Ted Slanker's
Low-cost Beef Cattle Management
Consulting Service
RR 2, Box 175, Powderly, TX 75473
The average cattleman's cost to raise a pound of beef is the same as the entire industry's average cost to raise a pound of beef. Therefore, to be a “low-cost” beef producer, by definition, one can't manage like the average producer. The average producer uses conventional beef cattle management practices. Conventional practices are taught by very knowledgeable specialists. Unfortunately, specialists do not intertwine their practices into overall, comprehensive management plans that optimize sustainable economic and environmental production systems. If they did, they would infringe upon the intellectual domains of specialists in other fields. Consequently, studious cattlemen, who are considered good managers by today's standards, are all too frequently using management practices that are conflicting, disjointed, and high cost.
I am a low-cost beef producer and marketer of grass-fed beef. It took me 30 years to get to this position. In the process, I made most of the mistakes one can make in the cattle business, and I did it with my own money. My experiences were costly, yet now they're priceless input for folks who want practical information about low-cost beef production management practices.
Many people have the intellectual capacity and desire to be low-cost producers. But without experience and firsthand knowledge, they can't make a rapid transition to a totally different management approach. Reading various books and studies about the topic is great. However, reading about something and doing it is not always as easy as it looks. When folks seek out new ideas and concepts they would like to implement, unless they've been there and done that, how will they know if they are being misled by proponents of new ideas? How will they know when their judgment and experience are clouding their receptors? Can they gain enough of the Big Picture soon enough to effectively implement an all-encompassing plan that works effectively from the get go?
Break the Bonds
I know for a fact that one has to change a great deal of his thinking processes to fully understand the entire spectrum of ideas that go into the low-cost approach. For most folks it will take years, not months, to fully understand why some ideas work and others do not. Folks get caught up in conventional thinking, myths, and fads, and their minds get shackled. Breaking those bonds is not an easy thing to do. That's why it can take years to grasp a new concept unless someone pounds it into our brains. I know how to pound, and I know what to pound.
My consulting fee is $500 per day (that's time away from the ranch) plus expenses. Is it worth it? For a reference on that I’d suggest that you call my very first client: Ray Fulks at 903-645-2251. He's a Brangus breeder, a banker specializing in agricultural loans and a recognized leader in his community's agricultural industry. He's no dummy. In fact, he's pretty sophisticated, so he understands the industry better than most folks. He is well read and has read most of my musings and visited my ranch. Of course I've visited his.
Over the years I've discovered that producers need a road map that points them in the right direction. Once they understand the philosophy and necessary approaches, then tackling the problems and finding the answers from selected specialists (and their peers) is much easier. Being a forage-based beef producer has more to do with mindset than anything else. Once the principles are in place, then the questions become more pointed and the answers make more sense. When folks reach that point they can usually call me on the phone and get the inputs they need. (I may not have the answer, but I usually know who does or I can find the specialist who has the answer.)
My consulting relationships are not set in stone. But they must start with a meeting and property visit. Then perhaps there should be follow-up meetings on a six-month cycle. In the interim, clients can retain me on a monthly basis for answering questions or I can bill them at an hourly rate for when they call with questions.
Building from Scratch
I always start by establishing the client's economic and environmental objectives. Then we'll discuss philosophy and various approaches. From there we'll progress through the low-cost approach literally from the ground up. That means I’ll cover the practical management approaches for optimizing soils, forages, chemical and organic inputs, stocking rates, controlled grazing, ranch design, fencing and fence building, water points, cattle type, cattle breeding, calving seasons, cow and stocker management, cattle handling, and marketing and markets. And that's just for starters!
Here's just a sampling of the management concepts I’ll address:
> The goal to raise a large calf at weaning saddles most producers with a high-cost operation.
> Selecting for fertility is different from managing for higher conception rates. One approach makes money; the other costs money.
> Putting up his own hay is one of the beef cattle producer's worst management practices.
> Good management starts when you don't feed hay, grain, cubes, or protein licks to your beef cattle--365 days a year. Many folks give them up and increase their stocking rates too!
> Which approach sounds best: Raise beef seven months a year or raise beef “14 months” a year?
> Modern beef cattle types work exceptionally well for feedlot operators and packers. How do they work for producers? In this same vein, are modern cattle a better eating experience?
> Does the popular practice of selecting for low back fat and high marbling--a tactic designed to improve marketability through carcass traits--assure higher or lower profits?
> What's the economic reality of raising versus buying heifers and/or pregnant cows for replacements?
> What's the pros and cons of continuous grazing versus rotational grazing?
> Can your land produce enough forage to fulfill the needs of your present cattle operation if you kept your cattle on forage 365 days a year?
> Dirty ponds and putrid water are the hallmarks of high-cost producers.
> How do you determine the number of pastures and their size to optimize forage utilization and beef production?
> Can dormant summer perennial forage species support my cows in the winter?
This list can go on and on. The point is, when I work with clients I’ll weave together a comprehensive management plan that encompasses a wide range of practices. The practices complement each other and are directed toward economic and environmentally sustainable production that lowers the cost of beef produced.
From a Big Picture standpoint, when you seek change, I think folks will be money and time ahead by getting inputs from other folks who've been there and done that, rather than by trying to reinvent the wheel.
Ted E. Slanker, Jr.
P.S. I'm not a full-time consultant by any means. I've got many other irons in the fire. So I'm not interested in wasting my time or the clients’ time in creating billings. Also, my goal is to get my clients thinking and learning independently on their own, rather than in creating dependency on my inputs.