Never has there been an industry that has so many ready “advisors.” Some advertise as consultants, some have dozens of years of profitable experience and others may still be sweating down their first free feed store ball cap. Regardless the advice about raising, producing, showing and profiting from Texas Longhorns is abundant. Perhaps it is just a matter of sorting out the valid and the guessulators.
Advice comes in various colored wrappers: there is good advice, bad advice, experienced advice, neophyte advice, professional advice, amateur advice and sometimes no advice is the safest.
President Trump says, “Always try to learn from other people’s mistakes, not your own---it is much cheaper that way!”
If a fortune-teller knew their business, their stock market investments would be a phenomenal profit every time. You know the answer to that one. Why do religious faith healers avoid the big hospitals if they actually do what they say? Perhaps some registered cattle advisors are of a similar breed.
“RAISE WHAT YOU LIKE.” Of all the bad advice, this one crawls under my skin. When entry-level producers are searching for good information they don’t need to be told that they already know it all--- just do whatever. Consider the Super Bowl; what if the coach just told the players, “Just go on the field and have fun.”
No one can go into a new business and know as much about it as after they have worked the business for a few years. There are a lot of good sources of valid business info and an equal or larger group of not so good info. Just because someone is free with all the answers and yet don’t have the “chips” to prove it---maybe, hold off on that source of advice. “
If an entry-level producer has no desire to every show a profit---never have any return on investment, RAISE WHAT YOU LIKE, is fine. Yet if there is a desire to show a profit each one must position themselves to carefully learn what the buyer wants. The more successful producers are filling the need of what is wanted the more financial fun each person will have.
As an example—where does your information come from?
Auctions are a source of information, but not always the best. Each auctioneer has a dedication of embellishment owed to the consignor to verbalize the merits of each critter to achieve the highest bid. Next week the same glamorous prose may be used on totally different cattle of lesser or even greater quality. Auctioneers, similar to attorneys work for their client. An attorney may pontificate the guilt of a client one day and innocence the next.
