Two California marketing icons, Rick Machado and Matt Macfarlane, have made their individual marks on the West cattle market over the years. With one serving as a livestock auctioneer and the other as a sale manager and cattle marketer, each has added countless hours of dedication to the industry.
One common passion has kept the pair traveling to cattle sales all over the West: a love of the cattle industry and the people within it. After a phenomenal run of bull sales this fall in California, the two livestock marketers sat down with WLJ to discuss some of the season’s highlights.
The growth of a passion
Rick has early roots in the art of livestock auctioning, beginning when he was just a pre-teen. He entered the professional level following high school, working his way up to winning the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship in 1999.
“I always had a desire to learn more about the purebred world and genetics, and I was always drawn to the bull sales,” Rick told WLJ.
The first purebred auctions Rick sold were Dal Porto Livestock & Rancho Casino and Tehama Angus Ranch in the late ’90s. Having worked with many of the same multi-generational ranches over the years, Rick said it’s been an exciting time in the industry.
“In this industry, we work with real people,” Rick said. “It’s exciting to see a new generation come on and take off and run, but always having the guidance of the patriarch or matriarch before them. It’s fun to work through and see that dynamic.”
Matt grew up on ranches in Idaho and Nevada and has a background working with registered Herefords, Angus and Simmentals in high school and college for himself and others. His time in the marketing side of the industry began with his work for JDA, Inc. in the late ’90s. After learning the ropes for 3 years, Matt teamed up with Kelli Toledo to co-publish the California Cattleman magazine in 2001, the official publication of the California Cattlemen’s Association (CCA). Matt remains at the California Cattleman today as the director of sales and marketing, in addition to owning his own marketing company, M3 Marketing which was also formed in 2001.
“I had managed a lot of sales for JDA, and there was a strong need and a natural fit to start M3 once I was involved with the CCA Magazine,” Matt told WLJ. “So, I was asked to manage a few sales and it has continued to grow and the rest is history.”
He added, “Being involved with the California Cattlemen members on a regular basis just really opened up the bull marketing end of things for me.”
Matt said his family’s lifelong experience in the purebred sector, the guidance of his father, Bob Macfarlane, and even his time judging livestock in college at Chico State University and beyond, is where he learned how to evaluate cattle. Relationships developed for over 25 years with producers in the commercial sector have given him continued guidance and knowledge of what works and doesn’t work.
“Communicating with your customers is the big thing and seeing what’s working and not working,” he said. “Not everybody has the same goals for their programs. So, you just have to make sure you communicate with your customers.”
A review of the fall run
Unofficial numbers calculated by WLJ showed 2,100 bulls marketed in California throughout September. Total sales grossed $15.5 million, with bulls averaging $7,400 apiece.
“It is pretty astonishing to realize the volume of bulls we sold after coming out of the severe drought that we’ve had on and off for a decade,” Rick said. “With the count numbers being that low, it’s surprising the demand was as good. It’s amazing the volume of bulls that we sold.”
Rick attributed the demand seen over the past couple of years to stricter bull culling during the drought, along with stronger demand from feeder buyers. He said the feeder buyers have been demanding more genetics and a better product, and producers have risen to the occasion.
“The big increase in the market was a lot due to supply, but also because there’s better cattle there and cattle that fit the beef industry better,” Rick said. “It’s exciting that these seedstock producers are using all the tools they have to make the cattle better.”
Rick noted this comes back to the idea that you really can “have it all” when it comes to bull selection, but he emphasized there must be a balance between all the numbers and performance and dollar values. Buyers must also consider their environment and what numbers and traits are going to work for them in their specific environment.
For seedstock producers looking to beef up their marketing programs, Rick and Matt both emphasized the need for producers to supply complete data to buyers. Rick noted there are producers who could be supplying more information to draw out the more educated buyer.
“I know we’re all guilty of saying, ‘Oh, there’s too much information, too many numbers, too much of this,’” Rick said. “But we’re all pretty inquisitive and we still search for that information because we want to do better, and we want to get more money for the cattle.”
Complete data information, such as weaning and yearling weights, are important to include in catalogs. “It’s an important part of drawing more buyers and advancing that particular herd.”
Matt added that the commercial buyer is more educated now than ever about genetics, and his favorite part of the industry is working with commercial bull buyers and seeing how they are progressing in their operations.
“I think most of them have a catalog marked before they get to the sale and then they look at the bulls to make sure they work, because genetics are so important to them,” he said. “It’s a big margin bucket if you’re paying attention to genetics and management.”
Rick added that commercial buyers stay aligned to the bulls they picked out and if they don’t get them, there isn’t as much comparative buying happening anymore.
“That’s a testament in itself to them being very selective,” Rick said, with Matt agreeing: “They’re very disciplined in what they want to do and what they want to achieve.”
For buyers looking for the best opportunity to buy at a bull sale, many often balk at the idea of buying one of the first 10 bulls in the ring, but oftentimes bulls can end up selling higher as the sale goes on. With the start of the fall sale season kicking off with some record-setting sales, the expectation was for most sales to be higher overall. This may have caused some hesitation for some buyers to not look as closely at some of the front-end bulls, thinking they couldn’t afford them.
“Yet in many cases, the front end was actually no higher, not even given the fact that they’re typically a little higher performing or higher dollar-valued bulls,” Rick said. He recommended buyers to do their homework and study bulls all the way through the sale order.
“Sometimes there’s just one little box that’s a tick short, and maybe it gives you an opportunity to buy a bull a thousand or couple thousand dollars behind the average,” Rick said. But in order to get that value, the entire offering needs to be assessed.
One thing that stood out from years past to Matt was the change in heifer bulls not bringing more than cow bulls. He used the example of the recent Cal Poly Bull Test and Sale, where many of the multi-trait and performance bulls were the high sellers, and none were heifer bulls. He attributed this change to heifer retention in herds being less than anticipated.
Rick concurred, adding that producers opted into some of the bulls because multi-trait bulls have been a little softer in price in the past.
In terms of herd rebuilding and female retention, Rick said the few people that did choose to add to their herds were willing to give big premiums for fall-calving heifers. In many instances, the bulk of them sold from $3,200-3,500, with some recent sets topping out at $4,050. Most of the bigger cow states in the U.S. are still in a drought situation and herd rebuilding is limited, so the market is going to stay favorable for producers selling calves, he said.
With such a phenomenal California sale season in the books, the optimism and positivity from producers is palpable, the two marketers shared. In addition, the camaraderie between the entire crew of field representatives and marketers that travel from sale to sale is hard to top.
“It was really nice to talk so much optimism and positivity compared to years past, because we did have a wet year and we did have a great market,” Matt finished. “Sometimes we take for granted what we do and, and trying to make our customers happy, but I’ve never seen so many breeders—and not just purebred guys—with a sense of relief and a sense of feeling like they can breathe a little bit after the summer marketing that we’ve just had.” — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
