“Be Flexible”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
For cattle feeders young and old, it’s important, albeit a little academic, to recognize that commodity prices have likely been the most volatile in history. Certainly there have been brief periods of volatility—checkmarks in a relatively stable curve, but since 2005, it seems like the only thing that has been consistent has been change.
From a nutritionist’s perspective, the first element to consistent cattle performance is a constant diet. In the 1960’s and 70’s nutritionists learned the nutritional value of different grains, by-products, and roughages and liberally and frequently alternated between them. If a few loads of an alternative could be had on the cheap, it was snapped up and squeezed into the diet, often leading to weekly changes in the diet. However, throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, because feed ingredient prices became fairly stable, the finishing diet in a feedyard changed little—if at all—for months at a time.
From a performance and predictability standpoint there is something to be said for stability. But in business there are two kinds of operators: the Quick and the Dead. If you have sufficiently deep pockets, you can ride out price fluctuations. Or if you’re in a very favorable long-term contract, you can ignore opportunity ingredients. But for the cattle feeder who is feeding fairly hand-to-mouth, it can definitely pay to keep one’s eyes open for opportunity.
Unfortunately, this kicks open the back door on performance predictability. Although our USDA Grading standards ensure that grains are fairly consistent, there is no such thing for by-products and roughages—buyer beware. And even if the ingredient is consistent from load to load, it will be different from what it replaces, so nutritional adjustments will likely be needed in terms of roughage percentage or the makeup of the supplement.
There is value in consistency, and there is opportunity in remaining nimble. When something is gained, something is often lost. Remain attuned to the marketplace to capture pricing advantages, but make sure you trust your nutritionist to make the appropriate, timely, adjustments in the remainder of the diet to keep cattle on track.
