Ramsey County Ag Column

By Bill Hodous

April 28, 2008

Howdy!!!

It is hard to believe that many of us are already through the calving season.  There are still producers to start calving but the majority of our cattle producers are on the down hill stretch.  It has been a fairly good spring calving season with a few setbacks but generally things have gone pretty smooth.  There still exists those cows that think everyone is out to get them however as was the case just the other night.  My youngest son called and said he narrowly escaped the wrath of one angry mom, protecting her baby, and then to make matters worse they generally get upset enough to get the new little born in trouble too.  I can remember one young cow we had that always grew a very big calf but there was one person on her hit list and that being Deb.  I never saw the like of it, anybody else show up and things were fine.

Today we are going to talk a little bit about an article published by Tim Petry (NDSU Livestock Marketing Economist).  Tim mentions how cattle producers are not even remotely thinking about marketing this year’s calf crop but suggests strategies to improve the marketability of our calf crop next fall/winter.

Last fall, the range in prices for similar weights and grades of calves were wider than any time in history.  Markets across the northern plains were as much as $15 per hundredweight difference for the same quality calf.  This fall those ranges could be even greater due to high feed costs and yardage costs.  If we calculate these numbers we could see a return of $50 to $100 more per calf than another calf of equal quality due to many factors.  It appears that numbers this fall should be in the same range of calves available as this past selling season, but there are two fundamental factors that will affect this fall’s calf prices and that being feed costs (corn) and fed cattle prices.  If we have been to any of Tim’s presentations you always him say “for any $.10 per bushel change in corn prices causes a $1 per cwt change in the opposite direction in fall calf prices, which would be another good reason to add value to our calf crop.

Us cow-calf producers have no control over corn or fat cattle prices but we do have control many factors that affect feeder calf prices.  So, what can we do to insure that our calves bring the most dollars available this fall?

There are many good strategies that can add dollars and the first one being a veterinarian certificate of work completed on your calves, such as dehorning, castrating and vaccinations given.  There are feedlots looking for calves with certain types of vaccinations so checking with your veterinarian and livestock sale barn will help with this decision.  Selling larger and more uniform lots also increases market prices.  This means if you are calving a bunch of cows and you have gone through two cycles and still have cows to calf maybe we should be looking at selling those cows in the fall and either keeping replacement heifers or purchasing cows that are bred for the same season as your herd.  I am suggesting to you to change your practices but big uniform lots are “always” an advantage.  Calves that are weaned and have been bunk trained are also an advantage and most all of you do that practice.  Another practice catching on with popularity is Natural Beef.  You need good documentation to qualify for this program but benefits could be seen particularly if the calves have not received growth implants or antibiotics.

Japan and Korea have not opened imports to U.S. beef so “age-source-verified is also another avenue that could increase profitability for the cow calf producer but again good records need to be in order to verify cattle that are 20 months of age or younger.

Another factor to consider is if you have any documentation of past cattle feedlot performance.  We do offer Eastern North Dakota Feedout with 265 calves enrolled this year.  At the end of the feedout you receive a check, carcass data on how well you calve, hung on the rail, and information on your cowherd of productivity.  We had once two producers, this year, where all six of calves made the first load to the slaughter plant.  I would call those herds very, very productive and profitable.  One last thought is raising high-quality replacement heifers.  Reputation heifers are very much in demand at the present for the bred heifer market.

I am not suggesting you change to ideas I have presented but I have suggested ideas that could very conceivably add many dollars to your back pocket.  THE KEY TO ENHANCING FALL CALF PRICES ARE STRATEGIES THAT START THIS SPRING, DON’T WAIT UNTIL SALE DAY TO HAUL YOUR CALVES TO TOWN AND EXPECT PREMIUM PRICES.

524 4th Ave #5, 2nd Floor Ramsey County Courthouse
Devils Lake  ND  58301
701-662-7027
email - ramsey@ndsuext.nodak.edu