Grass Fed Beef Cattle Marketing (3/3)

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Though the manufacturing aspect of pasture-raised beef and grass ending might enchantment to you, not everybody needs to get entangled with direct-marketing their beef cattle.

Elevating pasture-based or grass-fed cattle doesn’t imply that you’ll want to flip your again on the standard commodity cattle market system. With the best methods, the commodity beef advertising and marketing system can really be the proper beef cattle advertising and marketing answer in your pasture-raised cattle!

Promoting grass fed cattle by way of the standard commodity beef advertising and marketing channels

The commodity cattle markets present a big ready-made large-volume advertising and marketing pipeline that may soak up all the meat you possibly can ever hope to provide, and extra, with out ever having to expend big quantities of effort to develop your personal advertising and marketing pipeline. That is money and time saved which could be put in direction of increasing your cattle farm and high quality tuning your manufacturing methods. Moreover, sticking to the commodity cattle markets signifies that you do not have to mould your farm’s manufacturing methods to suit another person’s market wants – it is such an enormous market that no matter you do, and no matter time of yr you could have cattle out there on the market, there’s sure to be a purchaser ready to soak up all of your product and extra.

The clear drawback to sticking with the commodity markets is that you just get no premium if you promote your grass fed beef. Will probably be indistinguishable from all different beef when it reaches grocery cabinets. No niche-market pricing energy.

Which signifies that the one option to leverage a monetary benefit out of your grass fed beef manufacturing is to strictly use grass fed manufacturing methods to decrease your bills, to not create a novel product.

However for those who’re nervous your going to overlook out on a monetary benefit by giving up on the direct-marketing worth premium, suppose once more. The fee financial savings from studying grass fed manufacturing methods could be big whereas direct-marketing comes with a substantial price ticket. And it is not simply the direct prices of working a direct-marketing program. Direct advertising and marketing additionally takes an enormous oblique toll in your manufacturing technique as a result of the manufacturing aspect of the enterprise can not command 100% of your time, psychological power, and capital assets to maintain it bettering and working in prime type.

Controlling manufacturing prices by way of low-cost pasture-based manufacturing methods

Low-cost pasture-based cattle farming methods mixed with sturdy cash-flow administration methods, like “sell-buy accounting” mentioned in my e-book, are so highly effective that they do not want a advertising and marketing premium to be viable!

Whereas that market premium could also be exhausting to surrender when selecting to proceed to market by way of the standard commodity cattle market system, there are huge benefits that come from merely implementing a well-tuned grass-fed manufacturing technique with out adopting a totally completely different advertising and marketing program.

Methods like creating a well-tuned each day pasture rotation, calving on pasture in the course of the summer time, studying easy methods to create high-quality winter pastures to increase the grazing season and decrease feed prices, and studying easy methods to choose (and cull) substitute genetics in your herd primarily based on strict efficiency pointers – simply to call just a few methods – add up to an enormous discount in bills and liberate huge swathes of money and time, which may then be poured again into the enterprise to broaden your cattle herd and land base.

However sadly many grass-fed farmers discover their prices go up as an alternative of down after they swap to grass fed beef manufacturing as a result of the majority of their time and power (and capital) are being diverted to navigating the unfamiliar territory of creating a model new advertising and marketing technique and studying an entire new and unfamiliar advertising and marketing.

Studying low-cost pasture-based cattle farming methods is loads of work. There’s a lot to be taught, even for cattle producers with a lifetime of expertise producing cattle utilizing typical manufacturing methods. It’s unrealistic to anticipate the pasture-based grass-fed manufacturing system to run easily as a cohesive, easy, low-cost manufacturing technique in case your time and power are preoccupied with direct-marketing concurrently the manufacturing system goes by way of a large transition to pasture-based grass fed manufacturing.

Nice issues occur after we specialize

Nice issues occur after we specialize, after we focus, when we’ve got the self-discipline to zero in on just one factor till we trim and tune and mould it to perfection. Nice issues don’t occur after we unfold ourselves thinly throughout many various issues without delay.

Direct advertising and marketing works greatest as an non-obligatory add-on to your farming operation solely AFTER you’ve got really mastered the artwork of grass fed cattle manufacturing. First excellent your manufacturing technique. First grow to be worthwhile utilizing grass fed manufacturing whereas advertising and marketing by way of the commodity cattle markets.

Solely as soon as your manufacturing system is a well-oiled machine, if you’ve received nothing left to enhance on the manufacturing aspect of the enterprise, solely then are you really prepared so as to add direct-marketing to your farm. You do your grass fed manufacturing technique an incredible disservice for those who chase after the direct-marketing premium earlier than you could have every thing else so as! And as soon as you’ve got received your grass fed manufacturing technique really working like clockwork, chances are you’ll discover that navigating the uncharted waters of creating a direct-marketing program does not look fairly so engaging in comparison with retaining it easy and staying 100% targeted on what you recognize and love greatest – elevating cattle.

Know your consumers – squeezing a premium out of the cattle public sale system and/or meat packing business

Simply since you forego the direct-market premium doesn’t suggest there is not a option to squeeze a premium out of the commodity cattle markets. It simply takes understanding just a little about market cycles within the beef business and specializing in your explicit area of interest inside that huge business.

Promoting unfinished reside cattle

Some grass fed producers will strictly give attention to cow/calf and/or stocker grazing and go away the ultimate step of ending to the feedlots. They both purchase weanlings or increase calves from delivery, which they fatten on pasture till they’re able to be purchased by the feedlots, normally through a cattle public sale.

