Winnett ACES host Ranch Profitability workshops

The Winnett ACES (Agricultural Community Enhancement & Sustainability) in partnership with the Plank Stewardship Initiative hosted a series of Ranch Profitability Workshops in November and December 2018. The workshops were well attended with roughly 40 participants from central Montana.

Participants worked through a series of exercises to calculate production costs for each of their ranch’s enterprises. Knowing the contribution of each ranch enterprise is essential to improving overall profitability in the long run. Typical ranch enterprises that were evaluated include cow/calf, heifer development, hay production and a land enterprise.

The first class focused on identifying overhead costs. Participants attributed a percentage of each overhead to the respective ranch enterprise it served. Next, the class looked in depth at the “ins & outs” of the cow/calf and heifer development enterprises. Income and expenses for each of the enterprises was tracked in a series of formulated excel worksheets. Along with looking at the profitability, the worksheets also calculated percentages for breeding, calving, weaning and many other key factors that should be considered. The hay production enterprise generated a lot of interest from the group as ranchers compared the actual costs of producing their own hay, including buying the forage from the land enterprise, versus just buying it.

After completing the ranch enterprise analyses, the group spent the final session looking at online tools that are available to help with break-even budgets, cow valuation and valuing AUM’s.

The Winnett ACES Education Committee regularly plans and hosts valuable workshops like these in and around Winnett. To find out about upcoming educational opportunities, subscribe to the Winnett ACES newsletter.