Sell Them For All They're Worth

With pretty high calf prices being reported from most of the early sales a lot of producers are feeling pretty good about the upcoming sale of their product. However everyone would still like to get the most they can out of their calves, and no doubt some will be complaining before the year is out that they got ripped off.

So my question to producers is what are you doing to make sure your cattle sell for all they are worth? In other words what have you done to truly MARKET your calves?

If you read a number of marketing texts they will talk about the 4 P's of selling. These are …presenting the right PRODUCT, at the right PRICE, in the right PLACE, with the right PROMOTION! We can use these 4 P's to take a look at our calf selling methods.

What is the right product? We hear a lot of feedlot folks talk about what they want and what feeds best for them. In a nut shell most of them want lots of back and lots of butt, with enough middle to process feed. From there a lot of individual preferences come into it. They will want to feed a certain weight, a certain sex, some may have colour preferences,and then there will be a break on what quality they want. (ie. 1st or 2nd cut )

The right price is what we establish through either auction or negotiation. The seller is part of this, and that is why it helps to be current on where the market is at. Use the OCA market lines Live-519-824-7321, or Rail 519-824-9161, and in the fall the Northern Network line at 1-888-461-9622.

The right place involves knowing where your type of cattle will sell best, and getting them there. That may mean a special stocker sale, or a breed or colour type of sale, or a specific time of year. Once the calf is on the truck its pretty easy to cover a few more miles so try to find out where your type of calves sold best last year and consider if you can ship there.

The right promotion can be partly the sales responsibility, but you have more stake in it then they do. So ….Advertise, Advertise, Advertise. Let as many past buyers, or potentials know that your cattle are at that sale. If you have done anything extra tell the world. This includes dehorning, castrating (and how it was done), Vaccination-what and when, and where (hopefully the neck) you have needled the calves. Use the OCA info link cards, but send enough to cover all the groups. Then attend the sale and go talk to whoever buys your cattle. Some folks say this (info-card and talking) is useless if a drover buys them, because they just throw them out. However if you don't try to push the value-added part of your calves you certainly won't get paid for it. So if you don't send the info don't complain if it doesn't get recognized.

Thinking about and acting on these 4 P's won't guarantee the top of the sale price, but they could go a long way toward making sure your calves sell for all they're worth.

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