Cattle Market Update
From Steve Kay, editor and publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly. Catch a roundup of each week’s cattle-market activity every Friday afternoon! View the market review now!
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The worst and best herds
Managing a profit into beef cows without detailed management data is becoming increasingly difficult. Inflating production costs tend to negate much of...
Increasing your profits Part III
With calving season upon us, I hope you're recording your calves' birth dates and their dam numbers in a calving book. If so, all you need to generate...
Increasing your profits Part II
Record-high calf prices in 2004 should have generated record-high profits. Yet, only one out of my last six herds analyzed generated record profits. The...
Something's amiss with profit part 1
As I continue to conduct cost and return analyses for U.S. beef cow producers, I see today's record calf prices aren't translating into record profits...
What's a beef cow worth?
Last month, I suggested that a fall 2004 preg-checked bred heifer that will produce seven consecutive calves has a calculated economic value of $1,560....
What's a bred heifer worth this fall?
As more normal rainfall patterns return, ranchers will need to repopulate their herds. The good news: bringing bred heifers into your herd over the next...
Zap up your info system
Beef cow producers are in the midst of exciting economic times. It's an excitement, however, that the industry experiences at this point in every cattle...
40 years of on-farm computing
By focusing on the last 40 years of on-farm computing for farmers and ranchers, my goal is to stimulate ranchers to move from a traditional production...
Sell 2004 steers off grass
As this piece was written in late June and early July, USDA had just announced two false-positive bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) fast-test cases....
The money is in the details
During the 1990s, I helped implement Integrated Resource Management (IRM) in the Northern Plains. Part of this consisted of going from kitchen table to...
Post-BSE market price tracking Part 1: Slaughter cattle prices
Last month's Market Advisor column focused on the immediate market price impact of North America's second case of bovine spongiform encephalpathy (BSE)...
Post-BSE damage control strategies
Damage control has to be uppermost in the minds of most ranchers in light of USDA's Dec. 23 announcement of a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy...
The story from up North
May 20 and Aug. 8 of 2003 are well implanted in the minds of Canadian cattlemen. May 20 was the date the discovery of a single case of bovine spongiform...
How high and how long?
As beef cow producers approach the weaning of their 2003 calves, market prices are at or near record levels. Two key questions are why are calf prices...
Good times are a'coming
All indications are that several years of good economic times have returned to the cow-calf sector. Feeder cattle prices, driven by record-high slaughter...
Post-drought management Part III
Managing a farm or ranch is never easy, but it's especially difficult during drought and its aftermath. Integrated business planning (IBP) can help you...
Managing the EZ-Way Part II
A proper ranch management analysis must be based upon on-farm data specific to that ranch. It's from such data that long-term drought solutions and planning...
Managing post-drought, the EZ-Way
Spring rains in cow country are turning many ranchers' attention toward drought recovery. For some drought-affected ranchers, that means repopulating...
For intensive managers, COOL will be a snap
The country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law that takes effect Sept. 30, 2004 requires ranchers to verify the cattle they sell as born and raised in the...
Strong U.S. dollar works against U.S. producers
This winter, I toured Brazil to visit with beef and soybean producers, and then spent several weeks in Canada visiting with Canadian beef producers. Upon...
Brazil, 33 years later
In early February, my wife and I accompanied a farm and ranch tour of Brazil sponsored by BEEF and The Corn And Soybean Digest (formerly Soybean Digest)...
Look forward for price signals
Today's roller-coaster cattle prices are largely attributable to extended drought in the western U.S. and western Canada, and the cattle cycle's delayed...
So Happy Together
Given rising carcass weights, increased production costs and unpredictable market prices, astute beef-cow producers are always searching for more efficient,...
From Our Columnists
Advocate or Perish
"While the affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra low-risk positions toward new advances in agricultural science and technology, and pay...
Don't Market Like 2008
Many ranchers' first inclination in marketing their 2009 calves is to base it on their 2008 calf crop experiences. That could be a serious mistake...
No Silver Bullet
I was so impressed with Richard Roth's letter to the editor that I thought it deserved some follow-up...
