Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 155: The Five Records Every Cattle Producer Must Keep

Transcript

155: The Five Records Every Cattle Producer Must Keep · CattleUSA Daily

• 0:03
  Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast, your go to source for
• 0:07
  the latest livestock markets, industry insights and the update
• 0:10
  shaping agriculture today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
• 0:14
  passionate advocate for agriculture, here to keep you
• 0:16
  informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
• 0:20
  episode. Hey y'all, welcome back to
• 0:29
  another episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
• 0:32
  It has been a minute since we have done a solo episode, so I
• 0:36
  am so excited to come on and talk to you guys today.
• 0:40
  Today I wanted to come on because I was reading a article
• 0:44
  the other day. I was going through like my
• 0:46
  everyday news cycle. I go through a bunch of
• 0:50
  different websites, articles, all of these different things to
• 0:53
  keep on keep up on what's going on.
• 0:54
  But then I also read a bunch of things that are just business
• 0:57
  related and cattle business related and yadda, yadda yadda,
• 1:01
  all of those things. And I came across an article and
• 1:03
  I was like, huh, Really made me start thinking about myself as a
• 1:08
  business owner, but then also how that applies to us as cattle
• 1:13
  producers. And it made me wrestle a lot
• 1:16
  with the question of what records do I actually need to be
• 1:20
  keeping in my business? But then also what records do we
• 1:24
  need to be keeping on our cattle specifically within our
• 1:26
  business? Because there's a ton of records
• 1:27
  you need to keep, right? Like you need to keep your LLC
• 1:30
  documents and your operating agreement and your tax returns
• 1:33
  and all of those things, right? Well, I'm not here to talk about
• 1:35
  all of those things to you today because honestly, there's
• 1:37
  probably some documents that I'm missing myself that I don't even
• 1:40
  all have all of that together. But when it comes to cattle
• 1:43
  records, I think I kind of have this down and at least what
• 1:47
  works for our operation, what works for other people in their
• 1:50
  operations, kind of talk about all of those things today.
• 1:53
  But I think this all goes back to the fact that there are some
• 1:56
  years that the end of year comes around and I look back and I
• 2:00
  wish that I would have taken more notes or just had better
• 2:03
  organization within my notes, whatever that looks like, right?
• 2:07
  And I know that I'm not the only one there.
• 2:08
  So today I want to break down record keeping in a way that is
• 2:11
  practical, not overwhelming, and not about buying any fancy
• 2:15
  software or anything like that. Just the core things that you
• 2:20
  should be keeping track of and why it matters and makes your
• 2:25
  cattle business stronger at the end of the day.
• 2:27
  So here is the reality of the situation.
• 2:30
  Without records, you are actually just running blind.
• 2:33
  You might feel like you know you're heard well enough, but
• 2:37
  memory fades, details get fuzzy, and pretty soon you're guessing
• 2:40
  instead of managing. I think back now on things that
• 2:44
  happened in January and I know the gist of what happened, but I
• 2:48
  could not tell you the details of it.
• 2:50
  I know that 4123 was a bee when it came to tagging her calf
• 2:56
  because she chased me around the lot.
• 2:58
  Like I remember that because it was a significant event.
• 3:02
  Now I don't remember the 4173. I don't know what she did.
• 3:07
  I couldn't even tell you if she had a bull calf or have her,
• 3:09
  honestly. So going back to the details,
• 3:13
  you remember the big picture, but you don't always remember
• 3:15
  the details. The point of this isn't just
• 3:17
  that we are collecting data for the sake of it.
• 3:20
  The point is that those numbers help us make decisions.
• 3:23
  That is where record keeping actually becomes powerful is
• 3:26
  when we use it as a decision making tool.
• 3:28
  I mean, think about it. If you look back and see which
• 3:31
  cows bred back fast, which ones had calves that weaned really
• 3:35
  heavy, which pastures carried cattle really well, like all of
• 3:39
  those things, that is how you improve your business.
• 3:42
  That is how you find weak spots and how you start doubling down
• 3:45
  on what actually works. And it's not just about internal
• 3:49
  decisions. There are people down the line
• 3:52
  in your business that want certain information too.
• 3:54
  Buyers might want more information on cattle and
• 3:57
  exactly what you're doing when you're doing it.
• 3:59
  You also have people at places like the bank or other
• 4:03
  situations like that in your business that you're going to
• 4:05
  run into that they want detailed records on certain aspects of
• 4:08
  your business, whether it be cabbing records or word
• 4:11
  management processes or let's say you're applying for a grant
• 4:15
  with USDA or something like that.
