Hey, hey it’s Shaye! This week on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast, we get to focus on how to keep the beef industry sustainable and what this means for the profitability of your operation.
Question of the Week: How can you be more sustainable?
As mentioned in the description of this week’s episode, cattle producers have been focused on sustainability for generations and that is something to be proud of! However, that doesn’t mean we can’t keep improving.
As you think through the question for the week, analyze where many of your expenses are and where you spend your time each day to find areas you can improve to create a more financially sustainable operation.
Steve Wooten joins the show from Colorado to share his family’s story about making improvements on their ranch to make it more sustainable. Steve and his wife Joy are the fourth generation on their operation and run a Red Angus based cow-calf operation. Steve shares what a sustainable ranch looks like from a workload and financial perspective along with different management practices that also improve the environment.
Business Sustainability
Steve shares his story of coming back to the ranch and realizing that he would be the first generation that would not be able to live solely from the income from the cattle due to there being multiple generations on the ranch. Wootens live in a remote area and having one person work in town is not very feasible or the lifestyle they want to live. So, Wootens have developed several income streams outside of what comes from their cattle by hosting vacations, having artists come teach lessons on the land and selling landscaping stones.
What is Sustainability?
Sustainability is a topic that consumers care about along with many cattle producers. Steve breaks sustainability down into the social side, financial and environmental sides. “Sustainability is telling the story of what multiple generations have been doing on the ground, that involves the land, the vegetation, the water, the air, and the wildlife as well as the livestock that we care for, and we raise on a daily basis.”, Steve Wooten
Wooten urges fellow cattle producers to think about how we can share our own unique stories in a 30-second elevator pitch, because we do more than just raise cattle. We are raising cattle across the United States in diverse ecosystems and improving the environment while we do it. That’s the story consumers need to hear and understand.
The Future of Cattle Production
Building a sustainable operation will look different for each person. Wooten says it is important to bring in people with an outside perspective who can deep-dive your business structure and offer input on what changes can be made. He is also excited about how genomic testing of commercial cattle will allow cattle producers to select for more efficient cattle that meet the goals of their operations. Sustainability is not something to fear. It is something we need to embrace and use as a tool to connect with the consumer and share the truth about the beef story.
Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast app or by heading over to the Casual Cattle Conversations website.
