Workshop in Sandpoint to focus on profitable ranching

A workshop dedicated to helping ranchers sell directly to local and regional markets is scheduled to take place Aug. 20 and 21 in Sandpoint.

The University of Idaho Extension is organizing the Ranching for Profit event, which will run workshop sessions from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. each day at the Sandpoint Organic Agriculture Center at 10881 N. Boyer Road. Event attendance is $40 per person.

Ranching for Profit, based in Wheatland, Wyoming, provides business management education to ranchers. The workshops will cover ranching profitability, restructuring a ranch to make it profitable, financial principles and rations, employee structures and more.

“Ranching for Profit was the best training I’ve ever had on any topic in my entire life,” said Mike Guebert, a rancher based in Corbett, Oregon. “It has fundamentally changed the way I think about my business, and my only regret is that I didn’t do it 15 years earlier.”

Along with Ranching for Profitability, other ranchers will share their experiences in the industry. Eileen Napier and Stan Hayes, ranchers of Ramstead Ranch in Ione, Washington, will talk about their operations.

The workshops are being held after several requests were made.

“We had been hearing that farmers wanted to have a Ranching for Profit workshop in Idaho,” said Colette DePhelps, a U of I area Extension educator specializing in community food systems, who is co-lead of the center’s Idaho team. “These workshops are widely popular. They are very much led by people who have expertise in the field of ranch management, and they are very hands-on and applied.”

Lunch will be provided with the first day’s workshops and beverages will be provided both days. U of I stated that some partial scholarships are available and applications are due by Aug. 13. The Extension received $10,000 from the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center to host and plan an educational event for ranchers.

To register for the event, click here.