When I was getting started, I worked on the shares with my grandmother’s brother. Holland Moore was a cattle trader from the time he was a teenager. He got his start by buying neighbor’s stock, anything with legs, driving them to town where he sold them for a profit. He soon learned to auctioneer, bought the sale barn and eventually a commission yard where he traded thousands of locally raised calves to feedyards in several states. By the time I came along, he was 90 years of age, with much practical wisdom to share. There were some rules that he spoke often like, “Never take advantage of a widow. The Bible says the Lord is the protector of widows and orphans and you don’t want to fight against the Lord.” Another rule was, “Never buy anything unless you can give them a better home than what they had.” He specialized in buying cattle that we could improve their looks as well as their weight. He taught me that you should put grass cattle on some dry hay before shipping to firm up their manure, avoiding unnecessary shrink. There were other rules that were unspoken like, “When you make a deal, never take the dirty end of the stick.” It was obvious he played the game to win and hated losing. Although he was very frugal, he dressed for success. He always wore a nice Open Road Stetson, clean clothes, and drove a nice clean car.

One of the rules that stuck with me through the years was this: “Always invest in things that grow into money.” It’s the same principle as Warren Buffet’s favorite: “invest in things that make money while you sleep.” You’re not going to go too far wrong with a group of steers grazing in the pasture, or a batch of heifers ready to calve. They increase in value daily if you take care of them. However, most farmers and ranchers, me included, love to buy things that rust, burn fuel and break down. As Dave Ramsey says, “You lose a ton of money just driving it off the lot.” I think Uncle Holland understood this principle very well. His full line of equipment consisted of a beat-up pickup with a bale stabber in the back, and an Alis Chalmers WD 45 with a 7-foot bar mower. You haven’t put up hay until you’ve mowed 100 acres sitting in the sun all hunched over on that low metal seat. He hired out everything else, letting someone else bear the cost of depreciation. Can you imagine a serious cattleman today without a truck and trailer or a loader? That brings the list of inputs down to the very basics: grass, water, salt and fence. Cattle will grow into money, unless you spend more than they are worth with feed, supplement and machinery. Although most cattlemen avoid this approach, Pharo Cattle Company® specializes in genetics that will prosper with just the basics. Although he’s been gone for years, I think Uncle Holland would be proud to be a Herd Quitter. I’ll leave you with a question: would your cattle grow into money if you had to do without all the supplements, fuel, and machinery? I’ll see you next time on the Herd Quitter® Minute.