KINGSVILLE, TEXAS (Oct. 3, 2018)—King Ranch® Institute for Ranch Management (KRIRM) graduate students recently completed an External Practitioner-Led Workshops Program, concluding a unique training experience with leading ranching industry experts. With generous support from a grant awarded by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ (HLSR), ranch management graduate students participated in this exclusive KRIRM student program.
The External Practitioner-Led Workshops Program provided three trainings in the areas of ranch and managerial accounting, as well as extensive mentoring workshops connecting students with industry professionals representing some of the nation’s most complex ranching operations. These workshops, funded by a grant award from HLSR, are designed to complement the students’ ranch management graduate curriculum, empowering them with tools and resources to strategically manage complex ranching operations.
A ranch accounting workshop was taught by Stan Bevers, a ranch economist and consultant with decades of consulting experiences with ranches across North America. Bevers taught KRIRM students during a two-day workshop on ranch business management and managerial accounting. The training with Bevers also engaged students further by facilitating an exercise that required them to create a ranch accounting system in QuickBooks. During a three-month period, Bevers provided students with ranch transaction receipts, which students entered and appropriately allocated within the system they created. Over 12 weeks, each student entered an entire fiscal year of ranch transactions and was then required to create appropriate financial statements, as well as evaluate multiple ranch enterprises. In the end, each student analyzed the financial statements and learned to see the entire picture of ranch finances.
Stan Bevers led the ranch accounting workshop held earlier this year in Fort Worth.
Burke Teichert, the second industry expert to meet with KRIRM students, is among the most respected ranch management consultants in the world. Teichert, retired Vice President of AgReserves Inc., led a workshop where he shared his experience and lessons learned throughout his career at AgReserves, a company that owns the largest cattle operation in North America. Advice was also shared about managing people and teams in larger ranching operations. Teichert explained the “Five Essential Traits for Successful Ranch Management” to the KRIRM graduate students, with a unique ability to make connections and teach production from soil health all the way through the beef supply chain to the end-product.
Students learned about the “Five Essential Traits for Successful Ranch Management” with Burke Teichert.
A beef cattle nutrition and management workshop was held with Ted McCollum, PhD, a long-time rancher, professor, and extension beef cattle specialist. This workshop included discussion on stocker cattle management and nutrition, and on practical beef cattle marketing and risk management. With valuable experience through personal ownership of ranches focused on cow-calf production, stocker cattle, a growing yard, and a feedyard, McCollum offered unique knowledge across all sectors of the pre-harvest beef industry.
Students attending the beef cattle nutrition and management workshop with Ted McCollum, PhD.
“We believe it is important for KRIRM graduate students to learn from the most experienced professionals in our industry in addition to the already well-rounded ranch management graduate curriculum they receive at the institute,” said KRIRM Director Clay Mathis, PhD. “Our graduate students already have years of ranch management experience. The practitioner-led workshops are advanced and intended to build advanced management skills. We are confident that this training empowers our students for greater management success and leadership of this ranching industry for which we share a passion.”
The institute has graduated 38 students who collectively manage 4 million acres of ranchland and wildlife habitat; 150,000 breeding cows; and 425 ranch employees. The multi-disciplinary and systems approach to ranch management adds great value to the master’s program, and the addition of the External Practitioner-Led Workshops Program for graduate students ensures that KRIRM students are receiving an unmatched educational experience. To learn more about the ranch management master’s degree, visit krirm.tamuk.edu/masters-program/.
KRIRM Ranch Management graduate students pictured with Burke Tiechert at the ranch management workshop.
About KRIRM
Formed in 2003, KRIRM is a ranch management master’s program at Texas A&M University-Kingsville created in honor of the 150th Anniversary of the legendary King Ranch. As the only ranch management master’s program in the world, KRIRM teaches graduate students using a multi-disciplinary, systems approach to ranch management. Through outreach events, KRIRM also provides the highest quality lectureships and symposia to stakeholders in the ranching industry. For more information about KRIRM, visit krirm.tamuk.edu.
For media inquiries, please contact Ashley Patterson, ashley.charanza@tamuk.edu