Afraid of freight?
Last week, Paul had the chance to visit with the fine folks at the Idaho Beef Summit in Twin Falls, Idaho. He gave two presentations in two days, titled “A Steak in Your Bottom Line….The Importance of Understanding and Improving Beef Carcass Quality in Your Herd” and “Producing Consumer Acceptable Cattle and Getting Paid For It.”
As you can imagine, his attendees were most interested in that last thought… “and Getting Paid For It.” Every region in the cattle business comes with its own unique set of challenges. In this particular case, many of these Idahoans struggle with market access.
Here was the advice Paul offered to this geographical challenge: Market your own cattle. No one else is going to do it for you. If you don’t think the prices you’re getting are fair, it’s up to you to change it. You might want to start thinking about arranging direct sales to a feedlot, or at least contacting potential bidders before you take them to the sale barn.
Here’s how:
- Get to know 3-5 feedlot managers within your acceptable freight distance. Seek out reputable feedlots, ask for recommendations, do some research. Call those feedlots and spend some time talking with the manager. A good place to start looking would be our website, www.CABpartners.com. In the “marketing” section, you can look up CAB-licensed feedlots that we know are focused on feeding high-quality cattle.
- Be prepared to tell them about your cattle. Before you make those phone calls, write down the reasons why a feedlot manager should be interested in paying more for your cattle. Think about it like you’re writing a resume for your calves. What are their genetic backgrounds? What kind of health/nutrition program are they on? Are they weaned/pre-conditioned/bunk broke, etc.?
- Have data to back it up. If you’ve never had a relationship with your cattle feeder before, this might be difficult the first year, but you have to start somewhere. Can you document and prove why your calves are worth more to a feeder? How do they gain? What is their feedlot health? How do they grade?
- Stay in touch. Keep building on that data set and those relationships. Cattle feeder want consistent performance, and they like buying calves they know do well. The more you can prove year after year that your calves can do that, the more secure you are in having the right bids on sale day.
- Consider cooperation. Freight costs get even more frightening when you have to foot the bill alone. Do your neighbors have similar cattle? Market them together to make a truck load and split the transport cost. You both win. We’re all in this business together. The more we cooperate, the more we gain.
We detail how to build that calf “resume” on the website (Top the market), but if you have more questions, feel free to email Paul at pdykstra@certifiedangusbeef.com or call him: 330-465-3662.
Until next time,
-Laura
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