• 4:17
  They're going to want to see things like that to see how
• 4:20
  you're running your cattle and see if you actually qualify for
• 4:23
  the grant and different things like that.
• 4:25
  So let's get into the what of your record keeping.
• 4:30
  These are the five big buckets in my thoughts and opinions that
• 4:34
  actually matter. Number one, and this is obvious,
• 4:37
  but cattle ID and inventory, we're talking births, deaths,
• 4:41
  sales, purchases, transfers, all of those things.
• 4:43
  Keeping extremely detailed record of it.
• 4:46
  And I'm going to touch on this a little bit later, but record
• 4:50
  that makes sense to you and makes sense to people that are
• 4:52
  reading it. Like something that makes sense
• 4:56
  and that you can track. I highly encourage a really
• 4:59
  detailed Excel document. At the very bare minimum, try
• 5:04
  and get it out of a notebook. Try and put it in Excel doc or a
• 5:07
  Google Sheets or whatever. Just something that works for
• 5:10
  you #2 breeding and calving info.
• 5:14
  We're talking breeding dates, calving season, bull exposure,
• 5:17
  who was where, all of these things.
• 5:21
  This is obvious. Again, it's going to help you
• 5:24
  with your cabin windows, what you can expect, what went well,
• 5:28
  what you can improve all of those things.
• 5:30
  Then performance data. Performance data gets into the
• 5:33
  weeds a little bit, but here we're talking, and I don't
• 5:35
  necessarily mean EP DS, I'm going to get into that into a
• 5:37
  second, but winning weights, average daily gains, pregnancy
• 5:40
  rates, things like this on these.
• 5:43
  I don't necessarily know if it's 100% necessary that you have it
• 5:46
  on every single animal all the time, but as long as you are
• 5:50
  able to have a big picture idea of how these things are going,
• 5:55
  that's going to be extremely helpful for you and your
• 5:57
  business #4 health and treatments.
• 6:00
  Here we're talking vaccinations, deworming, doctoring, withdrawal
• 6:03
  times. Keeping track of all of those
• 6:06
  today keeps you from guessing tomorrow.
• 6:09
  Obviously, if you do a summer process, like a spring
• 6:13
  processing day, everyone got vaccinated on this day, but then
• 6:19
  someone bums their foot and catches it on wire and they need
• 6:22
  some Jackson or something like that.
• 6:24
  Having somewhere where you can put that that's not just in the
• 6:27
  notebook, that is in your pickup.
• 6:29
  Having somewhere where you're keeping track of that, seeing
• 6:31
  how often things like this are happening, happening, and being
• 6:34
  able to go back and actually track when you're doctoring,
• 6:37
  when you're doing things, and see how all of that is playing
• 6:40
  out in your business. And then finally #5 pasture and
• 6:44
  forage notes, specific dates on when cattle went in, when they
• 6:49
  got taken out, your stocking rates for that year, if you were
• 6:52
  doing rotations, all of those things matter because the thing
• 6:58
  with grass management is we want to manage our pastures so that
• 7:02
  they are great 15 years down the road.
• 7:05
  And I know I am speaking to the choir here on this, but it is
• 7:09
  really important that you start tracking those things because if
• 7:12
  you're tracking them now, then you're able to see when you go
• 7:15
  send cattle out to that pasture next year.
• 7:18
  What do we need to do? What went well?
• 7:20
  What can we improve? Like, OK, so this year and also
• 7:24
  like dot, like when you're doing that, actually putting in like,
• 7:29
  OK, this year we had a higher stocking rate because we had a
• 7:32
  bunch more rain this year and we had a ton of grass or we had a
• 7:35
  ton of snow over the winter. So grass came in really well,
• 7:39
  making sure that you document all of those things so that when
• 7:42
  you're going in next year, you have a better idea of how you
• 7:45
  can improve. All of this goes back to taking
• 7:48
  time for reflection and being able to improve on it because
• 7:51
  that's what detailed notes actually make you able to do.
• 7:54
  And I do want to mention that if you run a purebred operation,
• 7:57
  you will naturally need more details on individual animals.
• 8:01
  You're talking registration, EPD's, pedigree info, all of
• 8:06
  those things. You naturally have more access
• 8:08
  to those, but you also need them more.
• 8:10
  If you running a commercial herd, even just group level data
• 8:15
  will make a big difference to your operation, even if you
• 8:17
  don't have it on specific animals, specific times, all of
• 8:21
  those things. Now I want to talk about the
• 8:22
  fact of like keeping it simple. Where are we keeping these
• 8:25
  things? All of that jazz.
