I spent New Years in Yuma Arizona visiting. My Mother lives in one park and my Father and Step-mother live in another, so I got to meet lots of retired folks. I would recommend going and spending some time with retired folks. As a matter of fact I think it would be a good idea for all adult ages to observe and understand the needs of life about 15 years in the future. It would be a good way to prepare for life ahead of time.

I joke about these folks working all their life to be successful at the chosen job or profession, and when it’s all done they figure out that being trailer park trash is what makes you enjoy life the most.

I am not sure what the appeal is, but it seems that friends that you can share with daily, and comfortable climate, and no icy roads.

Happy hour is a big deal. Chairs and your favorite beverage is the thing that happens everyday.
As you listen, there is a lot of laughter, lots of talking, a little music. Inexpensive entertainment that really is enjoyed.

The two main things my visit taught me that really are important are health and finances.

Everyone is in all different states of health, and you can see those that have a healthy body and mind and kept them healthy(maybe through luck, maybe through skill) have the best quality of life. Fit active people have no limits on activities, and can participate in things that keep them healthy. It’s like compound interest, the more you can do, the more you can do.

I also see that money does not make you happy, but living within your means does. Everyone is created equal in the retirement park. Time has no prejudice. You can have a huge new motor home or an old small van and before long everyone knows if you are living within your means. Many are content with the lifestyle they live and have everything they need. Others are under the stress of not having enough money to live on. You can just tell the ones that have peace of mind, and they just are real at peace with life, and can really enjoy it.

So my lessons to share are:

1)Take care of your health and enjoy your physical abilities while you have them.
Smoking and dietary habits are two things I see that really effect you as you age.

2)learn to live within your means.
Get in the habit of saving money for the future. You will enjoy the habit, and I never heard one person complains about having to much money while I was there.

3) if your happy and you live a good life when you are young, when you get old it will be a hard
habit to break.

I don’t think happy should be the goal. Happy is just one part of a quality life. ” Content ”
Is the combination of the things that creat a high quality of life.

It’s the same with humans as with animals. Contentment creates a good life. We humans are responsible for our quality of life, as well as the animals we are in control of.

Think and plan ahead. The thing I say more when working livestock than any other thing is “your late”. If your late riding a horse or working a cow it’s pretty easy to fix and start over. In life, the older you get, the more important it is not to be late.

We’ve had a very busy week here at the /C. We finished three real estate deals, negotiated a contract for an exclusive with Zoetis in Canada. I drove to North Dakota and gave five presentations in three days, and Tammy flew to Arizona and spent the week riding and filming with Al Dunning, and working with Ernie Rodina and crew on starting her own tv show.

I had a great three days in North Dakota. The people and the country are really fitting to what I like. Honest, tell you what they think people that have to be a tough and giving as the country and the livestock they are the stewards of.

I was on the program with John Patterson and he was speaking on the technology of testing genetic potential in cattle, and I think JP is the one of the best speakers at connecting with an audience, presenting information that is valuable, as well as presenting technology that will take the livestock industry into the future. I heard his presentation four times and would go listen to it again tomorrow.

His talk was all about new technology, while mine was about stockmanship and stewardship, and I think it has been a very important part of livestock production since its beginning. So we had the old and the new. I feel it is so important to use both in today’s livestock production.

When I was young, my Father listened to a lot of self help tapes. I would have probably rather have been listening to country music (back when country was country)but I was forced to listen and now I am glad I did.

One of the tapes was by Jim Rodgers, and he was my favorite. He had a saying “when your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep becomes your downfall”. I mentioned this in a couple of my talks.

As I have thought about this in my life, I think it is a very good way to make decisions on how to run a business and live your life, and beings we are in inaugural week, a good way to run a country.

I keep reading how a load of calves is worth $70,000 dollars less this year than last year. Depending on your outgo, you will very thankful for last year and having the extra $70000, or wondering how the heck you are going to make things work without it.

I don’t think we have a lot of control over most of the money we are going to receive for our products in agriculture. So our control has to come from the production side. Most technology has an input cost in dollars. If you choose wisely, these dollars can increase production in a way that will increase profit.

The challenge is that just because someone says something will make you money, it does not mean it will make you money. There are always many things the person promoting the idea has no control of, all they are going on is what they know. You are the only one that can decide if your situation will make it work, and you need to be honest with yourself if there is a high enough probability that it will work, and you will put the effort into it to make it pay.

This is the place that stockmanship always comes into play. It does not cost money to use good stockmanship, but it can sure enhance production. Animals need to be physically and mentally able to benefit from the inputs we present them with.

If you vaccinate your calves, and they were so stirred up that their body’s couldn’t accept them, you just wasted the vaccine and probably made them sick trying to keep them from getting sick.

If you don’t have content animals they can’t reach their genetic potential.

If you are not getting your animals to eat and drink properly with proper management of feeding your are not getting the most out of the investment.

I hope you take a little time to think about the saying “when your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep becomes your downfall”. I feel it will really help in managing your business. It will also make a huge difference in the reduction of stress and improve quality of life in your day to day life. I hope President Trump listened to those tapes.

This is what stockmanship is. It’s not about cattlehandling, but handling cattle in a way that they become content and accept your inputs.

“My inputs are less than my outgo, so my upkeep ads to my quality of life” is a much more positive saying.