Are You Smart Enough To Be A Grass Farmer??

Managing a grazing operation seems easy. You buy some cows, put them out there in the pasture on grass and wait for the checks to come in. Pretty simple business model. Is that about what it takes to run your farm/ranch? I have seen a few operations that were managed that way but they usually don’t last very long.

If you were going to write a job announcement for yourself what would it be like? It might be something like this:

Job opening for a Grazing Manager must be educated in:

Animal Genetics-Knowledge of breeding and selection for forage based livestock.

Livestock Nutritionist-Understanding of animal energy, protein and mineral needs as well as livestock behavior.

Agronomist/Soil Scientist-Knowledge of soil biology, soil regeneration, soil testing methods, and soil fertility.

Fence/Water System Engineer-Ability to engineer, design and build a fence and water system that will handle the needs of a herd from 20-200 head in size.

Direct Marketing Specialist-Must have great people skills, website management and computer skills are a plus.

Even a Rocket Scientist doesn’t have to have that diverse of a skill set. Running a grazing and/or marketing operation is not only hard work, you also have to be smart in a wide variety of things that are almost unrelated from an education standpoint.

Finding good sources of information is a real key to running a profitable, environmentally regenerative and enjoyable grazing operation. There is a lot of information about running a grazing operation out there. And that knowledge base just keeps growing. Sometimes, it is easy to get overwhelmed and discouraged with the volume of information. Your time is very limited and valuable. You don’t know exactly what to spend your time and money on so you just don’t do anything. That would be a huge mistake.

For several years The Grass Fed Exchange has specialized in providing a great learning environment for graziers from all over the country. They have done the hard work of finding the best teachers in the world on all the topics you need to know about. There are also networking opportunities to meet with producers, researchers, and authors from around the country. This meeting is put together by producers for producers. The value of this conference is the best you will find in the grazing world. Join us in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan on September 16th to the 18th, 2015 for a great chance to learn about all the things it takes to run a successful grazing operation. I promise they will make you smart enough to be a grass farmer.