Reprinted with permission from the February 18, 2008 issue of Alberta Agriculture's Agri-News

Last fall's calf prices were viewed by cow calf producers as unacceptable, so many producers chose to keep their calves over the winter on a backgrounding ration to try to market the calves into a stronger market. However, with increasing barley prices over the past few months, feeder cattle prices have adjusted downwards to compensate for the higher feed cost. One of the challenges is deciding whether to delay marketing for a few more weeks or to even put the calves back on grass and market them next fall as yearlings.

"In a stable price scenario, it is critical that the weight gain of the cattle is cheaper than the market price for that pound of gain," says Ken Ziegler, beef specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Food's Ag-Info Centre. "If the weight gained costs 75 cents per pound of gain and the selling price is 80 cents, then it is safe to assume that the feeding venture is adding value to the calf even though the margin is quite slim."

Another challenge producers face is in trying to maximize the value of the calf sold when selling it. Many marketing choices exist that vary in advantage. Factors such as the risk of price and shrink come into play, and these will affect the net profit in the seller's pocket.

"Over the last few weeks, editors of the website called foragebeef.ca have added some excellent fact sheets to the Marketing folder," says Ziegler. "Shrink is a common reality that, while not fully understood, affects profitability. These well-written fact sheets on shrink have been added to the wide array of other marketing fact sheets available on the site."

Known by its address, www.Foragebeef.ca provides producers with a excellent assortment of information relating to both current Canadian agricultural issues and technical information on forage and beef production.

There are three levels of information within the technical section of www.Foragebeef.ca. These levels organize the information into straight forward information on particular topics, additional information on those topics, and scientific review papers, research abstracts, summaries and links to research communities through out Canada and the world. The editors of this web site designed these levels of information so that it is easy for producers to navigate quickly through the vast amount of information available.

"When producers come to the point where they want to talk with someone, they should contact a local agrologist in the area of interest in question," says Ziegler. "Because marketing conditions affect management practices, it is important that producers contact someone that is credible to the topic area and to the particular situation. People from government or from private industry will be able to help you best."

"To contact an Alberta Agriculture and Food specialist, producers can dial 310-FARM toll-free," says Ziegler. "We would be happy to visit with you on issues pertaining to your business."

Producers are welcome to bookmark www.Foragebeef.ca as a source of sound agricultural information for Canadian conditions.