For these grass-fed producers, timing is every thing. Calving in summer time means their calves could be carried by way of the winter very cheaply as a result of they have not been weaned but. Weaning occurs simply earlier than the beginning of the following rising season so weight good points occur cheaply on grass. By mid to late summer time, these calves are prepared on the market at a time when nearly all of typical cattle producers aren’t able to promote but (they will not promote till late fall), so cattle costs are usually larger presently of yr than later when nearly all of beef producers come to market. Low cost weight good points, low-cost winter feed prices, and market timing add as much as a substantial premium. These producers squeeze a premium out of the standard commodity markets just by studying the intricacies of worth cycles of their explicit area mixed with optimizing their manufacturing system to reap the benefits of all of the pure built-in benefits of cattle and grass. They usually reap a bonus by promoting out of sync with when nearly all of cattle producers purchase and promote.

Promoting grass-finished cattle

Different grass fed beef operations do take the ultimate step of grass ending their calves (or by shopping for calves to complete). Nevertheless, as an alternative of promoting their grass-finished animals to feedlot operators through the cattle public sale system, they promote on to the meat packing corporations – the identical meat packers that purchase cattle from the feedlots. These grass fed cattle operations concentrate on ending cattle cheaply on pasture utilizing low-cost pasture-based grazing methods. Their worth benefit comes strictly from being pasture-based to allow them to cut back their value to provide beef. Their total manufacturing system is about as much as decrease tractors, harvesters, and labor by designing their grazing program so cattle do all of the harvesting. They management the timing of their shopping for and promoting to attenuate winter feed prices (i.e. purchase smaller calves within the fall when costs are cheaper after which winter then cheaply by grazing so long as attainable on carefully-prepared winter pastures). They use “sell-buy” accounting to handle their cashflow. They usually slaughter nearly all of their animals in summer time at a time when meat packers are brief on provide as a result of the feedlots are usually emptier presently of yr.

Promoting completed vs unfinished cattle

The reside cattle public sale system isn’t preferrred for promoting completed beef cattle (whether or not they’re completed on grain or grass), as a result of nearly all of the consumers at these cattle auctions are feedlot operators, not slaughterhouses. These feedlot operators will not be keen on shopping for completed beef cattle since they solely make cash after they fatten cattle. So in the event that they do purchase your grass completed cattle at public sale, they need to low cost them to warrant the hassle of shopping for and transporting them solely to resell them immediately to the meat packers. Thus, promoting cattle by way of the reside cattle public sale system solely is reasonable for those who promote cattle that aren’t utterly completed so they continue to be engaging to feedlot consumers.

Consequently, if you wish to promote grass-finished cattle (as an alternative of specializing in producing unfinished cattle age teams that feedlot consumers are keen on), you’ll want to make the additional effort of creating a advertising and marketing relationship straight with a meat packing enterprise – the identical companies that feedlot operators promote to. This will and is being achieved by some grass ending operations. It takes just a little extra effort than merely promoting cattle at public sale. Nevertheless it takes a lot much less effort than creating a direct-marketing program for a distinct segment product. And pricing is comparatively clear because of the cattle futures market. Many even lock in favorable costs utilizing future’s contracts lengthy earlier than their cattle are prepared for slaughter!

Some former feedlot operators use this technique. They merely convert their forage-growing land base to grass-finishing pastures (resembling pure alfalfa pastures mixed with a bloat inhibitor within the water) after which merely proceed to promote to the meat packers with whom they’ve dealt up to now.

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With all of those methods, as soon as this beef hits grocery retailer cabinets, it will likely be indistinguishable from feedlot-sourced beef. Profitability comes from controlling prices by creating an especially environment friendly and cohesive grass fed manufacturing technique after which squeezing a premium out of the commodity cattle markets by way of market timing and by making the most of the cattle future’s markets to lock in favorable costs even earlier than the cattle are prepared for slaughter.

Selecting your most popular advertising and marketing technique

Deciding on which path to take to market your grass fed beef isn’t a easy alternative. There are loads of issues. Do you need to direct-market a specialty product? Are you prepared to develop your personal advertising and marketing pipeline? Or do you like to faucet into another person’s advertising and marketing pipeline so you possibly can focus in your cattle and your pastures?

If direct-marketing pursuits you, try to be open to combining your advertising and marketing efforts with different grass fed farmers both by promoting by way of a grass fed beef advertising and marketing co-op (which you will want to ascertain your self!), by promoting by way of one other farmer’s established grass fed beef advertising and marketing pipeline, or by recruiting different grass fed farmers to promote by way of your advertising and marketing pipeline.

If direct-marketing in not your cup of tea, then the pasture-based grass ending methods mentioned all through this web site nonetheless can help you cut back your manufacturing prices whereas making the most of the ready-made advertising and marketing pipeline of the commodity beef cattle advertising and marketing system – cattle auctions and the meat packers themselves.

Whichever route you select, your purpose needs to be to harness a beef cattle advertising and marketing technique that may cater to wants and procuring habits of the Twenty first-century, city, health-conscious beef shopper.

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(Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made utilizing Amazon hyperlinks in my publish.)

And if you’re prepared to start out planning your cattle farm, take a look at my e-book: Grass-Fed Cattle: How one can Produce and Market Pure Beef. Use the hyperlinks under to discover my e-book and skim opinions on Amazon:

Grass Fed Cattle: How to produce and market natural beef, by Julius Ruechel

What’s your beef cattle advertising and marketing technique? What challenges do you face in your cattle-marketing program? Do you could have any questions on easy methods to market your grass fed cattle? Use the Feedback part under to share your ideas!