2 questions sheep and beef farmers must answer to eliminate poor profitability

Posted by Brendon Walsh on 22 June 2017

Team New Zealand have been going incredibly well lately in the America’s Cup final series. Not only that, they have improved remarkably since they began the regatta prior to the challenger series a month or two ago. A recurring theme to their success is that all members of the team, from design through to the race crew, ask themselves one question - “How can we make the boat go faster?” Because they continue to ask themselves that, you could assume the 2^nd question is “How can we keep making the boat go faster?” Interestingly, they have been continuously improving and getting faster!

As I write this, we are in the 5 days between races 4 and 5 in the first to 7 wins. Currently Team NZ sit at 4-1 up (or 3-0 up depending on your point of view on the regatta rules) and anything could happen from here. Whether Team NZ win the cup or not, they have proven that their single focus has brought incredibly performance and confidence. This got me thinking. What about applying this same concept to sheep and beef farming? What question(s) could become the single focus that farmers could work hard to answer and keep answering, and would help them achieve their true goals?

To me, the questions seem obvious. If farmers seriously asked themselves these 2 questions, their results have a great chance of being consistently awesome:

• “How can we be more profitable?”
• “How can we keep being more profitable?”

Farmers can then get busy creating answers to that and doing what it takes to make it happen. If it’s good enough for Team New Zealand, it’s good enough for us, right? In fact, the Team New Zealand personnel would be the first to say, “we are just normal kiwis - we only want to achieve what is really important to us.” Sound familiar?

Team New Zealand have found a way. Farmers can too. To get there, Team New Zealand have had to stop doing some things that were not relevant any longer, and have found new ways to get it done. They are staying ahead of the game. Farmers can do that too. There are systems in place that some “average” farmers are already using, and are therefore doing it right now. But, they are not sitting there trying to hammer away at the same old, same old and whinging about not getting the results they really want. For a selection of these farmers, click here.

The cool thing is the systems they are using to be more profitable and ahead of the game are incredibly logical, simple and make total sense! There is nothing magical about it, but these farmers did have to evolve their beliefs and understanding to new levels to get the best out of those systems. Being more profitable takes effort, it takes thinking, and it takes a single focus on those two questions above. After all, if nothing changes, nothing changes.

The main reasons why many sheep and beef farmers are still stuck with lack of profitability and plenty of challenge is because they haven’t made those 2 questions a priority. If they really want to make them a priority they can do so! But they have to want to do it. Not making them a priority is like Team New Zealand rocking up to the America’s cup regatta with no real design team, a lack of commitment and poor sailors who just want to have a laugh out on the water. They would have been sent home after the first round and the New Zealand public would have been in an uproar! Is that what farmers really want for their industry? I don’t think so.

Some would argue that a single focus on those 2 questions means other important things fall by the wayside, such as a pristine environment, quality animals, family time, and community support. I would totally disagree with those people because aiming for true profitability in sheep and beef farming fits perfectly with being able to do all of that. It really comes down to the beliefs farmers have around profit, what it means and how it is generated.

For example, more profit doesn’t have to mean getting more intensive and running more animals, thereby negatively impacting the environment. It is more about fully feeding the right animals at the right times and banking the profit when it is available. Full feeding means having appropriate stocking rates to allow the ideal pasture covers for full feeding during profit periods. You can’t have more stock carried all year and have the right pasture covers for full feeding - the two objectives are opposites!

So sheep and beef farmers, how about giving it a go and asking yourself those 2 questions:

• “How can we be more profitable?”
• “How can we keep being more profitable?”

You owe it to yourselves, your families, your communities and your industry to do what it takes to answer these two questions. The systems are there, the knowledge and support is there - what will you do about it?

If you are curious about how the GrowFARM® System can help sheep and beef farmers generate the profits they really want, contact me here.