Managing Cattle Market Emotions

Cattle markets have stirred a lot of emotion, and University of Illinois Extension Beef Cattle specialist Travis Meter says he works with producers to talk through those challenges and help them to be better prepared for market swings.

“First off, the context of the conversation, a lot of times, comes within the cattle industry. On the cow calf side, we may only sell our product on one day out of a year, and so if that day is all of a sudden accompanied by a huge decline in the market, there can be some really frustrating emotions that come about. And so for cattle producers, I think it's important that we understand how to manage risk. That's always part of the discussion, especially if we know our marketing plan is one day out of the year. How can we manage that risk? Prior to that marketing.”

Cattle prices naturally fluctuate from month to month and year to year, and meter reminds producers to stay mindful and focused on what they're doing well.

“Reminding them of the things that they're doing well, about managing feed costs, focusing on the fundamentals, making sure that their genetics fit their environment, preparing to make sure that we're extending the grazing season, utilizing corn stock grazing like we'll maybe talk about here, but just making sure that there's so many things that go in to marketing that calf, making sure We're doing as many of those things right as possible.”