Brett & Chantel McRae own and operate McRae Land & Livestock, located 15 minutes southwest of Brandon MB. They raise commercial cattle and a diverse rotation of grain crops including spring and winter cereals, canola, pulse crops and corn. They also provide custom seeding and bull clipping services and manufacture cattle scratchers on farm.
They currently operate on 2800 acres, 2640 of which is leased, and 2200 of which is crop land. They have approximately 300 head of commercial cattle including a replacement heifer enterprise and a commercial cow/calf enterprise.
Brett and Chantel were married in 2020 and now have two children, Corbin and Brylee. In 2022 Brett and Chantel joined the Ranch Management Consultants Executive Link (EL) program.
McRae Land & Livestock is committed to using regenerative agriculture practices to increase soil health and resiliency. They are very interested in innovation in agriculture, especially in finding ways to make regenerative ag practices practical on a field scale. They believe an adaptive systems approach to land and livestock management is not only possible, but will be needed to bring regenerative agriculture to a large scale. They believe that land conservation and agriculture can, and must work together to optimize farm productivity, profitability, and ecosystem services.
In today’s episode, we are chatting with Brett McRae about his use of economics and finance ratios, cash flow projections and metrics and the impact this has had on our business.
We start the episode with a discussion on Brett’s background in agriculture and what McRae Land and Livestock looked like when Brett started the business in 2012. Brett tells us how the business has changed and evolved in the past 13 years.
We talk about the programs Brett has been involved in that have positively impacted not only the business, but also Brett’s mindset about business management and his confidence in his numbers and business decisions. These included Cattleman’s Young Leaders Program (CYL) and his mentorship with Steve Kenyon, the Ranching for Profit Program (RFP) and Executive Link (EL).
Brett discusses some of the field trials he is planning for the upcoming year, as well as some of the trials he has been doing with the cattle herd.
We then move into the focus on economics and finance and some of the ratios and metrics Brett uses to measure business performance, project cash flow and know when to expand and when to hone in on making the business better before it gets bigger.
If you want to contact Brett to have him speak at an event near you or to ask him questions about McRae Land and Livestock, you can contact him on:
Twitter: @mcrae_brett
Facebook: McRae Land and Livestock
Email: brett.mcrae@icloud.com
Cell Phone: 204-729-1018
The research programs and daily operations at MBFI would not be possible without the funding from the Province of Manitoba, Government of Canada, and Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, as well as the partnership with Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC).
We encourage you to follow MBFI on social media, or check out the website for more information on project findings and results, upcoming events and more!
Instagram: @MBBeefandForage
Facebook: @MBBeefandForage
X (Twitter): @MBBeefandForage
Website: www.mbfi.ca
Email address: information@mbfi.ca
Mary-Jane’s Phone Number: 431-255-0011
