September 2022 Cattle Projections
Posted: September 15, 2022 | Written By: Heidi Doering-Resch, M.S., Form-A-Feed
September 2022 Cattle Projections
It’s harvest season and while we usually find this as a time for cheaper feedstuffs, one thing for sure is that many factors need to come into play before our ingredients lower to more seasonable levels.
Plants continue clean-out to make repairs for new crop, demand is still strong, and exports continue to put pressure on our ingredients, but in the same token continue to provide some positivity to the protein market.
While cost of gains continue to teeter back and forth from month-to-month, the price of live cattle seems to continue to climb. While certain markets look better than the next, its clear that there is still money to be made in the feedlot sector.
As we look at continuing to put up harvested feeds for our cattle, remember the steps you take now to procure a positive fermentation will ensure better feed quality, and something you can control, throughout your feeding period. High moisture feeds, in the pile and in the feed bunk provide relief throughout the year as feed prices continue to swing. Cut at the right moisture, inoculate with the support of Form-A-Feed inoculants and pack, pack and pack some more are key points to consider. Keeping oxygen out of your pile will save you shrink, and while most don’t realize the true expense that shrink costs us, it’s easy to run short at the end of a feeding period if we don’t take this into consideration correctly and do what we can to get better at reducing shrink every year. Tarping your pile ensures you keep that oxygen out of the pile until feed-out. As feed gets more expensive, so does that cost of shrink.
Doing our best to understand our feedstuffs and having enough feed on hand puts us at an advantage in the Midwest, not having to buy hand-to-mouth. This allows us to make some more educated and calculated decisions when it comes to buying and marketing our cattle. As we continue to wean off some calves and fill the yards early, remember that properly put up feed will feed out better, provide better ADG and reap greater returns.
Take a moment to sit down with your Form-A-Feed Production and Nutrition Specialist to realize your feedstuff needs as well as your marketing goals.