Rethinking Business Plan, Input please

[ALACOWMAN]

Cattleman200 wrote:I guess my first question would be how have you been marketing your registered cattle for the several years you have been raising them? What made you decide to start raising registered cattle? If you started the seedstock business because you watched or attended a few sales and saw registered cattle and saw some bringing big bucks and thought it would be great to do that also its sort of a pipe dream for most people who believe that. When I started raising registered cattle my goal was not to sell a $15,000 or $20,000 animal. It was to market 50 bulls a year off of my farm private treaty. It was also to market several females a year as well while maintaining and building a better genetic herd base and add younger females when I could. I have been unable to attain my bull goal but three years ago I did sell 45 bulls privately. This was mainly because I changed direction and started consulting on sales and not putting as much time in my registered herd. What was mentioned about AI and embryo was in my opinion correct for the most part. If your animals are not out of some top shelf genetics you will not be able to ask a preminum for them. I am not for sure what breed you are even raising but if you cannot market breeding age bulls from your place in the $2500 - $4000 range right now I would either recommend either consider going commercial or make a change in your breed or in your herd practices. As far as a niche market that would be good also but its hard to attain that with a "Joe" pasture bull and Ole Susie the cow. You will have to use either top or at least recognizable bloodlines to get top price. That is usually acheived through AI or Embryo work. I would suggest Embryo unless your females are very good. That way you can get good genetics on both sides of the pedigrees from the start. As far as advertising, Cattle Today offers websites that are priced reasonable, put out business cards everywhere you go, run cheaper ads in the local farmers bulletin or shoppers guide etc. The thing to remember is you WILL have higher cost to raise registered cattle. From there its just a choice you will have to decide on yourself and go with it. Just

Well I think my herd has a real good mix on the Quote big names, I have Spartacus Grandaughters, Excite daughts and grand daughter, Captain Sugar, 6/2 synergy , 293, i have l2 breeding, Painted Tiger line bred heifer, I believe I have a good mix of a lot of good breeding. i guess my big issue is what to do from here, Do I go back and AI heavy to big name bulls.

Also what does other breeder semen sale for BM's on average with cert around a $100.00

in your case """and this is just what i would do ''''' i would go with a good thick deep hereford bull on them... you need some breed regression in your cows, their all over the place.... clean them up

 

[UG]

I know of several large breeders of various breeds (Limousin, Angus, Red Angus, Gelbvieh, Simmental, etc.) that have "cooperators." Frequently, these cooperators are smaller producers (10 to 100 cows) that either don't like to market their cattle or haven't had great success with it. Consequently they find it more lucrative to market their cattle through someone else.

The relationships between these large breeders and their cooperators varies. Some of the large breeders will only sell cooperator cattle through their sales if the cattle are of the breeder's genetics. Others don't have a requirement, but prefer that the animals are out of AI sires and have marketable EPDs, as well as acceptable birth weights etc. Some breeders are perfectly fine with marketing their cooperator's calves under the cooperator's prefix. Others do some sort of a "lease" which allows them to register the calves as if they are out of the large breeder's herd.

A typical arrangement on bull calves is that the cooperator delivers the bull calves at weaning to the large breeder where they are grown out with the rest of the breeder's bulls. From then on the large breeder is responsible for all costs. The large breeder and cooperator split the sales price of the bulls. So, if a bull brings $3500,both parties end up with $1750.