How Will You Market Your Cattle This Fall?

by IBBA Executive Vice President Tommy Perkins, PhD., PAS

The fall sale season is in full swing; therefore, implementation and utilization of all available marketing tools may add value to your Brangus genetics. These tools include development of a strong business plan and an organized marketing plan to help your program stand out from others. The business plan should include a thorough analysis of your ranch’s current financial condition. This plan should also detail the current production practices, equipment needs, and technology uses on the ranch. Your marketing plan should include print, digital, television, and direct mail advertisement.

Furthermore, the marketing plan should include an updated ranch website, signage at the ranch, use of e-blasts, and a strong customer service component. Now is a great time to be listening to your customers. I think it is important to produce cattle the market desires, and it is even more important to market those cattle at the proper time and through the best marketing outlet. You need to develop a marketing strategy versus a selling strategy in order to leverage the most economic gain from your ranching entity.

You have many marketing options as a purebred seedstock producer. These may include private treaty sales, sale barn actions, video auctions, and branded programs. I think it important that you participate in more than one of these options. Participation in your local regional Brangus association sale is very important. These sales allow you to spend time with other like-minded Brangus breeders to share breed registry information, breeding philosophies, management practices, etc. They also help drive breed interest in the local area where these events take place.

Lastly, it is a good time to further evaluate your heifer marketing protocol, as well as your culled-calf marketing protocol. The economic dynamics may indicate you need to breed these heifers instead of selling them as open heifers. Perhaps you have some stockpiled grass because of the recent rainfall in your area. The lower input, or feed, costs could allow you to breed and calve these heifers out to further add value to these females. The lower feed costs and weakened calf market may also indicate a need to retain ownership of your cull cattle. This would provide an opportunity to capture feeding data alongside carcass merit results from your genetics.

Look for a new carcass merit program to be implemented in the coming months by International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA). We will request that you retain ownership on some or all of your culled steers and/or heifers for the collection of gain data, as well as ribeye area, marbling, and yield. We intend to offer feed out locations in various areas in the U.S. such as Florida, Kansas and Texas. The program will recommend having the cattle verified to at least one parent using DNA. Parent verification in these cull cattle will add more strength to the data.

Speaking of DNA, parent verification is becoming more important each and every day. Many of our Brangus breeders are parent verifying 100 percent of their cattle. This gives buyers confidence that they are getting the genetics they are promised, which is registered cattle. This is a powerful marketing advantage as it separates the really successful operation from the average operation. The power of genomic enhanced EPDs is certainly driving parent verification along at a faster pace than some have expected or predicted.

Do not hesitate to call us if you have any specific questions about Brangus genetics for use in your operation. For information about IBBA programs or other inquiries, please call (210) 696-8231 or visit www.GoBrangus.com. Stay connected to IBBA through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or receive news updates by joining our email list.