Story by Heather Smith Thomas; photos by Natalie Jones

With calf prices as high as they are, it may be tempting to market calves right off the cow rather than put the time, money and effort into vaccinations and preconditioning. Yet there are still ways to add value to those calves, and there’s no reason to leave that money on the table.

Whether you sell live at auction, online through a video sale or directly to a feedyard, Jessica Sperber of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln says consider your options and develop a marketing plan.

“Evaluate management decisions and health protocols, and value-added programs,” says the assistant professor and feedlot specialist. “Even on a year when calf prices are historically the highest we’ve ever seen, there is additional money to be made by using value-added programs and further increasing revenue from your already-valuable calf.”

She says she’s concerned some producers are not bothering with value-added programs because these are the highest prices they’ve ever seen. Taking shortcuts and cashing in is tempting.

“It’s not a time to throw out all your best management practices just because prices are high,” Sperber cautions. If you’ve been involved in a preconditioning program in prior years, keep it up. Protocols such as weaning 45 days before sale have already proven themselves to generate additional value.

“It always puzzles me that when calf prices are high, some producers skip the ways they were adding value in years previous, and just sell calves right off the cows,” she says. This is a time to use management practices that are tried and true, and health protocols that generate extra dollars.

“Many of these things have held true over the years and are still true for today’s market,” Sperber says.

What brings more?

Sperber shares results of a data analysis reported by Merck Animal Health in partnership with Superior Livestock Auction and Kansas State University to evaluate the management decisions, programs and health protocols driving price per pound paid by buyers. The data set includes sales of more than 2.5 million calves sold in 2022.

The analysis, which we’ll call the “market price study,” found a $20-per-head advantage for calves with no horns.

“Polled calves are always worth more,” Sperber says, noting there is value in using homozygous polled bulls that sire polled offspring.

Another way to increase price received, according to the data analysis, is to become Beef Quality Assurance (BQA)-certified. Calves from a BQA-certified operation were worth, on average, $8 more per head.

If producers are not already BQA-certified, they can reach out to their state cattle organization to become BQA-certified.

“Buyers are also looking for calves that are medium to medium-large frame; these cattle types usually bring up to $17 more per head than small-framed cattle,” Sperber says.

Buyers look for “fresh” or “green” cattle that are not overly fleshy.

“The ‘green’ calf has the frame and will put on weight readily via compensatory gain when introduced to a high-concentrate ration,” Sperber says.

In the market price study, light-medium and medium-flesh calves were worth $15 more per head than calves in medium-heavy condition.

Buyers also look for uniformity. The data analysis revealed buyers paid more for weight uniformity among a load lot — $10 more per head for lots fairly even in weight vs. uneven load lots.

Some producers market all calves together, and there might be quite a difference in age and size.

“Don’t ship them all together,” Sperber advises. “The buyer may sort off the outliers, which may result in reduced profit. Buyers want uniformity in sale groups and even weights across the group.”

Health is paramount

With historically low beef cow numbers, there will be fewer cattle headed to the feedlot over the next three years.

“With the tight cattle supply, buyers know they need more weight on every carcass they hang on the rail,” Sperber says. “Those additional pounds can be gained by various management strategies, but the bottom line is that a healthy calf is a profitable calf.

“What makes me nervous, is that when prices are high and forage availability is limited, some producers may sell 300-pound calves right off the cow,” she continues. Selling a really lightweight calf that’s not weaned may put that calf into a high-risk category.

Many health programs can add value to calves. Preconditioned calves consistently top the market if they are enrolled in health programs with specified vaccine requirements. The market price study revealed that calves that were dewormed, had both primary and booster vaccinations, and had been weaned at least 45 days prior to sale earned more dollars per pound.

Calves vaccinated with two doses of clostridial products, two doses of five-way modified-live virus (MLV) vaccine and at least one dose of a Mannheimia haemolytica and/or Pasteurella multocida vaccine, and weaned at home 45 days prior to delivery brought $48 more per head than those receiving only one dose of each of the three vaccines and not weaned before leaving home.

“Most yards try to avoid bawling calves, due to the risk associated with them,” Sperber says.

Watch nutrition

Proper nutrition is crucial.

“In a drought, some people ship early just because they don’t have forage and need to get calves off the cows,” says Sperber. She suggests adding pounds to calves by creep-feeding prior to weaning or weaning early and backgrounding calves prior to selling.

Pencil out the cost of gain compared to the price per pound received at the time of sale, considering the price slide between lighter and heavier calves, she suggests. Sperber adds that this year, the added value of adding extra pounds may overcome the price slide.

“If you can add an additional 50 to 100 pounds to your calves by creep-feeding with a 14% to 16% protein supplement, calculate the additional cost of gain for each calf and factor in the price slide, which could impact profitability and alter your management decision,” she says.

Implants

Producers need to decide whether to utilize implants, since some processed-verified programs offer a premium for non-implanted calves.

“Producers need to make sure they are actually receiving a non-hormone treated cattle (NHTC) or all-natural premium, because it requires paperwork for verification. If you are not doing all of the required documentation for all-natural cattle, you are not getting that premium,” says Sperber.

In the market price study, in more than 4 million head of cattle evaluated during four years of data collection, there was no difference in price per pound paid between implanted and non-implanted calves, and the implanted calves were consistently heavier.

“[Using] just one suckling-calf implant, the calves implanted at 2-plus months of age on average will be 23 pounds heavier, compared to non-implanted calves,” she says. Using calf prices during the final two years of the study showed an increase in revenue of $40 per calf. In today’s market this equates to about $60.

If cow nutrition is poor, producers may question whether implanted calves will gain as much as expected from a suckling-calf implant.

“The calf may not have as high of a rate of gain due to poor body condition of the dam, but will still gain significantly more weight than a non-implanted calf,” she says. “The suckling calf implant costs $1.50 to $1.75 per head. In today’s market if you can add just one pound, you’ve paid for that implant!”

Numerous niche market options provide a premium, such as for NHTC calves. These programs have increased input costs in terms of verification that must be considered.

“For example, in the Merck and Superior Livestock Auction database, calves sold in the NHTC program offered a premium of $32 more per head, and Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.) program calves offered $20 more per head,” Sperber says. “However, if a producer uses growth-promoting implants, they gain an increase in value of $40 per head ($60 in today’s market) due to increased weaning weights of 23 additional pounds. Implanting is worth considering if your goal is to bring more revenue on sale day and are not currently enrolled in an NHTC or all-natural program.”