Raising Cows, Raising Profits - 2005 "Understand Your Options" Seminar Review

 
 
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 During the last week of January, the "Raising Cows, Raising Profits" team hit the road to speak with Alberta beef producers about:
  • how the industry is evolving,
  • beef market opportunities and developments and
  • what primary beef producers can do, in managing their own business, to chart a course to a profitable future.
The topics covered by the speakers ranged from business analysis and planning to trade, and from cow/calf production to packing and processing.

What was presented?
The topics and speaker roster for each day were:
  • Positioning Your Business - Darryl Hutchings
  • Who's the Off-Shore Customer? - Ben Thorlakson / Canadian Beef Export Federation
  • Commercial Beef Utilization Strategy - Michael Young & Candice Stanoyev / Beef Information Center
  • What's the Product? / The Beef Processing Industry - Darryl Hutchings
Presentations were also given on:
  • Tools for the Beef Industry
  • Renewal - Canadian Farm Business Advisory Services
  • AgriProfit$ Business Analysis & Research Program
These topics addressed key issues and questions on the minds of Alberta producers today … the challenge was to put these diverse messages into the context of what they mean to individual producers, regarding:
  • what will the industry look like in the future, and
  • how it relates to the business analysis and decisions for their farms and ranches.
At the end of each day, the presentations were reviewed and linked to how they translate to primary producers' business opportunities and directions for their businesses. This review is fleshed out in the following discussions.

It's your business …
Participants were challenged with a number of questions. "What drives your decisions?" Then, "Looking at the issues of productivity, unit costs, prices, market access, etc., how much control, or influence do you have over each?

Furthermore, "If you have more control over production, crop mix/choice, input use & costs, asset use, credit use, withdrawals … defining what & how you produce, then, isn't the investment in management time on these areas at least equally as important as price & access issues?" The point was made that, as you ponder the future of your business:
  • separate those things you can control or influence from those you cannot, and
  • learn from the things beyond your control as to where you want to take your business.
For a complete copy of the review please download the .pdf file ( 114 KB) attached.
 
 
 
 
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For more information about the content of this document, contact Anatoliy Oginskyy.
This document is maintained by Shukun Guan.
This information published to the web on February 14, 2005.
Last Reviewed/Revised on March 17, 2015.