CattleWomen hosts annaul ag summit
On Jan. 11, the Johnson County CattleWomen covered a variety of topics at their annual summit in Buffalo.
From succession planning to managing efficiency in cow herds, a large crowd of women gathered to enhance their skills at this one-day event.
Wyoming Ranch Camp
University of Wyoming (UW) Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Educator Chance Marshall attended the event and updated attendees on UW’s Wyoming Ranch Camp (WRC).
“WRC is a program designed for the next generation. Our goal is to help young people enter the agriculture industry while showcasing Wyoming’s agricultural landscape. This program allows them to actively engage with the field and explore potential futures in agriculture,” he explained.
The 2025 WRC will take place at the Ladder Ranch in Carbon County, and the five-day camp covers various aspects of ranch management.
“This will be our fifth year conducting the camp at our third location,” Marshall noted. “I have been with Extension for 12 years, and throughout this time I have experienced many incredible places and met amazing individuals through this wonderful program.”
The WRC curriculum includes plant science and ecology, soil and animal science, economics, ranch recreation and range management.
“We aimed to create a program to help anyone interested in a career in agriculture get started. We combine classroom learning with real-world experiences,” Marshall added.
“Through this program, Wyoming agriculture is highlighted, allowing participants to spend a week learning and developing a ranch plan tailored to the host ranch,” he continued.
Courses are taught by UW Extension staff and local producers.
“This program is designed for the upcoming generation in agriculture to acquire the skills needed to address the difficult decisions producers face,” he added. “Past participants range from recent high school graduates who grew up on family ranches to UW students and mid-career professionals looking to start their own businesses. Current ag professionals, including agriculture teachers, also are encouraged to attend.”
Applications for the WRC program are due by April 4 and the class is limited to 16 participants. The total cost of the program is $200, but scholarships are available to cover meals and lodging.
Tax planning
Verity Group Certified Public Accountant and Founder Lesley Pearson of Buffalo covered key tax planning opportunities and offered some recordkeeping suggestions to lessen the pain of ranch bookkeeping with the group of women.
Pearson holds bachelor’s degrees in agribusiness and accounting and a master’s degree in business administration, all from UW.
Pearson’s interest and involvement in agriculture started with 4-H and FFA activities in her hometown of Lander and has continued to grow since those days.
“Optimizing the timing of income and expenses to minimize tax burdens while still managing cash flow is an ongoing challenge for ag producers,” she stated.
She offered some bookkeeping recommendations for ag operations and encouraged everyone to find an organization system which works for them.
“If you find a way that works for you, then do it,” she stated. “But I highly recommend to keep personal and business accounts separate because it will complicate the accounting paper trail.”
Capital expenditures is another area she discusses, encouraging operators to keep detailed records, including bills of sales, ownership documents and all receipts.
After fielding questions from the group pertaining to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network tracking ownership to payroll taxes and health savings accounts, Pearson discussed disaster relief tax efforts.
“I want to touch on a couple of things today, and disaster relief is one of those,” she added. “If a producer has a situation where they are selling more livestock than they would normally because of weather and drought conditions, they can elect to defer the sale for the recognized proceeds or part of the sale two different ways.”
Producers can defer for one year if they are not going to replace livestock or they can defer for four years if they intend to replace livestock.
She wrapped up her discussion on tax provisions slated to expire in 2025.
Managing efficient cow herds
On hand for the ag summit was UW Assistant Professor and Beef Extension Specialist Dr. Shelby Rosasco who presented on managing feed efficiency.
Rosasco grew up on a cow/calf operation in the foothills of central California and her research and Extension programs focus on increasing beef cattle productivity, improving reproductive performance and longevity in beef cattle and enhancing producer profitability.
“Every ranch is different with different resources and environments, and one feed efficiency plan may look completely different than another plan,” she said. “That’s okay, because efficiency means something different depending on location and what is available.”
Rosasco mentioned producers should focus on ensuring their cattle are both metabolically and reproductively efficient, and as conditions change over the years, it is essential for cattle to adapt while maintaining strong economic efficiency.
During her question-and-answer session, she discussed tracking efficiency and how it can be difficult to measure.
“Feed efficiency is all about understanding how much cattle eat and how well they turn feed into weight gain. We keep a close eye on their daily feed intake and have systems in place to track how much each animal eats every day. This helps us figure out how much feed they need compared to how much weight they gain,” Rosasco shared.
“By doing this, we can learn about important measures like residual feed intake, residual growth, average daily gain and average intake. These insights are really helpful for us,” she added.
Rosasco shared insights from national research studies on how to improve cow/calf herd performance and answered questions from participants about nutrition and reproduction.
Current topics
Budd-Falen Law Office Attorney Annalisa Miller of Cheyenne shared information on a variety of topics including the new electronic identification ear tag mandate, carbon capture and state and land issues affecting Wyoming ranching.
“An interesting topic I am going to talk about is trespassing, as there are some weird trespassing issues happening today,” she stated. “I am sure most of you are familiar with the fence-out doctrine.”
She explained if cattle from a neighboring property trespass on to a landowner’s unfenced land, the owner of the cattle is not liable for damages or criminal penalties.
“We get questions on fence law quite a bit, and they’re always more complicated than people expect them to be,” she mentioned.
She concluded her presentation by discussing state land leases and cattle trespassing, highlighting a new bill which was introduced for the 2025 legislation to help manage these issues.
Melissa Anderson is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
