Agricultural News
Beef Cattle Operation Management Tips from OSU's Derrell Peel
Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:33:01 CST
Manage your beef cattle operation in such a way that you will have something to sell. That's the advice of OSU Extension Beef Cattle Specialist Dr. Derrell Peel in today's Beef Buzz. Dr. Peel tells us that if you have beef animals to sell- they will likely sell for a relatively high price- so if you have had to cull your beef cow herd because of the 2012 drought and will have fewer calves to sell in the next year or so- you may want to consider running a few stockers as you gradually rebuild your mama cow numbers, assuming you have forage to support them.
Dr. Peel adds that the market has made a couple of fundamental shifts when it comes to input costs over the last couple of years- including the fact that feed grain prices are now on a higher plateau- and it's unlikely that we will see $2 corn again anytime soon. In tandem with that rise is the way the market is now valuing forage at a higher level as well. That was happening even before the historic drought of 2011- which has made hay extremely expensive for at least this season. Peel believes that as we pull out of drought and are able to recover our productive capacity in our pastures and rangelands- we probably need to manage our forage resources better going forward, as the pounds of gain that we can pull off of those fields are worth more than a while back when pounds of gain off grain was cheaper.
We also talked with Dr. Peel about the international markets that have gotten steadily stronger over the past couple of years. He says that we can have more confidence in this segment of our marketplace- as we have four major, relatively divserse markets that we are selling a lot of beef into. Those markets include Canada, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. In addition, we have other markets that are gaining importance- and can add to our international demand base- if we can produce enough beef to meet their needs.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the listen bar below for today's show- and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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