Marketing Your Cattle In a Drought Year
Drought. A word we’ve dreaded all summer. We hear it all around us, it’s infiltrated so many aspects of our lives. If you have some difficult decisions to make regarding your cattle during this drought year, you’re not alone. Earlier this fall, we recorded a series of Drought Talks to keep you informed on how to market your cattle during a drought year, how the drought has shifted supply and demand, and the best ways to take advantage of some potential opportunities hidden in this drought year. Uncontrollable variables Mother Nature has thrown at us this year have made a significant impact on when and how you get your cattle to market. Here are some tips to get the most out of your cattle under these less-than-ideal conditions.
Marketing your calves during a drought
Lack of water and grazable land has many producers struggling to keep calves on track for their desirable sale weight. One way to conserve your available resources is to wean calves sooner rather than later to save grass and conserve energy for your lactating cows.
Things to keep in mind when selling on contract
The most important thing to remember if your calves are on a contract is to keep in close contact with your buyers before you load calves on a truck. Communicate clearly with your buyers on:
If your calves are coming in lighter than expected
if you’re going to have to sell earlier than you intended
if you have to change your feed program, make sure you’re telling your buyer.
Placing a drought plan in your contracts can serve as a good contingency plan if necessary. Establish a relationship with your buyer and have conversations about changes happening on your land and operations. You don’t want to accidentally void a contract by delivering a product different from the terms in your contract. Keep in contact with your buyer and plan accordingly. When selling calves, keep in mind backgrounded calves are different from calves right off the cow, and they will go to a different customer. Consider the differences in these calves when you’re forming contracts and marketing your stock.
If you’re selling through private treaty make sure you have accurate weights on your calves. If you are selling bred cows, make sure you get a letter from your veterinarian confirming a pregnancy check close to the sell date, no more than two weeks out. Be detailed in your contracts, cover everything from pregnancy checks, genetics, vaccinations, even what happens if a cow sloughs a calf on the truck. Your contract should have a plan in place, agreed upon by you and your buyer to address the potential risks associated with selling.
If you decide to take your cattle to the sale barn, get them consigned ahead of time. Get your cattle on the sale barn’s website and send videos of your breeding stock to ensure your cattle stand out. Make sure accurate descriptions of growth, vaccination, and genetics are provided on the sale barn’s website before the sale and when your cattle are in the sale pen. You need to be there when your cattle are in the sale pen so you can give potential buyers more information and even approach buyers at lunch with a more comprehensive background on your calves. The best way to find the right buyer, especially when you’re selling earlier in the year than you normally would, is to form connections. The more involved and intentional you are in the sale process, the more likely you are to find the right buyer for your set of calves.
All in all, a lot of the things that will help you sell your cattle better in a drought year are the same things that help you sell your cattle in a non-drought year. They just become that much more important.
Supply and demand
There has been an increase in supply through sale barns in late August and early September compared to last year. Many people are going to sell earlier than usual this year, which can lead to a supply and demand issue in the future. If you need to get your calves weaned and off pasture, selling lighter calves in September is an option if you’re short on grass. Buying calves in September allows producers to get cattle on feed faster to finish, making them more likely to hit the harvest market in April instead of waiting until June.
There has been such an increase in light calves going in early September, not as many cattle will be coming in October through December. If you can wean properly and sell in a season where there’s less supply you may be able to bring more in for your calves when demand spikes. Talk to your nutritionist about options to properly add size and structure to your calves on your timeline. An easy way to add value: Do what other people aren’t doing. Sell at a different date.
So is it smart to try to take calves to sale early so you beat the flood coming to the market? We all want to sell at 700lbs, but in a year like this, you may simply lack the inputs needed to get there. Selling at 500 lbs will bring in less overall but should bring in more cash per pound because your calves get to come in on a different market. Selling early allows you to save costs on forage, hay, and it’s going to have a better impact on your bred cows when those calves wean off earlier.
How to make the most of the opportunities this year
There’s still demand for your calves, demand for seedstock, and demand for pairs this year. Especially when you’re considering selling your females, don’t be afraid to sell early and sell often, even if they have a calf on their side. Even if you only have 10-15 head of cattle you’re looking to sell, you don’t need a full load for private treaty. If you’re going to sell small loads, bring some extras so the buyer can sort the cows they like. People have different styles and look for different characteristics when buying cattle, so bring a variety.
Continue to Build Relationships as You Seek More Customers
Good quality, accurate video footage is essential to create impact with new customers. A good cow can impact your herd for twenty years. Selling genetics is more emotional than feeder calves. If you’ve never done videos before, this is your year. Another key to successful sales in genetics is to have a good representative with good contacts. The best sales happen when your representative knows your cattle and knows the buyer and can talk through what you’re selling. Look for that two-sided relationship and don’t be afraid to ask potential representatives about their connections.
Selling Bulls
Don’t sell your cull bulls if you can keep them, the market is flooded. So many people culled bulls to the sale barn during July and August which means demand will be high in the spring. Even though you might not have neighbors who need as many bulls as last year, there are still cows that need to be bred, they just may be in a different zip code. New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and east coast states are looking for northern genetics. Marketing across the country means you need to be more creative in marketing to reach new territories. Get outside of our average marketing box.
Production Sales and Seedstock
If you have a spring sale you need to market way earlier than before. Start marketing six months out to get bulls in front of new customers. You need to get in front of your customer an average of 21 times before they buy from you, which means you need more points of contact with new customers than just a catalog. The same old, same old will not get good results this year.
Be consistent through your materials on social media, print, video, mailers, and catalogs so your new customers can recognize your materials. Postcards and mailers are a good way to get in contact with new customers and gauge interest. The sooner you get your catalog out, the better. If you’re selling to new clients, you have to start building a foundation from the ground up with no assumptions about your genetics or foundation females. Introduce your program, your philosophy, what sets your operation apart, and then introduce your genetics. Remember, you’re introducing your operation to a new set of buyers and you need to be proactive with your marketing.
Times like these are tough. But we can make the most of them by focusing on the pieces of the situation that are in our control and looking to the long term as we evaluate what can shift and what are true priorities are when things get tight. If you would like to listen to the weekly discussions we had on this topic, check them out here.
If you’re considering making changes in how you market this year, we’ve put together some new options that may be helpful to you over in our shop. Check out our DIY packages and reach out to us if you have any questions about them.
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Rancher Drought & Fire Relief
Have you been impacted by the drought or fires this year? We’ve put together an opportunity for you to apply for assistance funds. Nominate yourself or another rancher and check out how you can support the cause.
