This is the second part of a three-part series called Turning Point.

If you want to make lots of money, agriculture is usually not the first pick of enterprises to choose from. However, if you want that special feeling of worthy purpose - feeding people, providing an adequate livelihood and environment for the family, along with being connected to land and nature, farming and ranching are still good choices.

I believe that we just have to do a little more work on planning and managing things for profit these days, with less emphasis placed on trying to maximize production. The solution may not come from saying YES to a whole lot of new ideas, but from learning to say NO to certain ongoing areas within our traditional farming & ranching operations.

An area that may seem profitable on the surface may perhaps be a hidden item that=s really draining our time, money, physical energy, and resources away from our real purpose and the sought-out way of life that we=ve been working so hard for.

One such ranch, the Quirk Cattle Company, near Eureka, MT, family-owned and operated by Faye and Leland Driggs, was typically faced with many of these same issues. They were having to deal with today's changing times, with adversities such as drought, low calf prices, expensive equipment, hard-to-find good help, increasing environmental regulations, and something I call "low neighborhood appreciation."  I personally think the general public has a poor understanding of where their healthy food comes from.

This particular ranch also has the unique problems of an occasional grizzly bear on their ranch, wolves coming and going, year-around elk grazing, and ever-increasing small property developments adding new people pressures to their traditional western way of life.

In other words, if a bucket represents this ranch's quality of life, there are lots of holes in the bucket, draining out their time, money, energy, and even happiness. Also, there was a bottom hole in this bucket C having a major effect on their quality of life that no matter what they changed or did, something was still badly draining the ranch.

Finding this bottom bole and fixing it was a monumental ranch experience, and it took them several years C first to locate it and then a few more years to fix the leakage.

About five years ago, they attended one of our annual pasture management workshops near Billings, MT. They came to the workshop because they were concerned about losing the health of their native grasses on the home ranch, and were frustrated with all those pressures listed above.

At the workshop, they were asked to come up with a holistic goal C that is, list what they really want to see happen to this ranch well into the future. Later this would all be stated in their Ranch Circle Target to give them directions to make decisions by.

After the workshop, they went home and thought about their whole situation and later, with our coaching, they completed the goal-setting process. They developed their ranch's Holistic Goal stated in a Circle Target, which included a list of all the people that influenced the ranch. They listed all their resources (the whole situation), and came up with several quality-of-life statements (the way they wanted the ranch to be well into the future). In the very center of this Circle Target, they stated the main purpose of the ranch (core reasons why they owned this property). This comprehensive ranch goal became a word picture of the future they really desired. This kind of goal-setting can become the glue and guide for any ranch or business.

This whole process is called holistic management, because it=s much wiser to think and plan in terms of the whole situation instead of looking at each part separately, such as grazing versus haying versus genetic versus equipment, etc.

Why do it this way? When you start making changes to one aspect of a farm or ranch, it really affects all the other parts of the enterprise, plus the family's way of life. The word holistic simply means to identify and manage the whole situation and then test all actions toward this goal.

With that done, they could start making better purpose-driven decisions. The first big problem to tackle was dealing with the U.S. Forest Service and all their new grazing constraints and regulations on the use of public lands.

At first they came up with a new livestock-grazing plan to keep their cattle away from the lakes, public recreational sites, and riparian areas within their allotment. This went on for about three years, but something was still draining their bucket (their desired quality of life).

All summer they would have to answer phone calls from the Forest Service and other people complaining about cows on or near private lands. You see, this allotment is situated on open rangeland C generally unfenced areas they've been using nearly 100 years. But more and more people were moving in and around the allotment, each with a different set of objectives. Sound familiar to anyone?

After all these years of trying really hard to put up with all these complaints and grazing regulations that came from running livestock at what seemed to be a profitable monthly rate charge (around $1.34 per month per animal), they determined that this was the biggest obstacle preventing them from reaching the quality of life they so desired.

To better assess the situation, they completed a financial analysis of all expenses connected with public land grazing and found out that it was costing them $35,000 per year, which works out to be $33 per each animal unit, per month, besides all the added people pressure they had to endure. AH, HA! The light bulb came on; they just found their Bottom Hole in the Bucket.

They next made the very important, purpose-driven decision (based upon their holistic goal) to stop grazing what seemed to be a profitable lease arrangement. Unbeknown to them, it was also robbing them of the summer months to take better care of their own grasslands. They would have to load up the horses, drive to the allotment, ride the brush and trees, and try hard to control livestock distribution problems. They had neglected the need to better manage their own grass on their private lands.

The principle to remember here is when you say YES to one thing, you really have said NO to something else.

Since that problem was resolved, they also said NO to several other holes in their bucket. NO to preg-testing, and within three years, this resulted in saving a $3,600 vet bill, plus they had 20 more calves available to sell. You see, at certain times it's hard for a veterinarian to hit 100 percent.

They said NO to haying their alfalfa for two years. With the new time to stay home, they=ve become much better grass managers, and with careful holistic planning, monitoring, and management, they had enough carry-over hay left from the previous years so that they made a purpose-driven decision not to hay.

This would be a very hard decision for any ranch to make. Think about walking by all that haying equipment when the alfalfa is starting to bloom. They even missed the smell of fresh-cut alfalfa and had to drive down the road a ways to enjoy that sweet smell.

Changing traditional farming ways is difficult, but if it's a big hole in the bucket that=s really holding you back from being profitable, you need to take a closer look at what really matters.

They also were able to reduce their hired help because they didn't have to take care of the Forest Service lands. The phone now rings with people still complaining about bulls near their homes. The Driggs just smile and say they're sorry, but they don't have any of their animals on that public land any longer. It must be someone else's bulls.

You can see by this story that this ranch has made several purpose-driven decisions, which I like to call Turning Points. One of the best phone calls I've received from a client is, "Wayne, you helped start all this by requiring us to form that lifetime "holistic" Ranch Circle Target. We're now making more money and enjoying this ranch more than ever.

We all have holes in our bucket, probably not the same ones as on this ranch. However, I ask everyone reading this article to please consider thinking deeper about finding their very own Bottom Hole(s) in the Bucket. Think about the business you=re in or your family or even some group you're connected to, because this type of thinking and goal-setting process is a very powerful tool to discover the place where changes are really needed.