I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but here winter can feel like it’s never going to end. Feeding calves and cows is incredibly important, but it can get monotonous. Those of us who are working inside can start to get a little stir-crazy, and I think most of our crew is ready to get our hands dirty branding or farming.
Late winter is the perfect time to reflect on your why. Why is it that you’re putting in the long hours when it’s monotonous? What drives you to keep going? Is it the calves that are about to start hitting the ground or seeing a new season’s crop start growing? Why did you choose agriculture?
For me, I love seeing the life cycle on the ranch. I love knowing that the calves I see during calving are the same calves that I’ll see at branding and again in the feedlot in the fall. I love knowing that we’re feeding a lot of people and making a real difference in the world. I love the continual improvement that comes with looking at data and learning how to do better, which is something that we do for all areas of the ranch.
As we work on the winter tasks of feeding, maintenance, data analysis, and planning let’s remember why we’re doing it and commit to doing whatever task is in front of us with excellence, because these tasks are what drive us forward. These things make a real difference in how we lean into our values and stay aligned with them. For us on the Padlock, our company values are tradition, innovation, and excellence. These are not just things that we can focus on when the job is fun. What are your values and how are you working to stay aligned with them right now?
