Might Be The Year to Consider Retaining Ownership of Calves

This might be the year that you try retaining ownership of your calves. President of Agribeef Livestock Wade Small says
Small: “With the changing market, it looks like there will be a better opportunity for producers to retain ownership and finish their calves through a feed yard and market them through to a packing plant this year versus years in the past. As we build into bigger cattle supplies, going forward the premium in the market structure is starting to decrease and so you see more opportunities to retain calves and add value to them through the feed yard. Especially on calves that are higher quality genetics, that are more apt to grade high choice or prime, you’ll see a lot bigger premiums for those cattle at the packing plant side. So, producers with better cattle that are able to take advantage of those genetics further out through the supply chain probably have an opportunity to increase their profitability over the next few years. It looks like.”
Small says It is a good opportunity to find out the true value of your cattle and learn all aspects of the industry. He adds that the information producers gain through retained ownership can go on to help in marketing calves in the future as well.