be fun if you are making a little profit or only have small losses. Trying to learn is no fun if you are having big losses. If the first thing that you do is profitable, be careful. It might not be how smart you were but just how lucky. Luck will take you a ways, but knowledge will take you a lot farther.

Knowledge will help you to Smile and Mean it!

Profit

People like to talk about goals. I only have one. That is to do better or to know more than I did yesterday.

People in business should have only one goal. That is to be profitable. There are other things that you would like to have happen, but put profit first. Kit Pharo states that “ranching can and should be very profitable.” There are a few people who think this way but not nearly enough.

Profit comes from a combination of knowledge and work. Knowledge is harder to come by than in the past. Things are changing fast. Some of the things that worked years ago don't work that well today. Some do, some don't. In the past, we learned from the older people around us. As kids we worked cleaning out the barn, feeding the animals, and just doing chores. If we did it wrong, someone made us do it right. Right was if it was profitable, wrong and you lost everything. Right wasn't perfect but was at least good enough to stay profitable.

Then ranchers and farmers started using equipment to do the work. They didn't need the kids to help, in fact it was like they were in the way. Now the young people weren't learning from the older folks. Learning from the older people was important because they knew how to be successful, or they would have been out of business. With the young people not learning the basics at home, we have kind of lost the ability or desire to teach at home. Now it is left to higher (or lower) education to teach the things that the kids used to learn growing up. The education system seems to have no interest in profit. In fact, they have been telling us for years that ranching isn't profitable or at best, only marginally profitable. This statement is not to try to make the universities look bad but was said to wake you, as an individual, up. It is your business. It is your job to improve it, not someone else's.

Understand what about marketing allows us to make a profit. We should raise or grow something that other people want to buy. We should sell this at a price that they can afford to pay. We should do this at a profit to us. Realize what assures us of a profit. Produce for your customer. They are your business's friend. Treat them that way. They have only so much money to spend or are willing to spend on your product. Use good money management. It is better to have a profit on ten animals than a loss on a hundred. Learn how to sell and when to sell. Be willing to sell at any time. Be willing to sell any animal you have if it is overpriced. Don't plan to make a profit in the future, prepare and have a profit now.

With a profit we can Smile and Mean it!

Grass

We are Grass Farmers. Sometimes people get a little confused about what provides our income. It is the grass or feed that we grow. Animals are just one way to market the grass or feed. Grass is not our enemy, animals could be. Learn to love our grass and not just the animals. We should graze to get more and better grass, not just to own more animals. The animals that we own are one way to sell our grass. They should only be used as a way to sell our grass at a profit, not just a way to eat and get rid of the grass. The more grass we grow, the more animals we can have. If we get more animals too fast, then we will grow less grass and more weeds.

Years ago we went to a ranch in Wyoming to show people how to move their cows to better graze the pastures. The people set on their horses and talked about roping and a rodeo that was coming up. They had no interest in grass at all. It's not much fun to chase grass or to rope it. These people should not have a grass farm, they should have animals and buy feed for them. Then they wouldn't ruin a good grass farm or ranch.

It is a good thing to have animals, but we should spend a lot more time on raising more and better grass. Having too many animals or grazing them wrong does more damage than any natural event such as a drought or a flood.

Grass is our friend. We are selling grass; we are selling grass; we are selling grass.

We are selling grass – Smile and Mean it!

Plan

When I was young, people on farms and ranches prepared for things. In the area where we lived, people worked hard everyday to stay prepared. Since they didn't know if it would be wet or dry or if the winter would be cold or mild, they had to be prepared for whatever might happen. They didn't talk about planning except in the morning, and then they planned their day. This is what I call a 24-hour plan. That is the plan I live by.

Now we are so lucky. Someone tells us what the weather will be for the next year. Someone tells us what the market will be (or might be) and on and on. So now all we have to do is plan our year. With all of this information we have a plan that will show us how to breakeven. That sounds like a great way to do business! The bank will like it because if you breakeven that means that they will get their money. You can feel good because everyone “just has to have a plan,” although it really is just a business guess or a market hope.

Now don't think that I am against planning. A 24-hour plan is great. In the morning we know close to what the weather will be and what the prices are. That means that our plan is dealing with something we know, not something that “might” happen. Planning for something that doesn't happen can be as bad as not planning at all. A plan is not for the person making it, it is for the bank, the accountant, and universities. In the past, a bank didn't need a plan because they only loaned a small amount on the assets you had. Now, they loan a much larger amount on the assets that you have. Now they want a plan. The plan lets them know that you have at least spent some time and thought on what you are going to do, but mainly, it helps to cover them if you fail. The accountants and university like a plan, not because they know it helps, but because it keeps them involved, and they like that.

