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The MSU Extension Grazing Workgroup announces a program for all Beef and Sheep producers. Guest speakers Kit and Brett Pharo will be there to share their visions of maximizing profitability, and how they see you reaching that goal.

Kit’s discussion will focus on beef topics, while his brother Brett will discuss profitable sheep production. Both of them will share what they do on their operations.

Kit will discuss the three keys to maximizing profit, and enjoyment.

1.      Maximizing collection of FREE Solar Energy

2.      Matching your production cycle to fit your available forage resources

3.      Matching cow size, and type to fit your available forage resources

 

The event held at the Riverwalk Place in Gladwin, MI, on Wednesday March, 30, 2011 starting at 9am, and going until 4:30pm. The Riverwalk place is located at 777 W. Cedar Ave, Gladwin, MI 48624. It costs $30 per person to attend the event, and there are limited seats, so no group discounts can be offered. Registration must be received by March 16th in order to reserve your seat. Registrations received after that date will be filled on a first come first serve basis, and will cost $40 per person.

Please contact Kable Thurlow, MSUE Educator at (989)426-7741, or by email at: [log in to unmask] , you can also get a copy of the registration flyer by visiting, www.msue.msu.edu/gladwin

 

 

 

            Kit Pharo grew up on a small farm and ranch located on the Central High Plains of Eastern Colorado.   He graduated from Colorado State University in 1974 with a degree in Animal Science.   In 1985, Kit and his wife Deanna had the opportunity to fulfill their dream of getting back to the land.   They were able to lease a sizable chunk of grassland and purchase a commercial herd of cows from Kit’s dad.

 

            Being a university graduate, Kit thought he would improve the cowherd by doing whatever it took to increase weaning weights.   He was going to show everyone how to wean bigger calves and succeed at ranching.   Fortunately, that was a very short-term goal.   With the help of his dad and a couple of friends, Kit soon realized that increasing production was not as important as increasing profits.   He also learned that there was a very poor correlation between production and profit.   It was not at all uncommon for an increase in weaning weight to bring about a decrease in profits – because every increase in production comes at a cost.

 

Kit’s new goal was twofold.   He would do whatever he could to increase production without increasing expenses, as well as doing whatever he could to reduce expenses without reducing production.   He wasn’t going to ignore production, but he realized that his management decisions needed to be profit-driven instead of production-driven.   Kit and his wife Deanna became very passionate and excited about this unique concept.   The more they looked, the more possibilities they found to make their ranch more profitable.

 

The biggest problem the Pharos encountered, though, was finding a Seedstock producer who could provide the genetics they needed to produce low-maintenance, environmentally-adapted cattle.   For the most part, they simply did not exist.   Every bull they purchased seemed to take them farther and farther away from their objectives.   Being an opportunist, Kit promptly decided to take advantage of this situation by entering the Seedstock business.   His goal was to provide low-input, grass-based genetics to other commercial ranchers.

 

Kit and Deanna’s ranch became known as Pharo Cattle Company.   They sold their first set of bulls in 1991.   For the past five years, they have been selling 700 to 800 Angus, Red Angus, Hereford and Composite bulls every year.   They specialize in no-nonsense bulls that are developed on grass and other forages – without grain.   Kit shares his outside-the-box thoughts and philosophies in a bimonthly newsletter that is received by nearly 20,000 people.   He also sends weekly emails to 13,000 people.

 

Brett Pharo grew up on his parents' ranch on the high plains of eastern Colorado where they ran a commercial cow/calf operation and raised wheat.  He attended college and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Texas Maritime Academy and Texas A&M University at Galveston.  Following graduation he worked for a few years as an officer on ocean-going merchant ships, but continued to look for opportunities to get back into agriculture.

 

In 1988 Brett and family moved to Rapid City, Michigan near Traverse City where his wife Debbie teaches math at Northwestern Michigan College.  Within a few months they purchased their current farm near the south end of beautiful Torch Lake, where they raised and home-schooled their two daughters.  On their small farm, Brett, and family, raise registered Polypay sheep, selling rams primarily to commercial sheep producers around the state of Michigan.  Pharo Polypays are raised in a forage-based, low-input system that strives for performance based on genetics rather than high management inputs, with the idea of providing commercial sheep operations the genetics they need to be profitable, productive, and easy-maintenance.  On the farm, they also raise and sell some grass-fed beef.  In addition to the farm, Brett serves as an elected township trustee, a firefighter, and works for two ambulance services.

 

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