Stocker/Backgrounders

Prep Your Calves For The Feedyard

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:46:00 +0000

There are a number of things cow-calf producers can do to prepare calves for their time in a feedyard, says Mark Sebranek, general manager at Irsik & Doll Feed Yard at Garden City, KS.

Market May Favor Early Intensively Grazed Stockers

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:07:00 +0000

“Record-high stocker prices this spring have producers and their lenders nervous about the financial exposure of summer stockers,” says Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock marketing specialist. “Feeder prices have dropped the last month but the change has actually decreased the stocker margin, i.e., the value of gain for summer stockers. Moreover, the changing price relationships have changed the implications for stocker production and marketing.”

Struggling Beef Prices Catch Up With Stocker-Feeder Cattle

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:40:00 +0000

"The events that released the trapdoor on this week’s feeder markets were largely the previous week’s USDA crop report that lowered quarterly corn stockpiles and the ensuing Chicago frenzy that sent nearby corn contracts up the limit and cattle futures down over $2,” Say analysts with the Agricultural Marketing Service.

Fencing And Insurance Go Together

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:42:00 +0000

“It doesn’t matter how much the cattle gain, what you buy them for or how good a veterinarian you are. If your cattle get out and you don’t have insurance, you can lose everything you’ve spent years building,” says Todd Rose of Rose Law Firm, Paris, TN. He's tried more than 150 jury trials in Tennessee and the Southeast, many of them involving catastrophic injury. He spoke at the recent Mid-South Stocker Conference.

Managing The Margin Is Critical In Today's Environment

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:37:00 +0000

“Managing for a margin is much more important today than at anytime in the past,” says John Rakestraw, CEO of Colorado-based Agra Holdings, which feeds cattle, provides feedlot consulting, and manufactures feedlot nutritional supplements, among other feedlot-based activities. Between 1984 and 2003, Rakestraw worked for ContiBeef LLC – he was CEO and president from 1995 to 2003. ContiBeef – sold to JBS and operating currently as Five Rivers Cattle Feeding – was and is the largest cattle feeding organization in the world.

Opportunities Plentiful In Grass Finishing Beef

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:45:00 +0000

By Kable Thurlow, Michigan State University Extension

There are many opportunities that exist for grass finished beef, whether it is direct marketing off the farm or selling to a wholesale company that specializes in marketing grass finished beef.

Pasture Cattle Higher; Calves Lower; Fed Cattle Tread Water

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 16:14:00 +0000

Regionally, calves, stockers and feeder cattle traded in a narrow range on either side of steady. More specifically, according to AMS, new-crop calves sold lower for the second straight week, with fall-born calves selling steady to $5 lower.

Here’s What Feeders Say They Want In Cattle

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:24:00 +0000

Back in the day, when you asked a cattle feeder what kind of cattle he liked to feed, he’d jokingly reply, “The kind that can walk up to the bunk.”

Injectible Trace Minerals Help Shipping-Stressed Stockers

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:17:00 +0000

By Scott Laudert

Injectible trace minerals were beneficial in improving performance and health parameters of shipping-stressed stockers in a University of Arkansas (UA) receiving trial.

Cattlemen’s College Review: Finding Profitability In Volatile Times

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:50:00 +0000

"What best describes volatility?” asks Nevil C. Speer, Western Kentucky University at Pfizer’s Cattlemen’s College at the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show in Nashville, TN.

Ranchers in attendance were polled, and 73% see it as a shifting market.