Making the plan. . . We don't know what the weather will be; we don't know what the market will be. For a plan to be any good, it must cover everything. Since we can only guess what these things will be, we don't have a plan, only a guess or a hope, so why have it? Any plan will have to be adjusted as we go along, so why have it? If we don't adjust and things change, this could really hurt, so why have it? Smart people say “A constantly revised plan becomes no plan at all.” So why have it?

Have a 24-hour plan. Adjust as conditions change. Don't be tied to anything except what is best for the conditions that exist right now. If you have to make a plan, give it to the people who want it, then forget what is in it and work with what is happening now; then you will stay prepared.

Have a 24-hour plan, and stay prepared.

Then you can Smile and Mean it!

Cycles

Most people would like to have a crystal ball and be able to know what the future will be. Recently, a psychic magazine went broke. When asked, the owner said “We didn't see it coming.”

People in agriculture are also searching for a way to foretell the future. We use “cycles,” and of course the best and most reliable, the local “Coffee Shop.” Today I'm writing about Cycles, Coffee Shops may come later.

Cycles tell what happened in the past. The past can tell us what might happen but not when. We already know that something will happen. If we don't know when, then it doesn't really help. Cycles are used to help people guess what the markets will do. If you are in business, it is difficult to operate profitably on guesses. In the cattle market, the cycle is 10 years, unless it is 11 or 12 years or maybe . . . ? If we wait to buy at the bottom, we will not know when this is until it is way past the bottom. If we try to sell at the top it might not be the top yet, but we won't know that until it is way past the top.

Businesses should not be operated on guesses or hope. We should be operating on what we know. If we sell at a high price and buy back on the same market, or if we sell on a low market and buy back on the same market, this will create no problems and is good business. If we sell on a high market then wait to buy back later . . . if this wasn't the top and the market goes higher, what do we do now? If we buy because the cycle tells us that it should be the bottom but the market keeps going down, what do we do now?

Work with the prices today, not what they might be in the future. For instance if we are selling milk today, if we keep the cow, that buys the milk she will produce for tomorrow. If there is not a profit between the sell and the buy, then we should sell the cow and buy something that shows a profit like a young heifer or . . .? The heifer will be giving milk someday, or she will be a “sell” at some time and replaced with something at a profit. This is probably a poor example, but I wanted to use something we get everyday. If you sell and can't replace at a profit, then something should be done.

Business should be profitable now, not maybe in the future. Sell to generate cash-flow; buy to generate profit. Do this at today's prices and the more often the better.

Cycles are for people who have a lot of time to study the past and try to use it to forecast the future. These people don't have to be right. They can always say it was the weather or some other problem that made it “different this time.”

If you are in business and prices are high, you probably know it. If you are in business and prices are low, I'm sure you know it. People who understand this make profits at high prices and at low prices.

High or low, Smile and Mean it!

[Sent to SGF 6/8/07]

Attitude

It is interesting to me that people today complain about almost everything.

When we get up in the morning it is a good day or a bad day. We are happy or unhappy. Only we can decide that. Other people can't. It is up to us . . . It can be bad or good . . . Our decision.

During the 1930's many people were poor, some were very poor. Almost no one on farms complained. We seldom went hungry, because we raised or grew what we ate. Everyone worked long days, and they worked hard. They were happy and accepted the life they lived. I am 75 years old and every year has been easier, yet people complain more each year.

Farmers and livestock people complain if the prices of commodities go up or down. They want the price of their land to go up, but land that they want to buy, to go down. Most people want to make lots of money with very little work. This is not always easy to do. It is important to be positive - not negative about things. Be happy. It doesn't matter what happens, everything has a positive side. One time a young fellow I was working with complained about blisters on his feet. I told him “There are a lot of people who wished that they could walk far enough to wear a blister.” We should be thankful that we are able to walk that far, not complain about it.

What does this have to do with Grass Farming? Lots!

If the price of wheat, corn and soybeans go up, so does the value of our grass and hay. If the price of land goes up, the land that we own is worth more. If we want to buy land, just buy less. With what we grow being worth more, we need less land to make a living.

