Regardless of your market segment or marketing method, the increased visibility to premiums and discounts through the cattle contract library provides further guidance as to where the packers assign value.
The replacements you keep this year may be the most expensive cows in your herd in 5 years. Is her relative birthdate the most important factor to evaluate her merit as a replacement?
In a year with rising commodity prices and limited availability, strategically feeding forages may offer the best option to deliver supplemental nutrients using existing infrastructure and equipment.
How you feed backgrounded calves may affect how they perform in the feedlot. With higher cattle prices and high input prices this year it’s worth revisiting your backgrounding program.
We often consider replacements as sunk costs since they are unrealized revenue rather than out-of-pocket expenses. However, there is real opportunity cost of not putting the heifer on the truck with her steer mates.
With much of the US cow herd in some form of drought the odds of thin cows heading into weaning season are high. This month let’s look at practical approaches to wrangling the challenge of dry pastures and thin cows.
Considering a replacement heifer is a 10+ year investment and requires 2 years of expenses without income from the day we wean her, is the survival model the best we can do?
Gaining a greater understanding of how your cattle development decisions impact the next phase provides context around the market signals from bidders and buyers.
From an operational perspective, what have you invested time in learning that moves your business forward? What emerging technologies have you considered or reconsidered to improve operational sustainability?
