Agricultural News
Why Buy It When You Can Graze It? Plant Wheat Early to Utilize Pasture for Foraging This Fall
Thu, 25 Aug 2016 16:46:36 CDT
Wheat planting season is just around the corner, and cattle producers are already thinking ahead as they consider how potential wheat pasture will fit into their fall forage plan. Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel of Oklahoma State University informed Farm Director Ron Hays that producers really have some opportunities here to take advantage of some current market situations.
"Because of the price of wheat, certainly many producers are interested in grazing," Peel said. "That may be their best opportunity for some returns on their wheat land and they may be actually thinking about graze out now."
Currently, Peel affirms there is a growing supply of heavy range cattle being bought up by feedlots. As a result, he says, lighter cattle are being undervalued relative to what a feedlot could actually pay for them. Peels claims this is the market's way of telling producers, it would like for them to put that weight on cattle before moving them off to the feedlot. He explains this could spell out a good opportunity for stocker and backgrounding production.
"At this point and time, there's actually a pretty strong signal in the marketplace and feeder cattle prices for that added gain that you would do in a stocker or backgrounding program," Peel said. "I think that's likely to persist through the fall and into the winter."
The grain market is waving in producers to make this decision as well, with lots of cheap grain to be had. But with hay production up across the country and pastures in pretty good shape, according to Peel, he says - why buy it when you can utilize the forage that you have?
"Even though grain is pretty cheap," Peel said, "we still think it's more efficient for you to utilize that forage to put some weight on feeder cattle."
Listen to Dr. Derrell Peel explain to Farm Director Ron Hays the opportunities for cattle producers being signaled by the marketplace, during today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is 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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