• 8:27
  The mistake that a lot of us make is thinking that we need
• 8:30
  high tech systems right away. And here's the reality, you
• 8:33
  don't. 60% of producers still use a pocket notebook or a
• 8:37
  calendar on the wall, and honestly, that works.
• 8:40
  Is that the best possible system out there?
• 8:42
  I'm not going to say that, but the best record keeping system
• 8:46
  is the one that you will actually use.
• 8:48
  I'm going to say that again, the best record keeping system is
• 8:51
  one that you will actually use. If that is a phone, great.
• 8:54
  If it's a spreadsheet, awesome. If it is a binder in the feed
• 8:57
  truck, whatever. As long as you are keeping track
• 9:01
  and you have somewhere where all of this is written down, that is
• 9:04
  what is most important at the end of the day.
• 9:06
  A couple of tips to keep it doable and keep it something
• 9:10
  that you are able to keep up on. Write it down the same day.
• 9:13
  If you wait, you who will forget, write it down.
• 9:16
  Next, keep it consistent. Use the same place every time.
• 9:20
  Do not scatter notes between 5 or 6 different spots.
• 9:24
  This is where I'm talking. Like the notebook in the feed
• 9:26
  truck is great, but it's only great if you take that notebook
• 9:29
  in the feed truck and you go translate it to the notebook
• 9:32
  that's in the office. If you're keeping things in five
• 9:34
  different places, then you go to do something to run a report and
• 9:37
  you can't find what you're looking for, or you inevitably
• 9:40
  spilled coffee on the notebook in the feed truck, which I know
• 9:43
  I have done one multiple times. So make sure that you're keeping
• 9:47
  things in one central place #3 schedule a time to review your
• 9:52
  records, whatever works for you, whether it be like, OK, calving
• 9:56
  season is over. We just got done weaning.
• 9:59
  We just got done processing end of year.
• 10:02
  Find those natural checkpoints for you where you can go in and
• 10:05
  you can review your records and update everything.
• 10:07
  And then #4 if you have help on the operation, make sure that
• 10:10
  everyone is on the same page and you're not missing half of the
• 10:13
  story. It's also extremely important
• 10:16
  here that the people that are on your operation understand your
• 10:20
  software as well. One of the first things that my
• 10:23
  dad did when I first started to really be able to understand the
• 10:26
  computer and records and all those things was explained to me
• 10:29
  his record keeping system so that I understood being able to
• 10:33
  track where cattle were, where cattle are at, what they're
• 10:36
  doing, what all of the different colors in the Excel spreadsheet
• 10:39
  mean. Like I know that black means
• 10:41
  they died. Like if that number is
• 10:43
  highlighted black, that means that they died that year or
• 10:45
  things like that. That way I'm able to actually
• 10:47
  understand the people that are working with.
• 10:48
  You need to be able to understand your record keeping
• 10:51
  process. Remember, the goal of this isn't
• 10:54
  data overload, it is recording what you need to make decisions
• 10:59
  to better your operation. At the end of the day guys,
• 11:02
  records are what turn experience into evidence.
• 11:06
  Without them, we are just relying on gut feeling and
• 11:09
  memory. But with them, we have proof of
• 11:12
  what is working and that proof helps us manage better, market
• 11:15
  our cattle better, and build confidence in the way that we
• 11:18
  are running our cattle. So if you've been putting it
• 11:20
  off, maybe this is the week to do a simple start.
• 11:25
  Write down your calving dates, record your treatments, start
• 11:29
  tracking your weaning weights this fall, which I mean, we're
• 11:31
  all probably doing anyway. But take one step in the right
• 11:35
  direction with your record keeping.
• 11:37
  I know every single one of you listening to this can reflect
• 11:40
  for 5 minutes on this and say how can I be 1% better in my
• 11:45
  record keeping processes? Whether that be teaching your
• 11:48
  spouse your record keeping processes today or whether that
• 11:52
  be you are taking that notebook that is in the feed truck and
• 11:55
  you're going to go sit down in the Home Office and transfer
• 11:58
  everything over. You just need a starting point
• 12:00
  because the truth is good records don't just make for good
• 12:04
  paperwork. They make for better cattlemen
• 12:06
  at the end of the day. Thank you all so much for
• 12:09
  listening to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
• 12:12
  I hope you guys have a great rest of your day and we will see
• 12:15
  you all tomorrow on another episode.
• 12:17
  Have a good one y'all.