Selling fed cattle on a live basis is no longer standard practice, and some day it could end up as no more than historical reference. “The old selling-them-live method has given way to formula sales,” says Mark McCully, assistant vice president for Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB). Data from Cattle-Fax and the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows a sharp decline in cash sales in the past seven years, from 52.1% in 2005 to just 26% in 2012. The inverse of that is the steep gain in negotiated sales, like grid marketing and other arrangements, which moved up from less than half of sales to more than three-quarters during those years.
A lot of people have asked Darrell Busby a lot of questions over the years. I’m one of them. He’s not only a great interview source, with years of knowledge and a knack for breaking down research into “why it matters to cattlemen,” but he’s also just plain one of the nicest guys I know.
Getting cattle bought right. That’s normally a feeder’s first challenge, but today it’s just plain getting cattle.
“The total size of the cattle industry has been shrinking, and shrinking rather abruptly for the last couple of years,” said Mike Sands, Informa Economics vice president.
the marketing element is so important. In our segmented industry it’s often challenging to show a true marketing advantage when comparing a superior set of calves to a more common set on the same day.
Some cattle grow like weeds; some hit the high-grade targets. Some do both, some neither. That’s the way it goes in the world of commodity cattle. But cattle can be so much more, adding profit throughout the supply chain.
Meet the father-son combo of Gary and Lane Darnall. They welcome calls from ranchers at their feedyard in western Nebraska.
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