RSA's Ranching for Profit Workshop
Ranching for Profit Workshop- Short Course- Glasgow, MT
Sep 15, 2026 - Sep 16, 2026
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Glasgow
This workshop is being brought to the community from the Rancher’s Stewardship Alliance Beginning Rancher and Education committees and led by Dallas Mount, owner of Ranch Management Consultants. Topics discussed will include condensed and higher-level overviews of the in-depth topics covered in the Ranching for Profit school. The Ranching for Profit school is internationally acclaimed and empowers ag producers to transform their ranches into successful businesses.
Participants will leave with a better understanding of how to evaluate ranch decisions from an economic perspective.
Building a Resilient and Profitable Ranch Business
9:30am-10am I Registration
10am- 5pm I Lunch Included
Morning Session: Setting the Stage
- Do you own a business or just a pile of assets and a bunch of jobs?
- Conventional wisdom is right, conventional ranching isn’t profitable. We continue only because we subsidize ourselves.
- Why ranching isn’t profitable.
- Working In The Business v. Working On The Business (Knowing how to raise livestock is completely different than knowing how to build and run a business that raises livestock)
Afternoon Session: The Three Secrets for Increasing Profit
- Starting a business from scratch, we will start a livestock business from scratch to identify the 3 things you can do to increase profit.
- Develop a shared language for evaluating profit – Gross Margin Analysis
- Looking for “dead wood”
5pm – 6:30 pm | No host social hour at the Elks
6:30 – 8:30pm | Young & Beginning Rancher Business Session
Wednesday, September 16th, 2026
8am – 12pm noon
Morning Session: Applying the Economic Model
- Apply the economic model to an example ranch
Financial Principles
- Learn the financial principles for creating resiliency and cash flow
Benchmarking and Leading Change
- Learn the key economic and financial benchmarks of profitable businesses
- Knowing how to interpret the numbers isn’t enough, how do we lead change in these complicated and complex businesses.
Topics covered
- Economics vs Finance – what is the difference, and which must come first
- Understanding overheads and direct costs
- Ranch enterprise analysis
- Understanding gross margin and how you use it to make ranch decisions
- Developing an economic plan for your ranch
- Testing the plan to see if it is financially feasible
The workshop will be interactive and use case studies of example ranches for teaching concepts. This isn’t a normal boring lecture on economics, come ready to engage!
Young / Beginning Ranchers
We will also be offering a 2-hour session specific to young and beginning ranchers. This session will occur on day one. The young rancher segment will expand on topics discussed during day one while applying them specifically to the scenario of starting an ag operation and the practical application to that process. The target audience for this session will be those aspiring to start their own ag operation, particularly 18 to 25-year-old current or prospective land managers, who are interested in developing the necessary business management and leadership skills to succeed in ranch management.
Registration will be $125 per person and will include
- Workshop Materials
- Lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday
- Appetizers for the evening social
- A deeper understanding of a ranching operation business model
- Optional young & beginning rancher session with Dallas
Location: Elks Lodge 309 2nd Ave S, Glasgow, MT 59230
