To “CREATE A VISION” is to chart a course. Like navigation tools used by sea captains to our use of navigation apps on our smartphones today, creating a vision is creating a planned direction. We think this is important in today’s world of high input prices and extreme volatility to be very cognitive of the design of a cow herd – whether it’s purebred or commercial. Unfortunately, distractions are a big part of our lives now. We are bombarded with information, ideas, marketing and chaos. No matter what we are trying to do with our business, life or cowherd; we are constantly being pulled every direction by outside forces, or simply, noise. The cattle business is full of noise also. Marketing is constant, EPDs are too abundant and high dollar bulls are over hyped. It is easy to be on a different bandwagon year after year whether it is the hype of an AI sire or an EPD that many people want you to believe that higher, higher, higher is better. Your Cow Herd should be created with these 4 factors in mind: ENVIRONMENT , LABOR , MARKETING SYSTEM and PRODUCTION SYSTEM . Begin with the fundamentals – Docile, Matching body type to environment & feed resources, Structural correctness and solid feet, Fault free udders, Fertility. Then tailor your vision to your marketing time and production system. Refine your focus on some of the traits that give you an advantage in your environment and your marketing system. Adapt and adjust but hold true to the solid basics to maintain a positive course.
In FFA leadership workshops, as youth we were introduced to goals and the importance of writing them down. That principle holds true as we rebuild the nation’s cow herd and we each consider our role in that task. Our family’s directives are Functional, Docile, Fertile, & Productive. The Vision we’re creating for our cow herd is docile females with an exceptional brood cow look, structural integrity, and generational maternal strength to efficiently wean a high percentage of their body weight without supplementation and the inherent ability to rebreed early.
We encourage you to utilize these proven genetics to plot your course and CREATE A VISION FOR YOUR COW HERD
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