With livestock, the price of grain going up will cause the cost-of-gain for grain-fed animals to increase. That will benefit the price of animals that are finished on grass. Everything is good if we only let it be, or we can think it is bad and it will be.

While most of us prefer grass-finished meat, keep in mind that our best friend is the feedlot. What if there were no feedlots and all of our animals were grass finished? With our climate, it would be very difficult to supply the market and keep our customers happy. Let's be satisfied with our markets the way they are and benefit from the shortage of good grass finished animals.

Life will give you Adventures or Ordeals. You make the decision which it is.

Business will give you Opportunities or Problems. You make the decision which it is.

Live with a Smile and Mean it!

Balance

We in the livestock industry should keep a proper balance of assets which are:

1. Money
2. Feed
3. Animals

If we start out with money and we use some of it to buy land that will grow feed, we will have feed to sell. This feed can be grain or hay or pasture. The grain can be sold. The hay can be sold, and the pasture can be custom-grazed to generate income. Or we can use it to feed our own animals. When we use animals as a way to sell our feed, the proper balance of our assets is very important.

If we buy animals, they cost us the money we pay for them but also the feed they will eat.

If we own animals, they cost us what they could be sold for, plus the feed they will eat.

If we sell animals, they return the money plus the cost of the feed they would have eaten if we had kept them. If we have too many animals for the available feed, then we must have money to purchase more feed or we must sell some of the animals. The sooner we get this in balance, the better it will be. When we sell animals, some of the money can be used for us to spend, the rest must remain in the business. This will allow us to have money to buy more animals as we grow more feed.

When we sell and how we sell our animals is very important. How much they gain will not help much if you loose money on them. It seems like proper marketing gets more important every year. A big animal that is gaining fast but is overpriced should be sold. The profit is in selling an overpriced animal, not in how much it is gaining. If it keeps on gaining but goes to being underpriced, when we finally sell that will wipe out the good gains, and we could even end up with a loss. If the animal is overpriced, it should be sold and an underpriced animal purchased to replace it. This is always possible because an animal can only be overpriced if another class or weight of animal is underpriced. Or we can keep the money and feed that they won't eat if they are the underpriced thing.

Keep a balance and you can Smile and Mean it!

Something

Many years ago a rancher wanted me to start a young horse, and then he wanted it sold. One day as I was working with this horse, Eunice asked me what his name was. I said “He doesn't have a name, but we will only have him for a short time so he doesn't need one.” Eunice disagreed and said, “We have to call him something.” Now that seemed like a strange name, but what Eunice wants, she gets. So I named him “Something.”

After a month or two we sold the horse. The buyer didn't like the name that Eunice gave it, so he renamed him Blaze. About four years later, Eunice went with the vet to worm some horses and there was this horse and his name was back to being “Something.”

I bring that story up because, when we give a name to a thing it seems to stick. Right now we have things going on that can be named a problem or an opportunity. Whatever we call it first will have the biggest influence on us. Corn may go to $8.00 or not. If we feel that is a problem, even if it only goes to $5.00, it will be a problem because that is the name we put on it. Or, we can call it an opportunity. Then even if it goes to $10.00, we will be all right. The prices of things go up and down. Treat them as opportunities. Use good money management, and be sensible on your business decisions and everything will be all right.

During the 1930 to 1950 years, my father bought and paid for a farm. During this time, many people were losing their farms. Before I was ten years old, I had learned good money management including how to prepare for and handle risk.

Prices going up is “Opportunity” and prices going down is “Opportunity.” Or we can name them “Problem” and that is probably what they will be.

During the “Dot.com” boom to bust, some people made millions. Some people lost a lot of money. Most of the money that was lost was by people who had no business having money in it. They were there trying to make a lot of money on something that they knew very little about.

We have a world market now, and many thing influence prices. Work with what you know. Risk is very little in things that you know about. As my father said, “Risk the same amount as the knowledge that you have about it.” If you know very little, risk very little. If we pay attention to these things, high prices, low prices, or anything in between will not hurt us much. In fact, if we put the right name on it, we come out way ahead. “Opportunity” is a name, like “Something.”

Bud wrote this in May of 2007 in response to “Allen's Observations” in the Stockman Grass Farmer Magazine.

Bud & Eunice Williams
PO Box 1497
Bowie, TX  76230-1497
940/872-4800 ~ Phone
Eunice@stockmanship.com
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