Is your farm family-first or business-first?

Mar 04, 2020

Balancing a farm business while raising a family requires hard work and dedication. And combine it with multiple generations attuned to transition planning, communication is even more key.

Best-selling author and executive coach David Irvine says governance, or how farm families work together, leads to the development of farm goals, which helps create balance.

Within a business, he explains, are three key groups: farm owners, employees and family. Each circle brings its own goals, and some of them overlap.

“We have to make sure that each circle gets their interests met,” Irvine says. “And the goals need to provide clarity about where each group is heading.”

Those goals, he points out, should determine the business direction. And within the family circle, deciding if the operation is family-first or business-first, takes discussion.

Organize everyone to come together, Irvine says, to discuss what each family member wants, what the business goals are and answer how the business can support the family. Using this style of holistic leadership creates an atmosphere to figure out what’s important to each person.

“What are we in business for? Don’t give me your mission statement. Give me your personal statement. Ask yourself, what’s the purpose of the business in your life?”

But the issue many face is they prioritize the drive for production first, then squeeze quality of life into it. “We work for 20 or 30 years and say, Where’s my quality of life because the business runs my life.”

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.