02/02/2026
Dr. John Yost, Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Wayne County, Ohio State University Extension (Ohio Beef Cattle Letter)
Do you have a marketing plan?
As a beef producer, you put a lot of effort into managing your production risk. Think of all the time you spend researching which bulls to use, developing and implementing your nutrition and herd health programs, shopping around for minerals, the time spent making hay or growing crops to feed in the winter. When you add all this up, it is probably a big number. All of this was done to produce the best product possible, at the lowest cost. After putting in all that work, the next question is how much time do you put into marketing your product and managing your financial risk? I can imagine that seed stock producers would say that it takes a lot of time to organize and advertise their sale. But how much time do you put into selling the animals that aren’t listed in the sale catalogue?
The cattle market has seen a lot of variability in the last 12 months. While profitable opportunities have been easier to find, it has also dramatically increased your financial risk. You probably have a consistent system that has served you well over the years. Are you confident that this system can protect you against this new level of risk? Furthermore, have you put in the effort to identify how to maximize the income potential from each individual animal? Sorting through all of your marketing options takes a well thought out plan and it is best if that plan put on paper. A written marketing plan isn’t a stringent set of rules that you are forced to follow set by step. Instead, it becomes a living document where you begin with a well thought out path to follow, where you document what you have done and why you did it that way.
The first step in any marketing plan is to know your numbers. This is your production estimates and cost of that production plus other expenses. Your production numbers should be easy to estimate from your historic averages. You know the number of calves you typically produce and what their average weaning weights should be. You expect to cull a certain number of cows and how many replacements will be retained to take their place.
Next is knowing your cost of production and other expenses that need to be included in your budget. I don’t want to put everyone in the same basket. I assume that most producers have a good understanding of their feed and other variable production costs, but do you have a handle on your fixed costs. Have you factored in a labor, machinery, and building charges? Have you allocated dollars to pay yourself, or pay for a family expense like college or a wedding? Are there facility improvements that you keep putting off that should be included. You can utilize the OSU Enterprise Budgets, FinPack software, or one of the numerous on-line calculators specific for your production practices to help you come up with your numbers.
Next you should include a statement relating to your market outlook. We are all guilty of getting caught up in the “coffee shop talk”. While these discussions can be profitable, it is important to put in writing how you believe the markets will perform throughout the year. After all, this is what will guide your ultimate decision of whether or not to make a sale. This is also when you should estimate costs associated with the different marketing methods you have available. You may usually sell all your calves in the fall. What will it cost you to hold them until spring? What if you want to save a few steers to sell as freezer beef? What if you want to retain ownership and send them all out west to a feedlot? Explore what the costs, and income potential, could be for each marketing method.
Next is where the rubber meets the road. You need to take all of your assembled information and begin identifying when to make your sales. It may not just be when you will make a sale, but where will you make the sale. You should also include any price risk protection tool you will utilize. For example, your plan could say that you are going to sell all of your 5 weight steers in a special feeder calf sell on October 15th. Your underweight steers and heifers will be overwintered and sold March 24th at a special grass cattle sale, and both groups will be price protected using LRP policies. You will hold your cull cows until the first week of December and take them to the local stockyard. Include the criteria that would cause you to sell at a different time or place than what you originally had planned. As you make sales, record what you did, and provide an explanation of any deviations from the plan.
As you move through the marketing year, and at the end of your marketing year, go back and evaluate your plan. How did your actual sales compare to this year’s market average and your historic performance? Did the market follow your expectations? Are there other marketing options or tools that you should consider using in the future. In the end, your marketing plan is meant to guide you through your decision-making process and provide you a tool to track your progress.
