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Practitioner Profile: Richards Ranch, Jacksboro, Texas(Formerly E. C. Richards & Sons, Inc.)By: John Hackley, General Manager NOTE: Many years ago, I wrote one of the first profiles for our newsletter. It was reprinted several years ago to reflect additions and changes to update the information to that time. Several years have passed again and a number of interesting things have transpired within the Holistic Management Framework for Decision Making. Some of those things are, but not limited to, changes in terminology, drought, production, succession, and business name changes. WHOLE UNDER MANAGEMENT (THE WHOLE) Resource Base (The Land): The family business operates 15,000 acres in north central Texas. We have been a cow/calf operation and feed weaned calves to fats at a private farmer/feeder operation in Iowa. The SCS stocking rate for our area is 1:20. The land consists mostly of rolling prairie with some outcropping of post oaks and mesquite encroachment. The land was originally managed in three to four thousand acre pastures of continuous grazing. Later, cross fencing into smaller pastures was used with various forms of conventional grazing methods. Presently all land is managed with planned, rotational grazing. We chained post oak timber some 50 years ago and spent many dollars goat ranching to keep down re-growth until it was obvious that was not profitable, nor did it keep down the re-growth. We also spent years oiling mesquites. Our grasses consist of native range (short grasses, tall grasses, bunch grasses and winter grasses, both annual and perennial). We have adequate stock water in earthen ponds and a well-developed water well, pipeline, and storage delivery system.Decision Makers (The People): From the beginning of the family business, the name, E. C. Richards & Sons, never adequately reflected the gender make up of the ownership, thus the name change to Richards Ranch to accomplish same. We have three teams: Owners Team, consisting of the four owners instead of the original five; Management Team, consisting of the president, general manager, and secretary; and the Ranch Team, consisting of the general manager, secretary, and two full-time employees (one living on the ranch and one living on his own land). Money (Finances): A closely held, 137 year old family owned corporation, we are currently operating the ranch with a fifth generation general manager and a sixth generation employee. The corporation is solvent, operates with a positive cash flow, and has cash reserves. A budget of income and expenses is prepared annually, approved by the Owners Team, and is monitored on a monthly basis. HOLISTIC GOAL (THREE PART GOAL) Quality of Life: To be able to enjoy our heritage of ranching, its way of life, and to live off the land; to be able to sustain this heritage for future generations of our family; and to be able to leave the land better than we received it.Forms of Production (Production): To maximize the use of the land, including diversification where necessary; to maximize profits in the cow/calf operation by maximizing pounds of beef per acre through managing for maximum amounts of forage per acre, thus creating real wealth. Future Resource Base (Landscape Description): In order to achieve the production and quality of life goals, all four ecosystem blocks must be functioning at the highest levels. All four blocks require proper soil surface management. Therefore, our goal is prairies with a variety of high quality forage, dependable and ample water supplies, a proper balance of timber, and a wildlife population. We have been in the process of developing the techniques of holistic management since early 1980 in the area of grazing only. Obviously, this process does not evolve overnight, because we must constantly plan, monitor, control, and re-plan to meet our goals. But what were our real goals? It was not until 1988-89 that we realized the need to place priorities in the proper order and begin a long range planning process to define The Whole to be managed, establish the Holistic Goal (three part), and establish our operational goals and objectives. Since our original profile and reprinted profile, our Owners Team lost one member, whose estate maintains an ownership interest in the form of a trust. The Management Team lost our family secretary, who was replaced by my wife, Charlotte. At the original writing we had three full time employees. Two have retired, one after 57 years and the other after 45 years, and the third one left to pursue other interests. Before the third employee left, my son Brent returned home to join the family business. He is the sixth generation of our family to work on the ranch and he and his wife are living on the ranch and raising their family, Hunter and Hallie (seventh generation). As Brent has taken on more management responsibilities, we have hired another employee to help with the daily tasks. Because of the age of some of our owners, we have spent many hours working on goals in the area of estate planning and succession to perpetuate our business for the next generation. Over these 20 or so years, we have noticed many changes in the attitude and thinking of the people involved, changes in the behavior of the livestock, changes in our management style for the people, land, and livestock. With change come hurdles to overcome when starting to practice holistic management, such as getting everybody on the team and starting to think “holistically.” Teamwork and regular communication with common goals are necessary to managing holistically. With change come mistakes, such as resistance to change, resistance to regular team meetings, and not reevaluating our goals and objectives when we fell short of meeting them. With change comes achievement/discovery, such as owners having had common goals unknown to each other. The long range planning process brought my family together as a team with common direction and understanding like they have never been before. Learn the basics about holistic management; don’t be afraid to try; promote the team concept; plan long-range with a three part holistic goal; do financial analysis and planning first, and the grazing aspects of holistic management will come into play later. We have successfully managed to double the conventional stocking rate in most years. Our grasses have become denser, there is more litter, and we have achieved more effective use of rainfall. Now it takes a great deal more rain to achieve run off to fill stock tanks. Wildlife populations, such as deer and turkey, have increased with planned rotational grazing, while quail is on the decline in many areas. The biggest problem we have faced in the last seven years has been the drought. In keeping with our goals, as we have planned, monitored, controlled, and re-planned, it became obvious that in order to sustain our business for the future, production needed to be diversified. As cow numbers were reduced by attrition without replacement, we turned to stocker cattle when forage was available. We learned to maximize our grazing efficiency by combining our cowherds to maximize rest during the drought. With increasing wildlife populations, hunting became an option for diversification. We entered into a wildlife management program to hunt and manage the wildlife population. Our hunting lodge and its growth into a retreat center provided year round opportunities for diversification into nature tourism and ranch experiences. Our facilities at Richards Ranch Retreat have grown to include a lodge, cabins, and meeting facilities in a large all-weather pavilion-style building. With the thinking and planning process involved in holistic management, it has been much easier to accomplish our goals, create an advantage in our business environment, and meet our Holistic Goal for quality of life, forms of production, and future resource base goals. |
John Hackley |