Rancher Challenges

Members of the beef cattle industry tackle tough issues every day. When you get those cattlemen and women together, they talk about some of those problems, and try to pick each others brains about potential solutions.

Nolan Stone is with S Cattle Company in Eaton, Colorado.

"You know I think as I reflect back on my cattle feeding Career One Big Challenge we have in our area is labor difficult time finding skilled educated labor and I add don't see that challenge changing anytime soon I can get more creative than in training new people and in been able to keep businesses moving forward."

Bruce Mershon runs Murshon Cattle Company in Lee's Summit, Missouri. He agrees with Stone in discussing the need for better laborers to work the ranch. He also recently told the NCBA, it's up to managers, including himself, to do more.

"I think after coming off record profits two and three years ago that we got a little lax on kit managing our cost with land values and more Cows does not mean cash or rents are going down anytime soon... so it's really important for us to probably get more out of each Acre and we need to do a better job managing our cost per animal unit down."

Ranchers say they also face severe volatility in the cattle market, with the market changing so quickly that some ranchers admit they have a difficult time adapting.