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Marketing Your Calves’ Reputation

Value-added programs and management practices focused on calf health and nutrition can make your calves stand out.
Value-added programs and management practices focused on calf health and nutrition can make your calves stand out.
(Expert: Brady Klatt, cattle nutritionist with Purina Animal Nutrition)

Marketing Your Calves’ Reputation

For spring calving herds, weaning is fast approaching and so is the time for making marketing decisions.

The earlier you can make decisions, the more time you’ll have to implement management strategies to maximize the value of your calves. For example, taking steps so calves qualify for value-added programs can help ensure you’re not leaving any money on the table.

Not all value-added programs are created equal. Each value-added program has its own set of parameters like number of days weaned, vaccines required or even nutrition received. Some program requirements are relatively straightforward and include management practices that you might already be doing. Now is the time to dig into program details and decide which program will help set your calves up to receive top dollar. From there, you can plan your weaning program accordingly.

Setting the foundation for health through nutrition

Weaning can completely disrupt a calf’s life, and a key factor in how a calf overcomes this disruption is how quickly they start eating.

Calves that start eating right away get the nutrition they need for the body’s maintenance function, plus nutrients to grow and gain weight. Ensuring maintenance requirements are met is critical, so calves can bolster a strong immune system to make use of vaccinations and other management practices. If you can maintain nutrient intake during weaning, you can support calf maintenance, growth and immune response – all of which are critical during this timeframe.

Palatable starter feeds help get calves eating quickly. Some starter feeds even include built-in technologies to support the immune system. Balanced nutrition, formulated to meet all energy, protein, and vitamin and mineral requirements, can help support calf health beyond the weaning period, through the backgrounding phase and to the feedlot.

If you’re looking for a value-added program, look for one that sets a foundation for health with nutrition. Not considering a value-added program? Work with your nutritionist to develop a weaning-time nutrition plan – one that will keep buyers coming back for more calves.

Giving yourself flexibility to hit market highs

The timing of preconditioning also makes a difference. Preconditioning calves for 45 days or more offers flexibility to see trends and market when specialty value-added calf sales are occurring. Getting more days of weaning behind a calf with a quality nutrition program can likewise help limit the amount of shrink experienced on sale day, keeping more pounds on the scale to sell.[1]

Value-added programs have shown their ability to generate additional premiums for weaned calves throughout the years. Sale data compiled by Kansas State University shows a $7.36 cwt advantage nationally for calves enrolled in a value-added program who are at least 45 days weaned.[2]

Putting more time between dehorning and castration and your marketing window is another major benefit. Calves being sold with horns or as intact males are often discounted.[3] Appropriately timing these procedures to minimize stress can be beneficial in terms of health status, growth and weight gain.

A 45 day or longer preconditioning program provides producers more flexibility for both optimum management and marketing strategies. The benefits stack up whether you’re considering a value-added program or not.

Doing your research

It is important to do your homework before making any changes to your current marketing program to see if you are leaving money on the table.

Monitor sale reports from nearby sale barns and observe what is happening at video auctions. Find groups of calves similar to your cattle based on weight and any other descriptors available. This will give you a good barometer to know what value you might be missing out on, particularly if those market reports indicate cattle were in a value-added program.

Directly contacting a livestock market representative for a sale barn or video auction can also provide further insight on premiums they’ve observed for cattle in value-added programs. 

If there is a price difference between calves fitting your description and those in a value-added program, it is time to consider enrolling in a program.

Capturing value through a strong reputation

The bottom line? Calves raised with a focus on health and nutrition, which are then marketed through a quality, value-added program, develop a reputation of their own that grabs buyers’ attention on sale day and for the future. For spring calving herds, the time to create that “value-added reputation” is now.

Look for a program that sets a strong nutritional foundation, while checking all the management boxes for your calves and operation.

Have conversations with your veterinarian, nutritionist and sale barn representative to map out a management and marketing plan. Discuss programs, like the Purina® Plus value-added program, which help put together the consistent, quality-focused groups of calves buyers seek.[4],[5]

If you’re interested in enrolling calves in Purina® Plus, reach out to your local Purina® dealer ahead of your anticipated weaning date. They’ll help create a plan that works for you. Your local team will help you navigate using Purina® Plus, in tandem with other value-added programs, based on your unique operation and goals. Visit purinamills.com/purinaplus to learn more.

 

 

[1] Self, H.L. and N. Gay, 1972. Shrink During Shipment of Feeder Cattle. J. Anim. Sci. 35:489.

[2] Smith, M.J., McCabe, E.D., King, M.E., Fike, K.E., Rogers, G.M., and Odde, K. G. 2020. Region of Origin in the United States Affects Price Premiums Associated with Value-Added Health Protocols of Beef Calf Lots Sold Through Summer Video Auctions from 2010 Through 2018. Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: Vol. 6: Iss. 2.

[3] Troxel, T.R., and B.L. Barham. 2012. Phenotypic Expression and Management Factors Affecting the Selling Price

of Feeder Cattle Sold at Arkansas Livestock Auctions. Prof. Anim. Sci. 28:64-72.

[4] McNeill, J. December 1999. Extension Animal Science, Texas A&M University. Value Added Calves.

[5] Bremer, M. September 2015. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. UNL Beef. Preconditioning Calves: Can it Add Value?

 

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