While the integration concept can sometimes seem ambiguous, the resource aspect of IRM is more concrete. The major resources available to ranchers are land, labor and capital. There is a fourth resource that should compliment the other three and that is information. External information should originate from the resource people compose an IRM team. Internal information should originate from production and financial records kept on the ranch.
Management involves planning, organizing, directing and controlling the business.
The most important, yet challenging of these areas is control the process of analyzing, evaluating and interpreting the production and financial information of the business. With control in place, the ranch manager can make informed business decisions. Adoption of the IRM concept by producers has been slow. From my observation, it seems the number of producers using the numerous IRM tools is too small. Barry Dunn, the national IRM committee chair, pointed out in a past issue of this newsletter, that the adoption of new ideas is by nature a slow process.