With the holidays quickly approaching – and the New Year quickly after that – it’s time to start thinking 2020 marketing for your outfit. With bull sale season being the first major event on many cattlemen and women’s calendars, it’s important to be prepared.

Big data, said Ken Odde, is hard work. It takes time, organization and consistency. But the empirical evidence that comes from cattle sale data reveals an accurate picture valuable to ranchers nationwide.

Whether you subscribe to culling females using the Four O’s Cow Culling Program (culling open, old, ornery and oddball cows) or not, culled females have a profit potential you’ll want to maximize, just like when you sell your calf crop. Published resources indicate up to 20 percent of an operation’s income is generated from the sale of culled animals. All of us are striving to keep culling to a minimum; however, creating management plans that will both increase income and net positive returns on investments from culls should be implemented. All too often, cattlemen have not taken advantage of management programs that can turn a profit. Let’s consider some factors producers should consider when managing for extra profit.

Rick Machen from the King Ranch Institute addressed a full house at the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course when he spoke to attendees about marketing commercial calves. The overarching question he addressed throughout the presentation was “What is a ‘good’ price for my calves and how do I get it?” 

Weaning is an important management tool that cow-calf producers should use to increase the success and profitability of their operations.

Baby boomers, millennials, Generation Z’s. As the different generations of consumers coexist, and the population grows, consumer preferences and markets are expanding faster than ever.

From the earliest cowboys to settle in Texas, cattle ranching has long been a backbone of the American economy. If you’re looking to up your livelihood with a professional lifestyle in the Wild West, it’s important to understand the business operations that can make your ranch run profitably.

Knowing the right times to sell can help your bottom line. Analyzing the current cull cow market, slaughter trends and understanding the strained position processing plants are in can help producers make the right call on sale times.

Calving season is here, and hopefully cows are calving unassisted, and healthy calves are running through the pen. As new calves continue to arrive, make sure to keep records on both cow and calf performance.

People kept telling Larry Coleman of Coleman Angus he needed a Facebook page. But ranching life is busy, and it wasn’t something he was interested in trying.