Adding Value to Your Marketing Plan

​As I am writing this, we just finished the last of the Spring value-added sales that we at the Kentucky Beef Network help support. These sales include the Kentucky Certified Hereford Influence Sale, the Charolais Influenced Feeder Calf Alliance Sale and the Profit Thru Performance Feeder Calf sale. To put your calves into a sale like this is a great opportunity to help add more value to your calf crop and increase your sale profits.
Reading this, you may wonder what “value-added” means. Value-added applies to ways a producer markets their cattle to make them stand out from other animals. There are numerous ways to go about adding more value to calves that you intend to sale. This can include incorporating basic management practices like weaning, castration and testing for BVD.  That is exactly what the sales mentioned above are doing. They have created an outline of basic management processes that consignors must follow to have their cattle qualify for these sales. These practices help cattle in these sales standout from others as it reduces the workload the buyer has to do to get these animals to the next step on their journey.  Thus, sellers are rewarded for their additional work. It also creates an opportunity for producers to combine their like cattle and sell them as load lots, which also increases your profits.
The sales mentioned above use a mix of practices that help increase the return on the investment on the animals sold. With some planning and effort, most producers can easily incorporate some of these things into their livestock development program and capture those additional returns. To start, these sales have a set vaccination and worming protocol in place. This protocol can include vaccinating for things such as IBR, BVD and blackleg. Some other great management practices include castrating your bull calves and weaning all calves before sale time. Castrating your bull calves can instantly add more value to the calf in question. It can be incorporated into to the management protocols you are already doing on your operation. However, it may mean adjusting your cattle working schedule to catch the calf when it is still young or you may choose to castrate when you get all of your animals up to work them. Weaning your calves before the sale helps them have time to adjust to being away from their mother, which keeps them calmer at the sale barn. It also keeps them in better health with less chances of getting sick when they are sold. Another value-added practice is to work with your local veterinarian to pregnancy check the heifer calves you intend to sale.  You can gain additional value by guaranteeing that those heifers are open.
Overall, using these “value-added” practices can help to create more profitable marketing opportunities. When you do any of these practices, be sure that potential buyers know about them prior to the sale by including it in any description of the animals, making a note of it when you arrive at the stockyards or by placing your calves in a value-added sale with other producers. Remember you cannot be rewarded for extra work if the buyers don’t know about it.

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