Protein Producers Winter 2016

Don’t Battle Your Budget By: Jacob Mayer, P.E., Settje Agri-Services & Engineering, Inc. In my last article, we worked through some of the critical details involved in building a new cattle working facility for your ranch or feedyard.

Disciplined planning will not only benefit you during construction, but it will also help you establish a firm budget and stick to it.

Perhaps you had a number in your head when we started that you wanted to use for a bottom line cost.

Without a thoroughly defined scope, that is a hard figure to estimate. Now that we have a game plan, we have some decisions to make on how to proceed.

Here are a couple options to get your project built: 1. Build it yourself. Can your current labor force build fence and pour concrete? You may need to purchase the building structure and equipment, but much of the work stays in-house. This path is typically much slower; however, it allows you to control the schedule and can save money if you’ve got capable people on your team.

2. Hire a general contractor. A general contractor is a one stop shop. They handle everything for a predetermined price and as long as you stick to your plan, the price doesn’t change. This option is usually the most expensive because they assume all of the risk in regard to the price of materials and weather.

3. Hire a construction manager or act as your own.

A construction manager will solicit bids from multiple contractors for the different aspects of the job (building erection, plumbing, electrical, etc.) for you to review and award contracts to. They will oversee the work to make sure everything is built according to the plans. They receive a fee for their services, but you pay the actual costs.

There isn’t a right or wrong way to go, but there is a best way for your particular situation. Depending on the route you choose, your budget will develop differently, but ultimately you will arrive at a cost. Keeping your banker, partners, and family in the know during this budget development process will avoid surprises and delays in the start of construction.

The key to staying on budget is minimizing changes.

Projects of this size are too complex to execute perfectly without ever running into a snag. pacdvms.com 17