The price at an auction market is the market’s estimate of what a calf is worth that day, based on the information buyers can see and trust. There is very little indication of the calf’s future potential for growth, feed efficiency or carcass value.
Calves sired by proven sires may have the potential for high rates of gain, improved feed efficiency and exceptional marbling and carcass quality, but if that calf is sold at weaning, there is no way for the cow-calf producer to capture that future potential.
To get our calves’ full value, we first must create value by early castration and dehorning, a sound health program and nutrition that allows genetics to be expressed.
Second, capture value by marketing uniform groups, documenting genetics and management, choosing a market whose buyers value those traits, or retaining ownership when feed resources, health, finances, risk tolerance and the market outlook justify it. Retained ownership does not create value; it reveals it. Know where the value is, prove it, and sell where buyers recognize it.
How do you capture the value for these calves?
• Marketing: Market calves in uniform lots where buyers recognize the potential value of calves.
• Value-added programs: Preconditioning, all natural and other programs have costs but can be profitable. An analysis of the Superior Auction markets by Kansas State University shows that calves in the VAC-45 program received an $8.64/cwt premium over calves in the VAC-24 program, where calves are vaccinated at 2 to 4 months of age but are unweaned at the time of the sale. Calves enrolled in the Oklahoma Quality Beef Network VAC-45 program received premium of $23/cwt relative to unweaned non-preconditioned calves with no indication of vaccination status.
• Add weight postweaning: Many price discounts decrease as cattle get heavier and approach feedlot entry weights. While discounts associated with calf sex or mismanagement such as leaving bull intact or excessive flesh from overfeeding increase as calves get heavier, other discounts become less important for larger calves. Adding weight on pasture or in a well-designed dry lot growing program helps dilute some of the discounts that are more pronounced in lighter weight calves.
• Retain ownership through finishing: Retaining ownership adds much more risk and may be most practical for producers with enough cattle to assemble large groups of uniform single sex groups of calves. However, the only way to fully capture the value of genetic selection for growth, feed efficiency, and carcass quality is to feed cattle through harvest and market cattle based on their actual performance and carcass value. — Paul Beck, Oklahoma State University Extension beef cattle nutrition specialist
